Learning Pt 1

How We Learn Dancing in Ballroom Lessons

The most common question we get asked here at Fred Astaire of Laguna Hills, when people try out our free introductory lesson is “How many lessons will it take for me to be good?”, and in all honesty, it depends greatly on a few different factors.  Learning ballroom dance and taking ballroom lessons is an amazing journey.  You can spend a few weeks learning to survive a specific dance event, or you can spend a lifetime working to tell stories through movement.  So I would ask you, “How good do you want to be?”

Not only does your desired skill level effect how you will learn ballroom dancing, but the way you learn during dance lessons impacts it as well.  Everyone learns a little differently, but for most of us we learn new skills in three ways.

  • Visually – visual learners tend to get more from seeing something done or sometimes by seeing it written it out.
  • Auditory – for people that learn this way, it works best to hear it talked about or described.
  • Kinesthetic – These are the doers.  to take in new information and have it stick, they must feel it.

ballroom dance, dance lessons, ballroom lessons

Most people are a mixture of these, but one is usually more dominant than the others.  This is what makes our group ballroom lessons so good.  We begin by demonstrating (visual) and describing (audio) the moves we are going to be doing, and then move into dancing them repeatedly (feeling) without music, with music, and switching partners.  But don’t get too hung up on the seeing and hearing when it comes to learning ballroom dancing.  Regardless of how good you want to be, you most likely still want to appear confident and have your movement appear effortless.  This is where the doing comes into play.  Unlike turning on a YouTube video to learn how to tie a tie or change a tire, we can’t stop in the middle of a dance to try to recall how we are supposed to being doing something.  Ballroom dance takes fluidity. To achieve that, we must repeat it, over and over.

During our private ballroom lessonsour instructors can find your dominant learning type and focus in on that, and getting you the repetition you need.  It’s important to remember as well, that whether on private dance lessons or group dance lessons, there will be challenges.  Don’t let yourself get frustrated if you have some difficulty with a new move or technique on your ballroom lessons.  More often than not, we just need more repetition to really drive it home.  It’s very common for students that have learned a few moves and a bit of technique, to feel that things are getting easier, but then when the instructor gives them something new, the student gets frustrated.  Every new figure and technique has its own learning curve.  Don’t worry about it.  It’s going to feel awkward sometimes and our certified instructors know how to get you through it.  We will be covering learning styles and learning stages in future blogs and videos, but for now…Don’t take yourself too seriously.

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