FAQs: Dance Lesson Videos, Shipping, Returns & more

On the short end, each title (Video or DVD) is broken up into several “lessons” that all stack together. This means what you learn in the first lesson will be used in the second lesson and then what you learn in the second lesson is used in the third, and so on. Each title goes anywhere from about an hour to just over two hours. Unlike most dance lesson videos, Shawn’s lessons are not just individual chunks that you have to replay over and over to get. You’ll dance along in real-time and continue to practice and learn while you go.

Great question. First, this question has several elements. In-person lessons (whether private or group) have a different feel. Your environment matters, lighting matters, ability to see, hear & understand matters, the instructor matters, the preparation for the class matters, your classmates matter, the music choices matter, the dance floor matters. Any one of these factors not being great or even well thought out will affect your overall experience. For example, if every one of the factors were perfect but you walked in on an instructor who had no plan for the class and was just going to wing it based on whoever shows up, you’ll be mighty disappointed.

So, yes, your overall experience can affect how much you learn. Now, contrast that with a fully thought-out and delivered curriculum that you can reference at any point instead of just hoping you remember it. You get to determine the other pieces and get your environment best suited for learning on your schedule, not on someone else’s.

All that said, if you’re comparing actual lesson time on a minute vs minute scale, you’d get much more for your time by using Shawn Trautman’s dance instruction videos.

What you won’t get, though, is any constructive feedback from an instructor if you just use videos. It’s for that reason that you’d either want to supplement your lessons with in-person lessons or contact Shawn directly for video lessons to iron out any difficulties you might be having.

This is a great question that has so much to do with your current situation. Historically, the top recommendation by customers is dance lessons 101, though that’s probably because it’s had the most visibility of any of our products and it was released prior to our new 101 series.

If you’ve never danced before and feel you have zero coordination and two-left feet, Dance Lessons 101 may be right up your alley. If you have a decent grasp on your ability to move & take kinesthetic direction, the new beginner 101 series will much better fit your needs.

Dance Lessons 101 was specifically designed for those who have never danced a day in their lives and want to start at square one. Dance Lessons 101 will also give you a good idea of what dances you will like. If you know the specific dance you want to learn or if you’ve taken lessons in the past, you should look at one of the 101 DVDs such as Swing Dancing 101 or Salsa 101 as they’ll set the tone and give you the foundation to start with.

Last, if you find that Dance Lessons 101 is too fast for you or goes at a pace that you’re not yet comfortable with, you should take a look at Slow Dancing for Beginners Volume 1. We often recommend the slow dancing series as a great starting point as it provides a great platform to build upon.

This is a tough one, though there’s still hope. Just as dancing is supposed to be fun, so is the learning process. There’s generally a reason behind someone not wanting to learn and most of the time it has to do with confidence as no one wants to be embarrassed, especially in front of a loved one or friends. The best thing to do is to set up a month-to-month membership and try the instruction on your own – then repeat it and try the instruction from your partner’s perspective (i.e., if you’re a lady, try the man’s part) so you can talk confidently about its ease when you explain it to him/her. It’s a much easier sell if you have it on and ask him/her to join you and “it’s really easy” than to ask if they’d be interested in learning how to dance. Keep in mind, too, we’re one of the few companies that allow you to cancel at any time with no recurring fees past what you signed up for.

No – and this goes along with the question above regarding a partner who doesn’t want to learn to dance. It’s easy to learn the steps on your own, but we encourage you to try to learn both parts. this way, you’ll understand what’s supposed to happen and it will make things easier when you try to dance with others. There are countless places to dance socially with others who “just want to dance.”

Most men feel this way or ask this question, but it’s not just men. It boils down to being taught what to listen for and how to apply it to your dancing (in other words, it’s a learned skill). The skill itself is what’s called perception-motor match and is something that can be practiced alone or with a partner. There are a number of tips and drills for understanding rhythm and music in our book, Picture Yourself Dancing (page 21). In addition, Shawn Trautman’s videos do a great job of explaining the steps and using danceable music to practice with while dancing along with you to ensure you’re keeping up.

If you feel like you have two left feet, don’t despair! We can help! And, you’re not alone. Shawn Trautman has developed a system that is excellent for beginners and for people who’ve never danced a day in their lives. It’s so easy to go through his videos and actually feel good about what you’ve learned. We hear all the time that the instruction was painless and that people are amazed by their own abilities that they never knew they had. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to accomplish something such as learning how to dance, especially if you thought you never could. You’re only one video from Shawn Trautman away from changing your impression of your feet!

This is a great question! The best line dance video for beginners has to do with what your goals are. If you want to learn a few line dances so you can have some fun at an upcoming dance, wedding or cruise, then you’ll probably want to check out Club Line Dances 1&2 as it will give you what you need

Differently, if you’re new to line dancing and want to learn how to do each type of step so you can learn line dances all night long the next time you’re out, you’ll probably want to watch Line Dance 101. This video collection was built for people who want to learn one step at a time (truly step-by-step instructions) and build in a stacked learning format.

Absolutely. We’ve implemented a full learning management software package and have designed it to be both user friendly and helpful as it relates to your progress. You get to keep track of your own progress as you go and mark each lesson as complete once you feel you’ve “got it” and not just that you’ve watched it. This way, YOU get to control your progress instead of someone else.

Yes, and that’s one of the huge advantages. You can start one style, say Country Two-Step, and then a 1/2 hour in decide you want to do the basics of Swing or learn a line dance. You can bounce back and forth as much as you like and you have over 400 different dance lesson videos to choose from. Each one averages 12 minutes in length.

This is a great question. You can certainly “start anywhere”, but you should be aware of what the best starting point is for each dance or style of dancing. For example, if you’re wanting to learn Swing and you have no experience, you’d struggle with something like West Coast Swing for Beginners as it’d be completely different than what you’re hoping for. To ensure you’re starting in the right spot, you’re welcome to contact us anytime at 877-326-2301 and we’ll make sure you’re taken care of.

We have a dedicated e-learning website that houses all our dance lesson videos and you’ll receive access to it once your order has gone through. You’ll receive a welcome email as well as instructions and a link that gets you in and ready to start having fun!

Though there are many people who access their lessons directly on their phone, the vast majority of students use either their desktop or laptop and have it playing wherever they’re learning. If you have internet access on your TV with a browser, you can also utilize the online lessons that way, and, of course, if you have a tablet with internet access or wifi you can always use that.

For the trial and streaming versions of the online dance lessons that are time-based, you won’t have an option to download the videos. As cool as that would be, we don’t have access to that technology. For those who’ve made outright purchases of The Signature Collection, you’l have the ability to download the lessons as well but they’ll still be under copyright so they cannot be openly shared online without penalty under law.

This one happens more than you’d think. If you happen to accidentally scratch your dance lesson DVDs or they get scratched or cease to work in some fashion, just contact us. Usually you’d be responsible for sending the disc back to us and paying for the return shipping to have a new one sent out to you. It’s no hassle at all and allows us to ensure that you always have what you need to keep moving forward.

We ship our dance lesson DVDs 6 days a week (not on Sunday) and use the U.S.P.S. We usually process all orders by 10am CST to ensure same-day pickup, but we also make exceptions and will process some orders up until about 3pm CST and then make a special trip to the post office. If you have a special request and need DVDs sent out at a particular time or day and select Express Mail, please give us a call and we’ll do our best to accommodate you in any way we can. Our number is 877-DANCE-01.

This one’s not a simple response as we partner with the U.S.P.S. We do our part by getting the DVDs packaged and shipped quickly, but then it goes to the next step. The next step is usually pretty accurate with time frames and is listed as follows: Express Mail (1-2 days), Priority (2-5 days), First-Class (3-7 days), and Media Mail (4-10 days). The variation mostly has to do with staffing issues, demand, and weather. The U.S.P.S. prioritizes their workload for those who’ve paid more and chosen their Express or Priority services.

We want you to be completely satisfied with your purchases and we have a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. If you’re not completely satisfied with your lessons for any reason, let us know and we’ll either get you a replacement that works for you or we’ll refund you. If you’ve ordered more than one DVD, please note that our policy has copyright restrictions on it and allows for only one DVD to be opened. In other words, if you order 6 DVDs and the third one you tried just isn’t for you, let us know and we’ll replace that one or we’ll refund you for that particular one once we receive it back.

Yes. We ship our dance lessons all over the world, however, the shipping times are super unreliable. This was one of the major reasons we made our entire collection available via streaming options. If you’re okay with the added expense of shipping, plus the added time frame, we’ll be happy to send dance lessons to wherever you currently reside.

Good question. As there are several regions where DVDs are encoded based on available licensing, our dance lesson DVDs are all-region encoded and shouldn’t have any problem playing anywhere around the world.