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Practice,
practice, practice. Practice, with and without your
dance lesson DVD, will begin to establish the
necessary muscle memory to transfer the dancing
basics learned from your short-term memory to your
long-term memory. Practice in the comfort of your own
home, practice tapping rhythms to various radio
stations as you drive around, and practice your
alignment and carriage as you stand, sit, and
ambulate about your daily activities.
Putting
It All Together
Effective
learning starts with a confident and motivated
mindset toward the material at hand. If you’re
not relaxed and open to the material, the best
teaching techniques in the world won’t help
you. Next, you’ll want to absorb the dance
training in the way that best suits your learning
preference, whether it’s visual, auditory,
kinesthetic, or a combination of the three. After
absorbing the material, you’ll want to explore
the material to the extent that you turn your newly
learned skills into a deep understanding. You can do
this by digging deeper into each subject area and by
asking questions of those around you. Look up
information online or go to local classes or dances
and ask questions. The more your mind is involved,
the easier it’ll be for your body to pick the
dances up. Memorizing key sequences, numbers, facts,
or steps is another way to quickly turn this
dance-training program into a long-term foundation.
Most of all, you’ll want to demonstrate that
you know the material. Get out and dance. Practice,
practice, practice, as they say, but do so only with
the right information because muscle memory is hard
to break. Dance with others and continue your
learning. You’re embarking upon a whole new
world of opportunities, and you don’t want to
go into it the wrong way.
To make the
most of your learning experience, go through your
dance lesson DVD methodically, perhaps taking some
notes the first time through to get your mind in a
learning mode. Combine your reading with the first
lesson on the DVD and get your first taste of the
visual, audio, and kinesthetic styles working
together. From that point forward, it’s best to
just dive into each dance and spend time
understanding it, watching it on the DVD, and then
dancing it yourself. Celebrate your successes along
the way, and you’ll keep the momentum up
through your final dance. Finally, start with the
basics. If you skip the foundational dance
concepts explained and shown in the beginning, it
will dramatically increase how long it will take you
to pick up the more advanced moves and combinations
taught later.
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