Dance Better Now

Turning bad musical habits into good timing

One of the biggest challenges most people have when they take up social dancing later in life is timing. There are numerous reasons for this, but the biggest contributor to your difficulty with timing is that you have probably picked up certain habits when listening to music that are not congruent with staying in time with music. The worst of these is listening to the lyrics more than the music.

If you do not know how to play an instrument, which would true for most of us, then the lyrics are easiest thing to listen to sync with. Because of this, after years of listening to music with a focus on the lyrics, your ability to keep time has not been exercised. In fact, without this exercise, your ability to keep time has probably regressed.

Many people who talk about musicality talk about the need to break the habit of listening to the lyrics and then focusing on the music. Some techniques for this are listening to music that has no lyrics – such as a lot of social dance music. The issue with this is that it might be hard to listen to such music for extended period – you simply might not like it enough.

It would be best if you could actually listen to the music that you like listening to to develop your ability to hear the timing in music. It would be even better if you could use your tendency to listen to lyrics to develop this skill too.

There is a way that you can do this.

I came across this method after talking to the owner of a music shop. I originally was looking for book on the basic theory of music so that I could develop my musicality further by having a solid base. I spoke the owner about what I was trying to do and explained that it was for partner dancers who wanted to improve their timing. This was the first time that he had ever heard of such a thing – I think he was so into music that the thought of having trouble dancing to it was alien to him. He mentioned the traditional methods such as clapping with a metronome, but as we spoke about it more he realised that the issue was not so much having rhythm, but actually hearing the beat in the music.

As we spoke about the nature of the issue, he showed me a range of books that each had a collection of sheet music for a variety of songs. Each book had a theme: hits of a year or a decade, style (jazz, swing, heavy metal etc.), artists and things like that. The thing about the sheet music is that it also has the lyrics – lined up with the music. This means that if you know how to read sheet music and you have it for a song you like listening to, then you can use the lyrics to spot the points within the song that bars start. This makes it easier to find the 1 beat.

And that’s basically the method.

1. Buy a book of sheet music of songs that you like.
2. Listen to the song with the sheet music.
3. Look for words in the lyrics that line up with the start of a bar.
4. Listen for when the word is sung and also listen for features of the music that change at the same time.

As you do this, you will become better at hearing the start of bars. You can then start counting the beats in bars. Soon you will be able to pick the start of each bar by listening to the music and counting in time. The key is that because you started off with the lyrics, you were able to start with your strengths to do this. It is also more fun because you’re listening to  music you like and you get to find out what the actual lyrics are instead hoping you sing along correctly with the song.

The shop owner also said that you are better off buying printed and properly published books of sheet music. This sheet music is approved by the artists and checked numerous times before publishing. Many of the sources you find online are not checked, and have numerous mistakes. Also, if you need learn the basics of sheet music, then the stores that sell the sheet music will also stock books on the basics so that you can read the sheet music. You need not go to a music store either, you can buy published books online.

This is probably the one that most people would like – it has songs of different styles, from different years and by different bands.

I actually listed to the first song (Babylove by the Supremes) a few times over while looking at the sheet music. It was remarkable to me to start being able to pick how the lyrics were starting with the first beat at times and then the second beat at other times. It’s good when you can count the music while following the sheet and see the words coming up on the right count.

If you do need to learn more about sheet music, then I have found Mark Harrison’s Contemporary Music Theory (level one) an easy to read with a good coverage. It has a lot more than what you need as a dancer, but that’s what you would expect from a music book. I like having it as a reference.

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What teachers want you to do

Introduction

On 2nd May in 2013 I conducted a survey of dance teachers about what they think students struggle with most when learning social dance and what students should do to improve their dance skills the fastest.

Teachers were asked what they thought male students had the biggest challenge with, what female students had the biggest challenge with and what they thought would best help students improve. Each of these questions were multiple choice - they were allowed to choose three options for each of the first two questions and two options for the third question. The responses to these questions are summarised graphically below.

Responses

What do these results tell us?

The most obvious result is that the two major issue teachers see with their students is leading & following, and musicality.

This was true for both men and women; however, there was a difference between men and women when it came to musicality. For men, the focus was very much on timing. For women, there was a near equal split between timing and expression. This could mean that most teachers think men just need to work on timing before even thinking about expression while women have timing and are thus ready to move on to expression. It could also mean that teachers think that the expression of the music is more in the domain of women and that this is not fully understood by many women. In either case, it is likely that as a student musicality is something you need to work on. Along with leading/following.

If musicality and leading/following are the two biggest challenges for students, then it would be expected that this would be at the forefront of the teachers' minds when considering what students could do to improve. The top responses are all related to practice outside of lessons. There was an even split between practicing alone, practicing with another and dancing socially. While there were differences between the teachers regarding the specific type of practice, there was definitely agreement that practice was the one thing that students need to do more of. Practice is always a good thing, but we can probably extract from this that leading/following and musicality are things that can really only be learnt from practice.

Teachers were given other options that they could highlight when thinking about the challenges faced by students new to social dance. These covered things ranging from learning to memory to physicality. While there seemed to be a slightly higher response to the option of physicality for women, there seemed to be relative equality between the response rates to these other options. This would suggest that while musicality and leading/following are challenges faced by most students, once these challenges are overcome each student will have their own unique combination of challenges that they need to deal with.

A variety of issues would probably mean that there would be a variety of solutions as well.And this is what was seen in response to the third question. After a strong emphasis on practice (regardless of its nature) there was an even spread between things such as using different methods of learning, trying harder, improving fitness and paying attention. Therefore, it does appear that once you have improved your leading and following, you will need to determine your own strengths and weaknesses to work out what you needs to be improved.

The first three questions were multiple choice. This means that key issues could be missed. To account for this, teachers were asked if they had any other comments on what they thought students could do to improve their dance ability.

Comments in response to this question did reiterated the issues highlighted in the earlier questions. It is thought that after being limited in the multiple choice questions, they wanted to highlight the importance of the other options. Therefore, the conclusion that there are a variety of issues you might face remains true.

However, there were other themes that presented themselves.

Attitude

A number of teachers made reference to things such as confidence, ego and reactions to things going wrong. In summary, teachers want you to realise that dance will not come to you instantly, but you can get it with practice. This will be especially so if you have not done much dancing before or if the physical demands of dance are new to your body. You will likely make mistakes, you will need to work to get better (including practice outside of lessons) and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's expected. As one teacher pointed out "this is not Dancing with the Stars - you are not practicing 6-10 hours per day. Be brave. We were all beginners once."

Perspective

"Understand the difference between social dancing and competitive." this was a comment from a teacher that seemed to summarise what a number of other teachers said. As a student it might worth thinking about what kind of dance you're actually interested in. And it need not be only one type. Once you know what sort of dance you're after, you can then make sure that you are taking the right perspective for what you want to do. This then carries over to the next theme.

Reflective learning

"NO SUCH THING AS BAD STUDENTS, ONLY BAD TEACHERS!!" This was from a teacher who also said that everyone learns differently. I have said in the past that there is really only such thing as a bad student teacher relationship. However, this quote does summarise what a number of other teachers talked about. Your teacher will likely do their best to help you become the best dancer that you can. nevertheless, they can't read your mind, and do not always know what you need to be able to progress further. For this reason teachers want to know "what works" for you and to "Ask better questions". Basically, they want you to think about your learning and work with them so that you can progress faster. Try thinking of your teacher more as a partner working toward the goal of helping you get everything from dance that you want from it. I am sure that you have noticed how this theme aligns with the diversity of issues and solutions apart from musicality and lead/following.

Recommendations

It is pretty clear that you need to work on your musicality and lead/follow ability.

If you do want to work on your musicality, then I can recommend Don Baarns. He came to dance later in life, but is a musician so he has some excellent advice.

Leading and following seem to simply require practice there is no secret that will make leading and following instantly easy - you just have to work at it. However, you might find this website dedicated to leading and following helpful.

Once you have improved musicality and your lead/follow ability you will need to take stock of where you want to go with your dance and what you will need to do to get there - this will be unique to you. Ideally, you will talk regularly with your teacher about this so that you can keep track of what works best for you. To do this you need to be confident enough to dance and practice no matter your level and really think about what it is that you need to know/understand so that you can improve your dance ability in the direction you want and communciate this with your techer.

Dustin Saiidi has a social dance hypnosis CD to help you stay motivated for practice and dance confidently no matter the level your at or the situation your in.

If you want improve your ability to understand your learning style and how to better understand what you need to do to master dance, then take a look at Part 2.2 of Dance Better Now - you can get this specific chapter at this webpage.

You can still have other issues so it's always good to keep reading on the topic. If you haven't, then read as much as you can, be it books, e-books, email newsletters, blogs etc. You can get a free e-book here if you do not already have it.

Limitations on this research

I have never asked teachers to do a survey. Normally I don't ask for any specific group. Usually it is possible to get 1000s or responses, but because it was only teachers, the response was around 70. This just means that we do not have as large a sample as we might like and some key issues might be missed.

Another limitation is that there was no strict screening. It is possible that people other than teachers filled the survey out, and corrupted the results.

It's just good to keep these things in mind when reading the results of such surveys before you take action based on those results.

Acknowledgments

I really do need to thank the teachers who took the time to fill out this survey. There's is a very unique perspective that we often ignore. It's especially good to get the combined wisdom of a large group of them. It was really fascinating to read the results and get this insight that I had never really come across before. So thanks again - we really should look at organising some kind of world dance teacher day I reckon.

On 2nd May in 2013 I conducted a survey of dance teachers about what they think students struggle with most when learning social dance and what students should do to improve their dance skills fastest.

Teachers were asked what they thought male students had the biggest challenge with, what female students had the biggest challenge with and what they thought would best help students improve. Each of these questions were multiple choice - they were allowed to choose three options for the first two questions and two for the third question. The responses to these questions are summarised graphically below.

Responses

What do these results tell us?

The most obvious result is that the two major issue teachers see with their students is leading & following and musicality.

This was true of both men and women; however, there was a difference between men and woman when considering musicality. For men, the focus was very much on timing. For women, there was a more equal split between timing and expression. This could mean that most teachers think men just need to work on timing before thinking about expression while women have timing and thus ready to move on to expression. It could also mean that teachers think that the expression of the music is more in the domain of women and that this is not fully understood by many women. In either case, it is likely that as a student musicality is something you need to work on.

If musicality and leading/following are the two biggest challenges for students, then it would be expected that this would be at the forefront of their minds when considering what students could do to improve. The top responses are all related to practice outside of lessons. There was an even split between practicing alone, practicing with another and dancing socially. While there was a difference between the teachers who filled out the survey regarding the specific type of practice, there was definitely agreement that practice was the one thing that students need to do more of. Practice is always a good thing, but we can probably extract from this is that leading/following and musicality are things that can really only be learnt from practice.

Teachers were given other options that they could highlight when thinking about the challenges faced by students new to social dance. These covered things ranging from learning to memory to physicality. While there seemed to be a slightly higher response to the option of physicality for women, there seemed to be relative equality in the response rates to these options. This would suggest that while musicality and leading/following are challenges faced by most students, one these challenges are overcome each student will have their own unique combination of challenges that they need to deal with. A variety of issues would probably mean that there would be a variety of solutions as well. And this is what was seen in response to the third question. After a strong emphasis on practice (regardless of its nature) there was an even spread between things such as using different methods of learning, trying harder, improving fitness and paying attention. Therefore, once you have improved your leading and following, you will need to determine your own strengths and weaknesses to work out what you needs to be improve.

The first three questions were multiple choice. This means that key issues could be missed. To account for this, teachers were asked if they had any other comments on what they think students can do to improve their dance ability.

Comments in response to this question reiterated the issues highlighted in the earlier questions. It is thought that after being limited in the multiple choice questions, they wanted to highlight the importance of the other options. Therefore, the conclusion that there are a variety of issues you might face remains true. However, there were other themes that presented themselves.

Attitude

A number of teachers made reference to things such as confidence, ego and reaction to things going wrong. In summary, teachers want you to realise that dance will not come to you instantly, but you can get it with practice. This will be especially so if you have not done much dancing before or if the physical demands of dance are new to your body. You will likely make mistakes, you will need to work to get better and there's nothing wrong with that. As one teacher pointed out "this is not Dancing with the Stars - you are not practicing 6-10 hours per day. Be brave. We were all beginners once."

Perspective

"Understand the difference between social dancing and competitive." this was a comment from a teacher that seemed to summarise what a number of other teachers said. As a student it might worth thinking about what kind of dance you're actually interested in. And it need not be only one type. Once you know what sort of dance you're after, you can then make sure that you are taking the right perspective for what you want to do.

Reflective learning

"NO SUCH THING AS BAD STUDENTS, ONLY BAD TEACHERS!!" This was from a teacher who also said that everyone learns differently. I have said in the past that there is really only such thing as a bad student teacher relationship. However, this quote does summarise what a number of other teachers talked about. Your teacher will likely do their best to help you become the best dancer that you can. However, they can't read your mind, and do not always know what you need to progress further. For this reason teachers want to know "what works" for you and to "Ask better questions". Basically, they want you to think about your learning and work with them so that you can progress faster.

Recommendations

It is pretty clear that you need to work on your musicality and lead/follow ability. If you do want to work on your musicality, then I can recommend Don Baarns. He came to dance later in life, but is a musician so he has some excellent advice. Leading and following seem to simply require practice there is no secret that will make leading and following instantly easy - you just have to work at it. However, you might find this website dedicated to leading and following helpful.

Once you have improved musicality and your lead/follow ability you will need to take stock of where you want to go with your dance and what you will need to do to get there. Ideally, you will talk regularly with your teacher about this so that you can keep track of what works best for you. To do this you need to be confident enough to dance and practice no matter your level and really think hard about what it is that you need to know so that you can improve your dance ability.

Dustin Saiidi has a social dance hypnosis CD to help you stay motivated for practice and dance confidently no matter the level your at or the situation your in.

If you want improve your ability to workout your learning style and how to better understand what you need to do master, then take a look at Part 2.2 of Dance Better Now - you can download this part alone at this webpage.

You can still have other issues so it's always good to keep reading on the topic. If you haven't, then read as much as you can, be it books, e-books, email newsletters, blogs etc. You can get a free e-book here if you do not already have it.

Limitations on this research

I have never asked teachers to do a survey. Normally I don't ask for any specific group. Usually it is possible to get 1000s or responses, but because it was only teachers, the response was around 70. This just means that we do not have as large a sample as we might like and some key issues might be missed.

Another limitation is that there was no strict screening. It is possible that people other than teachers filled the survey out, and corrupted the results.

It's just good to keep these things in mind when reading the results of such surveys before you take action based on those results.

 

 

The best dance teacher

Last week I went to a blues dance class run by a one Mark Christopoulos. I have had lessons with Mark before and found him to be an excellent teacher. If you take a look at the link to a zoon profile on him, then you will see that Mark is  "Commonly referred to around Melbourne as THE best guy to dance with on the social dance floor." He gained this reputation for the smoothness of his movement. When I told a friend of mine about Mark's reputation, my friend was then dead keen to come to the class as well to see what this guy was like.

After the lesson we spoke about what it was that made Mark a good teacher, and probably a good dancer too.

My friend and I went over a few theories ranging from physique to enjoyment. I do think that Mark has a light frame, which helps with dance, and he certainly seems to love dance, which makes it easier for him to practice, helps with intuition and rubs off on the students.

However, I noticed that mark did something that I rarely see other teachers do. Every step that mark taught or explained was explained using imaging. Very rarely did he simply explain the effect that should be had at the end. For every step he would explain how it would feel and how one could imagine the movement to help.

This method of explanation works with the natural way we learn. Mark seems to have cottoned on to this way of learning and used it for his own learning and teaching.

This is a lesson for both students and teachers.

If you're a student, then try to think of ways of visualising any step you're working on.

If you're a teacher, then do the same and share it with your students.

Better dance through better breathing

As you will recall from my e-book, knowing how to breathe is essential for good posture, relaxation and health. It seems odd, but many of us do not breathe well. When we do breathe well, we will dance much better.

After reading the method that I covered, a subscriber, Melissa, sent me an email. In it she detailed a method to improve breathing that she uses. I have tried it and found that it was a good method to help with the dances that require a really strong posture (waltz and such).  I would do it a few times before actually dancing and noticed that I felt a bit stronger in my posture. Give a try yourself to see if it helps.

1.    Put your hands on your ribs. Elbows are out to the side. If you put your hands on your hips and then slide your hands up to your rib cage, this can help you find the right placement.

2.    Think about expanding your 'back' NOT the chest but your back area. Feel your back and sides moving in and out...you should feel a deeper breath develop. REMEMBER your chest is not rising up and down.

3.    The lower parts of your lungs are expanding out and in, and your core is pulled in.

4.    You can do this standing, sitting or lying on the floor. I found standing best.

Because Melissa took the time to share this with me, and you, I figure I should give her a shout out. If you have young children who might benefit from gymnastics and live around Raleigh, NC, then take a look at Excel to Elite.

How do you count music when dancing?

    How do you count when dancing? Or are you one of those lucky people who just feel the beat, and doesn't need to count? If you are, then good luck to you.  However, most of us aren't so we need to count.

    There are many ways that music can be counted. Some examples:

• Salsa can be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or 1,2,3...,5,6,7... or quick, quick, slow
• Cha Cha Cha can be 1,2,3,4&5,6,7,8& or 1,2,3,4&1,2,3,4& or 1,2,3, Cha Cha Cha, 5,6, Cha Cha Cha, 2,3, Cha Cha Cha or 2,3, Cha Cha Cha, 2,3, Cha Cha Cha
• Jive can be 1,2, 1,2,3 or 1,2,1&2,1&2 or 1,2,3&4,5&6,7,8, or 1,2,quick quick quick, ,quick quick quick
• Samba can be & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 or 1 ah 2, 2 ah 2, 3 ah 2, 4 ah 2

   These are only a few examples. The point is to show that there are different ways to count.

   An interesting question is why?

   We all have natural ways of learning and thinking about things. Having an engineering background I am more inclined to count all beats and the syncopations if they are there. However, I am still inclined to say 'Cha Cha Cha' in my head when I am doing that dance. Other people are more intuitive and more inclined to use words or broken counting.

   The point is you might find that when trying to master a new dance changing the way you count will help you. And, it might be that the way your teacher counts doesn't suit you. So if you're having troubles then try to count the steps in a few different ways until you find one that works for you. Sometimes, just looking at the dance from a few different perspectives will make it easier to learn and help you develop a natural response to the music.

   In the long run you will want to count each beat and the syncopations, because as dance becomes more sophisticated it relies more upon syncopation. If you can count this, then you will better able to dance to it.

   So for the time being, if your musical ability is less than you would like, try a few different ways of counting if you're not quite getting the rhythm of a dance, but work toward counting each beat so that you have a strong musicality to help with your dancing as you take one more sophisticated steps.

A musician's take on musicality

Musicality can be a recurring issue for many social dancers. For some of us it starts off with simply learning to hear and then keep time. That's just the beginning. Then we need to start expressing the feel and emotion of the music in our dance. This is more intuitive and a little more mysterious than simply keeping time.

Because it is more intuitive, it is not as easy to find instructions or exercises that will improve this aspect of musicality. However, you can learn a lot from people who have already established their musical ability. What do successful musicians tell us about music and musicality?

You might not be a big fan of Dave Grohl, I am not personally, but he certainly loves music, has been committed to it and shown considerable ability performing it. Last Friday was Good Friday (a holiday where I live). As I was driving to my mother’s for lunch and anticipating fish and chips, I was listening to the radio and heard a key note speech by Dave Grohl on what he thought music was. You can watch it below.

However, the key point I got from the speech was that musicians hear much more in music than just the instruments – At 4:44 into the video, Dave talks about his experience hearing Edgar Winter’s ‘Frankenstein’. He talks about how he can hear voices for each musician via the instruments that they played. This was new to me and I think it reveals a new perspective on how you can develop your own musicality.

Take a listen to Edgar Winter’s ‘Frankenstein’ below.

It really does have a different voice for each instrument. Try listening to it and imagine how you might dance differently to each section. Each is so different that it gives you a real chance to put some serious effort into changing style. You might not ever dance to this music (probably not; it gets a bit hairy at times), but its diversity makes it an excellent piece to practice your musicality with. You might even find that you need to make up some dance moves for some of the music – and that’s got to help make your dance musicality better too.

It is possibly worth listening to all of Dave Grohl’s speech too: especially if you’re a musician. He has a lot to say about our attitude to music and some of these ideas could carry over to help your musicality.

Arm styling in dance

Do you worry about how you look on the dance floor? You're not alone. A common cause of issues with looks is arm movement. This aspect of social dancing is often treated as a peripheral thing, and left to last, but it can often feel so odd that we have trouble doing it correctly. Take a look at an email that I got from a subscriber.

---- Letter ----

G'morning Clint,

Was wondering with all your knowledge of dance...do you have any lessons, suggestions help on arm styling?  I am very self conscious about my arms all over the place, yet I've been told by several including pros that I have nice arms....that I should use them more.

Help???

Barb.

 

---- Response ----

Hi Barb,

There are two things you raise here. The first is how can make your arms move better so that they look good. The second is wondering if what you feel looks the same way.

First off, getting your arms to move well can be problematic because as much as we use them every day, we rarely have them out to the side so often. This mean our shoulder can be a bit stiff, and that's makes the rest of the arm look poor. In Part 2 of my e-book I give exercises that free up the arms so that it is easier to move them as desired.

However, it seems that your arms are fine. So it's probably more to do with how the dance feels. Dance moves can often feel unnatural. They are far more exaggerated than usual daily movements. This alone can make them feel strange, and it is normal to think that they would look odd too. It can feel even more extreme if it doesn't suit how you feel. Such dance moves correspond to positive body language. If you're feeling self-conscious, then there will be incongruence between how you feel and how you're moving. This will make it seem wrong, and you'll be paranoid. The easiest way to deal with this is simply knowing it might feel odd and trust the advice of those who say it looks good. I find I often need to so this with Samba walks, the more odd it feels the more I am told it looks good.

 

I hope this provides some help to you and your arm styling.

Imagining your way to better dance

A few posts back I talked about how you can use hypnosis to improve your dance ability. If you didn’t read it, then take a look here. The reason why I put this post up was that I had used hypnosis myself and found that it worked really well. From this experience, I have come across another easy way to quickly and increase your dance ability.

But first, back to the hypnosis.

I think that one of the major reasons for my positive experience was that the hypnotist that, Dustin, I used was also a social dancer. After the session, Dustin told me about a really good book that was related to how we see ourselves and how this affects our success in all aspects of life. The book was called The New Psycho-Cybernetics.

 

I planned on reading the book at some stage, but I wasn’t sure when. However, Chrtismas was coming up and my sister was asking what I wanted. I remembered the book and she got me that. Good timing too – I was able to start reading it over the Christmas break.

There were a few key things in the book that really struck me. Things like how it was written by a plastic surgeon who was trying to understand why some people had near miraculous life changes after facial surgery and some people actually felt they looked no different despite the clear fact that a part of their face had been changed.

However, there was one key part that really resonated with me as a dancer.

In chapter 3 the authors report on research into improving basketball skills with imagination. The researchers took 3 groups. Each was asked to take some shots at the hoop and their average score was taken. One group was then send away to do nothing for 20 days. Another group practiced taking shots daily for 20 days. The final group spent 20 minutes each day imagining that they were taking shots. After 20 days, each group was tested again for their shot taking ability. The first group sore no improvement (as one would expect), the second group improved by 24% and the third group improved by 23%!

That alone is interesting, but what does it mean for you as a dancer?

I mention a few times in both part one and part 2 of the e-book Dance Better Now that visualisation and imaging techniques can help with dance. I imagine that you probably also imagine going through dance routines in your head before you go to sleep at night too. What this research means is that not only is imagining yourself dancing something that everyone does, but that it is probably far more useful than you realise.

Practice is always good, but if you don’t have time to practice physically, then at least take time to really imagine yourself dancing well. You might do this before sleep. You might want to actually meditate when you do this to make the imaging clearer. Or, you might want to use hypnosis recording like Dustin’s.

Regardless of what you do, do it and don’t forget how much it can help.

New Year’s resolution to learn dance

If you’re one of the many people who read my blog, then you probably made the decision to take up dancing (ballroom, social, partner) some time ago.  However, it is around this time of year that many people make the resolution to learn. Obviously, I think it’s an excellent resolution to make. However, if you’re not clear about what you want or do not really know what your options are, then you might not find it as satisfying as you’d hoped. In this post, I am going to give you some advice on how to best start learning to dance.

Step 1 - Know why you’re learning

There are numerous reasons to learn to dance: because it looks good, for fitness, to meet people of the opposite sex, because it will make you seem more impressive, because you’re bored, because you like learning new things and so on. They are all excellent reasons and I really can’t say that one is any better than another. However, there are many options when it comes to learning dance – methods and styles. It’s good that you know why you want to learn dance so that you can choose the best options for yourself. So make sure you know now what you’re learning for.

Step 2 – Choose a style

I can’t go over all the styles here (there are too many), but I can go over some of the common options to give you an idea of what you might like. This is influenced by my experience so you might want to also read up on other styles too. Especially if you find that the options are constrained by where you live.

Ballroom

This is the granddaddy of them all. One could argue that it only consists of 10 dances (the traditional dances that we think of seeing in a Jane Austin movie and the Latin dances), but if you go to a dance school that teaches ballroom, then you will probably also get a bit of the other dances too. Certainly this option will expose you to most dances and is good if you like to learn a lot. Just so you know – ‘Ball’ in ‘ballroom’ comes from the Latin for dance. So when you say ‘I had a ball last night’….

Swing

Swing is like the other major tribe of dance. If you have ever seen a movie set in World War II and loved the way they danced, then swing is the way to go for you. You might assume that it would be filled with inherently more fun and relaxed people than the ballroom community. In my experience, there is a little more discipline in the ballroom crowd so swing might suit you if you’re a bit more laid back. Or if you like vintage fashion.

Latin

We are talking Tango, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha and so on. It also can include Jive, which shakes things up a bit. Looking for the hot sultry style with a range of experiences from the romantic Rumba to the fun and energetic Jive? Then Latin is for you.

Salsa

Salsa is a fairly popular dance at the moment. So much so that it is a single dance that you can learn at a few different places. Salsa actually took over from Cha Cha Cha back in the 80s or so. If you would like to focus on a single dance that has a lot of life to it, seems a touch exotic and has some sensuality to it, then Salsa is probably the option for you.

Tango

Tango has the reputation that has allowed it to remain a stand-alone dance to learn for years. Like Salsa it offers a chance to focus on a single dance and it also is exotic. However, it is more attitude than life and it certainly much more sensual. Nothing will make you feel like you’ve entered another world than walking into a Tango dance studio and learning this traditional dance that has almost an entire culture to go along with it.

Blues

Too cool for school? If you are, then blues be the dance for you. Blues has a definite culture with it too. But think that cool fringe American culture of maybe the 50s or 60s. The best thing about blues (apart from the cool people) is the music that you get to dance too. Almost all other styles require music that is different from what you would normally listen to. Blues can usually be danced to most popular music. And of course, it can be danced to the coolest music of all, the blues.

Step 3 – Decide how and where you will learn

There are three basic options for learning dance: One on one lesson, group lessons and video lessons. I actually suggest a combination of the three, but I will go over each separately so that you can decide how you will start and what will be your main approach.

Privates

These are easily the fastest way to learn. You have a teacher that you can ask questions of and who will be able to spot what you need to work on. If you want to meet people, then your dance teacher will likely become a good friend. But that’s probably all if you’re looking to meet people of the opposite sex. However, if you’re keen, then take a look here – seducing your dance teacher.

Group classes

These are the best way to meet people. A good group class will rotate partners and give you a name tag. By the end of an hour you would have met about 20 people of the opposite sex. If you want to take it further then you will need to hang around for the social dancing that should (and usually does) come afterwards and put the effort in to talking and dancing with others. You will need to put some extra effort into talking to others of the same sex before and after class, but the fact that you have just ben in class gives you something to talk about.

Video lessons

This is easily the cheapest and most convenient option. In fact, they can be close to free if you want to use an internet search alone. However, if you buy some videos, then you can be more certain that you get all the details and guidance that you should be getting from video lessons. Below are some that I have used and found to be good value for money.

 

If you’re wondering which is the best value for money, then I think you basically get what you pay for. Privates are often 4 times more expensive than groups, but you learn about 4 times faster. Videos are much cheaper, but you can only learn so much. In reality it is a question of what else you want out of dance apart from learning to dance. If you let that guide your decision, then you will get real value for money.

However, like I alluded to earlier, a mix is best. I would suggest that you choose group or private based on what you want most. Then get use the other to augment your learning as needed. Then, as you dance more, and work out what you need a god reference for, you can buy suitable videos to help with what when your practice at home.

Step 4 – do it

Once you have an idea of how you want to learn dance, you need to start looking for places to learn. I was rather lucky; I went to a school that was down the road from where I lived. It just so happened that they taught in a manner that suited what I needed. Later I found other places, often via the internet, that taught the extra things I needed or offered the social outlet I desired. The point is that you can likely find what you need by simply conducting an internet search for studios or dance groups in your local area. You basic search engines are pretty good, but you can also look at the online Yellow Pages. Even better, meetup is pretty good too, especially for the group classes with a social element.

When will you see results – set goals!

If you have been thinking about dance, then you probably also have some idea of how well you want to dance. Depending upon how much you want to learn, you should have no trouble being able to honestly say ‘I can dance’ within a year. If you have any stumbling block along the way (timing, being able to move smoothly, remembering steps, etc.) then focusing on the specific issues will help you improve faster. Sign up for a free e-book on dance here; it will help you take on each issue and solve it as you work on improving your dance.

Regardless of whether you take up dance or not, I hope you enjoy the New Year.

Memory in dance – learning routines fast

If you’re like me, then one of the challenges you have is remembering routines in social dance. I have been trying a technique to learn dance routines faster and I was pretty happy with how it worked for me so I am ready to share it.

However, before we get into details – we need to talk about chess.

If you have read much of my other stuff on dance, then you will know that I mainly focus on looking into areas outside of dance to find techniques that can help develop attributes ideal for social dance. One of these attributes is memory. So who has really good memory? Obviously memory champs do. However, so do chess players. Experiments demonstrate that master chess players can be shown a chess board with pieces as the might be in a game for only 5 seconds and then reproduce the board lay out exactly from memory. That’s up to 32 items each placed correctly within in 1 of 64 places after only 5 seconds to commit the items and their location to memory! That, to me at least, seems very impressive. However, the story takes an interesting turn when you learn about another experiment. If the chess pieces are placed randomly (not in a configuration that would be possible within a normal game), then the chess masters are no better than you or me (I assume you’re not a chess master as well as a social dancer) at remembering the positions of each chess piece.

Why was this?

The chess masters did not remember the locations. Instead, the remembered the strategy or the game of play. Once they knew the strategy that was evident in the game, they could infer with the limitations that come from the rules of the game where each piece would need to be. This means less memory is actually needed for a good memory. Instead, you need good understanding and reasoning for good memory.

How does this work for dance?

Dance is not random either. The foot placement and the positioning of the body are both limited by what went before and what needs to come next. They also need to fit with the music and the nature of the dance.  You can use all of these with a smaller number of positions to be able to infer a routine and ‘Remember’ it. This however, is a skill that needs to be developed. I have found that if I focus on a few key points within a section on a routine (say 4 or 5, which is around the limit of short term memory and the reason why phone numbers come on sets of 4 digits) and how you get from one to the other, then I will recall the routine and remember it much faster.

I have spoken to a few other more experienced dancers too and they have said that they have found they can recall routines faster in a similar way. No one told them to do it that way; they just ended up doing it. It probably became natural as they became more familiar with the different steps that could be used. As one fellow dancer said while we were talking about it in a group ‘you go from learning letters (foot placements) to words (steps) to sentences (routines).’

You might have already realised that you do the same thing with other areas that you have a lot of experience in: sports plays, answers to exam questions, reciting stories, directions when driving to work, operating a complex piece of machinery etc.

There’s no reason why you can’t do this for dance either. Next time you need to learn a routine, try expanding the perspective you use when how you recall it. Instead of thinking about each foot placement, think of the key points in the routine and how you get from one to the other. You might still need to remember some specifics of each step, but that’s now a part of a different memory task, and this limits the memory reserves you need to put into learning the routine.

This all seems good, but I have found some issues. Even though I have recalled the routine quickly, I have not always been able to get the timing right. Also, it does not mean that I have the technique right. Learning the technique quickly might make your teacher think that everything else is ok too. You might have read the section in part 1 of my e-book on the ‘Halo effect’ and how teachers can forget how hard some things can be to learn. You might also recall from my previous writing that my biggest challenge is musicality.  Indeed, when I used this memory method, I found my musicality became the major limiter to my progression. I knew the routine, but I needed to really drill it with the music to do it in time.

If you have any other memory techniques that you think help, then please share them in the comments section below. It’s good to share ideas so that we can all look for ways to improve.

One last thing - If you would like to read more about the memory experiments on chess players or about performing better in general, then I can recommend the book below. I have used it to improve my dance ability and to improve the way I teach (engineering; not dance).

 

                                     

For full disclosure - if you do buy this book via the link, then I will get a comission.