As a student you would naturally want to make the most of the dance class. But very often, most of the students that I come across lack a clear understanding of how to go about it. In fact, any student’s progress depends mostly upon how they approach and understand their lessons. In order to ensure that your process of learning is quick, complete and efficient, a logical and structured approach is required.
With my dance experience of almost 25 years and teaching for almost 10 years, I feel a student at a dance class must keep the follwing things in mind:
Choose an appropriate teacher and studio
Just like a single sculpture may be described in different ways by observers, dancing elements can be described or approached in many different ways. They all serve to develop a more complete and thorough understanding, however, while learning dance, it’s advisable to choose one teacher. Changing teachers or going to different teachers at the same time, can cause a lot of confusion in the learning process.
Set and discuss your goal
A clear understanding of the skills and abilities that you want to develop need to be understood by you. They also need to be explained to your teacher, or else the progress is hampered. A frank discussion of goals and the formation of a solid teaching plan are essential.
Concentration and focus
Sometimes students, in a desire to “do everything right”, focus on one facet of dancing while the teacher is attempting to work on another. Experienced teachers will not expect their students to correctly perform all of their old skills while learning something new. The student should direct their attention only to the topic which the teacher has chosen, and the teacher will later amalgamate the new knowledge with the old.
Frame of mind
The student-teacher relationship is one of both physical and mental participation. Knowledge can only be gained through focused attention and a willingness to learn. Students should take care to apply themselves to the task at hand, and do their best to perform the new elements according to their teacher’s direction.
Allow the teacher to teach
The students should allow the teachers to exercise their own judgment and abilities. Many students, who would not dream of telling their doctor what medicine to prescribe or their mechanic how to repair their car, will not hesitate to tell their teacher which part of their dancing needs the most attention, and how they should be taught. The teacher should be given rein to teach as they see fit, so long as they are working to the best of their abilities towards the student’s goals. If at any point of time a student does not understand the steps, then they should ask for clarification. Otherwise, they should try to allow the teacher to exercise their professional skills.
w Practise and work hard
Practice is probably the most under-rated aspect of a student’s learning process. Those students who apply themselves to their practice invariably show more consistent progress than those who do not. Students of tennis, skiing, martial arts, music, golf, or most other physical pursuits consider practice an integral part of their learning, but students of social dance do not. Many students feel that dancing two or three times a week for about an hour at a class is more than enough to become a great dancer. And if they do not, most of them blame it onto the teacher. Good dancing skills must be habitual. And habits can only be formed through repetition. Body will remember those actions which it has performed most often. In dancing language we call it “muscle memory”.
Regularity
Regularity also has a bearing on progress as allowing too much gap between lessons breaks up the continuity of the learning progress. It also allows the student to forget the lesson’s taught, and forces the teacher to unnecessarily repeat topics.
Attend different dance lessons
Smart students also participate in different types of lessons; private lessons, group classes, practice sessions, coaching lessons and workshops all serving to strengthen, reinforce, and diversify the student’s learning progress.
Change dance partners
A variety of partners serve to broaden dancing skills. Dependening upon a single partner can lead to formation of weaknesses, as when a certain aspect of dancing is not challenged or used, it atrophies. Changing one’s partner regularly allow a student to challenge his/her skills in a greater way as compared to sticking with a single partner. Students learn to lead and follow various partners and in turn become better social dancers, and of course also make lots of new friends.
So just enrolling into a good reputed dance studio is not the most important thing for a student, but wanting to make the best use of what you already have is.