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 teachers #teachWCSsmarter and dancers #trainWCSsmarter, which we do thoroughly in our Swing Literacy training programs.
But these articles are my way of contributing some free, bite-sized education to the community to help inspire and motivate with practical, actionable advice.
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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!
“One day, I hope to speak Egyptian Arabic well enough to visit Egypt” This makes no sense, right? You don’t need to be fluent in Arabic in order to visit Egypt. In fact, the Egyptians would probably be pleasantly surprised if you even tried “Hello” and “Thank you”. When it comes to language, skill proficiency is not
I am simultaneously appalled and entertained by some of the things my students say in lessons. I don’t blame them for ignorance and I’m not disappointed in them in any way. But sometimes they report “facts” about the WCS scene that they have heard from their peers (and sometimes unfortunately from a teacher) that are
In every skill-based activity there’s a difference between the beginners and the veterans. This makes sense – the longer you work at something, the better you get at it. Notice I said work at; just because you hack at something longer, doesn’t mean you’re improving.But the dance community is full of distinctions, divisions, labelling…ways of
Whether you are a seasoned recreational dancer or keen rookie, you are probably looking for the best way to improve your dancing in the most time- and cost-effective way. Let’s compare your dance progress to a fitness program. If your goal was to get in shape, you would go to the gym and have a