Teaching Ballroom Dancing - The Class Method

By Read Books Ltd.

This vintage book is a comprehensive guide to teaching ballroom dancing, with information on different teaching methods, hints on teaching one-to-one and in groups, detailed diagrams, handy tips for teachers, and much more. This volume will be of considerable utility to anyone with an interest in teaching or learning a variety of ballroom dances from the waltz to the tango. Contents include: “Hints on Class-teaching”, “Dance technique”, “The Waltz”, “Natural Turn”, “Reverse Turn”, “Natural Spin Turn”, “Whisk”, “Syncopated Chassé”, “Closed Change”, “The Quickstep”, “Quarter Turns”, “Natural Turn”, “Natural Pivot Turn”, “Progressive Chassé”, “Zig-Zag”, “Chassé Reverse Turn”, “Forward Lock Step”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on dance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473352230

Book preview

SECTION I

HINTS ON CLASS-TEACHING

The subject of class-teaching was dealt with in some detail in a previous C.C.P.R. publication, Ballroom Dancing in Youth Clubs (see Appendix A), and all leaders are advised to study it.

All that is attempted here is to draw attention to a few points of teaching technique with which it has been found that inexperienced leaders often need guidance.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LESSON

Enjoyment is an important factor in any class, particularly where attendance is voluntary. Some ballroom dancing teachers are so ardent in their pursuit of perfection that they are apt to make their classes over-serious. When this happens the number of class members is apt to decline, until only those remain whose main wish is to obtain medals or win competitions. Leaders should try to maintain the right balance between serious work and recreation when teaching.

THE SPEED OF TEACHING

The speed of instruction is closely associated with the enjoyment of the lesson. Through keenness, many leaders teach at a rate suited to only the most advanced members of the class, with the result that the less experienced become confused and discouraged. In a class where there is considerable variation of standard the leader should adopt a speed suitable for the average member, and at the same time devise ways of holding the attention of both the better and less good performers. For instance, the better dancers can be encouraged to work on the finer points of style, while the less experienced are engaged in grasping the fundamentals of a step. It can also be mutually helpful if, from time to time, dancers of different standards partner each other; through helping their partners the better dancers impress the details of the step on their own minds and, if they are intending later to teach, can train their powers of observation and find out the best way to give clear