The Arthur Murray System of Teaching Dance makes learning to dance fast, fun and easy! What makes it so special? We asked the studio managers at the Dallas and Plano studios.

The Arthur Murray System of Teaching Dance makes learning to dance fast, fun and easy! What makes it so special? We asked the studio managers at the Dallas and Plano studios. Here is what they said:

Sarah: The Arthur Murray System (or 4 basic movements) are the building blocks of any dance and/or pattern you will ever want to learn. What the Arthur Murray system has done is broken down "dancing" into 4 of the most BASIC movements that most people probably normally do day to day and created a map to turn those "normal" movements into dancing! How cool is that!?! Without these basic movements it would be like someone telling you to go build a sand castle without giving you the pail, shovel or any other tools to complete the task. Once you have taken your very first lesson at Arthur Murray, you have been given ALL the tools (movements) you need to know to be able to learn ANY dance or pattern you desire! It's like Arthur Murray made a system called "Ballroom for Dummies" :-) So, enjoy how easy it is to learn where to put your feet and how quickly you can learn by using the Arthur Murray System! (**Attention Dance Nerds** - It is also very fun to break down patterns and dances you already know into the 4 basic movements! Try it!)

Justin: Everyone knows the acronym KISS: keep it simple silly. The four basic movements allow us to digest even the most complicated or elaborate figure with a 4 letter "alphabet."  It doesn't get much simpler than that, and it lets all of us feel success more quickly. Once you have the basic structure of the figure down, we can go back and add layers of technique, but even that is easier once you have the foundation laid.

Nikki: My favorite people to teach are the people who tell me that they have 3 left feet and 4 right ones, and that we won't be able to help them at all...  The reason they are my favorite is because they are the most surprised when we DO help them!  You have to remember that no one just KNOWS how to do a physical activity.  Everyone has to be taught.  However, HOW someone is taught makes a HUGE difference in how easy someone believes an activity is.

Think WAAAYYY back...  Back to when you learned to read, or when you helped a young child to read.  How did that process start?  For many of us, it started with learning the ABC's, then it moved into simple words, then more complex words, next was simple sentences, complex sentences were next, paragraphs followed, and on to books.  We, as adults, see that as a natural progression, and don't even question that idea of learning.  The truth is, when learning anything, breaking it down to the ABC's is always the best, fastest, and easiest way to go.  Some teacher's however, try to start with teaching someone words, or even sentences, before the student even understands what is making up those words or sentences.  That's why the Arthur Murray systems have been around for over 100 years, and why they have worked for those 100 years!  Each part of the systems have been purposefully implemented and particular times so that anyone can learn to dance!

The beginning system, the 4 basic elements, is the ABC's of dancing.  Without them, how do you know what makes up a box step?  And maybe you think, "well, I get a box step, that's not so hard!"  Ok, maybe it isn't.  But when you start trying to put it into more complex figures, or you need to abandon it mid-stride to avoid a dance floor accident, without a true understanding of which direction each foot can go, and how to move in and out of a box successfully, you will probably find yourself just stopping what you are doing, standing there for a bit, then  trying to restart all over again.  That would be like trying to read a book, not knowing what a word is, stopping for a moment, then going all the back to the beginning of the book, and starting it over again.  How would you ever find success in reading that way?  And all too often, that is why people don't feel success in dancing.

Trust me...  You want those 4 basic elements, and you want to know them well.  You will always go back to them, and they will always help make sense of even the toughest figures.

Ian: The four basic movements are in place to make it easy for EVERYONE to be able to learn to dance easily despite your experience or skill level.  By being able to reduce every step you could ever need (all the way from Bronze to Gold), it's always easy to go back to your basics and learn without feeling overwhelmed or "not good enough".  Plus, it makes everything easier to remember (I don't know about y'all, but I couldn't definitely use help remembering things now and then!).

Lindsey: The Arthur Murray system is completely foolproof, which is what makes my job so easy and fun. Reason being, it makes it learning for my students easy and fun. The system is based off of the 4 basic elements which are (in case you're new to this whole dancing thing) : walking forward and backwards, side steps or chasses, rock steps, and triple steps. Through different combinations of these elements, dictated by the music, a teacher can simply AND efficiently teach any student, at any level, any dance. For me, this system was an enlightenment for my teaching ability and understanding as a fellow dancer because in the dance world that I came from, no such thing exists. So dancing was a time consuming and arduous task. However, now I have the tools to teach any pattern or technique, from newcomers to gold, and have maximum effectiveness for each of my students, including myself.


Adriann:  The 4 basic movements (walking steps, rock steps, triple steps, side steps) make it simple for anyone, with any background, at any dance or ability level to understand any dance. It's like being given a puzzle with 4 pieces that can be rearranged in any number, in any order to make thousands of different pictures.