Dance Instruction

I have a dance lesson every week with my instructor K.  She is excellent.  I tell people that whenever I get the chance.  Still, I didn’t realize how good she was until I invited Y to join us for a lesson.  She is a friend and occasional dance partner.  Y wanted to learn a new pattern in tango.  We had been trying it together, but we were never successful.  I mostly observed, but danced with K or Y from time to time.

Y explained what she needed in order to learn the pattern, and also explained how she learned something new.  K understood perfectly, and made it clear that she understood.  I watched this dialogue with amazement.

At each stage of the pattern, Y asked for what she needed.  K obliged, again at each stage of the pattern, until Y could do it perfectly.  Then she said to try it with me.  I went through the same pattern with Y.  Of course, we had trouble at some points.  My lead was wrong sometimes.  My timing was wrong sometimes too.  K told me what I was doing wrong, and made sure that I corrected it.  We both learned.  Pretty soon, we were doing the new pattern perfectly.

I was impressed with my instructor K, with how she was able to adapt her teaching methods to a person who learned differently from the way I did.  I was equally impressed with my friend Y, how she was able to express exactly what she needed.  I know I’d find it difficult to do what seemed to come easily to them.