Ever been in "over your head?"

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pygmalion

Well-Known Member
Have you ever been with a teacher, in a class, comp, camp or intensive where you suddenly realized that you were in way over your head -- meaning, the dance material or technique was way too difficult for you?

What did you do? How'd you handle it? Go to the lower level class? Tough it out? Overall, was it a good experience or bad?

Thoughts? 8)
 
Relatively early in my salsa learning, I took a series of workshops by Edie and Al. There was a special offer in that you could get a major discount if you signed up for all 5 of their workshops. So I did.

The very last workshop was their tricks & stunts workshop. :shock: They taught that football move, where the guy is in a crouch like a lineman in football, and the lady jumps over his back, and he grabs her by the back of the neck, between his legs.

No way was I ready to do that stunt!

So I skipped it, blaming it on not wanting to injure anyone. I wasn't the only one, so they taught us a couple of other cool moves instead.
 
Are you kidding? From day one!

To retell my tale yet again, my very first dance lessons ever (a couple semesters of ballroom in college 30 years prior don't count) were intermediate Salsa. I didn't even know how far in over my head I was, that's bad it was.

But I stuck it out for about three months, thinking that all this was normal. It wasn't until we took some beginning Salsa from the city that we discovered what we had really gone through. Though those three months weren't wasted, since I did learn a lot about the importance of counting, frame, keeping the thumbs off, and not letting the arms hang straight down (our teacher made it very clear that he did not at all appreciate my "Irish Salsa").

From that experience I developed an attitude going into every class that I'll try my best but not take it too seriously -- and most especially not take myself seriously -- and to deal with my inevitable frustration with humor, basically laughing at myself. I'm also more apt to place the blame on myself when something goes wrong; if 28 years of marriage has taught me nothing else, it's that everything is my fault. In Lindy class, one girl once commented to me how amazed she is that I'm always smiling and laughing and she didn't believe me when I said that's what I do when I'm getting the most frustrated.

So from the start I had learned to not be afraid to take a challenging class or workshop. And I learned to go in not expecting to master the material, but also knowing that I would learn something that I could add to my accumulating body of knowledge and experience (even though it may accrue at the same glacial rate as the interest in my savings account [grin]).


For a contrasting reaction:
We did a Lindy workshop nearly a year later that was our first exposure ever to Lindy and that was also way over our heads -- we had done some beginning ECS already, but hadn't done WCS yet. I stuck with it; my wife was gone from it most of the afternoon hunting for a place to have salad for lunch instead of the pizza that the workshop brought in. Besides shadow Charleston (I was doing OK, because we had learned the basic step in some beginning ECS classes through the city), we also were doing some fancy stuff with swingouts, which I hadn't been exposed to before. I was stumbling through as best as I could, when my partner that time, a middle-aged woman, suddenly "I can't do this." I was trying to encourage her when she burst into tears, grabbed her purse, and ran out of the club.

--------------------------

The Lesson of the Steppenwolf:
Learn to laugh. ("Man muß lachen lernen.")

Come to think of it, a large part of Harry's lessons also involved learning to dance to jazz music. Das Foxtrot, I believe it was.
Did I also forget to mention that Harry Haller was also 50 at the time of this story?
 
That certainly has happened to me a few times, but there's one workshop that stands out foremost in my mind...

Last April I took a workshop with Ryan and Jenny. I hadn't read the workshop program, or I would have known that it was a very advanced, fast-paced class. To make a long story short, I realized I was in over my head after the first five minutes. It was a non-rotating class, and there was no one who would take my place, so I just had to tough it out. The class ran about 20 minutes overtime, and the other class came in to watch, so I was just sure that everyone was staring at me, laughing hysterically at my many mistakes. I finished the class as gracefully as I could, and forced myself to go on to the next (much more basic) class in the next time slot, when I really just wanted to go home, crawl under my covers, and never be seen again. :oops:

But as embarrassed as I was, I knew I had to face everyone again. The great part was that when I went out dancing the following Friday, nobody (not even my regular instructors, who had been dancing next to me at the workshop) remembered me being there! Thank goodness! I guess it goes without saying that people are usually paying much less attention to you than you think they are!

In the future, though, you can bet that I will thoroughly read all class descriptions before taking any class!
 
Saturday, 2nd AT workshop, which was an intermediate/advanced level class. I was way over my head!! I struggled through it. Actually let me repharse. This whole weekend of AT I was the only beginner AT leader. Everyone there was way ahead of me, even a 12 year old kid. But you know what? I don't really care!! I had a good time. That's what counts.
 
well.. being 6'3 ft .. its kind of difficult to encounter 'over my head' stuff :tongue: lol

seriously tho.. i actually never remember myself feeling like that or being intimidated especially in dance and dance related environment.. i dont know if thats good or bad in the grand scheme of things but it feels good to feel confident and secure in one of the few things i enjoy in life.. so long as its not mis-used of course.. contributes to more fun and enjoyment for me and thus to those around me.. i think.. :D
 
A little over two years ago I went to an advanced latin group class, that I saw advertised in the paper. I managed to make it through the warm up, and samba, but when the class turned to jive I knew I was toast. I just sat down and watched the rest of the class. I had no idea what was going on. :(
 
Bummer. I had a similar experience when I signed up for an Argentine Tango with a visiting high-level coach after about eight months of dancing, total. MISTAKE! He was trying to cover too much in ony two hours -- patterns. :evil: And I didn't belong there in the first place.
 
When I talk of being way over my head I'm simply taking about the dichotomy between my skill level and others, and knowing this. It does not result in any feeling of intimidation, or feeling that the material is too difficult for me. As, I think it was Dwise1 said, you can learn something from any experience you have. You don't necessarily have to learn what is being taught to benefit, as each of us always comes to dance with our own unique and individual knowledge. If the moves being taught are difficult perhaps you can observe styling and technique when the basics are done and learn from that. In a class setting these are often done slower so these are easier to pick up. :)
 
I used to compete in Smooth with another Amatuer, and we went to his Pro/Am teacher for our lessons and for our routines. I felt completely overwhelmed the whole time because the routines were way too difficult for me! I wanted to make them simpler, but it was a three-way vote and I was but one person :-) I'm not sure what I got out of being in over my head, other than a lot of frustration. I've started over again with a different teacher, and we've kept things much simpler so that I'm able to focus on the actual dance technique rather than the moves, and it's working a lot better for me now.
 
A couple years ago my studio had a six week course that covered the Bronze syllabus for Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Cha Cha, Rumba and Swing. One week for each dance. Before the class my husband and I only had some cha cha, rumba and Foxtrot experience.

This was massive overload! However, at the end we knew enough steps to socially dance some dances we didn't know before.
 
I feel I'm way in over my head in competing/performing. But I love a challenge!

I have a cartoon on my refrigerator, not pertaining to dance but...
someone asking Charlie Brown if he ever feels like he's in over his head, and he says, "as soon as I get out of bed in the morning..." (not quoted very well, but I'm at work!)
 
I was in way over my head from the beginning. Less than 6 months after I began ballroom dancing, I was thrown into the deep end--professional competition. I didn't realize it right away, but when I figured out how bad we were compared to everyone else, I was mortified. Ignorance is bliss. I still feel like that every now and then, when I'm having trouble understanding a concept or something, and I feel really stupid; much less now than a year ago, though.
 
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