Hi Dave L.- Congratulations also goes out to yourself and Alice for your first and successful comp. Thank you for your support. Hope to see you on the comp floor again- soon. Len Diana

Hello there,
Speaking of learning from dance videos, from my own experience, I had to wait until I was a more proficient dancer before I was able to follow the video. I tried when I first started dancing, and could not for the life of me 'get it'! But after a few years of dancing, I found I was able to learn from videos. I go strait to www.istd.org for international, and usually dancevision.com for American.
A warning about watching other couples and trying to imitate them: What you see is very often not what you think is happening. Another post on this forum stated it very well, in regards to how much turn to make in a natural turn in Waltz. Although sometimes it appears to be 4/8, it is usually only 3/8, with the body turning slightly more than the feet, and body and feet 'catching up' on the first step of the next figure. But if a new dancer tried to imitate that, he/she would be doing mad whirling-dirvish moves all over the place! And the lady certainly could not follow 1/8 extra turn while she's trying to close her feet. So, a suggetion would be, if you see someone's dancing that you like, maybe ask them who their coach is, and take from that person.
All the best.

Crown, I'm from Pittsburgh as well, and indeed I *literally* know the franchise of which you speak (though it's been a long time since I was a student there). If you're not satisfied there and are interested in referrals for independent instructors in the area, please feel free to email me privately. There are plenty of excellent instructors in town who charge significantly less. My contact info is in my user profile.

Vanessa

Dear Dave,
Your issue with the franchised studio chains is an universal one. Many dancers that I have met, who hail from such studios, deal with an entirely different nomenclature and terminology for common so-called "school figures" that it becomes horrendously difficult to carry on a conversation with a dancer not from these studios. Further, I have noticed that the cloistered and parochial instincts of these studios often filter down to their students, who seem to bear an instant distrust of dancers outside their "cult". I have even heard a dancer from one of these chains claim that US and International competitions were pointless, and the only worthy competitions are those organized and run by her chain. My advise to you, at the risk of inciting wrath from many such aforementioned dancers, is to get away from the franchise - whose only intent, I opine, is to charge you high fees ($75 for 45 mins!!!!), give you minimal instruction, and to keep you coming back for more by withholding important information. I suggest you look for a private if even small studio and get your money's worth of education.

Although I am writing partly to commiserate with your situation, I will also suggest a few links to finding instructional videos that might help your cause. I gather that Dancescape.com carries instructional videos, although mostly pertaining to the International style of dancing. Just go to their web page for more info. Or try http://www.dancetv.com/ which also offer video instruction I gather. This following site also has some useful instruction directly on the web, if you want to look it up. The URL is http://www.jps.net/adamd/dance/dancelessons.html.

In all, I would recommend that you search the web, which has loads of information on instructional videos and places to learn dancing as well as just dance. My usual recommendation for a starting place is the site of my friend Henry, and here is the link to his "Info" page. It lists several links to online free instruction for beginners as well places to find videos for sale.
http://www-zeus.ncsa.uiuc.edu:8080/~hneeman/ballroom_info_hotlist.html

It is a large compendium of links from all around the world but it surely is as close to being all-encompassing as I can tell.

To briefly address the issue of taking videos to instructors and asking them to teach those steps, I suggest the following. Try to learn the steps with your partner by yourself. And then proceed to a trained instructor and ask to be fixed where fixing is needed. It will be a whole lot less expensive and a good way to learn.

And if you would only let us know of your approximate location, I am sure you can get information right on here about places to take dance lessons in your area.

I wish you well in your quest. Enjoy Dancing.

Sri.

Dear Sri:

Thank you so much for your thorough answer. We live in east Fairfield county, Connecticut.

A friend we met in a recent social dance party pointed us to this forum. From what I have learned from you and a few other authurs of this forum, I think I know what we should do with our dance training from now on. First we will drop our studio organized entry level competition, $1900 for a 3-day event for two. Now we understand that we just want to be happy social dancers. After finishing our current prepaid program, we will find a good private instructor for private lessons.

In a franchesed studio environment, we have a one on one training but we share the big room with a few other "private" students and their instructors. Every instructor has the right to switch music from the only CD player at anytime. We also have "commercial break" like "bring a friend on our Thursday party and you'll get free lessons". It is sad to see a studio gets so commercialized to a degree that you feel constant pressure to increase your lesson frequency or take double lessons (an hour and half for double the fee) or to bring in a new customer.

I will check out the web sites you mentioned and thanks again. Your kind answers have provided a great service to the forum and a honest direction for me.

Dave

Interesting to read this since just last night I asked my (group) instructor to recommend if she could a "good" video from which to learn intermediate (American) ballroom. Her reply was basically non-comittal, but to watch tapes of good dancers, such as Dancesport competitions, and note the posture, technique.....

She, by the way, has just begun a new Beginner's class for Ballroom, and it is only $8 a fifty minute lesson. This class will go on forever, eventually getting to advanced beginner/intermediate level. I have no doubt she is an excellent dancer and teacher, having done both for about 15 years, (and I have seen her dance), but alas, I am a little impatient, especially since my partner and I are beyond the rank beginner level ("1 and 2, 3 and 4, pick it up, put it down" for Swing, as an example. While I eagerly await the class to reach a little higher level of instruction, I can be glad SHE doesn't get $75.00 an hour!!! So, there is some good to it.

So aside from thanks for the info from former participants, I would just like to add, you really can learn alot from just watching tapes of good dancers, or going to a dance and watching couples whose style you like. Especially if you just want to be a good/excellent social dancer.

(You may want to see if your local university or college has a branch of the ballroom dance association. Ours here in Madison Wis does (UWMBDA - affectionately known as You wahm da) and go to their dances. Those college dancers, here at least, are really fun to watch.)