your ideal private lesson

[cl5814]

Talking about lessons, let's discuss private lessons in particular.

How would you construct a private lesson so that you get the biggest bang for you buck ?
Do you ask the instructor lots of questions and the lesson becomes a Q&A session ?
Do you leave yourself in the hands of the instructor and have the instructor determine what the 2 of you should work on during the lesson ?
Do you get homework from the instructor to practice before the next private lesson ?
How many dances do you cover during an hour's private lesson ?
Do you cover both rhythm/latin and standard/smooth ?
Do you find that there is a difference between private lessons you take in preparation for competition vs. "learning to social dance" private lessons ?
How do you remember everything the instructor said during the lesson - do you videotape the lesson or just write notes to yourself after the lesson ?

ok, enough questions to get you interested in this conversation. Surely you can respond to at least 1 or more these questions.

[etchuck]

This topic was broached a bit earlier :

http://www.dance-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2547 (for those who want to read up on it).

I don't know if I have an "ideal" lesson. It depends on what I get out of a lesson. Right now, I'm pretty much taking each lesson in stride and valuing the different opinions that I get on how to perform a figure better and how to work together with my partner in a way that just practicing together cannot achieve.

There is definitely a difference between privates for social purposes vs. for competition purposes. More styling for "showmanship" in competition practices (group or privates for that matter).

My partner videotapes each lesson to review. I usually take some notes at least on the figures that I work on, and any other points that I have to focus on in general.