Rhythm & Grace's Introductory Program is simply a taste and orientation to the possibilities that enhancing one's life through dancing can bring. It the beginning of a tailor-made approach to determining your goals or desires and working towards attaining them. After a brief interview to identify what you are hoping to get from our experience, we will promptly begin addressing them with the end product in mind. Let's so a brief walk-thru of what an average beginning first private lesson might be in any credible dance studio.
Beginning the lesson
In any dance school, your first lesson begins with your arrival to the studio. You should be welcomed and greeted by one of the staff, invited to hang your coat and given a brief tour of the studio facilities.
You'll then receive a simple registration form to fill out. It's important to ensure it's legible and your contact information is entered. Rhythm & Grace believes a studio should not share your personal information with anyone for marketing, or other reasons - so you might want to ask about that, if at another school. It should be contact information that you would readily be reached at because it will help in cases of inclement weather cancellations and getting electronic receipts. You can take care of your payment with your instructor or studio receptionist at that time (unless you have a gift certificate or have already purchased your lessons in advance).
Often times, at some schools, you will be starting from a new student special of sorts, which would be a free or some shorter or discounted lessons presented as a package of lessons. The dollar amount can be practically negligible as this is designed to get individuals into the studio and overcome any concerns of financial commitment. This isn't a practice we use at Rhythm & Grace as we never had a need for it, but there isn't anything particularly wrong with this method used in other studios.
Your lesson will start. There will likely be a note regarding your appointment from when you called in or emailed telling your instructor about your needs, but when you start your lesson, it would be a good time to restate them to ensure your instructor understands.
At Rhythm & Grace, you'll be introduced to some simple fundamentals to make moving with a partner possible in the most practical manner we can. You won't find anything challenging at this point - the challenge will be when you get to put it all together later.
You'll then learn the basic step for the dance you'll be starting with. The basic step is the primary pattern that particular dance is built on, and all subsequent patterns learned will be in some way, based on that original pattern. You'll then put that to music, coached onto the correct beat by your instructor. Simple.
And so it goes through the dances that will be most useful to your needs.
End of the lesson
Ideally, a brief review of what was covered in the lesson would occur, but you should take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate that fact that you did get started, and hopefully, you'll be pleasantly surprised it was easier than you thought. You should be excited for your next lesson.
Common misconceptions
Some common misconceptions most students start with are that they are uncoordinated or you need some dance experience. Nothing can be further from the truth. In any person's life, they have experienced their natural body mechanics at work, be it jazz/tap/ballet at a very young age, sports, martial arts, or simply living the day to day life of any average person. Just walking and running, getting out of the way of some object, or going to the movie theater or walking into the studio, have the basic body mechanical (this means use of bones and muscles) experience to draw upon. to begin learning dance. If you can walk, you can dance!
Another popular misconception is not having any rhythm. If you have a heart beat, you have rhythm. More often, there are simply some confusions associated with music and what you are listening for, which again, get cleaned up quite nicely early on in your lessons. A good instructor will be able to help sort this out and get you on the road to hearing the music to dance to.
Finally, the idea you must have a partner. Again, this is not true. Most students of dance partner with their teacher for shows, competitions, or other events we offer. Our school was established by students who have taken their social dancing to the next level and have become strong competitive dancers. Partnering with a professional gives one access to higher level skills and dance ability than with another amateur partner, and makes them a much more popular partner socially because of the pleasure it is to dance with others.
Whatever you present and future needs, you will get there in confidence and style, with Rhythm & Grace. Call us today and get started.
Some people seem to think good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I've known have been taught or trained.
