Learning to dance is a physical activity, but the kinesthetic aspects of a dance lesson experience with Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection start before you get on the dance floor and expand beyond the studio.

 Write It Down

 Kinesthetic learning is at the heart of dance instruction. This isn’t a huge surprise because kinesthetic learning provides the umbrella for all “hands-on,” activity-based educational experiences. What might surprise you as a learner is where and when the kinesthetic learning starts. Activate the kinesthetic portion of your brain and memory by engaging in the multi-sensory experience of taking notes as you read Picture Yourself Dancing, research ballroom dance, or watch a DVD. Not only will you be providing yourself with an additional written record or cue card to stimulate your visual learning, you will also be engaging the activity-hungry portion of your brain with the act of note-taking.

Exercises

Each of the dance lesson DVDs in Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection highlights exercises to assist you in developing particular muscular traits or dance habits. Note these exercises and incorporate them into your routine at home.

For example, in Chapter 2 of our book, Picture Yourself Dancing, an abbreviated series of stretching exer cises is outlined. These gentle exercises, if you are physically capable of performing them, are beneficial as you pursue your daily activities as well as learn to dance.

Drills

Throughout Picture Yourself Dancing and the dance lesson DVDs from Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection dance-specific drills are noted. Very simply put, practice the drills. Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection is specifically designed to be cumulative learning experiences. Success in the major cumulative dance concepts taught in Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection is achieved through mastering the individual components of couples social dancing and the individual dances.

Dancing along with the DVDs

As stressed in the visual and auditory learning sections, use the dance instruction DVDs. Dance along with the instructors as they go through the curriculum. You can watch the DVD first to take notes and absorb, but it is imperative that at some point in your learning experience you get up, get moving, and start dancing along with the DVD. This will stimulate the activity-based portions of your brain, much like note-taking, but on a more systemic level, and it will give you a chance to practice making your body do what the instructor’s body is doing as he or she is doing it.