Hello,

I have fairly recently started learning ballroom dancing, and already have an offer for a partner to train for competitions with. I am wanting opinions from those experienced in this area on whether it's a good idea to team up straight away, or better to learn on your own to start with (in terms of speed of learning)?

Thanks,
"Novice"

Both.

You need a partner or at least a friend to practice with outside of class.

But you also need to do some learning on your own, and dancing with a variety of people is also good.

Who says you can't do both? Try the partnership, but also make some time for a bit of practice (or even lessons) on your own.

If you want to compete then the best advice is dance with your partner to get fimiliar with each others dancing..

Private lessons is the way to go bro!

Remember, bad social dancing gets into your body just as fast as good 'real' dancing, so I suggest finding someone to partner with and practice as much as possible. if you are a leader, in a year or two you can try doing leading on others - by that time you'll be strong enough not to be pulled and contorted by others. In the meantime, you have plenty of work to do with a regular partner.

Remember, it's a journey, not a destination.

Oh, and don't be swayed by nondancers - they'll say "I follow anything' (but they only 'follow' mirror image social movement) or they'll say "i've taken lessons for xx years' (when it was 4 group classes each year, and then social dancing).

Without any shadow of even the slightest doubt, you should team up with a partner to learn. Good partnerships are precious. Take the chance

I agree with Phil 100%. Partnerships are precious, even the bad ones (because they will teach you how to recognize a good one in the future). Give it a try for a month and see.

I think it's very beneficial when you're getting started to take lessons together with your partner and also private lessons alone with your own teacher. That way you've got time when you and your partner work together to bring together each of your own dancing, and another personal time where you can work with someone who isn't your partner on issues that arise. You might tell your private teacher "every time we try to do a double reverse spin I get all confused and do this other thing" and your teacher can help you to really understand everything that you have to do so that you can respond in the clearest way possible to your amateur partner when you dance together. Or your personal teacher might want to spend time developing your posture and frame so that you can take that back to your amateur partnership and present your partner with something more connected to work with.

You'll find that if you take a combination of group classes, personal privates (no partner), and coaching sessions with your partner, plus going dancing with other people, you will learn the most about dancing and about your own dancing. For instance, if you find you keep having the same problems no matter who you dance with, then for sure it's something you are doing wrong and not the fault of your partner. Then, you can get extra help on that issue from your personal private teacher.

After a while you'll know when group classes don't work for you any more, or when you need to focus on just dancing with your competitive partner, and so on.