Better a questionable teacher or none?

[bia]

I’ve mentioned here in the past that my DH and I live in a wasteland for standard, the style that has our hearts. I’m trying to decide whether we should be making more of an effort to take lessons with the nearest teacher who knows more about standard than I do (I’m something like gold; DH is kinda silver). The teacher is three hours away; we’ve had two double lessons with him over the last year. It’s partly the inconvenience of the drive that’s kept us from scheduling more lessons, but it’s also that I’m not blown away by his teaching. For example, he wants a whole lot of pushing from my right arm, and that’s inconsistent with what other trusted teachers have wanted from my frame. And when we asked him how to lead/follow the difference between two steps, he said it didn’t matter, since the steps aren’t near each other in our routine. Nevertheless, there are certainly things we can learn from him. If he were local, we’d take a lesson from him every week. If we had a choice of someone who was a better fit, we wouldn’t take from him at all. As it is, I’m torn.

The only alternative that I can see is what we’ve been doing in the two years that we’ve lived here – practicing based on dvds and memories of past lessons, and grabbing lessons when we travel (there’s an excellent teacher near my parents) or when a coach with standard expertise visits the American-style studio an hour and a half away (that’s happened only once so far, but she’s coming back in a few months :bouncy. I feel like it’s not fair to this teacher to ask him to teach us if we’re not going to trust what he tells us. And I don’t generally feel motivated to make the drive. But I worry that we’re setting our bad habits in stone when we go so long without seeing someone who can point them out. What do y’all think? Given these two options, should we push ourselves to see this guy, or just keep plugging as-is?

[We’d also love to hear other options if you can come up with them, but we can’t move (career), the next closest standard teachers (lots of great ones) are five hours away, and DH has no interest in switching to smooth, especially with the hour and a half drive (he finds the arm styling funny-looking--no offense--and all he really wants to dance is slow foxtrot anyway).]

 

[wooh]

If you're willing to drive 3 hours for the not so good, it seems driving 5 hours for good instruction would be the better bargain time wise.

 

[fascination]

I think you should pm someone you trust with more specifics on where you are b/c frankly I am not convinced that you have exhausted every avenue...there might be folks here who know of people and places about which you may not be aware...furthermore, IMO, one cannot be a good smooth dancer without solid standard background...what is essential is imperative to both IMO...so I wouldn't be so certain that a good smooth instructor isn't well versed enough to benefit you...it is hard to say without knowing more about how good your previous instruction was and what your capacity to measure the current options really is...but those are my thoughts..I would definately get the advice of a coach whenever or wherever I could

 

[skwiggy]

Is there anyone else in your area interested in learning Standard? Maybe you could look into bringing a coach who you do trust into town at regular intervals if you could generate enough interest to fill his or her schedule?

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

I'd say 5-hour drive looks more appealing under the circumstances. Since you guys are doing it as a couple, you could spend the night and take lessons 2 days in a row, then go home and practice.

 

[chica latina]

I would not go 3h away to take lessons from that instructor which could just give you bad habits..

If there is not good standard coach, I'll look for a high level coach in a different discipline (smooth, or even latin) even if you are training in standard... They can help with basic technique things that apply to all dances... plus the high level dancers usually have trained in other styles.

Or like previous poster suggested: drive further once in a while or see if you have enough people interested to bring someone in.

Hope you make it work!

 

[3wishes]

3 hour drive for lessons that are...hmmmm....leaving doubts? Search, really really search much like Fascination said. There are times, if your near a university or college that you may find what your looking for at an educational venue where there is a ballroom team. Or a community center. And it could be that a teacher in one discipline actually has a technique driven background in standard. Also, if you ever have a chance to visit some of the competitions, since your already driving 3 potentially 5 hours just for lessons, get coaching or call the organizers of the competitions to check and see if any of the judges will be offering lessons or private coachings. Untangling bad technique that you've been putting your money down for - is irritating at best - driving the kind of distances your driving has value if your doing it right from the get go. Also, check out some of the dance camps, for example, Dance Vision offers several that are several days long which you can take part in as groups and sign up for individual private coachings with well known instructors - out of that you can possibly find a standard teacher in drive distance of your "wasteland". Good luck.

 

[bia]

Thanks, everybody, for the ideas! It's good to know that we still have some avenues to pursue, and I'm feeling more encouraged this morning to keep looking for something/someone that will work for us.

 

[fascination]

best of luck...living in the middle of nowhere and travelling two and a half hours for a great pro is hard enough...I empathize

 

[bia]

update

I think I may have found us a new teacher! 2 1/2 hours in the opposite direction from the other guy, there's a couple that looks really good. I hadn't found them before because their web presence is minimal -- I guess they get enough business without it -- and I wasn't asking around aggressively enough. Of course I won't know until I call them, and then I won't know until we have a lesson, and I'm traveling for non-dance reasons for the next couple of weeks, so it'll have to wait a little, but I'm all excited now, because I didn't even know they existed. I like the under-3-hour distance, because it means we have flexibility in whether to spend the night or not, so we don't necessarily have to take up the whole weekend every time we want a lesson. Everyone who told me to keep looking, thanks for the encouragement! :bouncy:

 

[fascination]

yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!