Not my style

I wrote in the last post that  I was really psyched about having found a new dance class. Well, not really anymore. I've since gone for three classes and none have gotten better than the previous one.

While I was waiting for my first class to start, I was chatting with a few of the regulars and one of them told me that she'd been taking this class for about 2 years now and that the instructor is really detailed and really works on one dance until everyone gets it perfect. Promising, I thought.

And then when the class started, I was a little taken aback. This was the beginners class and the choreography was simply full of complicated steps that added no value in learning the basic techniques. They were the kind of things that would be 'nice to have' to make a routine look more interesting. I found myself spending more time trying to remember at which point I was supposed to walk forwards or backwards rather than concentrating on getting my shoulder shimmy perfectly even while walking.

Nevermind, I thought. Every teacher has their own style. Let's stick with this for a bit and see how it goes.

Later that lesson, I found that we had to do a reverse belly roll - something I've yet to learn as my previous instructor was still trying to get us to perfect the belly roll itself. And it was quite apparent that nobody else in the class, including those who have  been with her for a year or two, seemed to know how to do it right. No references to "Remember that time we worked on this. Just suck in here, release there?" or anything of that sort from the instructor either.

At the second lesson, we got to a point in the routine where we then have to do hip drops and she actually encouraged a lack of isolation and thus lots of bouncing about.

And at the third lesson we were doing some kind of formation thing where we ended up in one line that was rather more complicated than necessary. And then when she did spend a lot of time working on a particular move, it was one of the walking ones that required some bending of one knee and pushing the other hip back, it didn't seem like there were any precautions one should take to ensure they're not hurting their knees or back. Well, my lower back was aching (and not in a good "I've had a great workout" way) the next morning.
It just seems like she's just hurrying us along with all sorts of shortcuts to make her routine "look interesting" at the coming recital the studio is having.

A little bit bummed that this didn't turn out to be the kind of class I was looking for. Admittedly she does make us try out a lot more things that my previous instructor did, but trying it out isn't the same as actually learning a technique properly.
Kind of like getting your little beginner pianist to perform super-simplified classical greats on the piano that add no value to technique instead of having the child pwn his John Thompson at the class recital. Okay, that was a seriously random and super old school analogy. But you get what I mean!