Saturday 8 November 2008

Momentum and Motivation

This has been a long wait - two weeks without proper Salsa dancing...
And somehow it shows - it is very difficult not to remember the steps but to keep the pace and the get a feel for the rhythm.
And for the first time the sense of impatience, the lack of progress if not stagnation sets in. I'm still a novice of course but one would expect some progression. What's holding me back I wonder?
1. Motivation - I would assume that the positive spirit is still there but may be the incentive if not purpose is fading away - why am I doing this? - what is it for? and what benefits do I get out of this? It does not feel like enjoyment any more.
2. Peer learning - or the lack of it. Dancing is the ultimate group learning activity - you need a partner not only to practice but also to learn from. And the motivation and dedicationn of your partner is at least as important as your own.
During the lessons the partners are rotating, so every few minutes you have another person to dance with which is fine as you learn to adjust to different individuals.
However I've now come to realise that too many of the dancing partners are not particularly good at it, mainly when dancing at higher speed. They do realise this of course but state that they did not have much time practising etc.
Unfortunately I interpret this as them denying me the opportunity to move forward in this lesson, and this causes a fair bit of anger and frustration. The one or two dancers who are good allow you to develop further but this is far too little.

I've now decided to join another dance class, which specialises on ballroom dancing, both classical and Latin, just to see whether a different peer learning experience will provide the impetus required. Getting another perspective to learning to dance may do the trick?

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