Let's clear something up right now: Sleeping on your dance shoes won't help.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. Learning how to dance is a wonderful hobby full of benefits for both the body, mind, and soul. So, naturally, any dance student excited about improvement will want to speed up their progress. So let's take a look at 7 ways to do it.
1. Back to Back lessons
Turning a 45 minute lesson into a 90 minute lesson can be the difference between feeling a little awkward to having a major breakthrough.
Think of this like a workout, every visit to the gym needs some ramp up time to get into "gym-mode". This is usually followed by cardio, weight training, and then some kind of cool down activity.
Your dance lessons work the same way. Once you get warmed up and moving, your dance teachers want to help you hit the stride of your lessons, the flow state, if you will. The longer they can sustain that, the bigger the level of improvement.
Your dance lesson is on Thursday night, your next one is on Thursday night, and until you accelerate your schedule a bit, you may have a lot to remember on Thursday nights.
If your dance lessons were a book, how long would it take to get a feel for the story if you only read on Thursday nights? Going further, how much time do you think you'd spend re-reading to get back into the flow of the story?
Once a week lessons is rooted in the same way we consumed network television before Netflix and Hulu. You'd watch your shows once a week, at their regularly scheduled time, and hope you didn't forget anything vital.
One of the most underutilized tips to make faster progress is coming in on a Saturday.
This isn't meant to replace your weekday lessons, but adding a Saturday appointment can be the glue between lessons. Here's an example:
Let's say you come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Your best learning day is probably Thursday, and here's why, there's only 2 days of separation from your Tuesday lesson.
This means that Tuesday is your day to get back into "dance mode" after a 4 day break.
Now let's add in a Saturday lesson. This puts only two days of down time in between your three lessons. Immediately, your Tuesday lessons become more productive and all lessons start to feel the same way that your Thursdays have.
Think of your private lessons like fitness appointments with your personal trainer. You're working one on one with an agenda built around your dance progress. Now think of your group classes at Arthur Murray like a drop in cardio class.
While it may not be as tailored to your specific private lesson plan, it's keeping your overall dance progress active and helps to prevent atrophy.
This makes your next lesson with your trainer/teacher even more productive.
There are so many great reasons to work with a dance coach - here are 16 if you need some. In short, working with a dance coach (also referred to as a "coaching lesson") is nothing short of a supercharge for your dance momentum.
With concentrated material that is built to do everything from finishing routines to starting new dances, every coaching lesson is designed to eliminate many of the learning traffic jams you can experience along the way.
Whether it's getting in shape (see #4), a big presentation at work, or prepping for a test, we all can benefit from a concentrated time and effort.
A surge would be the perfect way to kickstart a new project like a dance routine, a new level, or integrating a new dance into your program.
Doing a concentrated surge in your lessons isn't a permanent commitment in your schedule, but can create the muscle memory necessary to make the skills you learn permanent.
Whether it's due to a lockdown or the lack of a babysitter, there are countless moments where life can stand in the way of your dance development. This is where digital dance lessons come into play.
By themselves, digital lessons are a sneaky good way to improve in areas like styling, timing, and balance. On top of that, you can do so in the comfort of your own home, office, or anywhere you've got space and good Wi-Fi.
Think of how many dance lessons you've had to cancel due to time or location constraints, replace them with a digital lesson, and progress is saved.
If we learned anything in 2020, it's that being resourceful is more important than ever to maintain some semblance of normal in our lives. Why should your dance program be any different?
While some of these options may be limited by lockdowns and the like, we hope that this list gives you some creative options to maintain your dance progress and your mind, body, and social health within your Arthur Murray dance community.