7 Ways to Speed Up Your Dance Progress

Let’s clear something up right now:  Sleeping on your dance shoes won’t help.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.  Learning how to dance is a wonderful hobby full of benefits for both the body, mind, and soul.  So, naturally, any dance student excited about improvement will want to speed up their progress.  So let’s take a look at 7 ways to do it. 

1.  Back to Back lessons

Turning a 45 minute lesson into a 90 minute lesson can be the difference between feeling a little awkward to having a major breakthrough. 

Think of this like a workout, every visit to the gym needs some ramp up time to get into “gym-mode”.  This is usually followed by cardio, weight training, and then some kind of cool down activity.  

Your dance lessons work the same way.  Once you get warmed up and moving, your dance teachers want to help you hit the stride of your lessons, the flow state, if you will.  The longer they can sustain that, the bigger the level of improvement. 

2.  Accelerate Your Schedule

Your dance lesson is on Thursday night, your next one is on Thursday night, and until you accelerate your schedule a bit, you may have a lot to remember on Thursday nights.

If your dance lessons were a book, how long would it take to get a feel for the story if you only read on Thursday nights?  Going further, how much time do you think you’d spend re-reading to get back into the flow of the story? 

Once a week lessons is rooted in the same way we consumed network television before Netflix and Hulu.  You’d watch your shows once a week, at their regularly scheduled time, and hope you didn’t forget anything vital. 

3.  Try an “Off Day”

One of the most underutilized tips to make faster progress is coming in on an “off day”.  

This isn’t meant to replace your regular lessons, but adding a lesson in between your regular appointments can be the glue between lessons.  Here’s an example: 

Let’s say you come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Your best learning day is probably Thursday, and here’s why, there’s only 2 days of separation from your Tuesday lesson.  

This means that Tuesday is your day to get back into “dance mode” after a 4 day break. 

Now let’s add in a lesson on Friday or Monday.  This shortens the gap and makes your regular Tuesday lesson much more productive.  Not to mention, your Tuesday lessons will start to feel the same way that your Thursdays have. 

4.  Insert a Group Class

Think of your private lessons like fitness appointments with your personal trainer.  You’re working one on one with an agenda built around your dance progress.  Now think of your group classes at Arthur Murray like a drop in cardio class.  

While it may not be as tailored to your specific private lesson plan, it’s keeping your overall dance progress active and helps to prevent atrophy. 

This makes your next lesson with your trainer/teacher even more productive.

5.  Take a Coaching Lesson

There are so many great reasons to work with a dance coach – here are 16 if you need some.  In short, working with a dance coach (also referred to as a “coaching lesson”) is nothing short of a supercharge for your dance momentum. 

With concentrated material that is built to do everything from finishing routines to starting new dances, every coaching lesson is designed to eliminate many of the learning traffic jams you can experience along the way. 

6.  Try a Surge

Whether it’s getting in shape (see #4), a big presentation at work, or prepping for a test, we all can benefit from a concentrated time and effort.  

A surge would be the perfect way to kickstart a new project like a dance routine, a new level, or integrating a new dance into your program. 

Doing a concentrated surge in your lessons isn’t a permanent commitment in your schedule, but can create the muscle memory necessary to make the skills you learn permanent. 

7.  Practice Parties

For some students, the Practice Parties are a great chance to connect with other students and enjoy an evening of dancing together.  For others, the Practice Party is a hands on lab to put skills into action with a variety of dance partners.  

Here’s the good news:  The Practice Party can be both things.  

Remember this quote:  Information without application builds frustration.   So treat every practice party as an opportunity to work on applying the information you’ve learned.  It’s a safe and secure environment, built for you to try things out, and… it’s also fun at the same time.  

Final Thought

There aren’t any shortcuts to great dance progress.  The learning process is a journey with ups and downs.  The good news is that when you work hard for your progress, you appreciate the breakthroughs so much more. 

While it may sound exciting to take a pill to receive instant latin hip motion, but would that be an achievement?  No.  The areas in our lives where we’ve challenged ourselves, stretched beyond comfort, and fought off frustration is where achievements are earned.  

While it is a journey to achievement, that doesn’t mean we can’t upgrade the method of travel.  Using the 7 tips above will certainly add momentum and reduce the time until achievement in a fraction of the time.  

Whether it’s a temporary boost or a long term strategic upgrade, your Arthur Murray community will be there to recognize and celebrate your achievements along the way.