Do you teach dance?

[pygmalion]

Not professionally. I mean, do you teach others who know less than you do? I'm just curious, because it seems that many of us have a wealth of information to share, but teaching on the dance floor can be such a sticky topic.

Do any of you teach your friends on the side, either at dances or at home? Do you have experiences to share?

[peachexploration]

For me and since I'm such Salsa Nut, :lol: :lol: I always want to "share" with others. I get such joy in dancing that I'm always "torturing" others (in a good way, though). :D :D My office partners get it the most. I'm always asking, "Hey, could you help me with this step or listen to this song..etc, etc.. One lady wanted to go to a social with me but she had no clue about the basic steps of Salsa. I gave her a crash course in an hour at work and she had a fabulous time. Everyone was asking her to dance. :banana: Other things too, like I'll call my sister-in-law and teach her steps over the phone or even the security guard at work will ask me how to do something...I love it. :P

[Sagitta]

I think that I do a little teaching every time I go dancing, well, actually it depends on what the dance is. And it depends on what you mean by teaching. With a beginner I might do a stronger lead, e.g. for a followers right turn in salsa not only have the hand on the followers right side with soe pressure, but also use my right hand to firmly guide the follower through the turn. I wouldn't dream of doing this for a person who clearly knows how to do right and left turns etc. And that is my preference for salsa social dancing. I've given up on doing cha cha as few people know it so I probably would spend time teaching the person whom I'm dancing with. :( Merengue is pretty easy to do with even a raw beginner without any teaching, but bachata might require a little instruction.

When I go to it a swing night I wouldn't mind spending most of the time teaching ECS to the side of the dance floor, as I did last Frday night!! :)

[Vince A]

Absolutely!!! It gives me great pleasure to teach others, but mainly I stick with beginners. This will leave them with a hunger that can only be satisified with a professional instructor.

This past Sat, I gave one-on-two privates to a couple who wanted NC2S and the Two Step - yes, the C&W dance!

Sunday I again had a two-hour private with a couple that wanted to work on their NC2S, which began at 3:00 - half an hour before the Super Bowl started. Dancing does have it's priorities, ya know.

Fortunately, for me, I missed the breast, er . . . uh, the best highlight of the halftime show!

[KevinL]

Not professionally. I mean, do you teach others who know less than you do?

I do teach professionally, but I'll answer anyway...

When I'm out dancing socially I ask beginners to dance, and usually spend the whole dance doing basics until they catch on. It's not really a teaching experience for me, it's more of sharing my joy of dancing. If dancing with me helps the person decide to dance more, that just makes it better.

However, before I was a professional teacher I used to show people how to do swing stuff all the time. I wasn't particularly good at it, but I didn't realize that at the time!

Kevin

[pygmalion]

I know what you mean about sharing the joy of dancing, Kevin. There's nothing like the smile on a newbie's face after you've done three minutes of the box step with them, and made them feel good about it. Now that's good stuff. 8)

[dr daffy]

As usual, i'm late in replying... but... i'm going to anyways lol

i think i'm a lot younger than you guys... i'm still in high school... but, i have experienced teaching dance. i choreographed a couple dances before and taught them to beginning dancers... and like everyone has said, it's a really great experience especially when you see the look on the beginning dancers faces... it makes you feel great :D

but yeah, i'm not much of a teacher lol... i'm still in the learning process :P

[dancin_feet]

I don't think of it as teaching, but more consulting with people that I am dancing with if something didn't feel right. We try to break it down and figure out what is going wrong.

With beginners just doing the basics, I usually try to refrain from backleading (though it is really hard!) and let them try the step first before I give them some advice. Always praise the real beginners when they get something right - gives them more confidence to try the next step. Usually leave any technical stuff to the instructor, but if they are just stepping in the wrong direction or turning the wrong way, I'll lead them a bit to help.

[pygmalion]

I don't consider myself "teaching," per se, but I do a lot of what you're talking about, dancin_feet. Supporting the newbies. Every once in a while, I'll teach something, like a samba basic or something, if there are only newbies to dance with, and they're scared of samba. But for the most part, I try to dance what the lead is able to lead, and make supportive comments as I feel they're needed.