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. . Be sure to scroll down to load more (pause to allow more to load)
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!
Before you get all scared, let me clarify: I’m referring to a diet of dance, not a diet of nutrition. This sadly misrepresented word is technically supposed to refer to a regular balance of fuel, not a short-term restriction of it. So, using the original intention of the word, ask yourself how your “dance diet” is
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series have garnered a massive response – when I opened up the floor to take suggestions for more tactical questions, people really unloaded! Well, I’m honoured, because that’s exactly what we’re here for. Not just this article series, but ALL the Swing Literacy programs: to fill a need and educate more
When it comes to social dancing, many dancers ask us questions like “How should I handle it when…?” or “What do I do if…?” These are Tactical questions. In Part 1 of this series, I defined the difference between Techniques, Tactics, and Strategies which are important distinctions to read about to help you get context of
“What should you do if…”, “What happens when…”, “How can I handle…”, “How do I deal with…” These are all questions that students of all levels batter their teachers with. They are tactical questions – they ask for circumstantial advice, or recommendations for particular situations that have to do with not just the physical side of
What does it take to have a WCS dance where both partners contribute to the fun? As a leader, do you wish playful followers would let you lead more? Or wonder why more followers don’t play with you they way they do when they dance with other leaders? As a follower, do you wonder how you can
3 Juicy teaching strategies you might not be using yet
We invite you to enjoy these rare but super-effective teaching tools from our massive collection: Gamification Trained Feedback pods The Missing W’s Good teachers are collectors, tinkerers, and experimenters. They hunt and gather for nuggets of tips and advice to scuttle home to their students in the hopes that it will entertain them and help
How to handle your students’ questions like a boss!
Do your students pester you with questions? Do you you wish they would ask more questions?Do you wish you could always find the right answer to give them?Do they distract each other and then ask about something you just said? How a teacher handles students’ questions proves their credibility, their maturity, their empathy, and their trustworthiness.
How to remember (and use) all the patterns you’ve invested in
Something doesn’t add up…. How many WCS patterns do you think you’ve ever learned? Just calculate how many patterns you learn per week, then multiply that by how long you’ve been dancing. Now, how many of those patterns have you actually adopted into your social or competition dancing? Oof. That’s a big difference. That’s a
How to teach an intro class so students actually come back
You get lots of people in the door for their first class. Yay! But getting them to come back? That’s another story… You managed to attract people to come to your intro class, or maybe even sign up for a Beginner series. But the enthusiasm of the first class died out quickly, as students started
How to Make Sure Your Dance Partners Aren’t Complaining About You
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
10 Reasons you get off time and the #1 way to cure poor timing
Do you hear feedback from teachers and judges that you need to work on your timing? Or maybe you can feel you’re off time a lot but don’t know how to fix it? Being off time could be referring to 10 or more different issues. Whenever a teacher or judge tells you you are
