Won t you teach me how to dance

              Presentation of yourself

Be more interested in your student's success than your own image.  Don't grandstand.  The class is about them, not about yourself.

Balance authority with a relaxed atmosphere, to help set them at ease.

Why set them at ease?  Because as mentioned above, they'll be happier and they'll learn much faster if they're in their comfort zone, or a reachable step beyond it.

Voice projection

Speak audibly — clearly and loudly without shouting.  Never be shrill.

Use animated tones, without droning.  Use contrast.  Allow humor, or at least be good-natured.

But I still prefer to be fairly relaxed, not animated to the point of being hyperactive.  I recommend a tone of relaxed authority.  Remember, you want to let your students stay in their comfort zone.  Anxiety interferes with the learning process.  But you can't avoid the fact that the process of learning a new dance does push your students, often resulting in some anxiety and frustration, so your calm and reassuring warm tone of voice is important.

Articulate your words – don't mumble.  Enunciate, but without straining your face, mouth or neck at all.

If they can't understand you (mumbling), or can't hear you (talking too quietly), they will assume that what you're saying must not be important, and they won't pay attention.

Your choice of words:  quantity

  Don't talk too much.   Be efficient with your words.  Choose only a few of the most effective words — those which are vivid and evocative yet precise.

      1) They would rather spend more time practicing their dancing, and less time listening to you talk.
      2) They need to process the information in their minds, which can't happen unless there are quiet moments to think through what you said.
      3) Minds saturate after a barrage of too many words, and their minds start blocking you out.
      4) Whether you like it or not, your students are accustomed to getting information very quickly, through broadcast media and the Web, so they get very impatient with long-winded explanations.  You can't change them, so work with this to become a more effective teacher.

       Yes, you have to convey your information with words, but use the fewest words possible — those which efficiently convey both the details and the spirit of the dance.

If you ever feel like you've been talking a little too long, the truth is that it's already been far too long.  Why?  Have you ever driven to someone's house for the first time, following directions of turns and landmarks, and you thought it took a fairly long time to get there?  Then the next time you drive there, once you know the way, it seems much shorter.  It's really the same time, but it feels half as long, once you know the way.  Why?  Once you know where you're headed, you have the destination visualized.  Your mind is already there, so it seems shorter.

It's the exact same dynamic with talking.  You already know the way (i.e., you know what you intend to say) but your class doesn't.  This is their first time down that road, and it can seem like it's taking forever (your talking, that is), just as you're thinking the opposite – "this isn't taking too long to say. "  Who is right?  They are.

Your choice of words:  quality

Don't forget the other physical aspects of a dance beyond footwork: partnering, quality of movement, energy levels, posture, what to do with free hands, facial expressions, flow of movement, etc.

Tell why a step is done this way.  Logic always makes a better and more lasting impression than arbitrary rules, or saying, "because that's the way my teacher taught it."

              Team Teaching

Sometimes a class is taught by a Lead/Follow couple, who both speak, sometimes equally.  The reasons are usually to offer an additional viewpoint, and to not marginalize one of the partner's roles.

This arrangement can be effective when done well, and problematic when it's done badly.

If you're team-teaching with a partner or collaborator, never rephrase what they just said, even if you think you can say it better.  Your slight "improvement" in phrasing doubles the talking time... not a very effective ratio.  Just as you're starting to think, "I would say that differently..." immediately replace that thought with, "...but that's good enough for now."

              Pace of the class

On the other hand, keep the pace of your class moving.  Don't let it get bogged down.  Don't rush them, but don't bore them either.  Talking too much is boring.  They want to move, not stand around listening to you talk.

              Too fast?  Too slow?

This isn't a rule, but my personal priority is to care for the greater group.  One of my pet peeves is a teacher in a large class spending five minutes working with one individual or couple who has a problem, while 98% of the class stands around bored.

But sometimes you can see that an individual's difficulty or confusion might be true for others too, so you can address that point to the entire class.  I tell my students this is a "Repair Clinic" only intended for those who are having this specific difficulty.  So I tell the class, "If you're not having this problem, don't fix it."  This is serious, not a whimsical comment.  Often you'll make a comment to help someone who is under-rotating, for example, then you'll see someone else, who already had it perfectly, now over-rotating after your comment.

Then unfortunately, you'll occasionally get a student who demands that you stop the class to solve their unique problem, which no one else has. (Some psychiatrists call this behavior a "demanding sense of entitlement").  In those cases, you have to be firm for the good of the class, so that the progress of the other students doesn't get stalled or bogged down.

Sometimes you'll get a couple who refuses to change partners when you ask them to.   That's fine, but what often happens is they'll be the only couple who doesn't get a figure, when everyone else has succeeded with the help of their rotating partners.  Yes, you guessed it — the non-rotating couple will often demand that you slow the class down just for them.

No, on the average I go for 90% to 95% of the class.  The remaining few will usually be helped by their partners who already got it.  And the few who are exceptionally slow learners already know they're slow, and would rather that you not make a fuss for them.

              Teaching experienced dancers

I'm sometimes surprised to see a professional dance teacher who apparently hasn't thought through the difference between teaching beginning versus experienced dancers.  Where do I see this most clearly?  In specifying personal style.  Beginning and advanced dancers have very different needs and wishes in this area.

When teaching beginners, who are a clean slate, of course you'll teach them the version you think is best, with all of the stylistic details for your preferred form.

But when your students have been dancing for years or decades, they've already developed their personal style, or maybe they've mastered a different teacher's style.  This is now who they are.  Fred Astaire, among many, wrote this is a good thing. (click for a short quote)

First, they're probably happy with the dancer they've become, and they're taking your class to learn more useful variations and partnering tips from you, not dismantle the dancer they've become.  Secondly, they probably couldn't change their personal style if they tried.

The aware teacher will work from this platform (their personal style), giving their experienced students useful new material for them to integrate into their dancing.  The unaware teacher will dismiss their students' accumulated style as "incorrect" and attempt to tear it down, hoping to rebuild their student back up in the teacher's preferred style.   That's not going to happen!  A one-hour class will not undo twenty years of their dancing in a different style.  If you attempt to do that, they'll think, "I can't learn from this teacher!" and not come back.  And they'll justifiably resent the disrespect of a teacher dismissing their personal style.

Now if they've signed up for a lifetime of private lessons to learn your style, that's different.  But this section addresses dance classes or workshops.

You may find it difficult to be patient with experienced dancers who appear to be "doing it wrong," which often means they're merely dancing in styles different from your preferred style.  So how should you respond?  (A) Dismiss their dancing style, making them wary, defensive or resentful?  Or (B), see the class from their point of view.  Why are they taking your class?  Probably to learn new figures and become better dancers, based on the dancers they are.

I recommend approach B.  Allow them to keep their experience and personal style as their platform upon which to build improvements.   If you wish to introduce your stylistic preferences, present them as "try this out" options, instead of "you're doing it all wrong" rules.  Inspire, don't reprimand.  They'll be much happier, meaning they'll learn better (comfort zone).  And they'll come back to your second class.

             Aging teachers and/or students

The good news is that your dancing skills will enable you to walk and move in a younger manner.  You know that dancing is acting, so you can mostly act like the movements of a younger dancer, to a certain extent.   Here's how...

Try different strides.  The next time you're walking down a sidewalk (maybe when no one is watching) try the John Travolta strut from Saturday Night Fever.  Try a hip-hop stride, not to be a poseur, but to expand your range of motion.  Loosen up and put a spring in your step.  Then keep a little bit of that animation whenever you walk, move, or teach your dance class.

             Music

Select all of the music for your class ahead of time.  It takes time to find a perfect track for a particular step, with the right tempo, quality, energy level, and emphasis on the right beats.  Some teachers make their students stand around as they start to fumble through their music collection searching for a good track.  It's even more embarrassing if the track you chose doesn't work well, and you have to stop it and start searching again.  Go through that process before class.

If you play CDs, a more specific tip is to buy a red grease pencil at a hardware store, normally used for marking glass, and write the track number of your pre-selected music on the CD or case.   After class you can erase it with a tissue.

List your pre-selected tracks in your lesson plan notes.

Know how to count into the music.  Use the same number of preparatory counts each time.&nbsp I prefer to count into a dance just as a musician would, saying something like, "five, six, ready, and..."

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Did that make sense to you?  No, and neither does starting and stopping your recording arbitrarily in the middle of a musical phrase.  When playing your recorded music, allow the musical phrases to finish, as live musicians would do.  Musicians would never start and stop in mid-phrase, any more than you would begin a sentence in the middle, or stop speaking halfway through a sentence.   I recommend that you play your recorded music the same way.

This guideline isn't marked as essential, but you should realize that your musical phrasing of recorded music demonstrates your respect for the music.  So if you start and stop your music arbitrarily in mid-phrase, it tells your class that you don't care very much about music.

A helpful hint is to hear the tune that you're about to play in your head, while you're still teaching it tacet.   With a little practice you'll be able to bring the class up to the exact tempo of the music before you play it.  This way, the music supports their dancing, at just the right tempo, instead of pressuring your students.

              Spatial arrangement

             Miscellaneous

This concern for your students is also a sign of maturity.  Small children constantly clamor, "Look at me Daddy! Watch me Mommy!"   Then we grow up, and we (hopefully) mature into valuing others' happiness and progress.  The few teachers who don't understand this are quite obvious to their students, as self-absorbed grandstanders more interested in displaying their greatness than in helping their students learn the material.

But I know you're completely devoted to your students' success, or else you wouldn't have made it to the bottom of this page.

             Teaching makes you smarter

Take a look at this page, Use It or Lose It: Dancing Makes You Smarter.  It's a report on several studies which show that rapid-fire decision-making maintains or increases your intelligence as you age.  Teaching a class involves even more rapid-fire decision making than dancing, so it's ever better for you.  Then furthermore...

I like R. Buckminster Fuller's definition of genius.  In his opinion, genius isn't a mere quantity or capacity, but the combination of rational and intuitive thinking, both left-brain and right-brain, vertical and lateral thinking.  And it's the simultaneous use of both kinds of thinking, not exercising linear rational thinking first thing in the morning, then doing something more intuitive an hour later.  Genius is being fully rational and fully intuitive at the same time, seeing both the finest details and the overall big picture at the same time.

Teaching a class, in any topic, is one of the ultimate simultaneous combinations of vertical and lateral thinking, as your planning strategies morph with your spontaneous assessment of your students' progress.  But as the research shows, it depends on continual split-second decision making, not repeating rote routines.  You don't have to be a genius, but to stay smarter longer, don't always follow the same lesson plan.  Teach it differently each time, spontaneously making those changes in class.   Or teach topics you've never taught before.  Challenge yourself.  Plan your class thoroughly, then welcome chance intrusions.  Every day.  Research shows that it will keep you smarter longer.

             Overwhelmed?