How does your teacher structure your lessons?

[waltzgirl]

What I mean is, how is new information organized, presented, incorporated into goals, etc.?

My lessons are based on routines that were orginally planned as pro-am comp routines. Once I've learned the footwork of a new pattern, it's incorporated into the routine. In most lessons, we start dancing a routine until something goes wrong, then we stop and figure out what it was (he stresses a lot my being able to diagnose my own mistakes), we repeat the step or pattern until I get it right, then we move on with the routine. New technical information usually gets worked into the diagnosis and fix of a problem.

My dancing is consistently improving, so it must be working. But I'm a bit of a more structured person and sometimes this feels pretty vague to me. So I was wondering if there were other models for teaching in private lessons.

If it's relevant, I'm a few months into beginning silver.

 

[lynn]

Usually my teacher starts by asking me if there's anything specific I'd like to work on - ie, a figure I'm unfamiliar with or a certain technique that I might need to work on. But we mostly just go over the routine and stop whenever my teacher (or me) finds a problem.

 

[latingal]

I'm sure there are as many ways to structure a private lesson as there are teachers *grin*.

For competitive dancers, in the first lessons my pro seems to gear his lessons to teaching basic technique and some small amalgamations of steps (technique work and some dancing). As his students become more technically proficient, he will work on more advanced issues and also work on their competition routines. As all the basic technique is fully incorporated, he seems to switch over to working the competition routines and choosing a few key issues to work on from the routines. And, at any level, there are days where he decides to work soley on technique (a collect groan goes up within our group when word gets around that it's a "technique day").

 

[alemana]

lg, i get that approach too, and i don't like it. i feel it's motivated partially by laziness - no plan on his part, so just dance a routine until something goes wrong, then address it.

i much prefer more structure and have therefore been attempting to introduce it, as well as giving other clues along the lines of "let's think about what we're going to do, both in the short term and the medium term."

 

[DancePoet]

I agree. Having a game plan for one's development is good. Knowing what the long term plan is can help us break down the big picture into smaller parts, and over time working on these individually. From time to time reassessing the big picture makes sense as well.

 

[fascination]

my lessons are getting more and more basic and more and more difficult...but I look on it as a good sign b/c I am practicing the same things he gets coachings on....right now its all bout foot pressure, being centered over my foot...dropping straight down instead of leaning back as a commencement to moving backward...de-emphasizing my topline which is nice and focusing only on moving myself...I find all of this difficult but liberating...my practicies are tedious and unglamorous and marked by very little that I can measure, but I am trusting that on balance, I will be more balanced as a result...we shall see

 

[mamboqueen]

I practiced with a new dress on yesterday and spent most of the time shaking my butt to show how well it moves.

 

[saludas]

my lessons are getting more and more basic and more and more difficult...but I look on it as a good sign b/c I am practicing the same things he gets coachings on....right now its all bout foot pressure, being centered over my foot...dropping straight down instead of leaning back as a commencement to moving backward...de-emphasizing my topline which is nice and focusing only on moving myself...I find all of this difficult but liberating...my practicies are tedious and unglamorous and marked by very little that I can measure, but I am trusting that on balance, I will be more balanced as a result...we shall see

Confidentially, these are all good things to work on, but it also might be a signal that you have to move on.

Your level and your coach's level are so different that I cannot possibly imagine that you don't have different things to work on. I think your coach might be either 1. unprepared to teach you in your level or 2. lazy. I don't mean to be negative, but even tho a dictum is 'you teach what you are learning' it is not to be taken LITERALLY.

 

[fascination]

i am certain that the levels of which his is focusing on the same things far exceeds my competency...though I would love to fantacize that what you suggest is true and I look forward to that day....anmd will seize it when it comes...tho I do percieve it all as a sign of significant progress and a nice compliment on his part that I am finally in thae space that that is the sort of stuff that I can now concentrate on

 

[fascination]

I practiced with a new dress on yesterday and spent most of the time shaking my butt to show how well it moves.

butt shaking=good

 

[chachachacat]

I practiced with a new dress on yesterday and spent most of the time shaking my butt to show how well it moves.

So, how does it look? Sparkly?

 

[mamboqueen]

Apparently, not sparkly enough.....will have to save it for something else. He's so PICKY!

 

[latingal]

Apparently, not sparkly enough.....will have to save it for something else. He's so PICKY!

Oooooh yeah, we should have a thread on that one....what's the most interesting/funny/complimentary thing (you pick!) your pro/partner has said about your costuming....and how picky is he? Should have a lot of good ones there!

 

[fascination]

Oooooh yeah, we should have a thread on that one....what's the most interesting/funny/complimentary thing (you pick!) your pro/partner has said about your costuming....and how picky is he? Should have a lot of good ones there!

don't EVEN get me started

 

[NielsenE]

I'm still working on adapting to a new teacher's lesson structure... Changed studios, teachers, and from am-am to pro-am.

In my Am-Am privates, I wasn't on a package, but the coach knew he see us at least once a week for privates, once for groups. We'd tend to spend about 2-3 weeks per dance (Latin) rotating to whichever was weakest when we reached a logical stopping point with the current dance. We'd show comp videos frequently and that also helped steer the lesson selection.

In my pro-am experience so far, we've been bouncing around a lot and while I almost never know what to expect when I show up for a lesson it seems to be working. I'm on a package with ~6 privates a month, going upto 8 for a while. My initial goal is to get to Silver under their syllabus as quickly as reasonable given my previous ~Gold outside experience. I wanted to work through their Bronze so that I'd have a shared vocabulary with their other students at socials, etc. First half of Bronze Smooth/Rhythm took about 2.5 months from start to checkout, on track for the same for the second half. I suspect the format will change once we move in Silver and add other layers of detail, etc. We currently tend to work on about two dances per lesson, normally review the previous week's new material for about 1/3 of the lesson, working on a few new figures for the next third, and doing some technique/styling/presentation work for the last third.