how are your lessons going? thread II

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I've had my final Showcase lessons before the event this weekend, and I'm feeling pretty good about everything, even the last-minute-instructor-change routine. I should have clarified sooner - we did have video and I had practiced a lot up to that point, so the resources were there for the transition. Hoping to turn in satisfactory performances and just have a fun day.
 
Had lesson about a week ago...WCS flow pretty good...with AT, getting to the point where I am adding flicks, kicks and flourishes on my own...of course, I need to execute them a little quicker for them to work out well...it's a process...also attended a rhythm master class...only one new bit of terminology, but no new info...good practice anyway.
 
< has a new paso, up to the first highlight.

Hooray for throwing out my old one (basically a syllabus routine that I learned in 2 weeks so that I could have all 10 dances for nationals last year) and replacing it with an "open open" (as pro called it) routine that plays to my strengths and that I get input into creating. We've been working on it less than an hour, and I can already tell that I'm going to like it SO MUCH MORE than the old one. It feels pretty comfortable, and already looks pretty good :)
 
Ha! I at least seem to have figured out the formula to hit the turn combination that I've been having trouble with more reliably. The final piece was to make some of the steps smaller, making it easier to get be in balance on the subsequent turns. Since it's a place where I was sometimes running out of room, smaller is better anyway. ;) The first run through of the show case was good enough today that we would have been happy if it had been the performance. There are still a couple places that I wished I danced better, but there's a limit as to how much I'm going to learn between now and the showcase this weekend. Since it will be first time I have ever done anything on a stage, I guarantee my performance will suffer from nerves, but my dancing is unquestionable better for having gone through this process. Pro has been out of town, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes dancing it with him for the rest of the week.
 
Asked a fellow dancer to watch the opening of my waltz last night. The context: After months of low key complaining about feeling squished in hold (pro and I are the same height, but my limbs are longer - and as I've gotten better, it's become a challenge to manage), I got upset a few lessons ago… I was tired, and it was hurting, and instead of shutting up and dealing like I usually do, I said it was hurting. I distinctly remember pro trying to brush me off and me saying something like "no, I'm not saying that it is uncomfortable. I know what that feels like. I'm saying that it hurts and we need to do something." Admittedly spent the rest of the lesson peeved as pro wanted to continue working on something else... but every standard lesson since has been spent tinkering with the hold to find something where I am more comfortable.

So, all that tinkering has changed our set up, and I was worried that while it felt better, it looked smaller/safer/boring.... so I asked someone whose opinion I trust to watch. We danced the opening 10-15 seconds, and managed to make her literally cry. So, no more concerns that it looks small and unimpressive, I guess!

Now we need to stop tinkering and start locking in this new set-up as our normal.
 
soooo after all the bloody drama with my latin pro, he changed his mind and decided to leave the dance biz. WHICH I HAD TOTALLY CALLED, even though he was all "nooo, i stay". :rolleyes: i am not irritated because i totally expected it AND i was told early enough so that i didn't waste money. and also it will make my schedule so much easier. and will be easier on my pocketbook. So i am a one-style dancer right now, lol. ALL RHYTHM ALL THE TIME.

lesson last night was working on traveling accents in cha cha and it blows my mind. i love it but it blows my mind.
 
My turn for drama!! My lesson this morning went well. Mid-afternoon, the wife-studio owners phones and tells me my teacher is no longer with the studio. I was hoping to dance at Crystal Ball with him. (We had not yet signed up and paid. So at least there is that.)

So now... what to do? Yeah. I'm only Bronze and it's only recreation. But ARGGGHHHH! I hate drama.
 
Well.... I texted my teacher. He said he did not know.

I'm mystified. A few weeks ago, the husband of the studio owner pair tore his cartilage (I think). From what I understood-- torn in three places. He was out of commission as far as dancing went. It seemed to me my teacher picked up the slack on extra group lessons, some of the studio owners lessons and so on. Operation of cartilage Friday, male studio owner was recovered, and back dancing. (Which is pretty dang fast.)

Last Friday at the weekly open dance party, wife-studio owners was talking about how great my teacher was. Giving my teacher a hug blah... blah......

Then I had my class today which ended at 10 am. My teacher seemed fine. The one unusual thing.... both wife and husband owner were in the studio at the close of my lesson. (Normally, my teacher just signs me out, I initial a form to indicate my lesson took place. It didn't strike me weird at the time. But now that I think about it, I realize there was no need for there to be two owners and a teacher there.)

Around 3:30 pm, wife studio owner called and said my teacher was not going to be available any longer. I don't remember her precise words. I don't remember my own... other than, Wow! Well I guess Crystal Ball is out! Then she was asking me what I wanted to do. I at least had the presence of mind to say I need to think about that. Heck.... I still don't know. (FWIW: I hate drama. )

Of course, coincidences being what they are... A while back I had ordered a latin dress for competition. And, I'd offerred to get a matching shirt for my teacher (pro). He liked the idea, so I took all his measurements. Guess when the package arrived? Today!!

Ordinarily, I would have brought it to him tomorrow so he could try it on. But noooooooo.....
Still, it gave me an excuse to text him -- so I can arrange to give him the shirt. Otherwise, what am I going to do with it?! So I flat out asked him about it and he said he had no idea.

Presumably, he'll now be looking for a studio to work at. I have no idea how difficult that is. I know I can't count on the location being convenient-to-me and so on. Of course, this must be much worse for him. But... well.... I can't help but think of my own disappointment too. Arghhhh.....
 
Purr.

Yep. I'm an imaginative sort who generally ends up thinking up all sorts of possibilities (including strangely improbable ones.) Based on other things I know, I have a favored theory (which would lean on the side of my teacher being treated unfairly). But I don't really know. Given my imagination, I can think of other things which would go the other direction.

I'm going to group lessons tonight. Even though I hate drama, I'm going to have my ears open. I have one private lesson left, and I'm not going to renew a 10 pack until I feel less uneasy. My husband just renewed his punch card for 10 group lessons Friday. We'll at least be using that. But I really feel odd about all this and it's going to make things less enjoyable. (I did run out and took out a "new student special" at another near by studio to see if I like their teachers. So.... yeah.. this weirds me out!)
 
lucia_l said:
Purr.

Yep. I'm an imaginative sort who generally ends up thinking up all sorts of possibilities (including strangely improbable ones.) Based on other things I know, I have a favored theory (which would lean on the side of my teacher being treated unfairly). But I don't really know. Given my imagination, I can think of other things which would go the other direction.
Click to expand...

That's frustrating that it seemed to be handled unprofessionally...always good to look at different options. d
 
@lucia_l - Ugh, I feel for you. Not that it excuses anything, but it's at least good to hear that you only had 1 private lesson left (as opposed to 10 or 20 or 50, lol) so you have the space to take a breather. It sounds like you did everything right in response to all this.

On a tangent, that is one of my pet peeves about this business (though it happened to me with my dentist years ago too). The sudden departures of teachers with very little advance warning - I know, #notallstudios, but I've seen it happen numerous times and students don't like it. "Hey, Teacher A is no longer here, you are now with Teacher B." I realize it is a trick to keep students from having enough time to think it over and decide they don't want to stay if that teacher is gone, but IME they often leave after a while anyways. That is what happened with my Showcase that I mentioned earlier... I literally got a call at 2:00 on a Friday to tell me the teacher wouldn't be there at 6:00 (b/c had resigned) but could I meet with this other teacher instead at the same time but different location (admittedly, there was some buildup to this with a previous missed lesson and some other indicators, so it wasn't a total blindside). I've had two instructors in the past who insisted on notifying me in advance, but there was also one who ghosted us on the pretense of returning in 6 weeks and never came back (thankfully I had a fellow student who knew he was not returning and told me the day of the last event I did with him). It's just ridiculous and unprofessional. /rant off
 
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