Frequently Asked Questions

No matter what particular style you pursue, you will almost always learn:

• how to lead and/or follow a partner,
• how to hear and move to the music,
• how to move smoothly through space (whether alone or with a partner),
• how to explore the movement possibilities of your body.

In addition to these, you are also likely to develop improved coordination, a better understanding of music, and a higher level of fitness. Ultimately, the more work you put into learning to dance, the more you'll grow as a dancer.

Having personalized attention is a direct and comfortable way to learn to dance. Working just with you, or with you and a partner, we can pay more attention to everything you do. You get to try more exercises, you receive more feedback, and in a shorter amount of time you will uncover a style of dancing all your own. You also get to ask all the questions you want, determine what music we use (if you so desire), and proceed at your own pace.

Yes! We love weddings, and we love being able to contribute a bit of our passion to other people's life–changing experiences. (Take a look at our testimonials to see what we mean.) Visit our Wedding Dances page for ideas about the types of lessons you can take. A series of four lessons is our recommended minimum to learn just enough of what you need to know to dance smoothly and with poise at your wedding. We suggest starting at least one month before the big day. Of course, if you have more time and enough patience, you can take as many lessons as you would like. We'll also help you find places where you can practice with each other outside of your lessons.

Our answer is probably quite different from the answers of other instructors. The most popular request that we get is to teach our open-ended approach to partner dancing. It's similar to ballroom, but even though it can be danced with ballroom style, it isn't exactly waltz or foxtrot or tango or any other established form. Instead, it is a process of leading and following that gives both partners the understanding they need to lead/follow each other through a range of stepping patterns, turns, positions, dips, and more. Leads love this approach because they don't have to spend all their time thinking about their feet, and they are truly allowed to lead. Follows love it because they're given the chance to truly listen to their partner's signals and to actively support their half of the dance.

In addition to our unique and open-ending approach to partner dancing, we have taught several couples the basics of tango, rumba, swing, and even disco. We have also created several choreographies to different styles of music, and we even helped one couple expand upon a dance pattern of their own creation!

We can also help students with blues, waltz, foxtrot, cha cha, salsa, merengue, nightclub twostep, and hustle. We have also worked with students who wanted to learn side-by-side solo routines like Saturday Night Fever, and we can easily break down popular dance styles and line dances to make them suitable for "bust-out" wedding dances.

Our classes and lessons aren't about trying to keep up with the group or trying to learn a hard-to–remember sequence of steps which might as well be an alien language. Our classes are about discovering how each of us can move, learning how to connect with a dance partner, and finding our own unique styles and approaches to movement. Further on in this section you can read a little about the actual structure of a typical class.

The greatest benefit of a group class is the group. By trading partners and dancing with other students, you will develop a deeper understanding of connection and learn how to dance with a variety of different people. By watching other students, you will also learn approaches to movement that may not have occurred to you. And of course, dancing with a group of people is one of the most fulfilling activities there is!

Nope! We rotate our students during class so they have the chance to practice with more than one person.

Of course! Even if you were to bring a partner, it is still helpful to dance with other people because everyone learns at a different rate, and everyone brings something different to the dance. Once you learn how to dance with a partner in our class, you can apply what you've learned to just about any other situation involving partner dancing.

Although there is variation between every class we teach, you can be confident that we will almost always follow the same basic structure. Class begins with a warm-up to music. This involves gentle isolated movements of all the major areas of the body. Time permitting, we also briefly use whole body movement exploration to further warm ourselves up. After the warm-up, we explore at least one foundational skill, sometimes with music, sometimes without. Examples of skills include moving through space, connection with a partner, or stepping patterns. This skill is then used in the next section of class, during which we dance with partners (in the case of Creative Partner Dancing) or explore other movement concepts. This is the longest portion of the class, and we use it not only to offer guidance and instruction, but to answer questions, troubleshoot problem areas, and individually help students as well. We also use this time to watch for the unique changes our students inevitably bring to the movement, and in turn we present such changes as additional movement possibilities. Toward the end of class we guide students through several more minutes of practice, always with music. Finally, we like to offer one more thought "for the road," for practicing at home. At least one of us usually stays after class to answer questions.

The patterns that we teach are not like the patterns of swing, salsa, tango, or any other established dance style. They are the units of footwork that comprise those styles. Initially these units are taught or explored after the warm-up. They don't have to be mastered. Rather, they are used to spark some ideas about footwork that you can decide to use later in your partnering. If we see that you start to put things together in a way that resembles salsa, for example, we will point this out to you and show you how to develop it further if you choose to do so.

Typically our students are from their early twenties to their late fifties. However, there are no age restrictions, and anyone who wants to dance is welcome to join us.

All of our classes are meant for anyone who wants to learn to dance with a partner. Therefore they are just as suitable for beginners who have never danced before as they are for more advanced dancers who don't yet know how to partner dance. We will always specify if any experience is needed for particular class.

Our classes are particularly useful if you want to create more possibilities in your dancing. They will also help you better understand the elements of all partner dancing, thus giving you more control over what you are able to do. The result of such control is freedom from the moves you may have learned in another class, and the ability to create your own moves either spontaneously on the floor or while practicing with a partner.

Wear loose, comfortable, cool clothing. You may want to carry a handkerchief if you find you sweat easily. If we're in a public studio, you should wear shoes, and they should also fit well and be comfortable enough to dance in. Avoid shoes that have too much traction! The best soles slide a little on wood and other smooth floors. We typically wear jazz shoes which have hard rubber soles designed for spinning. Other possibilities include leather, fake leather, and suede. A last resort for comfy athletic shoes that stick too much is duct tap applied to the front half of the sole. Women, by the way, definitely do not have to wear heels. When we teach at our home studio, we actually prefer thick, comfy socks.

This depends on you and your level of commitment and patience. It also depends on your definition of a good dancer! The more you dance, of course, the more you will expand your comfort level. If you practice some concepts on your own, you will find yourself improving even faster. Of course, there's always that busy schedule to contend with, so be patient! We ask our students to give themselves at least a month before they decide to continue or quit. It took David exactly that long to learn the basic swing step for the first time!

Yes! Even to us, the first time can seem incredibly scary. Whenever either of us takes a new class, we have to force ourselves out the door. We don't know what to expect or what will be asked of us, and of course we wonder just how we might fail in front of the teacher and maybe even the whole class!

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, wrote a great blog entry about his first dance class experience (this link opens in a new window), and it perfectly captures what a lot of people endure the first time around.

But since we all know it's something we would really like to do, we face our fears anyway, right?

Yes... with one exception. We discourage any partner dancing that does not involve full and ongoing cooperation between both partners. That type of partner dancing endangers the safety of both partners. Some examples: when a follow dips herself without preparing her lead for it.. when a lead flips a follow without making sure she wants to flip... when a lead yanks a follow around instead of gently guiding/signalling her through the dance.

Not necessarily. Although there are those who believe a man should always lead—and thus control—the dance, and a woman should follow, we like to bend and even abolish the old rules. Even when it appears as if one person is leading everything, the dance is really an ongoing, balanced dialogue between the dancers; both signal to each other, and both interpret and respond to each other's signals. There is no sense of control involved. We admit that one partner will tend to signal more than the other—so we refer to this person as the lead—but the person following his or her signals always has the choice of whether to follow the lead's signal or to signal a change. Ideally, both dancers are aware of each other at all times, able to listen and react to each other in the moment as the dance changes and evolves.