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
12 Ways to Survive the Slow Season as a WCS Teacher
Since dancing tends to slow down during the summer and winter holidays, it can be stressful wondering how you’re going to pay the bills before classes start up again. You also may fear losing the momentum and enthusiasm that you worked so hard to foster in your community during the regular season. So how can
Teaching Snack #7 Your Struggle You’re teaching new material, and the students are focused, motivated, and capable, but you find that they are confused and learning slower than you would like. One critical piece of the puzzle We help students every day who are lost and confused. We help them step back and focus on
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
