Learning process - step 1: Copying or rote learning

The first session has begun - the intial warm up and then the first task (no theory, nothing) - just One-two-three-four...
Only four simple but unnatural steps. Full concentration is required to follow the teacher in her agile movements. Every one of my moves looks clumsy and the steps taken are far too big. Confidence - no.
Then some Salsa music is played and off we go - not really. Things are not getting any easier - matching steps with the pace of the rhythms appears a huge hurdle to jump.
But after a few minutes I find that the music (if played slowly) actually helps to synchronise the steps and somehow there is a bit more flow in the movements, although without guidance from the tutor it would not work.
Final task: grab a partner and try to string the four steps together with the added pressure of 'leading' the moves. Now this is a completely different situation - the element of group work (if only two) brings in a new level of complexity if not anxiety, not eased by the fact that the partners change every few minutes.
The stress makes one loose one's concentration of what has been learned only 10 minutes ago. Obviously what has been learnt has not yet been transmitted to the long-term memory. Is this caused by some sort of examination/performance stress?
This is the first big hurdle of the session and some participants do not cope and will not return for the next class.
I'm not sure what makes me persevere - I do enjoy the music and the moves separatly but putting it together with a partner is quite stressful. However towards the end of the class things do improve and a sense of confidence if not a quaint sense of achievement sets in. The outcome is still not brilliant but the foundations have been laid - the rest will come.
Clearly this little plant needs nurturing in the form of practising back home - peer pressure from the dancing partners is too great to leave it at this level.
On the same evening YouTube will be searched for good 'Salsa' tunes and a couple of clips will emerge and played back over and over again - let's dance ... one, two, three, four ...