My first Ballroom Dance teaching lesson

I had my first dance lesson with Foster Lampert of DanceLovers.com. My goal is to become an exceptional Ballroom Dance instructor. Foster is over 70 years old and one of the finest men and instructors I know.

I started taking dance lessons from him back in 2002, met my future wife in class and then dropped out for a while. I wasn’t sure I wanted to make the effort at becoming a teacher in my 40’s however recent developments made me realize that if I didn’t at least try I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Foster and his wife Judi have a very detailed system for teaching which I hope to outline in these posts. Primarily it will give me the opportunity to review my lesson for that day which I believe will benefit me greatly.

So, what did I learn? Well, the Lamperts generally teach groups of students in 12-week increments. Each new course building on the previous course. Foster started me with the course for Beginner’s which has material in Single Swing, Waltz, Foxtrot, Rumba and Cha Cha.

Foster starts these classes slowly and repeats the previous weeks’ content the next week and adds a little each week. By the end of the 12 week course the students have a foundation they can take out that includes rudimentary knowledge in all 5 dances.

The very first thing he does is tell the new students that dancing is a lifetime hobby and is incredibly healthy being good for both the mind and body. He let’s everyone know they will have a great time and as dancers will make lots of wonderful friends.

He then has the students move to opposite ends of the room. Men on one side and women on the other. Then he shows them how to walk in place using the count 1-2-3-4. Since they are beginner’s he doesn’t mention what step he’s teaching or the dance it is in. This is so the students don’t get a preconceived notion about what the step might look like.

For instance if he were to say he’s teaching the box step in Waltz he’s found that several students have an idea of what that is and are often wrong. But if he were to say “Step, Side, Together” and have the students repeat that over and over again they are getting the muscle memory before knowing what they are actually doing.

In any case after the students learn to walk in place for four counts he than has them change the rhythm to walk, walk, run, run, or step, step, march, march. This is the foundation for single swing.

Foster taught me much more this day but it’s been a while since I took the lesson so I’ll elaborate within the next two weeks when I have my next lesson.