The Dance Primer

Many people feel they need to take lessons before hitting the social dance floor. They have it stuck in their head that they have to have the moves perfect before they can let anybody see them. But it just ain’t so! Don’t they realize, they’re missing all the fun?

If you can relate to these people, I have a few tips for you:

Thinking you need to master all the steps before you go to a dance is like believing you need to be fluent in Spanish before you go to a Mexican restaurant. In reality, you’ve got it backwards! The MORE you expose yourself to the dance, the better you’ll get. The MORE partners you experiment with, the better partner you’ll be. The MORE you go out social dancing, the faster you’ll improve.

If you spend all your time in a class, with one partner, even if you practice every single day - you won’t really have it until you get out on the social floor. In fact, you could be locking bad habits into your muscle memory. Again, it’s like learning Spanish; you could spend years in school and still never be able to carry on a conversation with a native speaker. But, if you spend three months in Mexico, you’ll probably learn more than you did in school.

Related Article:
Relax, Nobody is Watching You

*Photo by Debby Martin.