How many lessons do you need?

[elisedance]

This is a question I've been pondering.  Its really addressed at amateur (or professional for that matter) partnerships since pro/ams basically need as many lessons as they can get, that being the only way for a meaningful practise!

However, we've taken maybe 5 lessons in the last three months - but we practise together 4 to 10 hrs a week.  Its not that we don't need them - we surely do - but that there is so much we can work on by ourselves.  That is obviously the real benefit of studying basics - once you have them you can apply them to new stuff without going too far off.  Thus, we try out new steps from videos and get them to work by discussion eventually we will dance our sequences in a lesson and get the technique corrected.  I'm sure we could advance faster with a few more lessons but also get the feeling that you can actually have to many - if you have too much new stuff you run the danger of thinking how to dance rather than actually dancing (a point DSV made elsewhere).

[SwingWaltz]

I heard that for every hour of lesson, you should do 2-3 hours of practise. Can I assume the same way the other way around? For every 2-3 hours of practise, you need 1 hour of lesson to back it up.

[elisedance]

Good question - if so then we are WAY below   Perhaps that is optimum to help prevent bad habits but I suspect that the ratio changes with experience.  Thus, a beginner needs far more lessons on average than a (competing) pro...

[Dora-Satya Veda]

I heard that for every hour of lesson, you should do 2-3 hours of practise. Can I assume the same way the other way around? For every 2-3 hours of practise, you need 1 hour of lesson to back it up.

That is the ratio that I have used with many of my students. I must however say it also depends how you use your lessons. So it is a little difficult to give an exact formula.

I know of several very successful dancers (amateur couples and professional couples) that take 2 lessons a week and the practice Friday for 2 hours and Sunday for 2 hours. That is what they were/are able to do. I know a couple that have reach world levels with this kind of physical input. They were also trained to use their mind to practice and how many hours they did of "mind practice" I have no idea. I am however sure it would be quit a few.

DSV

[Lioness]

We take an hour lesson per week, but get almost no practise time. In fact, the only practise time we get is a few hours before our lesson when we are actually in a group lesson that caters for below our level.

[skipper]

i agree that for pro-am it is very different than for am/am or pro/pro.  The pro-amers use lesson time for paid practise.
Just recently I have started to do some am/am practise---and it is very different. I think I would prefer to have limited, but high quality and focused practise. The number of "hours" is not important.

[elisedance]

but what happens with AM/Am practise, if you are lucky, is that you start to love to work with that person.  Maybe we need a topic on this but there is something amazingly special about the whole partnership aspect of partner-danceing.  Its truly a unique relationship.  I mean there are a number of occupations where you work very closely with someone but surely none, short of a life-partnership, do you do so in such close proximity!  I'm assuming, of course, that one has a non-personal dance partnership.

[QPO]

we stay with two lessons (Private a week) we were doing a group class as well but have found them to be not as beneficial these days....they seem  to be moving much slower.

We wont be increasing that at the moment...it is also a budge t issue

[elisedance]

I stopped doiing groups years ago - I got frustrated when the teacher would work with just one favorite all the time.  Of course, she loved it ...

[QPO]

well our teachers are pretty good and try not to favor anyone in particular other than keeping an eye on the students that have private lessons with them

[SwingWaltz]

Hmmm....I've been doing a lot of digging lately.

So I just realized that I have 10 dances to learn in total to cover for competitions. Not for the next comp immediately, but sometimes they swap things around, and just to be prepared for anything they can throw at me, 10 dances seems like a good estimate.

Assumming we have 2 hours of lesson a week, it would take 5 weeks to go through each dance, one per lesson from scratch (new partner, new coach).  

So people would think the obvious solution is have more lessons....well duh. Problem is I can't really afford more lessons, more practise time, sure! Apart from that, any other suggestions?

Um, I guess I'm in a position similar to a 10 dance competitor. How many hours of lesson and practise do 10 dance competitors usually do per week?

[elisedance]

Its not that simple.  Dances are really variations of partnerdancing - in most ballroom dances the same rules apply, they are just adapted to each dance.  So if you learn positioning, poise, shaping, movement, ballance in one dance - its really easy to learn the next one.

Funny how it is - before one learns how to dance most people are terrified about the steps and whether they can learn them.  After a few years the steps seem to be the most trivial aspect, picked up in a few minutes, and only the beginning of the learning process...

[QPO]

yes I agree. there are certain things that you learn that apply to all the dances. now in NV for instance, what you learn for a foxtrot dance then everything you learn for one applies for the other, what you then concentrate is the styling and that then applies to the Waltz's.

We did that last night when we practiced concentrated on the differences and make them sharp. When we go to a social practice we will do the whole dance and incorporate everything.

for every one hour of instruction you must do four hours practice. I believe that is the ratio that applies to all study

[elisedance]

for every one hour of instruction you must do four hours practice. I believe that is the ratio that applies to all study

I hate hard rules.  For each violin lesson I probably do 50-60 hrs study; for each dance one, 10 hrs practise - but obviously I don't only work on the specific thing taught in the lesson - its when I reach the point where I feel I need another lesson...

[Rugby]

After a few years the steps seem to be the most trivial aspect, picked up in a few minutes, and only the beginning of the learning process...

Exactly what I say.