Route to attain medals

[reynard]

Many years ago, I briefly attended some ballroom classes for a year, then quited dancing. Lately, my desire to dance has reborn. This time, I would like to set some goal for myself and aim to attain those medals. I would like to ask fellow dancers here which would be a better way to achieve my goal. 1 or 2 in the followings?

1) To concentrate on one dance at a time. i.e. Learn and practice for Bronze Waltz, then Silver, then Gold. Then go for another dance and repeat the sequence.

2) To learn and practice for Bronze level of all 5 dances, then Silver, then Gold. i.e. Bronze Waltz, then Bronze Tango, etc. until finish the Bronze Level. Then go for next level and repeat the sequence.

I would appreciate if anyone could share your opinion, experience and idea. Many thanks.

[fascination]

generally speaking the studio will encourage #2 and there is some merit to that...I have never much been into the whole medal concept...in general I think it is a good idea for a student to spend two years (at least) working on good solid bronze technique before moving into silver steps but the steps don't matter as much as how you are executing them(and the timeframe can vary depending on how many lessons you take and how much you practice, etc)...the testing that I have experienced has been very light on technique and very heavy on knowlege of patterns....with the notion being that you have to know X amount of steps in at least 5 dances in order to move up...that of course keeps you taking alot of lessons before you have to do something very hard and before you have a mile marker wherein you can be fairly content..the harder way (and the better way IMO) is to ask yourself how good you want to be, which style is most important to you, how hard you are willing to work on it and how much money you have to achieve it.....THEN ask other experienced dancers what they would reccommend...just my two cents...I hope it helps and if you want further feedback I am certain we all would be delighted to try to help you devise a plan to best meet your goals...good luck

[9dncr]

I agree w/ Fascination. If you were to go w/ #1, most likely by the time you finished all the dances you would be rusty on the first dance you worked so hard on and all that time and money will not be working to your advantage. I think that to be a well rounded dancer you should find a style you like and work at a nice solid base for technique, once you attain that in the bronze level your dancing will shine even more as you move up. Just remember, it takes work but you have to have fun while you are learning! Results will show in the long run! Good luck

[tanya_the_dancer]

I don't like #1. I would go with learning bronze in all 5 dances, then silver in all 5, etc.

[quixotedlm]

My fav way of solving a rubik's cube is to rip the colored stickers and paste them back in the right order. In a similar spirit, I recommend that you buy your medals from a shop and wear them to dances ;)

[Laura]

I agree with Tanya. There are things in one dance that will carry over into the others, and the more you dance all five the more you'll see the similarities, and if you are good with learning by association and analogy, you'll learn more and faster than if you isolate the dances and do them one at a time.

If it's too much to learn all five at once, you can break them into groups. In Latin, Cha Cha and Rumba share a lot of steps and technique. In Standard, Waltz, Quickstep, and Foxtrot can be learned together as a group.