Advice on choosing male or female instructor

L

lemonade

Member
Hi everyone,

I have finally joined this after reading it forever:)! I would like to take the next step and start privates for International Latin with a competitor/instructor. My question is, as I am a female, is it better to take them with a male or female? I could choose either but cannot figure out which one would help me to develop the very best technique. I should add that excellent technique is the goal, even if it takes weeks to get a great new yorker or hockey stick or rumba walk, etc. Figures are fun but I want the basics to be the best that I can do and then progress with that solid base. Also, following better (which makes me think a male would be advantageous but I know that female teachers can teach this as well) Those of you taking privates, any thoughts on the advantages of same sex or opposite sex instruction would be very appreciated. Best to all for a great new year!!
 
Welcome to DF lemonade!

lemonade said:
as I am a female, is it better to take them with a male or female? I could choose either but cannot figure out which one would help me to develop the very best technique.
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Well great technique can be taught by either a female or male. It would be a matter of finding a teacher with the knowledge, experience and leaning for latin technique and teaching students.

lemonade said:
I should add that excellent technique is the goal, even if it takes weeks to get a great new yorker or hockey stick or rumba walk, etc. Figures are fun but I want the basics to be the best that I can do and then progress with that solid base.
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ummm....weeks? You're a better girl than I...try years.

All kidding aside, being a follower myself, I take from both a male and female for privates. Most of my privates are with a leader (male) because I compete pro-am and need to have the dance time with my teacher. He does the majority of work on my technique and partnering skills. The female instructor helps me with general technique and the styling/performance specific to the followers part.
 
I am male and take lessons with both male and female coaches. My primary coach is male.

I'd suggest a search of the forums, I recall writing in on a similar thread regarding male vs. female within the last year.

Cheers.
 
I assume the OP dances follow... There are certainly many female instructors who are perfectly capable of leading and of teaching proper following technique. But consider that when you compete, you will most likely be dancing with a male partner. So I'd start with a male instructor. At some later point, though, you will definitely want to take some lessons with a female instructor who will be better able to help you with a lot of fine points of movement and style, since they know better what it's like to be you, so to speak.

(My advice about choosing a male instructor assumes that all other factors are equal. However, if you are faced with a choice between a female instructor who understands your goals and whose teaching style meshes with your learning style, and a male instructor who does not, you're better off with the female.)
 
I agree with the previous 'advice' in parenthesis concerning all things being equal. Likely circumstances will dictate whether your first choice in instructor is male or female, i.e. the right one for you will happen to be what they are (and there will be time to change or add to that later if you need to). If you have it narrowed down, you'll want to look at how well each instructors' students are doing, possibly by comp results OR even better by your own judgement. You probably have seen what you want your dancing to look like and hopefully at least some of that in some professionnal's student.

By the way, I've seen this couple of times now (and I know I'll kick myself) but what are 'OP dances'?
 
Welcome to Dance Forums BasicsFirst!

OP is shorthand for Original Poster, I believe, in this case referring to lemonade who started this thread.

Also, 'dances' was being used as a verb as part of "OP dances follow" - which is to say the ladies part. Since a lady can be a very good lead(er), this is used to separate gender from role.
 
I'm with Latingal. While I work with both, being a male, I primarily work with a female teacher (actually, female for main teachre and female for buddy teacher, as we work with two teachers at our studios). So I susggest you go with a male teacher.

But, I work with both male and female teachers, and male and female coaches. And once so far, even had female teacher make me follow while she lead. :)
 
Much as basicsfirst suggested, initially it is most important that you find someone who can teach the core ideas - their knowledge and teaching style matters more than 'what' they are.

Later on there are times you'll benefit both from having a coach you can fully dance with, and also getting advice from someone who does your job.

A special treat can be both at once... dance with opposite role teacher under coaching of same role one... Most of us can't do that regularly, but it can be quite interesting as the teacher who is dancing with you can simply dance, while the one charged with coaching can often see more of the overall effect from being outside the picture rather than inside it.
 
IMO, unless you have a partner, your primary coach should be the opposite gender. This is the person you will be spending a lot of time dancing with. Dancing with someone the same gender is totally a different feel then dancing with the opposite.
 
Chris Stratton said:
A special treat can be both at once... dance with opposite role teacher under coaching of same role one... Most of us can't do that regularly, but it can be quite interesting as the teacher who is dancing with you can simply dance, while the one charged with coaching can often see more of the overall effect from being outside the picture rather than inside it.
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Absolutely. It's rare, but when I've gotten the chance at that kind of instruction it's so unbelievably helpful.
 
we (AM partnership) seem to be transitioning from one male and one female coach to video and incidental coach, at least for an interim period. However, i should point out that which kind of coach you have depends greatly on the stage you are at. Consistenw with Joe' above, I started with a male coach and I doubt I could have had such a great experience with a female one. However, once you are working on a partnership it seems to switch to who knows what best and gender may be irrelevant.
 
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