Pauline and I signed up for a ballroom dancing class for the fall as part of our wedding preparations. There are a lot of places that offer classes, although some seem a bit sketchy as they don’t seem to a big enough business to do it properly; something that reminds me of Asian tutorial places but I digress.
We registered with the Toronto Parks and Rec’s classes because they were cheaper (yay for services subsidized by taxes, yay for classes not being scheduled on Mondays); and well as beginners, it wouldn’t make much of a difference right? Well I can’t speak for the other more expensive “schools”, but I find the instruction for our course lacking.

The first day I showed up (Pauline was running late), realistically on time but literally maybe 5 minutes late. The “class” was already in session and everyone was already repeating various steps around “position 3”. I doubt that the instructors were able to introduce themselves, outline what we would learn in class, and teach position 3 (what about positions 1 and 2?) in 5 minutes.

That was not a good start, and the lack of pedagogy would continue. We “learned” by example, trying to move our uncoordinated feet and bodies in the same manner. Although it wasn’t all bad, the instructors came around sparingly and gave some 1-on-1 help to struggling students, but mostly by example again. I say sparingly because the class was huge. The course was only for beginners, but that didn’t stop intermediate dancers from signing up, which lead to a disparate group of skill levels mostly practicing and learning things at the wrong level.

I suppose the course is a first step in the right direction, but we’re going to need some better direction and choreography to pull this off!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: continuingeducation, weddingplanning