Can you teach someone to dance?

Question

How can you teach someone with NO rhythm to dance? This girl can't even clap on beat with the music. I am getting frustrated!

Answer 1

I used to be a ballroom dance instructor with Fred Astaire's here in South Africa years ago. Trust me, I know your frustrations.

Every now and then somebody pops up who has absolutely no rhythm, and whatever you do, they just cannot "feel" the beat.

How do you solve it? Persistence and lots and lots of patience. That's not going to make a dance champion out of your friend, but it will eventually enable them to handle themselves socially on the dance floor. But don't wait for any miracles. It takes a lot of hard work.

PS. In 7 years I only had one student who started without any sense of rhythm and actually ended up dancing very well. So nobody will blame you if you decide to give it up as a lost case. Lol

Answer 2

some people just CAN'T dance

it probably isn't your fault

maybe it's time to give up?

or if she really wants to learn

maybe find another teacher who can somehow teach people with no rhythm to dance ?

hmm...

Answer 3

It depends what type of dance you are trying to teach. If it is something she can do with a partner, then couple her with someone who has good rhythm (make sure they are good enough to stick to the music, not to follow her off-beat!) and make her take her lead from them. If it is group work, put her at the back and make her follow. If it is for solo work it is a bit more difficult, but start by seeing if she can dance to you clapping a beat and if she can, then count the beat to her as she dances and hopefully she will eventually get it. If she can't dance to a beat when you are calling it, then the only choice is to teach her the routine to the words in the song, i.e. piroette on the word "I", step forward on the word "love", plie on the word "you", etc. If there are no words, try finding an alternative piece of music which does have words. If you can't do any of these, then either give up teaching her or just let her dance out of time!

Hope that helps!