All I have to say is that I really, really suck. Ok, thats not all I have to say. It is a campus club and there is like 20 + couples and they were all dancing much much better than me. I was the worst dancer there.
Any suggestions? My SO and I moved my couch when we got home and we did practice another 20-30 minutes until I felt comfortable with the basic freaking moves. Oh, it is the Waltz. We learned the basic box-step, the turning box-step and a twinkle. Thats all. We kept switching partners (which I didn’t like, cause my SO was there and she is all I wished to dance with) and it made my shame even greater as perfect strangers found out how much I suck.
Help me not give up! The steps seem easy, basic 1, 2, 3 beat, left foot, right foot, together, right foot, left foot together, gotcha. My stupid feet will not cooperate, they keep “forgetting” what to do. Throw in a twirl (can’t remember what they called it) and it got even worse. Please don’t tell me Waltz is the easiest? At least medium right? If every dance out there is even harder, I am in for a hell of a time.
Most smooth dances use the “alternating feet” step – left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, etc., with your weight changing feet on each step. Just like walking. The differences are in what the feet do, as in waltz’s basic step.
Changing partners throughout the class is good so that you don’t get locked into one other person’s techinque. Yes you’ll do the bulk of your social dancing with your SO, once you’ve learned how to waltz well enough that you’ll be going to those dances. Keep at it.
And come back tomorrow when I gripe about how my feet hurt from 1 hour of argentine tango and 1 hour of Lindy hop.
I’m glad that changing partners is good then. I feel a bit weird when I am dancing with another woman when my fiance is there. Tell me about the Argentine tango and the Lindy hop.
We took lessons for my son’s wedding. He told me I was going to dance a mother/son dance with him while everyone watched. To top it off, he’s a professional ball room dancer and competitor–geeze no pressure there.
One trick our dance instructor used for us when we took lessons (for my son’s wedding, who is btw ) was to break down the parts of the dance. So maybe at home this week you can do that, just keep repeating the basic steps (without any twirls) until you feel comfortable.
My son gave me a great tip for my left hand and it helped me better follow my husband as he led. My son moved my left hand from the back of my husband’s shoulder to the front of his shoulder. That made a ton of difference, and I really KNEW there where he was going to go next, and I wasn’t just guessing.
For one, it’s very easy for beginners to forget which foot they’re on and not change weight on the third step. You go “left, right, touch” and then start to step with your left again. There’s nothing for this but to practice. For another, it’s danced in three counts, while most popular music is in 4, which can make it harder for people who aren’t musically inclined to keep the beat.
It’s probably taught first (if you’re in a general ballroom class) because it’s the slowest. Given that people are going to be less experienced and more clumsy at first, it’s best to have that not happen really quickly ;).
And all I can say is practice, practice, practice. When I was learning the Lindy basic, I’d walk everywhere in the rhythm of the dance until it was so ingrained that I didn’t have to think about it on the floor. Concentrate on balance and where your weight is. You can look pretty good on a dance floor without knowing any official “steps” if you take one step on each beat and keep your feet under your body.
Switching partners is essential to becoming a good dancer (especially if your SO is a better dancer than you are). You need to learn how to actually lead, which you won’t do if you constantly dance with someone who can read your body language so well that you don’t have to lead hardly at all. And if you go dancing socially, it’s quite common for everyone to dance with everyone.
My brother and his wife went to dancing lessons for two years. He has no sense of rythm; she used to be an aerobics teacher. For her, the hardest part of waltzing was doing 3/4 instead of the eight-count she was used to; for him… he still has to count, so if she wants to dance with him, she can’t talk while they dance. Otherwise he loses count and gets all worked up.
There’s other dances he finds easier, since they’re more freeform - so long as he doesn’t step on her, it’s no big deal to miss a beat.
Argentine tango is a lot more free-form than American tango. Right now we’re working forward and backward ochos and a grapevine pivot. As the steps are different in American tango (step step step side draw), these moves are probably sufficiently different. So that’ll be next on my course list.
Lindy hop is an 8 count derivative of triple-step swing: Rock step, triple step, step step, triple step. And it involves a lot of turning around, so I have to take a moment every couple of minutes and turn the other way just to make sure I don’t fall down. (Which is a different dance style, mind you.)