by Serena Edwards

Created on: May 13, 2007

Being your own teacher happens in some strange and unsuspected ways. However, unless you only intend to learn "street dance" - informal popular dances like people do in clubs, being your own teacher is not a wise way to start out. Notice, I didn't say don't do it at all. Just don't START that way. Napoleon Dynamite was a movie - not reality. You can teach yourself A dance, but it's nearly impossible to teach yourself TO dance.

Why? Because dances are not just about steps. Underlying every dance you could ever learn, there is a technique to making your body move like that. Some of the rules of technique come in universal categories - assuming the correct posture, balance, speed, timing, navigation on a crowded floor, and so forth. For that, you need a critical and experienced eye to help you on your way. You may FEEL like you are standing up straight, but it doesn't LOOK right - and this is a visual art. How it feels and how it looks are two different things. Being so attached to how we feel, that critical eye of a teacher is needed to take care how it really looks from an objective point of view. So go right ahead and take some technique classes. Believe me, your partners and your audience will appreciate the effort! Once you learn how to make it look right, you can go nuts with the expression and feelings part all you want. BE uniquely you - but with the kind of technique that makes you look fabulous on the floor.

That said, once you have the technique, it really is just steps, and you can teach those to yourself. I mean that quite literally - every time you practice a move, you are teaching your body to do what you want it to. No other person can give you that. They can guide you of course, but you have to do all the hands-on work. You can buy as many videos or dvd's as you like, but until you start teaching your muscles to do what you're seeing on the screen, absolutely nothing happens. You're only someone who has a little less shelf space and a lot of ambition. You WILL become your own teacher. It's only a matter of whether you want to give yourself the best possible start.

Dance. Dance HARD!

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