http://www.dancescape.com/ezine/wellness/the-posture-of-dance

We always recommend early on your wear what you feel comfortable in.

As far as shoes are concerned, if you plan on going out in heels, it’s probably best to spend a bit of time dancing in them.

Some of the ladies wear tennis shoes, some flats, and others heels.

In the beginning it’s not going to be too important so as long as your shoes are comfortable, properly fitted, and do not have an excessively ‘sticky’ turning surface.

Hope this helps!

If you can’t chew, you can’t get any nourishment. If you can’t process, you will starve. If the class is overwhelmingly difficult, you won’t grow much. Better yet, you won’t stick around long enough to gain the benefits.

But you know me on this one, I believe that the challenge should be sufficient to stimulate growth. And like weight lifting, this may mean pushing yourself to “failure” in order to come back stronger the next class.

Everyone has their own threshold. Its tough as an instructor, because how “ready” are those who evaluate for the next class? Most need the additional challenge for inspiration purposes but are a bit away from truly having the material down. Fundamentals 1 would be a four to five month course lol!

Again, a very fine line. But one that is worth mentioning.

Thanks for additional insight.

I think one of the big problems with #3 is not just the time commitment but the possibility of moving up too quickly in anything. Sometimes we get “promoted” because we passed a “test” of some sort but we don’t really know the material. It happens a lot in life and like lousy algebra skills come back to haunt someone in calculus class lousy fundamentals will come back to haunt a dancer. I remember being very frustrated in an ICD class because I did not have a CSF 3 pattern down (I fudged it but didn’t really know it). My lesson was: Don’t just know how to do the pattern know why you are doing what you are doing. Spend some time taking things apart and finding your own way, it is painful but it helps a lot.

For #5 I am an introvert but one of the things I used to do (I have been slacking off on this) is trying to make a new friend every time I go dancing. While I am on this topic don’t just go for someone who dances casino salsa try someone who dances another style you may pick up something from them you can use.