Five Tips for Ballroom Dance Beginners
Learning any form of dancing can be a daunting and intimidating task; and ballroom dance is no exception. We’ve put together five tips to help you through your learning process and set you up for success.
Practice is key: Practicing is essential, but scheduling these practices is key. When learning online, watch the entire video once and try the steps yourself before practicing with a partner. If you get stuck, go back through the video and gain confidence with that step before moving on to the next. For students who are learning in-person, practicing for 20-30 minutes at a time is recommended. Longer practices can lead to bad habits which are hurtful in the long run. Finally, it’s important to learn to love dancing. Put some music on, review the steps you’re learning, and have fun!
Be Humble and Open-Minded: It’s not easy to start ballroom dance as an adult. Being new to ballroom dance means starting at square one, and there is nothing wrong with that. Allow yourself to go through the experience as a beginner, and make the mistakes that will help you learn in the future. When the experience gets frustrating, treat it as a challenge you’re dedicated to overcoming, as opposed to something you should be able to learn right now.
Don’t Learn too Quickly: While you may want to learn as many new steps as possible, cramming during each practice session is not the most effective way to learn. Give your body and mind the necessary time to process and learn the movement. Retaining these movements is the most important part, and repetition is key. Treat the beginning of your ballroom dance experience the same as learning a new language!
Practice Leading and Following: It’s easy to forget the basic principles once you start feeling more natural with dance. However, leading and following is one of the most difficult parts of partner dancing, and often the reason for struggles later on. Becoming great at leading and following takes practice. Warm up with some leading and following exercises every time you practice, it will get you moving in sync and help you remember your role in the dance!
Use Your Event Shoes to Practice: Practicing in the shoes you’ll be wearing at an event is a great way to break them in and get more comfortable performing while wearing them. Different shoes have different qualities, so it is important to understand exactly what they will feel like at the event!