Learning Together

Now that you've been to one of our weekly practice parties, it's time to decide your next course of action. Should you continue learning through the beginners classes at the parties for now, should you sign up for a mid-week group class, or should you try private lessons? Again, it all depends on your goals.

If you are involved in dancing for purely social reason and have no aspirations for becoming a better dancer, then you may do fine just attending weekly parties for a while. Each week you'll learn something new and have an opportunity to practice it that evening. And if you're ambitious enough, you can even pick up some other basic along the way. For some, this is just what the doctor ordered. Most, however, have some desire to improve the quality of their dancing. Since the intention of the beginners lesson at weekly parties is only to serve as an introduction to ballroom, additional lessons are necessary throughout the week for those desiring any real improvement in their dancing.

Mid-week progressive group classes are the first serious step to becoming a better dancer. Here we work with small groups, usually of ten or fewer people, and cover not only new patterns but the techniques needed to perform them well. At the same time, we try to maintain the friendly group atmosphere of the weekly parties, so that help is always forthcoming if you're having trouble. Best of all, the classes are completely student coordinated. That means the group is free to cover any dance topic that suits them for as long as they like. It may choose to cover ten different dances in ten months to get a "lay of the land" on several styles, or it may choose to focus and become proficient in just one style. It's completely up to you!

Now as a beginning student, you should be aware that not all group classes are created equal. Our group lessons are genuinely designed to benefit our students by teaching them as much as possible within a group setting, but many studios employ group classes as a means of convincing their students that they need the much more expensive personal instruction of private lessons. Be sure you read about how bad group classes work, so you'll be better equipped to find a good group class that will be to your greatest benefit.

You should also be aware that group classes are a good "next step" in learning to dance, after you've begun attending parties regularly. They are not the end of the road. Group classes are particularly good for learning patterns that are the same for everyone in the class. They are not good for handling specific problems that arise in your own dancing. Everyone has their own unique strengths and weaknesses that can only be appropriately addressed via personal private instruction.

If you're not sure whether or not it's time to get some private instruction, consider the following indicators. If one or more of these apply to you, then it's probably time to take the next step:

If you find upon reflection that these or other related indicators are starting to pop up, then it's time to move on. You don't want your dancing to become stale just because a few easily resolved issues were not addressed when they should have been. Graduating to private lessons is like getting a new pot for a growing plant. Save a few bucks and skimp on the new pot, and not only will the plant stop growing, but eventually it will die. If you want to grow in your dancing, you have to plant yourself in a place where you have the potential to expand. Keep that in mind as you continue to the next section.