how are your lessons going? thread II

Status
Not open for further replies.
fun lesson last night in smooth. tweaking choreo for my tango open. my pro is a serial choreo changer, and i've realized that i'm finally comfortable with that. plus, this was some fun stuff we were changing it to.
 
FancyFeet said:
There was crying (not bawling, just a few tears), and intense discussing... and only about 10 minutes of actual dancing. Pro may finally get where my head is at, and how unhappy I am being just one of the pro-am gaggle - which made the light dawn for him on why I don't want to do things that 'everyone else' is doing, like perform at the annual studio showcase, and why I'm hesitating on committing to things next year. I've never made a secret of the fact that am-am is where I want to be, but I don't think he ever realized that it was way more than an idle "oh, that'd be nice" wish.

We cancelled my second lesson this week. Here's hoping this tough chat was where we turned a corner toward the better.
Click to expand...
Sounds like something I'm about to face. Except 10 minutes of dancing - that is a lot, I only get that much dancing at a competition, not lessons. Or, what qualifies as actual dancing?
 
My lessons are usually mostly all dancing. Dance, quick 'let's try this', dance... repeat for an hour. We're no longer at the place where I'm learning figures, etc. - we spend most our time on fine details. Even new choreography goes quickly. We added a new wall of QS last night that we were running to music in about 5 minutes, and part of that was me watching the inspiration video. It'll be comp ready in a few weeks.

Best of luck with your intense discussion!
 
Rhythm last night was good - last couple of lessons have been fun and challenging. Pro was in a very chill and zen mood, which was odd but amusing. We are focusing on more rotation in my lower body, and it's improving. I still need more, of course, but hey, i like to hear that I'm doing what we wants!
 
Coaching last week, one with Pro and one with Newer Guy, though Newer Guy stayed around for both. She told me how to de-train-wreck some of the specifics of the new VW figures--and I phrase it that way because it is going to take a while to incorporate it into my body/brain. One of them, my brain completely gets, and it's just going to take practice. The other one is more complicated and is going to take more instruction as well as more practice. She also pinpointed one of the reasons my VW is trainwrecky in general. After watching me dance the VW a couple of times, she asked me to walk across the floor. Turns out that I don't rotate my upper body with my steps the way the vast majority of people do. She gave me an exercise to work on that--her point being that if didn't do it when I walked, it was going to be pretty difficult for me to do it while I dance. Also did some Tango with Newer Guy, and she radically improved our connection/and therefore lead/follow. Pro is now on vacation, so I had a followup lesson with Newer Guy today. VW work was good. Tango was a little frustrating, but I think I was expecting too much too soon. Sometimes I need to be happy with "clearly better".
 
My lessons have been mixed.

I’ve started getting frustrated with the chain studio I started at as I feel like the instructors are sort of hamstrung by copious amounts of red tape surrounding what and how they can teach.

That being said, I’ve started exploring other independent studios and my dancing as a whole has definitely gotten better because of it. After just a handful of lessons at a new location, I finally don't feel like a gorilla stomping around the floor (at least not all the time). The instructor there really slowed things down and focused on the quality of my steps—something I'd asked for five months ago when I first started dancing.

That being said, while I’ve definitely gotten better, Samba is an ego hit of the highest degree. As much as I love it, dancing does not come easily to me. I’ve played all sorts of sports growing up and been competitive in a number of them, but I’ve never felt as uncoordinated in my life as when I try to Samba. I tend to lunge or squat to get the bounce because it’s so ingrained in my muscle memory that by the end of any lesson that involves Samba I’m drenched in sweat and I feel like I’ve just finished running a half-marathon.

I know I’ll get better in time as I’m practicing daily but it’s still hard to look at myself in the mirror when I Samba. So much respect for everyone out there that makes it (and every other dance) look so easy.
 
Sounds like you're making a needed course correction and making progress in the proper direction.

Are you working on other dances like waltz and rumba as well? Or are you focused on the samba? (If so, an unusual choice for a first dance here in the US)
 
snapdancer said:
Sounds like you're making a needed course correction and making progress in the proper direction.

Are you working on other dances like waltz and rumba as well? Or are you focused on the samba? (If so, an unusual choice for a first dance here in the US)
Click to expand...

I am working on other dances as well! I’ve been introduced to a variety of Smooth dances (Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, and the very beginnings of Viennese) at my starter studio which I practice regularly and really enjoy dancing.

With regards to Latin (which is what I’m focusing on with my new teacher as that’s what she competes in) we work on Rumba, Cha Cha, and Jive as well as Samba. I only singled out Samba specifically because it’s the one I have the most trouble with hahaha.

Once I finish up my current package at the chain studio I’m planning to start learning Standard at the independent studio as well (its roughly half the price so I’ll be able to take way more lessons).
 
I had my last dance lessons of the year, with New(er) Guy, since Pro is out on vacation. We managed to dance Swing, plus all of the Smooth dances. Not everything in them, but we worked on the newer figures and incorporating information from the coaching the week before. We switched back and forth choosing what to work on. At one point, I said, "the Tango step I hate" and he correctly identified it without any more information. :rofl: Of course, the reason I hate it is because there are parts of it that I don't feel that I dance well, but we got it down to just one or two measures. I had already decided that maybe I didn't hate it so much, when Studio co-owner walked by and NG asked her for help with it. After she obliged, NG said to her, "You are a genius!" Her nice reply, "No, I just have more experience." :)

I budget my lessons for every week of the year, even though I know I will miss some. That means that while I'll be missing lessons for the next two weeks, I get the fun of making them up when I get back. Some of that will be having studio co-owner and/or Pro coach NG and me a couple of times, which we both are looking forward to.
 
My last lessons of the year were pretty fun, and feel like a new period in my dance education! After months of strict focus on the mechanical aspects of my smooth choreography (my first experience of open choreography), it's nice to begin serious work on musicality, phrasing, finding light and shade, and putting all the technical fundamentals to use in order to actually "dance".
 
nice rhythm lesson to start the year yesterday, and i was all ready to practice what i learned tonight. and work out. BUT THEN someone hacked a friends' site and so i spent most of the night fixing it and eating sourpatch kids. but the lesson last night on rumba was really good! working on ALL THAT ROTATION/OPPOSITION. feeling better about all that.
 
Things are coming to a bit of a front with a coach of mine and my dance partner's. He used to be big on trying to get me into pro-am, but I've been sticking with amateur comps in USA dance instead...

He's generally always been hyper-critical of my dancing, which I actually like. I pay him to work me hard. Lately though it just seems that there is this nastiness and jealousy in his tone that is just irking me out.

This all seems to have been happening since I did a showcase with him and was taking a lot of lessons to perfect it. Now I'm back to my regular coaching schedule and he's less than thrilled about it. Maybe it's time to move on.
 
Had my first week of lessons post vacation. We managed to cover all of the dances I'm working on at the moment. ( A team match is coming up so a couple of the rhythm dances are back in the works. ) It was a good mix. We reviewed all of the new figures and worked on troublesome elements. We also got to do some of my favorite work, which is making my following better/more sensitive. Amazing how much better everything goes when I follow properly. ;)

I got an unusual number of compliments from Pro, though in one case there was a definite tinge of "how come you don't always dance that well?" :rofl:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Dance Ads

Advertise on Dance Forums Reach dancers, teachers, studios, event organizers, and dance-friendly brands. View ad options
Back
Top