Should I change instructors dilemma

[dancecat]

fascination-you have to pardon my misunderstanding... please understand that in many circles, wanting to be a teacher/becoming a pro is synonomous...

Yes, I see, point taken. I did omit the fact that my instructor has been teaching something like 10-15 years, but turned pro perhaps a year ago.
And really, I will admit to being naive to downright stupid in not shopping around! At my age, I should know better. As a co-owner of the studio, it gave him a little extra cachet I suppose.
I should have talked to his students, but so far, I have only seen or heard of 2 others.

 

[operabob]

Lots of great comments.

Just a couple of things:

1. We aren't there to witness your relationship with your teacher. Just something to consider (and I'm not saying you are as this is general to all of us) but is it possible you're projecting some of your own insecurities onto the teacher's actions. In other words is your own personal make up influencing your interpretation of what the teacher is saying or doing?

2. Learning to teach ballroom properly takes time. Some one mentioned the fast tracking of AM or FA. I take teacher training from an ISTD fellow/examiner who was a former chain manager. As he puts it:

We'd often just taught the teachers the steps just before the students were coming through the door.

Unfortunately for most people coming through the door 95% of their thinking is ankles down while 95% of what they need to know is ankles up.

I'd been dancing ballroom at least 8 years when I started teacher training. The teacher had me dance the woman's part. Within the first 3 steps I realized I knew nothing. Everything I'd learned previously was ankles down. With a good ISTD or equivalent teacher I'd bet you'd need at least a year of training just to get the Student Teacher or Associate level certification.

OB

BTW: A great insight from him and where I started my re-education was:

The man does not dance his steps but rather the man dances the lady into hers.

In other words, as man, when dancing my mental focus is always on where I need to place the lady's feet rather than mine.

 

[Chris Stratton]

But I am not out to change the social dancers that are happy doing what they are doing... that are not asking for my advice.

I wasn't speaking of eradicating what exists, but of offering a better alternative.

 

[fascination]

And before I let myself highjack this whole discussion into a war between social dancing and competitive dancing ... back to the OP's original question.

Other than a personality conflict, OP feels belittled, I don't see much wrong with the situation. So perhaps it is time to shop around to find someone she "clicks with" better. And then her real desires and wishes can be fulfilled, whether she actually knows what they are, right now or not.

agree...while I couldn't figure out her perspective due to semantics...now, understanding her goal more specifically than in her original post, certainly there is a place for all of that...goodness knows it frustrates me to no end that I can't teach ballroom at the "Y" where I work b/c I compete pro/am...but...lol...THAT is another thread...sometimes it just takes a while to get your arms or mind around the full gist of where a poster is really coming from and we certainly don't want them to be sorry for having asked a question or to feel picked at...

 

[fascination]

fascination-you have to pardon my misunderstanding... please understand that in many circles, wanting to be a teacher/becoming a pro is synonomous...

Yes, I see, point taken. I did omit the fact that my instructor has been teaching something like 10-15 years, but turned pro perhaps a year ago.
And really, I will admit to being naive to downright stupid in not shopping around! At my age, I should know better. As a co-owner of the studio, it gave him a little extra cachet I suppose.
I should have talked to his students, but so far, I have only seen or heard of 2 others.

...we all have "should haves"...and now that i understand your perspective better, I have a better clue as to what you are after and it makes more sense to me now

 

[ChaChaMama]

Better to whom? Better to what end?

Some people who swing dance socially would find being schooled in proper jive technique stuffy. They prefer their version, and they don't consider it a sloppy version of the real thing; that is their real thing.

Incredibly loose and probably very problematic analogy that I should know better than to introduce, but I am a reform Jew. I don't see reform Judaism as lesser than Orthodox Judaism, and I don't see it as incomplete Christianity. It's its own deal.

Chris, I think you have the evangelical fire for a particular model of dance training. And believe me, I would much rather have you knocking on my door trying to talk me into proper bronze standard syllabus lessons than the church lady trying to talk me into a new religion. But I also think it's possible some people genuinely don't want to be converted.

CCM

 

[Chris Stratton]

Better to whom? Better to what end?

Some people who swing dance socially would find being schooled in proper jive technique stuffy. They prefer their version, and they don't consider it a sloppy version of the real thing; that is their real thing.

In non-ballroom swing, you've picked an example of a family of dances whos social forms are self-sufficient, and arguably dominant over their competition forms, even in the minds of their competitors. It's a community that knows how to create new members using it's own internal mechanisms.

Chris, I think you have the evangelical fire for a particular model of dance training.

Actually, no, what I'm arguing for is the need for a viable model of dance training. The problem with social ballroom is that it's not self-sufficient. It relies on formalized training rather than organic learning, but most of the available formalized training is not really conducted with an eye to creating the skills necessary for fluent dancing, social or otherwise. Instead of teaching basic competency, it quickly gets distracted into complicated step sequences and imitation shapes that have no place in basic social dancing. In contrast, what (particularly collegiate) bronze competitors are taught is a practical way to dance with another person. It's not the only way, but unlike most of the other ballroom offerings it's a way that quickly becomes practical and makes it easy to dance comfortably with either a known or unknown partner.

It achieves a kind of basic capability in ballroom that's usually only seen in the non-ballroom social partner dances.

 

[samina]

BTW: A great insight from him and where I started my re-education was:

The man does not dance his steps but rather the man dances the lady into hers.

In other words, as man, when dancing my mental focus is always on where I need to place the lady's feet rather than mine.

Really great perspective.

 

[samina]

Great comments, larinda. I agree WRT teaching social vs competitive dancing. There's a lid for every pot...

 

[nucat78]

That's a simplification. There’s been times I’ve been deeply unhappy with everything from my teacher, to my partner, to dancing itself. Knowing when to quit is more important that quitting just because things aren’t perfect at that moment.

Agreed!