Finding a Good Dance Teacher

Hey, many of you may not know that I do freelance writing on the side, as well, but I do! I thought I'd point you to a fun article I just wrote at Ezine about how to find a good dance teacher.

Here's a short snippet:

So how does a social dancer (or a wanna-be social dancer) make sure he or she is maximizing the time and money spent? By carefully choosing a swing, salsa, or ballroom dance instructor. The right dance teacher can make your social dance experience a great one, ensuring that you not only leave your lessons with at least a basic understanding of the dances, but that you have a fun time learning. The wrong dance teacher can leave you frustrated, either during class or when you’re out on the social dance floor, with incomplete information or just simply an unexciting experience.

It can be fairly easy to spot a good or not-so-good social dance teacher once the class is over. A good teacher has fun teaching, makes sure that students are generally enjoying themselves, gives personal attention when warranted, provides plenty of practice time and repetition, and makes her students’ learning her top priority. Students leave class not only knowing how to dance proficiently, but having had a fun time, as well. A not-so-good teacher can take one of two forms – or a combination! She might not enjoy teaching, and students likewise do not enjoy classes, which come to feel like a chore. Students learn how to dance, but they have not enjoyed themselves. On the other hand, the instructor may enjoy herself quite a bit, and her students may have quite a lot of fun, but she proves to be incompetent. Students leave class uncertain of the material taught, with questions unanswered, or answered incorrectly. This may not be apparent until the students take a class from another instructor, or find out from others that they have been taught incorrectly.

And of course, the link to the rest of the article.