This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Ballroom Dancing, Men & Women, Shoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
The student is wasting their instructor’s skills if they do not allow the instructor to exercise their own judgment and abilities. Many students, who would not dream of telling their doctor what medicine to prescribe or their mechanic how to repair their car, will not hesitate to tell their instructor which part of their dancing most needs attention, and how they should be taught. Get the instructor’s opinion on what kind of ballroom dance shoes you need, but do not let him sell you a pair of expensive shoes when you can buy the best ballroom dances shoes at a very reasonable price. Instead, the instructor should be given rein to teach as they see fit, so long as they are working to the best of their abilities towards the student’s goals. If this path does not yield the desired results, then another instructor should be found.
Remember also that learning to dance is different from learning pure mental skills — sometimes understanding comes only after correct performance, instead of the other way around. The student should always try to allow the instructor to complete a presentation, since quite often full understanding dawns only when the presentation is complete and a “feel” for the action is obtained. If at that point the student does not understand, then they should ask for clarification. Otherwise, they should try to allow the instructor to exercise their professional skills — after all, that is what they were hired to do in the first place.
