Are you ready to take score?
See how many of these things your dance teachers say on your lessons, and share your score. Keep in mind, not all of them are positive, and any one of them used too often can cause overload.
The goal of this article is not just to understand what your dance teacher says, but why they say it in the first place.
There might be a time, or maybe a few dozen, where you are convinced that you're doing something - like closing your feet - and you're not. But don't worry, this little phrase wouldn't make this list if everyone who felt like they were closing their feet actually were.
Thrill ride engineers know that things like speed, obstacles, and sharp changes of direction can make the average roller coaster rider lower their hands, or tuck their head to their chins. It's all part of the design, it's expected, and perfectly normal.
Your dance teacher hasn't designed your lessons to bring your head down and your arms in, but they do know that those traits are part of the design when you're learning to dance. In fact, your head is coming down for similar reasons - your brain is working at a fast speed to process data like music, physical actions, and proximity to your dance partner. While that is much more than an obstacle, it is processed in a similar way nonetheless.
While roller coasters may teach you a few things about how loud you're capable of screaming, it's the variety of simultaneous functions while learning to dance that make ballroom dancing such an ideal activity for better brain health. The only downside is bad posture in the early stages.
Imagine if Mr. Miyagi's entire training regimen for Daniel in the Karate Kid consisted of "Daniel, feel like a karate expert", or if your next golf lesson consisted of the teacher telling you to "feel like you've got a better swing."
So if you haven't noticed, this statement, "Feel the music", by itself, is absolutely useless. So, hopefully, your teacher is using something a little more substantive to teach things like timing on the dance floor.
Whatever the dance program is, this will always be the greatest lie in the history of dance instruction. You should be honored to have a teacher say this to you... more than once.
We are all drawn to confidence. With the pace of the world these days, you expect to have a teacher that can take initiative, and keep your attention. It's phrases like these that do just that.
As if keeping your head up wasn't challenging enough, now you've got to keep it up and to the left in the ballroom dances. While this may seem like an over embellishment, or some trivial detail, stretching your head up and to the left is one of the small nuances that can add years of polish and the look of experience to any dancer.
if your teacher is focusing on this, and not just keeping your focus higher than your feet, then that means you're progressing.
Let's get one thing straight: Your comfort zone never would have allowed you to get to this point in your dancing, and it is the job of great teachers to continue to remind you of that.
"I've got a crazy idea" can come in the form of new dances, a new dance routine, or something new on your dance calendar. While this may make your comfort zone agitated, which could make you suspicious of your teacher's intentions, just remember that new and crazy ideas that someone has for you will always beat the alternative - nothing new, and always predictable.
When it comes to the ballroom dances, bigger is better. The goal is to basically get across the floor with great posture, in a wonderful dance frame, but in the fewest steps possible.
The Latin dances, on the other hand, feature more compact movements. This means that your teacher may be giving you feedback like "smaller steps", and especially if you've just gone from Waltz to the Rumba.
We're using "Boom, Chicka-Chicka" as a generic, all encompassing, term.
It is the teaching sound effect delegate in the ever growing sound effect dance instruction convention. Yes, your teacher will utter phrases like these, that make perfectly good sense on the dance floor, but make no sense off of it.
The idea is to find the right key to unlocking the door to your understanding of dance timing. They will try a variety of "Boom, chicka-chicka" type tools to find the key that fits the lock, that corresponds the best with your brain.
Coincidentally, you may find yourself repeating these sound effects long after your lesson has ended.
Your teacher tells you this often, but not for the "you're supposed to say that" reason you may be expecting. They say it often because there is a thick layer of self doubt that can cloud your ability to see your own progress. Often times, that cloud masks the fact that you are following a process as well.
They are going to tell you, show you, and create a trail of evidence any attorney would be proud of until you begin to see that you are, in fact, making dance progress.
There are people that build their careers on being forward thinkers, visionaries, and prognosticators in every sector in our world of dance.
Dancing is no different.
The best teachers will use phrases like "at some point" to illustrate a way for you to apply what you are learning. "At some point, you're going to be dancing, and you'll look around and notice that all eyes are on you", or "this dance may not seem important now, but at some point someone will ask you to dance and you'll be so happy we worked on it."
This can add just the right amount of purpose to your process of learning, and shed some positive light along the way.
So "at some point" you're going to notice that your teacher says that to you, and you'll smile and think of this article.
In the ballroom dances, it's the heels. In latin dances, it's the toes. As you get more advanced, your teacher will start to sound like your podiatrist. While this can add another element to think about that may seem non-essential, your teacher wouldn't bring it up if that were the case.
John Kimmins, the Former World Amateur Ballroom Champion and President of Arthur Murray, once said, "your footwork is the most important because it's the only part of a dancer's body that is touching the floor."
So remember your footwork. Yes, it's called foot-work, not foot-fun, but the end result is worth the effort.
A great teacher will know how to put things into perspective for you, and nothing does that like the phrase "remember when...".
Maybe you're getting frustrated with your progress, or your nerves are getting the better of you as you prepare for a big performance, if your teacher can remind you of where you started, you can get re-calibrated to where you are going.
"Remember when you came in for your first lesson? Do you remember how you thought you'd never have the courage or the time to even get through four lessons, and now you're getting ready to perform for your friends and family. It's incredible how far you've come."
Without perspective, it's easy to lose our way. A teacher that says "remember when" is a teacher that is doing everything they can to keep your progress, and social dance journey, in perspective.
Somewhere, at some point in your life, you realized you wanted to learn how to dance. It could have been a lifelong dream, or an immediate dance emergency, but somehow you did the most improbable, wonderful thing, and walked in on your first of many dancing lessons.
It was then that you met a team of people that understood, maybe even more than you, how big that first step was.
Teachers, managers, or administrators in your dance studios want you to see you succeed, and exceed every limitation you ever thought you had on the dance floor regardless of your initial dance skills.
Do dance instructors get repetitive from time to time? Yes.
Is it repetitive for all the best reasons? You better believe it.
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