Learning to Dance: An Overview (1/3)
[banner 16-9]
Some simple words of advice from Barb Bernstein:
I want to begin with important advice for anyone who wants to learn to dance… “It's all about heart.”
There is a line that I love in a dance movie where a teacher is starting a lesson. She says to her students, "Dancing begins with the dancers' feelings." This is very true. If you want to learn to dance, the most important thing is to derive pleasure from what you are doing. There will be mistakes---many of them, of all types. But if you love to dance, it will be great fun to practice and keep improving. That is really how people become capable dancers.
Regardless of how basic you are when you start out, or how slowly you may advance, anyone can learn to do partnership dances. They don’t require great strength or flexibility like ballet or modern dance. They just require an understanding of timing, learning the steps, and having an awareness of your partner’s ability and needs. I have had students over the years who started out having trouble switching weight from one foot to another in the proper timing. This is the most fundamental element of partnership dancing. But those who stuck with it over time became very good dancers. Salsa can be done with fancy acrobatics, but usually people simply learn to lead and follow in partnership with another person. The physical actions involved in this are not too different from walking--there are no backbends, no lifts in the air, etc. Social dancers do not have to be in exceptional physical condition; it's a skill that is accessible to anyone who can walk.
Bottom line: It just takes patience and heart.
And here is a little hint… When you look around at a club or in a class, and see people who appear to learn really fast, you can be sure that they have had a lot of exposure beforehand to either dancing, or moving in a rhythm, or listening to music, etc. That is, they have experience or practice at some underlying dance skills. No one comes out of the womb able to step in the quick quick slow rhythm flawlessly. But life experiences can make this easier to pick up, while having little or no experience makes that a slower process. But it is learnable—by all who can walk!!
So don't be discouraged if you feel you are learning slowly. Remember that you may be watching people who came into a class with some skills that were already built. You can certainly get there too, even if you initially feel awkward and "dance challenged." Just plan to take the time you need to practice and build those skills. That is why I say that it's all about heart. If you enjoy dancing a lot, you can learn by putting in the time. The expression "labor of love" comes to mind.
One final comment: Many of us have heard that some skills are best learned when someone gets “an early start.” Although that is not at all necessary for learning Latin dances, it can indeed be helpful. It’s also a nice way to enrich a child’s life!
If you want to encourage a child’s interest in dancing, or help them develop some skills early in life, there is a clear path to do so. Let them see you dancing with joy. Let them hear music that you enjoy listening to. Let them feel the vibe of deep satisfaction that you get from dancing to beautiful music. This all sets them on a course for seeing these activities as joyful and makes it much more likely that they’ll pick up dancing as a hobby (or more?!) in adulthood. Whatever they learn as young children isn’t so important. The important thing is to foster interest and enjoyment in dancing and musical activities. That can stay with a person for life, and there is lots of time to pursue one hobby or another later.
Note that the material in this discussion is expanded considerably in a number of chapters in my book Salsa Dancing and Rueda de Casino Guidebook.