ur shoelaces. The process still required your full concentration of the mental energy. But with practice, you learned to control the process with less mental energy, which allowed you to redirect your attention somewhere else. So after many repetitions, tying your shoelaces became fully automatic and did not practically required any attention at all. In other words, tying your shoelaces became a second nature.

Advance dancers execute a move in the same way adults tie their shoelaces - without thinking. Learning to dance is as difficult to a beginner with two left feet as tying shoelac

Most of the dance instructors who have helped me when I was just a beginner were great dancers but weak teachers. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for their time and instructions. But as I gained more experience in the dance and have witnessed numerous teachers in the scene, I have found that 90% of dance teachers that teach salsa, bachata, chachacha, have one style of teaching - "Ok, watch what I do...ok, do exactly what I did."

One of the prerequisites course when I pursued my Masters Degree in Psychology was to study how humans learn in an educational setting. In fact, at this moment in school I am learning Experimental Analysis in Learning Behaviour. I can't begin to tell you how it has tremendously helped me in teaching so far. You see, every professional teacher in any field is required to go to school to learn the concept of teaching. Even Personal Fitness Trainers have to go to an extensive program, get tested and get certified after. I believe that dance instructors should go to such training as well.

Learning a dance is not any different than learning a subject at school or any skill in life. It requires effort, determination, persistence and discipline. Learning dance movements are based on the human brain functions of receiving through our senses, remembering, analyzing, outputting and controlling.

Don't you remember how you learned to tie your shoelaces before? You observed how your parents did it, didn't you? You formed a visual memory of the process. This visual memory generated a sense of comfort. As a result, it encouraged you to experiment on your own. With help from your parents, and after several attempts, you succeeded eventually in tying your shoelaces. From that moment on, the visual memory became related to the particular hand skills necessary for the desired result. This relation forms a thought pattern in the brain, which allowed you to see "the mental pic" and to get a feeling of rhythm for the sequence of the basic actions needed for the completion of the process. After several successful results, the level of familiarity with the process increased along with the level of comfort, which in turn allowed you to analyze the basic actions and learned new ones. This analysis led to performance improvements in all basic actions. You became more efficient and needed less time to tie your shoelaces. The process still required your full concentration of the mental energy. But with practice, you learned to control the process with less mental energy, which allowed you to redirect your attention somewhere else. So after many repetitions, tying your shoelaces became fully automatic and did not practically required any attention at all. In other words, tying your shoelaces became a second nature.

Advance dancers execute a move in the same way adults tie their shoelaces - without thinking. Learning to dance is as difficult to a beginner with two left feet as tying shoelace

t, at this moment in school I am learning Experimental Analysis in Learning Behaviour. I can't begin to tell you how it has tremendously helped me in teaching so far. You see, every professional teacher in any field is required to go to school to learn the concept of teaching. Even Personal Fitness Trainers have to go to an extensive program, get tested and get certified after. I believe that dance instructors should go to such training as well.

Learning a dance is not any different than learning a subject at school or any skill in life. It requires effort, determination, persistence and discipline. Learning dance movements are based on the human brain functions of receiving through our senses, remembering, analyzing, outputting and controlling.

Don't you remember how you learned to tie your shoelaces before? You observed how your parents did it, didn't you? You formed a visual memory of the process. This visual memory generated a sense of comfort. As a result, it encouraged you to experiment on your own. With help from your parents, and after several attempts, you succeeded eventually in tying your shoelaces. From that moment on, the visual memory became related to the particular hand skills necessary for the desired result. This relation forms a thought pattern in the brain, which allowed you to see "the mental pic" and to get a feeling of rhythm for the sequence of the basic actions needed for the completion of the process. After several successful results, the level of familiarity with the process increased along with the level of comfort, which in turn allowed you to analyze the basic actions and learned new ones. This analysis led to performance improvements in all basic actions. You became more efficient and needed less time to tie your shoelaces. The process still required your full concentration of the mental energy. But with practice, you learned to control the process with less mental energy, which allowed you to redirect your attention somewhere else. So after many repetitions, tying your shoelaces became fully automatic and did not practically required any attention at all. In other words, tying your shoelaces became a second nature.

Advance dancers execute a move in the same way adults tie their shoelaces - without thinking. Learning to dance is as difficult to a beginner with two left feet as tying shoelac

and discipline. Learning dance movements are based on the human brain functions of receiving through our senses, remembering, analyzing, outputting and controlling.

Don't you remember how you learned to tie your shoelaces before? You observed how your parents did it, didn't you? You formed a visual memory of the process. This visual memory generated a sense of comfort. As a result, it encouraged you to experiment on your own. With help from your parents, and after several attempts, you succeeded eventually in tying your shoelaces. From that moment on, the visual memory became related to the particular hand skills necessary for the desired result. This relation forms a thought pattern in the brain, which allowed you to see "the mental pic" and to get a feeling of rhythm for the sequence of the basic actions needed for the completion of the process. After several successful results, the level of familiarity with the process increased along with the level of comfort, which in turn allowed you to analyze the basic actions and learned new ones. This analysis led to performance improvements in all basic actions. You became more efficient and needed less time to tie your shoelaces. The process still required your full concentration of the mental energy. But with practice, you learned to control the process with less mental energy, which allowed you to redirect your attention somewhere else. So after many repetitions, tying your shoelaces became fully automatic and did not practically required any attention at all. In other words, tying your shoelaces became a second nature.

Advance dancers execute a move in the same way adults tie their shoelaces - without thinking. Learning to dance is as difficult to a beginner with two left feet as tying shoelac

o the particular hand skills necessary for the desired result. This relation forms a thought pattern in the brain, which allowed you to see "the mental pic" and to get a feeling of rhythm for the sequence of the basic actions needed for the completion of the process. After several successful results, the level of familiarity with the process increased along with the level of comfort, which in turn allowed you to analyze the basic actions and learned new ones. This analysis led to performance improvements in all basic actions. You became more efficient and needed less time to tie your shoelaces. The process still required your full concentration of the mental energy. But with practice, you learned to control the process with less mental energy, which allowed you to redirect your attention somewhere else. So after many repetitions, tying your shoelaces became fully automatic and did not practically required any attention at all. In other words, tying your shoelaces became a second nature.

Advance dancers execute a move in the same way adults tie their shoelaces - without thinking. Learning to dance is as difficult to a beginner with two left feet as tying shoelac

ur shoelaces. The process still required your full concentration of the mental energy. But with practice, you learned to control the process with less mental energy, which allowed you to redirect your attention somewhere else. So after many repetitions, tying your shoelaces became fully automatic and did not practically required any attention at all. In other words, tying your shoelaces became a second nature.

Advance dancers execute a move in the same way adults tie their shoelaces - without thinking. Learning to dance is as difficult to a beginner with two left feet as tying shoelaces is to a child.

But my concern lies with the dance instructor's knowledge of the learning styles - learning abilities. You see, each student have different types of learning ability. Not being familiar with these learning principles deprived the students of learning quickly and proficiently. It is my outmost conviction that dance teachers should familiarize themselves with the concept of learning. I am a proponent of dance teachers taking classes at school to learn the art of teaching. Too many advance dancers today have this false notion that just because they have been dancing for a long time, or they have competed and won several contests that they are qualified to teach a dance! I believe that teaching is a gift. But I also believe that in order to use that gift effectively, one must learn how to properly use it. There are dance schools in the world that extensively educate their teachers on how to teach. There are three basic type of students...

Students that are visual

They learn through watching. These students need to see the instructor's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a dance lesson. They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays including: videos, illustration, flipcharts and even syllabus handouts. Visual learners love to take detailed notes to absorb the information.

Auditory Students

They learn through listening. They learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. Auditory students interpret the underlying meanings of what the instructor is saying through his tone of voice, pitch, speed and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. These students often benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder.

Kinesthetic Students

These are the students learn through moving, doing and touching. These students learn best through a hands-on approach. They love workshops and boot camp training. They find it hard to sit still for long periods. They can't wait for the instructor to stop talking and start doing.

These principles can effectively be applied and taught in a one-on-one session. But every instructors teaching a group class c