| Sorry Franck and Gus - I think Ceroc must shoulder a lot of the blame for people doing drops, and doing them badly.
At the last 5 Ceroc intermediate classes I've been to, the teacher has taught a drop.
In all of these classes, the majority of the people in the class had real problems learning any of the dance moves. Many had done less than 5 beginners classes - indeed for one lady I spoke to, it was her first night!
In two of these classes, the teacher did say that you tell your partner if you didn't want to do the drop. But neither gave you chance to do this when rotating the class. The other classes just assumed that everyone would do the drop.
Only one teacher explicitly mentioned safety. He said "Please be careful doing this drop - you can get hurt". He didn't say how to be careful, or where the danger would arise. But at least it was more than the other classes.
All the teachers did show the men where to hold the lady. Unfortunately all of the classes were big, and you had no chance of seeing the teacher if you are at the back of the class. None of the teachers told the lady how to hold herself.
None of the teachers said anything about warming up. None of the teachers said anything about looking around to make sure you had room. None of the teachers gave any indication about when to do drops in the music.
And then people wonder why some intermediates think its normal to do a drop every 4 moves. It's what they are taught to do!!!
I know Ceroc are not the only people who teach drops. And they may very well be better trained than other teachers. But this standard of teaching drops falls well below what I would expect. More importantly it probably falls well below the standard a court would expect.
I understand that drops are very popular, and people still want to learn them. So please keep them out of classes, and teach them only in special workshops. And please keep them off a crowded dance floor. And please please please check with your partner first before doing any! I don't want to have to fork out a few pounds extra every time I go dancing to pay for the organiser's liability insurance. And I don't want to have any more ladies stop dancing for 6 months while they recover from injuries.
David |