Top Three Tips

[Gadget]

With all the experience on this forum, what's the three top pieces of advice you could give a beginner?

I have only been dancing a couple of years of Ceroc (on & off ) but mine would be...
1) Keep your knees slightly bent; it's amazing how much this helps in spins and turns.
2) Don't stop; even if you do the same move two or three times because you mucked it up or your mind's gone blank, keep the flow going.
3) Ask everyone and anyone to dance; dancing with a variety of heights, styles and experience is a sure way to improve.

[DavidB]

For men

0) Smile! Enjoy it! It's supposed to be fun!
1) Don't worry if you can't do a move - just go on to the next one.
2) Don't try to remember every move you have been taught
3) Keep everything small and simple

For Ladies

0) Smile! Enjoy it! It's supposed to be fun!
1) Relax
2) Follow your hand
3) Don't apologise if you think you have done something wrong. It was the man's fault for not leading properly

Don't be put off by seeing everyone else. Everyone was a beginner once, and most of the good dancers were the bad beginners!

David

[Graham]

For leaders:

1. Remember it's always the leader's fault. If the move doesn't work, it's highly likely you've done something wrong - on no account blame your partner (unless of course she dives into an un-led drop ).
2. It's not the moves, it's the style. To begin with, concentrate on getting the beginner moves right before you try and add more complex stuff to your repertoire.
3. Follow the music. Really concentrate on hitting the beats (changing styles is important too, but not for beginners).

For followers:

1. Remember it's always the leader's fault. Don't feel stupid or embarrassed if you make a mistake; if he is either laughing or looking annoyed, it will be at himself, not you.
2. Try to relax. Remember that the leader should be making you move the way you're supposed to - you don't need to guess what he's doing and try and follow it.
3. In classes, let the leader lead (unless he really can't do the move). Don't watch the teacher/someone else, and don't try to execute from memory - both of these make it much harder for the leader to practice leading.

[Lou]

1. Maintain the tension/connection between you & your partner (you canÕt lead & follow without it).
2. Remember to transfer your weight when you step (e.g. donÕt just lazily stick your leg behind you instead of stepping back onto it!)
3. Quality not Quantity Ð itÕs better to perform a few moves well, than many moves badly.

[Jon]

1). SMILE Don't take it so seriously. If you relax it will be easier and become natural.

2). Step in, Step out. Don't travel by walking in the moves. And ladies only step when your led.

3). Did I say SMILE after all it's surposed to be fun! Don't worry about mistakes because you may have just invented a new move!

[Alfie]

Hi All !
For all lady beginners,
1- There is no such thing as a wrong move. It's personal interpretation.

2-Ladies dont make mistakes its the leaders mistake trying to attempt a move that you may not be proficiant with.

3-Relax and dont look down, constant searching of the floor for pennies,fag ends or various bits of fast moving jewellry tends to effect ballance whilst spinning/turning( depriving your partner of your lovely smile )

4-If you are finding moves difficult try taking smaller steps in and out and keep a slight bend in the arm.

5-Smile, enjoy, and have fun remember this is the most fun you can have stood up with youre clothes on.

To all beginners: Welcome to one of the greatest forms of fun in the world. I had never danced a step before we started dancing and it revolutionised our lives. Keep at it, but enjoy it too, once caught its a hard habit to break

[CJ]

Cue tips.

Rubbish tips.

PG tips.


Smile smile and, eh, smile. Everything else will come.

[robd]

Decided to bump this one even though it's way old.

I generally have steered clear of offering advice to people when dancing with them. Recently, this has changed and more and more frequently I find myself giving the same tips to followers particularly less experienced ones

1 - If you feel my hand placed on your back, get your spare arm up ASAP.
I think this is one that is more specific to me than to leaders generally perhaps because I lead a lot of travelling returns and 'capture' the follower into close hold. Often with newer ladies, their spare arm gets trapped even if I keep my right hand low. I do tend to make a snap judgement on the quality of a new follower by how quickly their spare arm goes up in this kind of scenario - Sparkles and Almost An Angel are two very good examples of followers whose arm seems to go up instinctively. I say to beginner ladies that if they do raise their spare arm when feeling the leaders hand on their back then they cannot be wrong even if the leader's intent is not to gather them into close hold. However now I think about it I do recall being taught in beginners classes that men should lightly trace their fingers across the ladies back as a signal that they wish to collect the spare hand for a 2 handed move and I guess there may be potential for confusion there though in the type of thing I mention above I am referring more to a pretty much static hand being placed on the ladies back rather than moving across it.

2 - Walk in line with me on manhattans/mambo steps.
Another common problem when I lead manhattans/mambo steps back and forth is that the lady will attempt to walk outside of me (for fear of treading on my feet) leading to a rather ungainly waddling effect on her part. I always tell people in this situation to walk directly towards/away from me and that if our feet do clash it is my fault as leader for not leading it properly (though as one lady sagely observed ' it doesn't matter whose fault it is, it still hurts to have your foot trodden on')

3 - If you don't feel a lead then do nothing.
This is most common when I have done a neckwrap or similar moves which end with the followers hand resting on my shoulder or chest. New followers invariably take away the hand themselves as part of an automatic step back despite there being no lead to do so. I grant you that there is also no obvious lead for them NOT to do this either which would be the best way to prevent it but it's also a useful way to introduce the concept that a follower should do nothing unless lead to do so . Sadly, I guess so many leaders are so poor and/or so quick to blame the follower for their own lack of ability if a move does not work as intended that followers tend to adopt this proactive approach for self defence as much as anything.


Additionally I will occasionally try to give advice on tension and frame by requesting followers keep their elbows quite close to their bodies in a standard hand to hand hold and by suggesting that they think of a continous link between their R/H and left shoulder and vice versa so if I move that hand it should move that shoulder. However I am no expert in this area (nor any other aspect of dance come to that) so tend to mention it only rarely.

For leaders, about the only advice I give is
* don't be afraid to let go if something is not working (equally applicable to followers I guess)
* stand up straight - I don't mean be rigid like you are on the parade ground, just stop bending over like you live in Notre Dame. I know the dance is much more about how it feels than how it looks but just a simple change to posture will make you look much more stylish with little or no effort. There are a couple of forumites I know of who, from the accounts of followers, are nice, smooth leads but whose posture is dreadful. Thus I would imagine that a follower that doesn't know them and is scanning the dancefloor for a potential partner is probably going to look past them by virtue of their style (or lack thereof)

Anyone else got any updated advice for this thread?

Robert

[dave the scaffolder]

Look the man in the eye he is more nervous than you
Dance like you are naked in the bathroom
Enjoy it it is not dental surgery

[Caro]

Originally Posted by robd

* stand up straight - I don't mean be rigid like you are on the parade ground, just stop bending over like you live in Notre Dame.

to paraphrase Jordan in a private to a male lead : Dance at your tallest. (equally valid for follows). Then you adapt the level at which you place your hands depending on your partner's height (guys).
Personally I know that indeed if I spot a dancer in the room who has a great posture, I'm going to (subconciously) make the assumption that he his a good dancer and I'll ask him for a dance.

[StokeBloke]

Being new to dancing I have been offered loads of good advice. The best so far being:

1. Light touch, but firm lead, if it goes wrong nobody is going to get yanked and hurt - thanks to David, Mayah's demo for this one This pointer increased my confidence to experiment no end, as I was constantly worrying about getting something wrong and physically hurting my partner.

2. Smile. If you are concentrating hard it's easy to forget this, but it will help relax your partner, and in turn relax you. Look like you're having fun and before you know it... you are. Thanks to Kay, Mike's demo for that practical lesson

3. There aren't any rules - do what you like. Cheers Fletch

[Mythical]

Originally Posted by Caro

to paraphrase Jordan in a private to a male lead : Dance at your tallest. (equally valid for follows). Then you adapt the level at which you place your hands depending on your partner's height (guys).
Personally I know that indeed if I spot a dancer in the room who has a great posture, I'm going to (subconciously) make the assumption that he his a good dancer and I'll ask him for a dance.

I don't understand that one.....two of my favourite partners dance like bananas! (although, I hope I don't!!)

[Caro]

Originally Posted by Mythical

I don't understand that one.....two of my favourite partners dance like bananas! (although, I hope I don't!!)

may be you would like them even better if they were dancing like cucumbers

[Mythical]

Originally Posted by Caro

may be you would like them even better if they were dancing like cucumbers

Maybe I would. But Maybe if I told them to stand up straight they wouldn't dance with me again and that would be bad!

Anyway, my top 3 tips (considering I don't really know diddly)
1)Smile
2)Dance with everyone
3)Laugh at yourself

[LMC]

Out of the mouth of babes

Dancing is too important to take too seriously

[MartinHarper]

Yeay for old threads.

Originally Posted by Gadget

What's the three top pieces of advice you could give a beginner?

1. Arrive early.
2. Stay late.
3. Dance in between.

[MartinHarper]

Originally Posted by robd

There are a couple of forumites I know of who, from the accounts of followers, are nice, smooth leads but whose posture is dreadful.

Aww, c'mon: you can't say something like that without dropping names.
(or at least PMing the folks in question to let 'em know)

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by MartinHarper

Aww, c'mon: you can't say something like that without dropping names.
(or at least PMing the folks in question to let 'em know)

I've actually had a lady adjust my posture before dancing with me - it's on my "to-do" list.

[robd]

Originally Posted by MartinHarper

Aww, c'mon: you can't say something like that without dropping names.
(or at least PMing the folks in question to let 'em know)

PM on it's way to you Martin

[Jamie]

and you rob