Many
years ago when I discovered dance, I had
sought out places to learn. Looking through
the phone book, I quickly ended up at
one of the big name franchise studios.
I was given the sales pitch, and eager
to learn I signed on the dotted line and
started a six month $2600 program. From
day one, I was very disappointed, because
even as a novice I knew I had more rhythm
than my dance instructor. A couple months
and $700 dollars later I had to quit the
program and sought other studios in which
to study. With the other studios I found,
even though much cheaper and more valuable
for better instruction, I knew something
was missing as I quickly out-grew my instructors.
From having an analytical mind, I also
knew things I was taught didn't seem to
connect. I then decided to travel the
country to discover the bigger world of
dance and seek out what I knew was missing,
and I found it!
Social
ballroom or club dancing is a dialog between
two people speaking the language of that
dance style. What was missing with the
studios and instructors I first had, was
they did not have enough of an understanding
of dance and the dance forms I was learning,
and, as a result, did not understand the
language of these dances. I was learning
a language from someone who spoke a bad
broken form of that language. Just like
in any spoken language, like English,
in order to teach it, you need to have
an extensive vocabulary, understand the
grammatical structure of the language,
know your punctuation, parts of speech,
and so on. Leaning English from someone
who speaks bad broken English would never
make you conversational in any manner
that would be easily understood by others.
Dance
is very much the same way. I was looking
to become a good social dancer, to be
conversational in a manner that was understood
by others. I needed an instructor that
had a big enough understanding of the
dance forms and hence the vocabulary,
grammatical structure, punctuation, parts
of speech, and so on, of the dance forms.
Anything short of that, really, was a
waste of time and money because even though
I might have a good social time in class,
I would never become conversational.
Today
as I travel for pleasure or business,
I am delighted to be able to enjoy this
language of dance with perfect strangers,
who even though we may share no spoken
language in common, for the five minutes
of a song we enjoy the perfect dialogue
of dance.
