Ballroom Dance Lesson ~ Take 4

Yesterday The One and I had our fourth and final private dance lesson with Tony.

When we arrived he asked us how the dance classes had gone, and we expressed our frustration over the classes. We told him how it felt like the classes that were labeled as beginner, weren't really beginner classes and felt so far over our heads. We explained how we felt like there were a lot of concepts being taught that we weren't ready to be learning yet, and it was overwhelming.

He agreed that we weren't ready to be concentrating on anything beyond the steps and moving together, and told us that when we were in the group classes to just concentrate on practicing the things that he showed us in our lessons, and not to worry about the more advanced stuff yet. I told him that was a great idea in theory, but it was very difficult to do that when we were dancing with different partners that were more advanced and wanted to concentrate on all of those more complicated concepts. He agreed that would make it more difficult, and told us that we could always stand off to the side and not join in on the rotation of partners. Of course, they recommend you do change partners, because you can learn from dancing with other people, etc. And I'm not denying that. But, as I keep saying over and over, I don't feel like we are at a point where we are ready for that. I need to learn the basics before I'm going to pick things up from dancing with other people.

So far all I seem to have picked up is an incorrect direction of how to dance the Rumba. During our lesson, I asked Tony about where I should be standing during the dance, directly across from The One, or off to the side like my dance partner had instructed the night before. Tony assured me that I was supposed to be squared up to The One, directly in front of him. So, I'm not sure that getting bad advice from other students is going to help me much!

We told Tony that we wanted to continue learning the Rumba instead of moving on to another dance, and he said that was fine. So, we practiced a bit on the move he was teaching us at the end of the last lesson, and then taught us a new one. I really had fun, and enjoyed the lesson, just like I always do. Tony does a very good job of breaking things down into manageable steps, and not moving on to the next thing until we've gotten a grasp on what we are currently working on. It's not learning ballroom dancing in general that has me frustrated, it is the manner in which I am being taught it during the group classes.

With the package we purchased, we have one more group class, which we plan on taking next week. The class we are planning on attending is Beginner Waltz & Foxtrot. I have no idea how that is going to go, especially since the Waltz isn't even a dance I'm interested in learning. Oh well. I think it is good to be forced outside of our comfort zone sometimes. Even if every experience isn't always pleasant, I think you still take things away from trying new things, even if it is just a knowledge of what you don't want to do in the future.

The other thing that is included in the package we purchased is two dances. On the weekend nights, the dance studio has actual dances, where you can come and practice your dancing. We are attending our first one tonight, and the second one next week. We wanted to wait until the end to do those so we at least knew a few things to practice. It should be interesting! I'm not sure how I feel about the dances. I really haven't formed any ideas about them yet. I won't be forced to dance with anyone other than The One, and it will give us a chance to practice what we've learned, assuming we can even recognize a song that would be appropriate to do the Rumba to! At the same time, I might end up walking away overwhelmed after watching a lot of people that already know the dances. I guess time will tell.