By Francisco De La Calleja
“We are going to try lessons with him, he’s a great dancer and we were told by a friend that he is a very patient teacher...”
Whenever I hear words like those, whether I know the students or the instructor in question, my very first reflex is to say: “If you want to enjoy dancing and taking lessons, please stay away from patient teachers!”
This may seem strange, given that patience is a quality that most students would expect from a dance teacher.
In fact, whenever I start a dance teacher training class, I usually ask the teacher trainees what are the qualities that they see as their most valuable and patience is perennially in the top two, along with dancing ability.
But I see patience as overrated and here is why:
Teachers that, right off the bat, claim to be patient with their students do so because they -consciously or not- know that something is missing from their teaching method and that such gaps in their knowledge will invariably lead to repeated “mistakes” by the student, which will create the need for massive amounts of repetition, both of their explanation and of the exercise the student will attempt, with the corresponding frustration.
Most times this lack of knowledge has its root in the fact that these instructors begin teaching career basing their method in their own dancing skill. This, by itself presents no problem but often these great dancers lack the curiosity to figure out exactly why dancing comes so easily to them. Questioning this simple fact would invariably lead them to observe how they learned and eventually, how other people learn.
Unfortunately for their students, some of these teachers could not be bothered to consider alternate perspectives on dancing and learning other than their own. Instead, they will put the blame for any perceived lack of progress on the student’s natural ability or lack thereof, their assiduity to class or their motivation, eventually reaching the conclusion that their students are slow, not gifted or simply unable to learn and since they don’t want to lose them (and the corresponding income they bring), they have to be patient with them.
Good teachers, on the other hand, don’t need to be patient because they know that every part of the teaching and learning process has its place and time. They know this because they have the knowledge and experience to organize their teaching method in logically sequential exercises that make the students feel like every time they try, they are succeeding at learning something new.
Their lessons are deceptively easy and simple but they progress at a very fast rate, seldom leaving someone behind. Additionally, good teachers create a learning environment where questions of all kinds are welcome, even encouraged, thus avoiding situations where they have to backtrack and re-teach a previous idea.
Furthermore, good teachers are excellent communicators, a quality that helps them on two fronts:
First, they are very good at decoding the student’s behaviour to learn more about how they learn. No two students are the same and no two students learn the same way either. In fact, most people have a variable array of data perception and integration channels. Therefore a good teacher won’t waste time repeating instructions into non active channels, avoiding frustration and the ensuing counteraction: patience.
Secondly, a good communicator will give instruction in a concise manner, avoiding convoluted explanations that lead to misunderstandings, confusion, frustration and… yes, the need for patience.
So if you are looking for a good latin dance teacher and your objective is to really learn to dance, forget about good looks, great dancing, gold medals, latino ancestry or patience. Better to look instead for someone who is curious, observant, organized, creative and good communicator.