Hi, Tessa here. Since 2002, I've been writing advice articles for West Coast Swing from my perspective as a WCS Champion and 30 years as a professional teacher and coach. My mission is to help dancers #trainWCSsmarter and teachers #teachWCSsmarter, which we do thoroughly in our Swing Literacy training programs.
These articles are my way of contributing some free, bite-sized education to the community to help inspire and motivate with practical, actionable advice for your dancing & teaching.
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I highly encourage everyone to leverage these free resources by sharing them in your community groups and with friends you know who could use them. Enjoy!
Teaching Snack #3 Your struggleYour students have some stubborn bad habits:having bad posturelazy, shuffling footworklack of stretchpoor eye contactbeing rigid, selfish, or not adaptablegiving unsolicited feedbackrudely demanding or refusing a dancenot thanking partners after a dancebeing grumpy about dancing with lower level partnersbeing snobby when they reach a certain level Of course, some of these
Teaching Snack #2 Your struggle Sometimes you may feel like you’ve lost your raison d’etre (purpose) as a teacher. You go through the motions, collecting money and counting to 8. You forget what inspired you to teach in the first place, and you forget what a powerful impact you have every day on students who
Your struggleYour students seem to be hungry and motivated to progress, but they whine and moan when you try to teach them technique. They either get overwhelmed and intimidated, or they get impatient, waiting for you to hurry up and get to the next pattern. They think that improving their dancing is all about improving
No one wants to be the person that everyone complains about. It’s easy to make the assumption that since you “never get any complaints” that your partners are satisfied enough. But since people don’t usually complain to your face, how do you know if people are complaining about you or not? One method is to take private
We asked WCS MEN to tell us what would get them into class. You might be surprised what they had to say! Teachers and promoters: you’re going to love me – be sure to read to the end.It’s global phenomenon: most West Coast Swing scenes in the world struggle to attract men to try WCS
We asked WCS MEN to tell us what would get them into class. You might be surprised what they had to say! Teachers and promoters: you’re going to love me – be sure to read to the end. It’s a global phenomenon: most West Coast Swing scenes in the world struggle to attract men to
It’s hard to see the forest for the trees. Beyond your local classes, what else is out there? And how do you know if it’s for you? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a diagram or flowchart showing all the components of this West Coast Swing world and how they fit together? Showing all the
There are so many great teachers out there! You might be one! But even great teachers will have limited success with the wrong tools. Let’s be logical about this and take emotion out of it: “Wrong” in this case, simply means “less effective”, or “with negative side effects”. It doesn’t mean “bad” or “useless”: just the
Last week’s Part 1 featured concerns that women have about their own dancing – things that women should take personal responsibility for, as opposed to blaming outside sources. This week, I need to shift the focus to more serious concerns: things women should NOT take responsibility for, and ways women can and should take a stand. By popular demand,
Girls*, let’s chat. The boys had their turn with Guy-Guidance and Dude-Dilligence. Now it’s our turn. I’d like to address some of the common concerns and complaints I hear from women in my Feminine Styling Intensive, private lessons, and in personal conversations. It’s a bit of tough love specifically for women, whether they lead or follow. There was
Even the best teachers with the best intentions have moments of unintentional subliminal teaching: when their teaching habits or advice accidentally deliver a completely different, counterproductive, undesirable lesson. Check your habits here! In this article, I’m going to talk about why certain advice backfires. Then I outline 14 typical teaching habits or advice that tend to
I sat down with Kay Newhouse, affectionately referred to as “Community Mama” of the NorthEastern US, and co-director of Swing Fling, DCSX and MADJam, some of the biggest and most-successful events on the WSDC circuit. We were particularly curious about the awesome initiatives she is taking with the Newcomer demographic, and her ideas on catering