How to make my teacher to do what i want?

[Alex]

I have been a ballroom dance teacher for over 15 years. Through those years I have had many students who wanted to "help" me teach. "Let's do this" or "We should work on that"- you get the picture. Of course they would just upset me; someone who has just been dancing a month or two knows more about ballroom dance than me, right? So how are we going to make our teachers go along? I will talk more about it after I after reading some of your thoughts.

[pennygary2004]

[Alex]

Pennygary wrote:

what the teacher wants to teach them and some of what they want to learn. If you do not then they will go somewhere else or get discouraged and quit altogether.

I agree that you as a paying customer have a write to tell your teacher where you would like to go with your dancing, what dancers you would like to know. But how you are going to achieve those goals should be up to teacher. It’s been times when people worked throw the studio door for the first time and asked me to teach them advance Lindy Hop. They wanted to know how throw a girl around the neck and behind the back (as they seen on TV). When I suggested to start learning dance with basic moves they said it is to boring. I refuse to teach them and told them to find a better teacher. I did not want anybody get injured. It is same with any other dance. You must learn how to crawl before learning how to fly. .[/quote]

[savestrays]

well for me i wanted to be like "dancing with the stars " the first lesson and the basics were a bit boring to learn,. but i am glad my teacher , angi, made me do everything i didn't want to do haha... or i would be dancing at the level i am now. sure , i always ask her can we do this or that and usually the answer is no- but it is because she knows best. (kills me to say that , but yes...my teacher knows best)

randy

[key2bu]

This is a balance as most things in life. If NEW students will remember the quote, "we don't know what we don't know," then it will be an easier blend between what the teacher sees and what we THINK we know. On the other side of the coin each person learns differently and many teachers do not recognize this human fact. Some learn by rote w/o needing reason or explanation, but many others need reasons/explanations to make those connections in one's mind.

It can take several lessons or months for a balance to be found between student/teacher. Another helpful reminder to the teacher is something that is second nature to them can be a daunting task for a beginner who is baffled by having to think of 10 NEW THINGS at once: arms up, solid frame, connect shoulders to spine, keep head over hips, extend head upward, look this way on one step & the other on the next step, etc. It is all conscious thought for NEWBIES, but UNCONSCIOUS to the experienced teacher.

PATIENCE & PERSISTANCE are keys for the new student. Most of us hate the learning curve, but in dancing, as in ALL aspects of life these two qualities will produce very capable abilities and expertise. It's not the smartest people in the world who make the most money or who are the champion dancer, swimmer, etc., but those who stay open to learning (being coached/taught), and learn to have FUN doing it.

[savestrays]

i find bribery works well whinning can work too. but usually at the end of the day the teacher wins.

[SambaJerry]

I am an intermediate level student of ballroom dancing. I believe it is the teacher's responsibility to make sure students have the basics of dancing so they can dance with people besides their current partner. So that they know what is the line of dance, how to handle floorcraft issues and good manners. After learning the basics, I don't see any harm in showing students advanced choreography. I had 2 lessons in silver level quickstep, but I soon realized that I did not have some basic silver level techniques. I am currently taking pre-silver waltz and foxtrot before I go back to the quickstep. I believe trying some advanced techniques once in awhile help to show me what I need to improve in my basic techniques.

[Ginger]

As a secondary teacher, or more "help" for the primary teacher during private lessons, we ask the student "Okay, so what do you want to work on today?"- it's their money, after all. If they're beginners and say something like "I want some lifts and crazy stuff to get attention", we tell them "Well, we'll work on something fun that's level-appropriate, because it's dangerous to do otherwise."

What we do to our own teachers is often ask "Well, we wanted to work on foxtrot, what do you suggest we work on the most in that?"- and we'll spend two hours on my stupid headweight and his stupid right shoulder, clinging together like two cats in a blender- but I digress.

Nobody's ever really tried to "move us around" like that, though. They'll say "Okay, what's this Mambo stuff?" or "I saw so and so working on this, and I wanted to do that." And if they can't handle it, we tell them and tell them why.

We're trying to find some place to dance this weekend (the 22nd) and there are NO open parties anywhere. We were hoping to avoid "specific" venues, like salsa or swing only, but if they played some variety that'd be awesome. Any pointers? (Hi, btw)

[Alex]

Mahler Ballroom has a party on August 21. They play all kinds of music.