How to get Guys to Learn Country Swing Dancing Fast!
How to get Guys to Learn Country Swing Fast
One of the biggest struggles I’ve seen with people trying to learn how to partner dance is that when they start learning dance they feel the pressures of life coming at them all at once. The main reasons for the stress that guys feel when they are starting to learn how to dance amongst a group of people is that they feel they are very far behind. So when I try to show them how to dance I have to kind of say don’t worry and after about 10 lessons if you continue to practice twice a week doing back to back 1 hour days of lessons with me you will have a real good grasp of the dance and will feel pretty confident to excel in it from then on. This will bring you to the level of amateur dancer that has his own style and set of moves to feel confident dancing on the dance floor.
Point #1 Keep it Simple!
When teaching simplicity and consistency are the two biggest factors to get someone to learn quick. Simple meaning you don’t need to break down a move into a bunch of small details off the bat. Start off with telling them that when you are learning you need to remember 3 simple rules about dance: Slow, Gentle, and Smooth. Doing all your dance moves with these simple rules will help you learn faster and be safer. So remember those words “Slow, Gentle, Smooth”! Being in a hurry or rush to learn a dance move can lead to problems where people start to get hurt. So don’t be in a rush!
Point #2 They need to learn Timing!
Getting back to talking about dance moves and what to start them off learning first is the idea of timing. Teach them that basic country swing lands your foot on the bass beat of the song. So start them holding hands which is called the open position. Play a number of songs for a brief period of about 30 seconds a piece getting the guy to learn how to step on the bass beat. Once you’ve showed how the bass beat is different from song to song and how to hear where it’s supposed to be or whether it’s the bass drum or bass guitar etc. You want to sort of test them to see if they are listening to the song. Once they can keep the timing of landing on the beat while doing different things at the same time then they will have established the basics.
Point #3 Teach them simple Filler Moves First(Or what I call Transition Moves)
Now that you’ve got them on the timing then start teaching them under arm turns, clothesline turns, and lasso turns. These moves are just simple transition moves that are like filler moves when you don’t know what kind of move to do next these moves you can simply resort to until you think of something next to do. While you are learning these moves the one main point I make is when you switch sides make sure you end up facing your partner and that you have a firm cupped hand that is not grabbing your partners hand with your thumbs! Don’t grab with your thumbs!
Point #4 Have a large list of Dance Moves
After learning these moves then I’ve created a list of moves you can learn that correspond to the level of difficulty. As you learn the basic moves you start to gain more confidence and when you gain the muscle memory of learning the simple moves on the arms and the footwork with the timing is lined up the speed of your learning increases as well. The learning though does start to slow down when you finally start to get either more technical and are starting to figure out how to take a move that you can do at let’s say you can do it at a 7 out of 10 score and you want to bring it up to a level 8 or 9 out of 10 score. Getting that last little bit extra of quality in the move can really take some time. But when you are just learning as a teacher I wouldn’t bother trying to do anything above a 5 out of 10. Just get them to do it slow and about 3 to 10 times and then move on down the list of moves.
Point # 5 Name your Dance Moves
Start naming your dance moves because when your student knows the names of the dance moves you can then start telling them to make combinations with their dancing. When you can say “do an under arm turn then do a pretzel and triple turn finishing off with a free spin” and they know what you are saying and haven’t done it but know all the moves that you mentioned it stars to transform their way of thinking about dance. Now they’ve compiled a list of moves in their head and all they need to do to make their own unique style is to tap into that memory bank and organize those moves into combinations etc.
Point #6 Less Technique and More Moves when they are Starting Out
Teaching technique takes time and there should be less focus on technique for those who are just learning. I find if you focus on quality right away your dance students get bored faster because new students want to learn as many moves as they can first before doing the move perfectly. Technique is for advanced dancers. You can spend hours perfecting a move but if you only teach that one move in the hour you have then the students who came to learn all these moves that they’ve seen at the bar and want to do this Saturday can’t realistically do that if you teach just a couple moves. You should be able to teach 5 to 10 moves per hour. Have a list and show your students if possible so they can see what they look like and so the students understand what you are talking about by showing videos of the moves.
Point #7 Give Guys that Desire to Learn Incentives
If you are a girl and are looking for guys to learn then I would tell you to tell every guy that if you are going to dance with me you have to learn how to Country Swing Dance and take lessons. Guys need to be pushed and if you show that you are willing to help them learn if they are willing to show up then you will dance with them. Give them something to strive for and have this list of tips ready to follow if you plan to get him to learn fast.
This list has the simplest moves near the top and as you progress you start to get harder and into the lifts. I don’t recommend lifts until a guy can do about the first 30 or so dance moves on the list and do them on a scaled of about 7 out of 10 on average or better. Then after that I would start teaching lifts. Just remember to gauge your student on whether they will be capable to do a lift or not because teaching lifts sometimes can end the pursuit of some people’s interests in learning to dance. So feel these moves out and figure out which ones are easier to learn and do those first before trying anything that’s hard.
