I didn’t get the chance to Swing dance when I was young. I only learned to Swing dance in my 30’s. I know that if I’d told myself then that I needed to be a natural born dancer or have dance experience before I turned up to my first Swing dance class, I wouldn’t be having so much fun Swing dancing let alone teaching Lindy Hop today.
When you see me dance, it may look as if I have always found dancing easy. However, my ‘trade secret’ is that I make time for dancing, learning, and practising.
The power of ‘keep going’
40 years ago (yep! I feel old) I taught my first music lessons.
I’d just passed my diploma & my piano teacher gave me the opportunity to cover her lessons. This changed my life!
Suddenly, I had the opportunity to have first-hand experience of teaching, a glimpse at a career in music, and the self-belief to pursue my dream.
The best part of all of it? I am blessed to have known wonderful students from across the globe who still keep in touch with me. I’ve been part of their musical journeys and I’ve seen them blossom, what a fantastic privilege!
But music didn’t always come easy to me. Although I had a genuine passion for it, I got mediocre exam grades. I wasn’t considered to be ‘talented’ and was repeatedly told how much better other students were than me. This made it so hard to believe that the hard work I’d put into hours of practice would actually come to anything.
But I kept going! Even though at times my heart and head were saying different things. My heart said “But you want this, you want to teach music” and my head said “I am not sure if I am any good at all!”
But I kept going! I kept going by taking One Small Step each day. The One Small Step could be doing 5 minutes of practice or listening to the music I was studying. That One Small Step stopped me wasting time worrying about things I had no control over.
The importance of building strong foundations
Fast forward a few decades and I now specialise in something I never expected to! I teach advanced level music students at diploma and degree level to overcome performance anxiety by teaching them to build strong technique.
How did that happen? Most super talented musicians who teach do not necessarily break down their technique as they already have a natural finesse. But as I had to work out the gaps in my own technique, I am now able to identify the gaps that I see over and over again in advanced level music students. Just like me, they were rushed through ‘the grades’ to pass exams at the expense of building solid foundations in their technique.
What’s your One Small Step going to be?
So how do you keep going when learning new dance skills feels hard?
Keep attending class. Show up by being present, energetic, and positive.
Ask yourself, “why do I want to learn to dance?.” Listen to your heart’s desire. Go with what you truly want and believe in and take your ‘One Small Step’ towards your dream. See what a difference it makes to your dancing and confidence.
And if you miss a class? Don’t worry. Just log in to the Lindy Jazz course videos and you’ll catch up in no time!