Managers Forum: What is the most common mistake made by new dancers?

We asked the managers of the Dallas and Plano Arthur Murray Studios to tell us
"What is the most common mistake made by new dancers?"

This is what they said:

Ian: I think the most common mistake that I've seen new dancers, both students and teachers alike, make is that they try to be "perfect" or "right" all the time.  Dancing is an expression of a feeling that you get when you hear music.  There's no way to be perfect with your feeling or your emotions, so why would you aspire to do the same with your dancing?  Just as you emotionally mature with age, so you mature with your competence and skill the longer you dance.  So, in the end, just listen, feel, and move...the rest will come!

Justin: The most common mistake made by new dancers is to be too hard on themselves. Especially as adults, we forget what it's like to learn something new. We're used to being good at everything we do, and it has usually been a long time since we learned something physical (like driving a car). So we have an unrealistic expectation of how quickly we should proceed, or how much we should remember from one lesson to the next. We need to be patient with ourselves- remember that understanding something in our heads and getting our body to cooperate does not usually happen simultaneously. The hardest part is the initial hump of believing you can learn!

Sarah: The most common mistake made by new dancers varies from man to woman. New male dancers make the mistake of thinking more steps makes them better and more enjoyable to dance with. So they know a bunch of steps but cannot lead any of them. Not fun or enjoyable for any woman. Women make the mistake of what we commonly call "back-leading". In their mind they are helping their partner, but in reality it does more damage than good to try to help the man lead. The best thing for a woman to do is trust her man and release the need to control. All women want to be beautiful and taken care of in the dance floor and men want to be a strong lead for his woman. When his lead makes a woman smile he is in "dance heaven". 

Nikki: In my experience, the most common mistake made by new dancers is not allowing themselves enough time to actually learn.  There are 2 types of students in this category, and they are both making the same mistake.

The 1st student thinks they can't learn.  They come in, beat themselves up for the entire lesson, and then walk away "knowing" that they were right.  The issue wasn't that they couldn't learn, it's that they didn't allow TIME to learn.  How many of us fell off our bikes the first time we tried to ride it without training wheels?  But just because we fell off that first time doesn't mean we weren't capable of learning eventually.  Relax, breathe, and remember that this is a new motor skill to learn.  For most of us, learning to drive a car was the last time we had to learn a new skill.

The 2nd student thinks they should have it NOW.  This student walks into the studio never having failed at anything, and they believe the dancing should be the same.  I'm not saying that students fail while learning to dance, quite the opposite in fact, if the teaching is right, learning to dance should be nothing but full of successes.  However, the student that thinks they should be great right now, believes that if they don't look like the dancer in their head after 10 min of instruction, they have failed.  And the failure, to them, means they shouldn't be trying to learn to dance.  Again, the reality here is that they just didn't give themselves enough time to become that dancer in their head.  And it really doesn't matter how many lessons you try to cram into your brain in a day, nothing can make up for "Floor Time".  

Amy: I believe that the most common mistake new dancers make is to compare themselves to the other dancers in the room. Of course, this mistake is also made by dancers at every other level, too! Remember the old adage about the race horse and never looking back to see where your competition is? I used to say that I wished I could put blinders on my students so they could not see the other students in the room. Unless you have had an in depth conversation with another person, you have no idea how long they have been dancing, what kind of skills they possessed coming into the studio, how much they practice, or anything like that. So, the frustration that you create in your mind by comparing yourself to someone else who maybe has been dancing for years instead of days, or maybe was a ballerina as a child, or maybe has the time to put in a lot of practice, or whatever, is totally unnecessary! Focus on what YOU are doing and where YOU are going and be the best dancer you can possibly be! And remember, it's all about having a good time!