I'm probably not one to talk because I have a long way to go to greatness and at my age will be hardpressed to even get there. But I can share what I've discovered that helped me make monumental leaps.
The key, I believe, is in right-brain learning, teaching and awareness. When I first started seriously studying ballroom which was about 3 1/2 years ago, I went to an American Smooth teacher because that was what I wanted to do. I had just taken his year long Standard syllabus group class, so when he asked me what I wanted to work on in my first lesson, I replied, "You've seen me dance for a year. You tell me what I should work on." He said, "You need swing." And so he proceeded to work on that for the entire 45 minutes. I got only a 2 minute explanation of what swing was. The remaining 43 minutes was dancing during which he constantly drew my awareness to what his body was doing, and what mine was. By the end of the 45 minutes, I had it. I felt my dancing had jumped up many levels. It was certainly very, very different. The next week he worked on lateral swing. The week after that release of the knee and use of the standing leg. And each time, he used the same technique. No talk. All action and awareness. After 3 weeks, my practice partner arrived home after a 3 week visit overseas. I found I could no longer dance with him. I felt like I hit a wall each time I tried. In just 3 weeks I felt I had advanced to where I had known others had taken years to arrive, and my teacher agreed.
I believe our body is our greatest instructor but we don't often listen. Instead, our brains become too cluttered with too many instructions that confuse our muscles. That confusion and clutter prevents us from putting all the pieces into a fluid whole. That teacher taught me how to become body aware, and becoming body aware, helped me put the pieces together quicker.
Since then, I've made it my passion to study how people learn and particularly, the best way for dancers or athletes to learn. I've found nothing to indicate that left brain analytical thinking is really as efficient as right brain.
Currently I study with an Italian who is very right brained. He explains very little. Instead he demonstrates. I watch, and as I do, I turn it into a right brain exercise. Instead of analyzing what he is doing with his head, feet, hips and shoulders, I imagine what that must feel like. I also create a mental picture of what that must look like when I do it. Then I practice, practice, practice - ALONE. I don't analyze or criticize. I allow myself to make mistakes, but I try and try again, over and over. I let my mind be the passenger and my body the driver. The mind then becomes the observer, watching, feeling and listening to what my body is doing. Eventually, I get it. My body knows it and I have this realization that what I'm actually feeling is what I imagined it would feel like when I watched my teacher demonstrate. Then I allow my mind to be a little more engaged and to pay attention to what my body parts are doing. I check in to see what my feet are doing, where my head is, etc. And at that time, the instructions I received in the past come into play and reaffirm for me that what I'm doing must be right. The instructions become my litmus test of whether or not I'm doing it right instead of the driving force which I gave my body permission to be.
(By the way, you can still apply these techniques if you have a left-brained teacher. Just convert what he tells you into awareness.)
I honestly believe right-brain learning is the way to go if you want to advance quickly. Doesn't mean you won't have lots of work ahead of you, though. It takes time to build the musculature, coordination, and muscle memories you need. But keeping your analytical brain out of it as much as possible will allow your muscles to learn new skills on their own at a much faster rate without distraction. From what I've discovered, muscles have a "mind of their own," and since they should be the driving force, it's just best to let them drive.
) enough to get to a high level very fast. I didn't know what I had done until a two to three years after I retired. I was trying to get students to do what I had done with no success. I had to find out what I had done if I was to become a successful teacher and coach. Through several mentors I finally realized what I had done and what was done to me. It did take a while to see the patten that my teacher in England took me through. There was three things, that my main teacher (my dance dad) did that made a major shift in my dancing.
but I have learned so much already...
)
