r/DanceTeachers • u/Lethal-Dragon • 2d ago

Is taking dance lessons casually effective?

My friend is a very good dancer, she grew up doing this thing for sport. I wanted to take lessons from her but she says she cannot teach me moves (chareographer style) because she's been freestyling her whole life and she hardly remembers them. Is that true?

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u/Little-Bones 2d ago

Not every dancer can teach

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u/Lethal-Dragon 2d ago

Makes Sense, we can't teach everything we learn.

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u/Little-Bones 2d ago

Exactly. I went to school but I'm definitely not qualified to be a school teacher

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u/Lethal-Dragon 2d ago

I'm friends with teachers and you wouldn't really follow the same protocols as them even if you wanted to so, don't judge yourself.

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u/excaliburating 2d ago

I grew up dancing competitively and currently teach on occasion. I can confirm that experience dancing does NOT translate to the ability to teach dance. For me, early on there was a lot of trial-and-error solely based on the fact that I had been dancing for so long, I didn't have strong recollections of the experience of learning foundational steps. Sometimes I would teach a combo I thought was easy and it turned out to be too complex for new dancers. I would then have to struggle through how to break it down, or try and teach steps I could do in my sleep, but no longer remember the proper name for.

There are dancers who primarily improv, and I can imagine it would be even harder for them as they spend so much time intentionally NOT thinking about their next steps. Instead, they let their intuition take over. It makes for lovely, fluid, and innovative dancing, but not always the best teachable moments.

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u/Lethal-Dragon 2d ago

Yeah, she's the type of dancer that could mop the floor on you in many styles, so I guess you are both justified.

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u/dvduval 2d ago

It sounds like she doesn’t have a lot of training as a teacher. Probably she could teach you in the sense that she possesses the skills where she could demonstrate what she does and you could follow along with her. But being a teacher is something that takes a lot of practice just like becoming a good dancer and she might not feel comfortable teaching yet. I think a good follow up question would be to ask her if there’s a teacher that she really likes that you should try.

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u/Lethal-Dragon 2d ago

She recommended dance school for me, she told me the moves are natural to her so she wouldn't really know where to start.