The Group Class and Party Pressure

The money quotes aren’t directly related except for the unavoidable fact that taking dance lessons is expensive.

So I got a little pressure about going to more group classes and parties recently. I stopped partly because I moved my lessons to the afternoons and I really don’t want to go back to the studio in the evening. Since the weather is nicer, my home outfit is shorts and a t-shirt and shorts with dance shoes is not a good look. Plus, I don’t like wearing a t-shirt so I do typically change into a shirt with buttons. Why? I don’t know. The instructors are always nicely dressed so the t-shirt just seems too informal. Anyway, I’m kind of lazy and don’t want to change back into “dance clothes” so I don’t go back in the evening if I’ve been there during the day.

The Famous Franchise does like to see students be more active in the studio. There are reasons for this. You bond with the other students and it becomes a little harder to walk away. Plus, they like to show you things in group class to pique your interest because that could lead to more lessons. I’m not saying it is only about the money because I’ve seen honest instructor reactions when their students do something well. But, at the core, it is still a business and exists to sell lessons.

I used to be more of a fan of the group classes because I could try to focus on things like lead/follow but I’ve learned that isn’t as much of an opportunity to do that because the ladies are set on doing their parts no matter what you do. Yes, there are still things I could work on but I haven’t found much value lately so it keeps me from coming. Plus, the lead/follow ratio is a random thing and there are times when we have several more leads than follows and you end up dancing by yourself a lot. Not a lot of fun and since you don’t know the makeup of the group before showing up, sometimes I don’t want to take the chance and so I stay home.

Parties are another matter. PJ mentioned something yesterday about how she notices I do mostly basics when dancing at parties. Sort of true. First of all, it is a reminder that even though it is supposed to be a fun, social events, the instructors still have eyes on you. Anyway, she was all about how I should come more and use my Silver stuff.

But I don’t like doing that. To me, there is nothing worse than the awkwardness of trying to lead someone through a step they don’t know. If they don’t get it, then I’ll sometimes get an apology which I don’t need and actually makes me feel worse because it means I put them in a bad situation. Or I get a question about what are they supposed to do. Which I can’t answer because I’m not an instructor and I don’t know the ladies part. So I stick to safe steps that I think everyone knows figuring just being on the floor makes most people happy.

The other part is that a lot of the upper bronze and early silver stuff exists only in my memories. I could probably dig some of that stuff out again and see what happens but my brain can honestly only hold so much.

But I’ve also found that a lot of times, the parties are more social events so the people congregate off the dance floor to chat and catch up. Yes, I’m sure they would not mind being interrupted to go out and dance but it feels wrong to me to break up a conversation. There are others who don’t care about that and so I’ll let them be the ones doing it.

And the last problem is the music. Too many times we get the blended song “you can cha-cha, you can hustle, you can swing, etc” And while it is true you probably can dance all those dances, those songs often don’t really “feel” like any of the dances or the beats are just weird enough to make some of the dances poor choices. Also, it seems like a lot of the music is newer stuff that I’m not familiar with and all sounds the same because I’m old and like the music I listened to in my 20’s.

Anyway, I just needed a place to complain because I can’t really bring any of this up with PJ. So I tend to just give her the “I’ll try to make it” and then come up with an excuse after the fact. Works so far.

It isn’t that I can’t have a good time at either. It is just more often than not, there are just a few fun moments.