time to change teachers?

I take a private lesson once a week and these have been very helpful and enjoyable. But lately it seems like I am repeating the same lesson week after week. I know exactly what I need to work on, but despite daily practise I don't seem to make any progress. It's incredibly frustrating to get the same corrections again and again.
I think I need a different perspective, a different way of attacking the problem to help me break through.
Sound familiar?
-Pat

May I ask who you are taking your privates with? I go to Seattle quite often so I might know him/her.

I'd rather not name any names - it would be easy to mis-interpret my post as criticizing the teacher, which wouldn't be fair.

But if you have any suggestions for teachers that are strong in basic technique or lead styling, I'd love to hear them.

Hmmm... here's a different track you might want to take... ask your favorite follows whose style they like the best/they most enjoy dancing with and then take from that person/the person they learned from.


P.S. I liked the salsa scene up there even though I only managed to make it out twice when I was briefly in town a couple of weeks ago.

I definitely benefited from changing teachers, especially as a male changing from a male instructor to a female. I switched about a month ago. My male teacher is great, and I hope to do some more lessons with him. His choreography is by far the best in my city. However, the female teacher had a lot of great advice immediately after her first dance with me. Even when I danced with my old instructor's competition partner, she didn't catch some of the basic mistakes the new female instructor noticed. It's been very interesting going back over the basics with a different person. Fortunately, the styles they teach are similar enough that it's not jarring. I wouldn't change to someone with a completely different style yet.

I didn't know anything about salsa when I signed up with the male instructor. Now that I've been dancing for six months, I've learned about all the local instructors and can make a more informed choice (even though the original one turns out to be one of the best here). You can try several different people to see how you like them.

I think trying different teachers is always beneficial, whether or not you are happy with your current teacher. Lofland's point about teachers of different genders offering different perspectives is a good one to bear in mind.

Yes, taking lessons from more teachers might be a good idea... as long as their opinions about Salsa dancing are not opposite!

I do believe in sticking with one teacher.

For a while ! Then you definitly need to change.

It is a very simple equation, really : if you only take lessons with one teacher, no matter how great he is, the best dancer you'll ever get will be a clone of that particular dancer.

If you change teachers, you get a different perspective. You get different ways of teaching and correcting. You might even get, as Squirrel said, an opposit vision of salsa. But by the time you need to change teachers, you need not someone telling you how to feel about salsa. You already have your own opinion, they can influence it, but not change it alltogether.

Sometimes, you will get stuck on a particular move, and you can't get it right. You'll get corrected by your teacher time and time again, but to no avail. You change teacher, and the first thing he'l say will be, "you should try and do this move like this, in slow mo, just to see how it feels twisting your arm the other way" and bam ! Not stuck anymore.
Just a different aproach of explaining things can unlock doors that had been closed for you for weeks !

Besides, you sometimes go back to the basics with a new teacher, and I found it can nevrer hurt your dance. You get to pick up a new way of doing your basic, a new flavour to ad to your dancing, a new tool to create yout OWN flava !

Is your "daily practice" with someone else? with several someone elses? or are you practicing on your own between private lessons. You may not need fresh perspective just yet if you aren't dancing with several practice partners. You just may need more practice! On the other hand, as has been said before, it never hurts to take lessons from more than one teacher. A simple turn of phrase or slightly different perspectice can turn on that light bulb :idea:

Good luck.

A relevant saying goes something like this:

"When learning a new religion, it helps to go to the same church".

That said, if you are sincerely practicing what is being shown and worked on week after week (and going to a social is not counted as practice - solo time with yourself or your partner working on what you learned IS) then you have two problems:

1. You are really not comprehending what is being taught or you are not expressing your confusion to your coach in such a way that you get help.

2. Your coach does not know how to teach you (or 'get to' you) but is merely an information transmitter.

Regarding #2, it's the equivalent of the teacher telling you 'chapter and verse' what to do, but not being able to teach you - 'reaching' you - they merely have information and cannot apply it to the situation at hand. Few teachers are really gifted. Most are of this type.

Regarding #1, schedule real practice time, show up, put in the time, and do the movements slowly and accurately, building up muscle memory.

Dance takes t-i-m-e... it LOOKS easy because any good artform looks that way when does well. You need time to work on it, and time to 'get comfortable' with it, and time to 'utilize' it on the dance floor. It takes sometimes months or years before a movement to work...

Probably a mix of #1 and #2. Definitely not a lack of practice. I worry that I'm reinforcing bad habits by continually practicing them - but I don't know what I'm supposed to change. It's like: I know the symptoms, but I don't know what the disease is.
Also I'm confused by apparently contradictory feedback. My teacher tells me I have a rough lead, but social dance followers say they like to dance with me because of my gentle lead. I think they must be talking about different aspects of leading, but language seems to lack the subtlety to clearly express what they are trying to tell me.

What is the level of those whom you dance with socially? If you dance with those at much lower skill levels they may not be able to discern the problems and thus the feedback that your teacher is providing. It also may be a personal preference. A lead can be rough beause not enough momenutum/force is used or because it is not lead exactly when it should (on the right beat), or incorrectly...

i would never change my teachers

but thats just me

Danoo said:

i would never change my teachers

but thats just me

Click to expand...

If I wasn't you I wouldn't do so either.

Pat said:

Also I'm confused by apparently contradictory feedback. My teacher tells me I have a rough lead, but social dance followers say they like to dance with me because of my gentle lead. I think they must be talking about different aspects of leading, but language seems to lack the subtlety to clearly express what they are trying to tell me.

Click to expand...

Nah - a social dancer has a limited 'toolset' to work from. They like to dance with you because you are getting training, however basic. Just by taking regular coaching you are getting more information and feedback (in this case from a good dancer) than most of your peers on the social floor will ever hope to get (that old 'learning on the dance floor' usually means 'learning' from another beginner). Your coach is comparing you to a trained dancer - that's why he says you are rough.

Are you aware how long it takes to get good? One common yardstick is that old cliche: "in dance, a social dancer is intermediate in 2 months, but in dancesport, he's intermediate in 4 years".