In the old days, we would have called them mavens or masters.
They'd probably show up after a long journey, wearing fine robes, sharing words of wisdom, and then, after a few days, leave the city in a better state than when they had arrived.
Nothing, really, has changed. The Arthur Murray coaches are master teachers that travel across the globe to help students and professionals of all levels and interests get better in their dancing. This is how you can best utilize your time with them.
16 Ways To Utilize A Dance Coach
1. Choreography
This is the most common way to utilize a dance consultant. Each coaching lesson you take is, roughly, the equivalent of 30 seconds of choreography. The sooner that is finished, the sooner you can work on your styling and execution.
2. Validate Your Work
The visiting consultants work with Arthur Murray students around the world. Because of this they have "work in progress vision" - they can instantly spot where you are in the Curve of Learning, make a few adjustments, and validate the work you've been doing. They aren't there to become your new teacher, they are there to support the work you've been doing with your instructors so far... and build on it.
Want to learn more about how you make Dance Progress? Try:
Dance Progress Explained: The Arthur Murray Curve of Learning
3. Set Up A Competition Schedule
You may, or may not, have noticed that your teacher has to remember a lot of things - choreography, dance program, your name, their name, etc. A dance coach is a great resource for brainstorming about which dance events you should try over the next year.
4. Tell You You're Good
Maybe its the salespeople at the mall, or the constant reassurance of a proud parent, but for some reason we rarely believe our teachers when they inform us of our progress. When an outside professional points it out, however, it seems to catch.
DID YOU KNOW? 🤔
An Arthur Murray Dance Coach is:
- A Certified Dance Judge? They judge Arthur Murray Dance events of all sizes around the world.
- An Arthur Murray Examiner? They administer professional dance instructor certification exams.
- A Master Student of the Arthur Murray System? In order to take on this role, they must be certified themselves in the highest levels of the student and professional levels of the curriculum.
- A World Traveler? Great consultants are hired by Arthur Murray Dance Studios all over the world to lend their expertise and create dance breakthroughs for students and professionals.
5. Technique
A dance coach gives you a "yard" of dance technique, and your teacher fills in the inches.
6. Cleaning
Who better to clean up your dance material before an event than a visiting dance professional? In some cases they may be judging the very event you are preparing for.
TIP: As crazy as it sounds, try taking a coaching lesson the day of your event. It gives you a connection with the judge, you can get some great reassurance, and any material that is new will be strictly for use after the event is over.
7. Refresh Your Goals
A dance consultant is similar to the Supervisor in your school. They can set up assignments for you to work on, make recommendations, and help you refresh your goals.
For More Information on Making Progress with a Supervisor, try:
8. Act As An Interpreter
Depending on the nature of your dance lessons, this title can be adjusted to "diplomat, counselor, or hostage negotiator". From time to time, the vision you have isn't being conveyed to your teacher or management. A coach can help interpret because they are fluent in the language of "Worldwide Arthur Murray student".
9. Share and Teach Current Trends
Fashion designers attend fashion shows to stay at the cutting edge of current trends. Dance consultants attend and judge dance competitions for the same reason. You, the student, are the recipient of that research.
10. Make Costuming Recommendations
[See #9]
11. Organize Your Dance Program
If your dance program were a closet, would it be organized? After a level or two, it's easy to have dances shoved into your program randomly, and eventually that can start to affect how it is organized. Visiting dance professionals are dance program closet organizers.
12. Change The Pace of your Lessons
Based on the nature of the new material being added into your dancing, the coach may recommend that you adjust your dance lesson schedule to help make the information stick. Changing the pace of your lessons is a sure-fire way to getting the best return on your investment of this coaching lesson. Sure, your teacher has asked you the same thing, but the coach just seems more convincing.
13. Break A Dance Barrier
If you utilized a dance consultant for this sole reason, it would be worth it 100 times out of 100. The Awkward Use stage can kill your momentum, or even stop your dance hobby altogether. Taking a coaching lesson can absolutly save your program for this reason.
For More on finding progress and breaking barriers, we recommend:
14. Kick Your Butt
There are times we may need this, not realize we need this, but appreciate this happening after the fact. This is not the only "information delivery setting" of a consultant, but for those that like to be pushed - this is a great way to go. It will always be for the greater good. [See #13]
15. Make You Sweat
Nothing the dance coach teaches you will make sense without movement. Since the coach will not be back for a few months, or even a year, they want to make sure you have enough repetition to understand the initial layers of the information. Due to that, there will be sweat.
16. Perspective
Let's be honest, there are things that your teachers have told you that may not have stuck. A dance consultant's job is to get you unstuck.
Final Thought
Keep an eye out. At some point, it may look like your teacher is in agony during your coaching lesson. Do not be alarmed by this. This is a sign that you are making progress on something that he or she has been pleading with your body to do for a while. (The longer it took for the breakthrough to occur, the bigger the reaction will be.)
Why?
Because your teacher has been constructing your dance program machine, and this master machinist assembled the right lever to make it all work. If they are crying, it's tears of joy.
We recommend that you thank your teacher with the phrase or endearment that all students use in this case...
"Why didn't you ever tell me to do that?"
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