Dance Schools

[ShyDancer]

Another question! :D :D


Do you think its beneficial to attend more than one dance school?
At the moment I am doing just 2 classes a weekat 1 school to gain my bronze medals in latin and street latin.

Do you think different schools use different methods to teach that would totally baffle a beginner??

Does anyone know how good you need to be to pass the Bronze Medals?
How much does the "flow" come into it? I am still pretty jerky when it comes to the routines...although this is just the 3rd class I feel its not good enough.. and quite frankly having to learn 6 dances in 20 weeks is a little daunting for me!

[pygmalion]

Hi ShyDancer. (aside: you don't seem shy at all, to me. :wink: :D )

Hmm. I don't know whether going to two different schools is good or bad, as a rule, but I have to say it didn't work for me, when I was going to two schools that took two different approaches to dance training.

In the early stages, I was taking lessons at a social dance studio, and later added lessons at a competitive one. After about six months of overlap, I realized that trying to learn the same fundamentals from two perspectives was detirmental to me. I wasn't learning anything well.

On the other hand, now I'm taking lessons from two different studios with similar goals, and that's working out just fine. I take technique lessons from a gentleman at one studio and styling lessons from a lady at another studio.

So I think the answer, sorry to say, is it depends.

As far as passing bronze medals, I don't know how the medals in Australia compare, but I'll give you my experience with the bronze ISTD exams. They were tough, but easy. Definitely passable on the first try. At least the student exam is not very demanding, in that all you have to do is dance the majority of the syllabus figures for two dances with your instructor. (The silver exams require three dances each ) The professional exam is a lot more difficult, and requires demonstration of lead and follow parts for all the figures, knowing degree of turn, preceeds and follows, and more. I suspect you're taking the student exam, right?

Perhaps someone from down under, who's more familiar with the medal system there, can give you more details on how things work locally, within the Austalian ballroom dance community. Hmm. I wonder if there's a web site. I know ISTD has one, which spells out the requirements pretty well.

Best of luck.

Jenn

[pygmalion]

Dancesport Australia does have a website you may want to look at. I'm not sure if the medal requirements are there, as the site is huge, with lots of rules books and such. So take a look, and let me know if you need more info.


Jenn

http://www.dancesport.org.au/

[SDsalsaguy]

Just as an aside, the full medal test, at any level, is *all* dances within that style... so Bronze Latin, for instance, would include Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, and Jive.

[pygmalion]

Yes, that's true. The ISTD professional exam requires demonstration of lead and follow for all dances. The ISTD gives you a break for the student exam, though. Any two dances for bronze. Any three dances for silver. Your choice.

Actually, in retrospect, I kind of wish the student exams were more challenging. Just last week, I discovered a new option -- Student Member of ISTD, which essentially requires professional level knowledge without requiring one to "go pro," so to speak. That's a relatively long term goal for me, at least at associate (bronze) level.

[SDsalsaguy]

You can take student exams, in all dances in a style. As a student exam you only demonstrate your own part (i.e. lead or follow, not both), and you only need to be able to dance it (i.e., don't need to be able to verbally break down each element and alignment). Most competitive dancers, when they say they are working on medals, mean an across the board medals exam, not the more social pick and choose your dances version...

[pygmalion]

Yes, you can take students exams in all dances for a given style. But the requirement for a student medal is two dances for bronze, three for silver, up to all four (or five) dances for gold star. And yes, as a student, all you have to do is demonstrate your part for each dance. As a professional, you have to do much more.

Here's the link for student medal exams. http://www.usistd.org/exams_&_tests/student_medal_tests/

And here's the link for professional requirements. Apparently, the professional requirements are spelled out in greater details in the ISTD rule book. http://www.usistd.org/exams_&_tests/professional_degrees/


That's why I suggest that shydancer review the Dancesport Australia web site and or talk with her instructors about spelling out the exact requirements. for her exams, and the implications.

[pygmalion]

Oh yeah, and there is a lower level, more social-style Dance Achievement Award, which doesn't have technical requirements associated with it.

[SDsalsaguy]

Most seriously competitive minded dancers, when taking medals, actually work on and test out of all dances at a given level.... which isn't to say that this is required or that someone has to do this to count as "seriously competitive minded."

[pygmalion]

Yes. From what I hear, the Student Member designation is very popular with serious amateur competitors.

[pygmalion]

In the next couple days, I'm going to look for the certification requirements by various US and international organizations. If I find anything I'll post it here.

[dancin_feet]

I have known people who have attended more than one dance school, and they have told me that it really does confuse, more than anything. Though I suppose it depends on what sort of dancing you are doing. Ballroom you really need to stick to the one school. Jazz and hip hop are not so standardised, so you could probably get a lot out of attending different schools.

Of course adding to the cost, where if you take all your classes at the one place, you are more likely to get a bigger discount.

[pygmalion]

I'm taking lessons at two different dance schools, very successfully. Of course, my two coaches used to be professional dance partners, so they really are complementing each other in what they teach me. But it is working very well. Two different studios might not work, usually, but I think there are situations in which it could work very well.