how are your lessons going? thread II

[FancyFeet]

Let's just say that a newly refinished floor and FF falling down her stairs the day before did not contribute to the most spectacular lesson ever... paint fumes, a sticky floor and a bruised and aching back and side are NOT my magic combination

Given all that though, not terrible. Things are heading in the right direction.

(I'm supposed to try and avoid falling down the stairs in the future... as always, great advice from pro )

 

[cornutt]

(I'm supposed to try and avoid falling down the stairs in the future... as always, great advice from pro )

What would we do without pros?

 

[RiseNFall]

Pro wants me to be able to visualize our routines, seeing them as if I were bystander. My version of visualization has always been from my point of view in it (and I've had a lot of difficulty doing that with dancing--I was excellent at it when I used to ride dressage). You can only imagine how many conversations we had where we weren't making any sense to each other before we figured out what the other one was talking about. Also, being able to decipher bodies moving through space, particularly with rotations involved, is just not one of my strong suits. I actually don't understand how we end up where we do in relationship to each other sometimes. So, we're working on all of this now and, while it's making my head hurt, I am enjoying it. Pro is somewhat baffled by how I can dance it as well as I do now that he understands the depth of some of what I don't understand.

Meanwhile, I've said before that I am much more comfortable working on technique than I am my performance skills. Thus, I've asked New Guy to work on a mock Mother-Son wedding dance for us. I had initially requested it as a waltz, but after I thought about it more, if I were his mother, we would almost certainly choose to do a VW. This aught to be fun.

 

[3wishes]

My pro wants more - uhhhh - how do I put this, facial anger directed at him in Tango and try nixing the smirk I give him when I KNOW he’s dancing someone else’s Tango with me on a comp floor but I just follow along, ok,,,,uhhhh, I can do that,,,,somewhat, laughter always kicks in, I.....cannot....help....it. Maybe he should step on my foot, THAT would work to get the reaction he wants. Lol.

 

[cornutt]

Lol. DW and I once danced a tango in a comp, holding very exaggerated sour-puss faces though the whole thing. The judges cracked up.

 

[scullystwin42]

Finally a decent rhythm lesson last week. Figuring a couple things out and changing the mindset helped quite a bit.

 

[cornutt]

The showcase routing is coming together now. Since I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to project more confidence as a lead, our partnership and connection seems to have improved. I do have a funny story from practice with alternate-alternate partner and the toy tango: We have one bit where I lead her across me, let her go apart for a moment, and then I have to catch her hand with my other hand as she does a ronde. We've had trouble timing that bit. We were practicing it and she would tell me the catch was late. I'd try to do it a bit earlier and she still said it was late. So I said, "all right, I'm going to do the catch ridiculously early, and then that will give me a hint of where it needs to be". So I did that, and my partner said, "that's about right!"

 

[FancyFeet]

Caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror during QS last night... holy cow, where did that girl come from? And can she pretty please stay? She looked ridiculously good, and I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that she was me.

Also, pro has started to use the word "practice" in our lessons... as in, "let's practice VW"... then we dance, with no instruction and limited corrections. We just run through, consult each other, then run through again. This may be normal for others, but it's a major shift for us. Maybe has something to do with the girl I saw in the mirror last night?

 

[scullystwin42]

smooth lesson was a little bumpy, my shoulders were around my ears even though i was thinking about keeping them relaxed, so, not cool. Ugh. hopefully tomorrow's smooth will be better. rhythm on monday was a little better. hopefully tonight will continue to be improved.

 

[scullystwin42]

rhythm was...meh. jelly legs for some reason. it wasn't bad, tho, so i think it was outside stress that was impacting me.

 

[VronskyWasSoVain]

I sometimes feel like a big green dollar sign for my dance school. I'm not trying to be egoistic.

The reason is that the dance scene in my city isn't so big. I live in a mid-sized city that is a somewhat conservative gov't town.

A lot of the folks at my dance school are older married couples and me and a few other students are one of the few young ones. Also, most students are female.

I think when they see a somewhat young-ish single guy like me who wants to learn to dance, they see me as prime real estate. Leads take longer to train. Also, being single and somewhat young, they know I'm vulnerable to the attractive female instructors who can manipulate me to keep taking lessons.

Again, nothing malicious is going on. I am paying for a service. They are providing it. They've always been professional and courteous. But yah, I feel like they really really want my business, even more so than the other students. Not trying to be an egotistic knat here.

 

[3wishes]

Welcome to DF SmoothAsian. Check out DF threads, there are several where various input, thoughts, discussions are posted, to lower costs, partnerships, etc., etc.,
As for lessons and walking dollar sign, yep,
Lessons drive the business. No matter who you are.
Can you find another amateur partner to split lesson cost with, I.e., a college student who is on a ballroom team.
Ok, I am not going to High jack this thread, so onto my lessons yesterday.
Switched some things up for FT, getting ready for Hollywood Dancesport. Pro reviews tapes, and I have a feeling I’m becoming a pretzel in VW, or almost.
Pro focused on sway, and then my hands and fingers. Dreading the drive to Universal Hilton next week but at least I have a fast track lane device. Lol.

 

[IndyLady]

But yah, I feel like they really really want my business, even more so than the other students.

Possible, but also possible/likely that you just don't see their efforts to extract money from the other students, and/or they've had enough discussions with those other students that they know to apply less pressure or how to optimize their efforts.

 

[VronskyWasSoVain]

Possible, but also possible/likely that you just don't see their efforts to extract money from the other students, and/or they've had enough discussions with those other students that they know to apply less pressure or how to optimize their efforts.

So I guess teachers don't like their students...it's like any other business...it's all about the money.

 

[IndyLady]

So I guess teachers don't like their students...it's like any other business...it's all about the money.

I'm not sure how you gleaned that from my reply, but those two things are not mutually exclusive. Teachers can like their students and studios still want to maximize profits.

On topic:
- One more lesson with each instructor before Showcase. I think I'm as ready as I can be at this point, but will probably fubar some things anyways because that is how it always goes.
- Prepping for January comp with other instructor. No idea how we are going to learn/practice all we need to know before then. But I always feel invigorated after his lessons - I really appreciate the physical exertion - feels productive.