July Teacher Training Tip: Take Your Students Outside The Box

Give your students a “real world” experience by taking the lesson out of the dance studio and into a social setting.

Most students are interested in learning how to dance so that they may go out on their own or with their dance partner.  For many of those same students, the thought of going out on their own can be very intimidating and stressful.

Organizing an outing with students is a very smart way of acclimating them to going out socially.  With your presence, the students will:

• feel safe since they will have a guide to walk them through the experience
• have a definite dance partner
• get introduced to other regulars who will most likely invite the students to dance for encouragement

As the host, it is important to allow a balance of time between being present to help your students feel secure and to taking a step back to allow them to ask others or be asked by others to dance. For instructors of competitive students, the same goes for escorting your students to a nearby dance competition to observe and compare notes.

When arranging an outing:

• set the date at least a month in advance to allow for people’s schedules
• contact the organizer of the venue you are going to.  Small events that are at a dance studio or restaurant will be welcoming of fresh people and therefor often accommodating with cover charges.
• Get your students excited for the outing.  Tell them stories of what to expect, funny experiences that have happened to you, and more importantly, what to be aware such as the etiquette of the location/dance.  Make sure your students are not going into the venue without decent understanding of what to expect.

You benefit by becoming a social connector in the dance world, receiving a lot of positive feedback from your students, and possibly getting more students as a result.

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Getting Fancy With The Music

Dancers make their footwork and patterns interesting by many means.  One of the most important and often challenging is through musical variation, or syncopation.

The music people dance social and ballroom dances to is mostly structured off of a 4-beat measure.  This measure can be broken down into quarters (thirds for waltz songs.)  The main accent is in the 1st quarter, the beat.  This is the element that most people have an easy time hearing since most instruments strike this beat in a song.  Over history, dances that were made for marches like the Peabody moved only to this single beat.  As songs became more complex, so did the dances.

The beauty of a 4 beat measure is that the measure is divided equally and makes adding one, two, or even three steps in between the beats, rather easy.  The dancer makes his/her dances more interesting by varying when a syncopation is placed in the music.

Below are visual and audio aids designed to make this idea easier to understand.  Click on the title below each image to hear a sample:

Each chart covers 4 beats of music (4 measures).

The first is the dancing beat without any syncopation.  Walking dances, such as the Argentine tango, base their initial timing on this beat.

dancing beat

The 1/3 syncopation is done right in the middle between beats.  This is the most commonly used syncopation since the midpoint between beats is usually easy to find as well as execute.

1:3 sync

The 1/2 syncopation is closer to the initial beat.  A step done to this beat would leave a long gap before the next beat.  A dancer can execute the same pattern as was done to a 1/3 syncopation, but the effect now creates a more dramatic pause before the next beat.

1:2 sync

The 1/4 syncopation is closer to the following beat of music.  The gap is now right after the initial beat creating a sense of suspension more than drama.

1:4 sync

The 1/2/3/4 syncopation means that an action is executed on every 1/4 subdivision of the beat.  A syncopation like this is done to create a flurried foot pattern.

1:2:3:4 sync

Dancers will listen to the songs they are moving to and decide how they wish to syncopate their feet based on the musical arrangement, the pattern, and the mood.  It is common for experienced dancers to mix and match syncopations over the course of the song, like so:

sync combo

Can a song be divided even more?  absolutely.  Can a dancer execute rhythms to a greater subdivision?  Give it a try and see.  Enjoy.

June Teacher Tip: Be Fair To Each Role

We all understand that times are tough for all businesses and for a dance studio to pay for two instructors instead of one is not always cost effective.  Nowadays it’s getting tougher to find a partner dance class taught by a pair of dance instructors.  Classes taught by both a Lead and Follow together (especially in the advanced level) are of great benefit to students since both dance roles are able to receive the information they need from each instructor.

Feeling like a class is not challenging them enough is a common complaint among students in the more advanced group classes.  It is important for an instructor to deliver equal amounts of information and instruction to both dance roles.  At the beginning level, it’s quite easy to maintain a balance of information since both roles are very green in their experience and the complexity of the material is not great.

In the higher levels of group classes, one of two scenarios could play out in a class with only one instructor:

• The instructor will favor the role that they dance primarily.  A Follow will cater more to the Follows in the class over the Leads and vice versa.  This make sense since an instructor will be more comfortable teaching about the role s/he knows best.  Or
• The class is Lead centered because, as most people understand it, if the Lead does not do his/her role properly, the Follow cannot do theirs.  There is some truth to the idea that “if a mistake occurs on the dance floor, 9 times out of ten it’s the Leads’ fault.”

In order to cultivate excellent dancers in your classes, both roles have to be addressed as equally as possible.  To  do this, an advanced level instructor:

1. should have experience dancing both roles.  Having a comprehensive understanding of what the opposite role does (patterns, technique, styling) is critical to effective instruction.
2. needs to remember that both roles have a more balanced work distribution that it may seem.  While the Lead role is in charge of where the pair is going to go and how quickly they get there, the Folow is in charge of how successfully the two will accomplish their goal.

The most useful tool to keep the class more balanced is to have a note to address for both roles every time instructions are given.

Here’s a salsa example:

“Leads, it’s important for you to remember that you need to keep your elbows down while turning your partner, like so (demonstrate).  Follows, while you’re turning, be sure to keep spotting your partner.”

For tango:

“Follows, remember to keep the knees closer together as your pivoting to maintain your center of balance (demonstrate).  Leads, remember that your frame should keep your partners’ axis steady.”

The Private Lesson: Paging Doctor Dance Teacher…

In a private lesson, the teacher and student are able to connect to each other in a way that isn’t possible in the group class.  The individual attention in the private lesson allows for more insight into how the student learns, what motivates them, and what will make a dance “click” for them.

I have had the good fortune to work with a number of students on a long term basis.  In every case, there came a point when the lessons stopped focusing on dancing and became more a journey of the self.  In most endeavors of the same nature, such as martial arts, sports, even therapy, there is the same final barrier – confronting our personal demons so to speak.  Many movies like “Star Wars” or “The Karate Kid” use this journey as the heart of their story.  Check out “The Hero With 1000 Faces” by Joseph Campbell for more about the full journey of self discovery and how it’s depicted in literature and film.

Thing is, partner dancing is an endeavor that involves interacting with another person continuously.  So it’s not just a journey of the self, but a journey of the self and how it directly and immediately relates to others.  This journey may unlock certain feelings and bring to light interpersonal concerns that the student didn’t even know existed.  Discovering these feelings, accepting them, working through them, and figuring out how they factor into partner dancing is a big part of the relationship between instructor and student.

When is this point reached?

Most dancers reach this emotional wall in his/her dance journey after considerable time spent learning patterns and techniques.  The students are beginning to spend more time dancing socially or preparing for performances or competitions.  Trouble is, these students are finding that they are having a difficult time finding the spark within themselves to make their dancing really connect emotionally with either the music, his/her partner, or both.

How do the pair face the hurdle?

The instructor and the student need to acknowledge that this hurdle will be reached and accept that it takes time to work through this hurdle.  For many of us, our personal demons have been with us for years, and facing them will not be resolved in minutes.  For that reason, patience is a very important quality to have for both people, especially the instructor.  Working through this hurdle can make a person feel frustrated and vulnerable.   An impatient and unsupportive instructor can cause a student to lose confidence in the possibility of attaining that level of quality they’re seeking and may even turn away from dancing entirely.

What is the outcome?

The instructor and the student need to find a solution together once the hurdle is defined.  What is the hurdle?  Is it trust in others?  Is it self-confidence?  Fear of performance or of criticism?  Once defined, the instructor needs to have at her/his disposable different tools/techniques/tricks to help the student break through this wall.  This blog will list some well tested exercises and tools for guiding a student through his/her hurdle in a future article.

Very often, the mere act of defining what the hurdle is can be enough to help a student go to the next level of dance that they are seeking.  Even if not, there is some relief that there is definition; then the dance journey will be fun again, instead of frustrating.

While the thought of “facing personal demons” sounds intimidating, scary, or just plain heavy, it’s a wonderful example of the beauty and the power of partner dancing.  Through partner dancing, a person learns how to move to music while physically, emotionally, and psychologically connected to themselves and with another person.  Very few activities offer that kind of connectivity – and in such a fun way!

May Teaching Tip: Be Concise

On average, a dance lesson lasts anywhere from 50 to 60 minutes.  In that time period, your students will have a warm up, some review, an introduction to new material, time to practice said material, correction, adjustments, and any additional notes or practice time.  As an instructor, it is your job to make sure that your student walks away feeling accomplished, challenged, and entertained.

There is always the potential for an instructor to be verbose in his/her explanations and instructions.  More often than not, there is good intention behind it:

• The instructor is eager to make sure that students receive all the information needed to successfully execute a pattern or exercise
• There is an over-exuberance about the dance or the pattern that the instructor wants to share
• The instructor may have a concern that the complexity of the pattern or exercise requires very careful explanation.
• The instructor may be fairly new to teaching and therefor not quite set in a structure or flow

It’s important for you to remember that your students are coming to class primarily to dance.  The more time they spend listening to instruction/explanation and not dancing, the more dissatisfied they may become.  There are ways to make sure that information is shared without making students feel like time was wasted.

• Give yourself a limited number of times to explain a pattern.  If you follow a specific class structure, marking two or three specific times to stop the music and speak is much easier since you will know exactly how much time to devote to explanation.
• Make general corrections and notes of detail (such as “eyes up” or keep the frame up”) while the music is playing and students are practicing.  That way,  the “stop, look, and listen” details (such as specifics on hand connection or foot placement) are fewer and will take a note of higher importance.
• Ask your students if they have any specific questions.  Chances are, if one has a question, several others may have the same question.

Over time, you will find a good flow for your lessons and classes.  This flow will allow for humor, entertainment, and quality delivery of information.  When that flow is right, the students walk away feeling like they’ve invested in something worthwhile and will look forward to the next session.

Here is a good example of a class flow for a one hour class:

1. warm up
2. (1st class) into to rhtythm (2nd or later) review of material
3. introduction to new pattern (no music)
4. practice with at least 3 different partners with brief corrections between partner changes (no music)
5. practice with music with at least 4-5 different partners
6. introduction to next  pattern or variation of original pattern (no music)
7. practice with at least 3 different partners with brief corrections between partner changes (no music)
8. practice with music with at least 4-5 different partners
9. introduction to next  pattern or variation (no music)
10. practice with at least 3 different partners with brief corrections between partner changes (no music)
11. practice with music with at least 4-5 different partners
12. closing remarks (no music)
13. final practice combining all patterns with at least 4-5 different partners

“When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men’s minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson,and retain it faithfully.  Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Looking Under The Hood: Changing The Tone In A Dance Frame

There are moments when a partnership has to shift from a light and easy pattern to a very dynamic one while still maintaining a dance frame.  A good example of this is when a partnership goes from a walking pattern to a turning pattern in Argentine tango. Keeping the dancers the same distance from one another without being affected by the centripetal energy requires a change in the tone of the dance frame.  The challenge is in making sure that the dancers do not add so much tone that they pull one another off balance.

Understanding how one can create this variation in tone without overdoing it can be quite a challenge. A visual demonstration of someone shifting from a lighter to firmer tone while in dance frame will yield no results since an outside observer will not notice any change. The change is in the use of specific muscles and the mental focus behind the dance frame.

The physical adjustment

The primary muscles involved in the maintenance of a proper dance frame are primarily found in the shoulders and back.  The major arm muscles like the biceps, triceps, and forearms are secondary.  As the need for a firmer dance frame increases, a dancer will need to engage his/her lattissimus dorsi (wings) more.  Engaging these muscles will prevent the arms from flailing away from the  dancer.  To support the enclosure, the forearms are also engaged more to maintain the distance between the two partners.

The mental adjustment

Let’s thinks about amusement park rides. Each of these rides have harnesses and restraints that fit the level of intensity for that ride.  A carousel horse usually has a small leather belt for a child up to 5-6 years old.  A mega coaster with loops and twirls uses a harness that keeps an adult visitor’s hips and shoulders in place to minimize the physical impact of the ride.

Both dancers have to create the right enclosure around his/her partner to ensure that there is minimal physical impact or unwanted separation.  A pattern with very little twirl or rotation needs a tone that matches the carousel’s restraints and a pattern with a lot of rotation, twirl, or sudden changes of direction is more like a mega coasters’ restraints.

What’s too much?

Over time, if a dancer is using the wrong muscle groups to create a firmer tone, the dancer will notice an increase in tension in those muscles even when not dancing.  Using the wrong muscle groups will also result in inconsistency when executing patterns.  Another pitfall can occur if a dancer keeps the firmer tone active when shifting into a more relaxed pattern.

Controlling this balance between light and firm tone over the course of a dance is an essential part of maintaining good, effective connection between partners.  Buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Even More Recommended Songs For Beginning Dancers

Back in 11_9_09, this blog presented an article with a list of recommended songs for beginning dance students: https://amelendez223.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/recommended-songs-for-beginning-classes/.  A good song for a beginning level class:

(1)  Has a clear and easily-heard beat

(2)  Has a  slow-tempo for that style of dance

(3)  Has no lyrics (instrumental) or clear lyrics that match the music

(4)  Is a classic representation of music for the style of dance

This list of songs continues to provide tracks that fit those criteria.  Most if not all are available through online resources.

Argentine Tango

• Comme Il Faut – Carlos DiSarli
• Compadron – Juan D’Arienzo
• Dios Momo – Orquesta Tipica Victor
• Noches De Colon – Ricardo Tanturi
• Racing Club – Rodolfo Biagi

cha cha

• Cha Cha Cha – Jimmy Luxury
• Me Lo Dijo Adela – Tito Rodriguez
• Oye Como Va – Santana
• Rompe Saraguey – Hector Lavoe
• Song For Junior – The Beastie Boys

*NEW* east coast swing

• American Patrol – Glenn Miller
• Chug-a-Lug – Roger Miller
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
• Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley
• Mambo #5 – Perez Prado/ Lou Bega

foxtrot

• I Could Write a Book – Harry Connick Jr
• I Wanna Be Loved By You – Marilyn Monroe
• Let There Be Love – Nat King Cole
• On An Evening In Roma – Dean Martin
• Something’s Gotta Give – Sammy Davis Jr

hustle

• Funkadelic – Parliament Funkadelic
• He’s The Greatest Dancer – Sister Sledge
• Heartbeat – Taana Gardner
• Here Comes The Hotstepper – Ini Kamoze
• Stayin’ Alive – The Bee Gees

lindy hop

• Just Squeeze Me – Duke Ellington
• Easy Easy Baby – Varetta Dillard
• Fine Brown Frame – Buddy Johnson Orchestra
• Moanin’ – Ray Charles
• My Baby Just Cares For Me – Nina Simone

salsa

• Damelo – Willie Rosario
• Hong Kong Mambo – Tito Puente
• Nada De Ti – Eddie Palmieri
• Sube Nene Sube – El Gran Combo
• Yo No Soy Para Ti – Ismael Rivera

samba

• Bim Bom -Sergio Mendez
• Eu E Voce Sempre – Jorge Aragao
• Magalenha – Sergio Mendez
• Otra Noche – Don Omar
• Se A Vida E – Pet Shop Boys

two-step

• Chicken Fried – Zac Brown Band
• Diggin’ Up Bones – Randy Travis
• Hurry Up – Steve Holy
• I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink – Merle Haggard
• Our Song – Taylor Swift

waltz

• Angel Band – The Peasall Sisters
• Could I Have This Dance – Anne Murray
• Here’s A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares) – Travis Tritt
• If You Don’t Know Me By Now – Simply Red
• Waltz Across Texas – Ernest Tubb

west coast swing

• Another One Bites The Dust – Queen
• Baby What You Want Me To Do – Etta James
• Down Home Girl – Old Crow Medicine Show
• Groove Me – King Floyd
• Senorita – Justin Timberlake

Happy Dancing!