The revenue from private lessons is a significant inducement for many teachers to come along in the first place - along with the opportunity to market their niche products of course.
The same "convenience" factors apply for the teachers, surely? But I don't think they lower their prices based on that.
My feeling is you are better staying with one teacher until/unless you feel your classes with them have reached a plateau and you are no longer learning very much. In that way you can build a proper partnership, where both sides learn the strengths and weaknesses, how you learn, etc.
But it also depends on what you want to learn. If, say, you wanted to work on aerials and spinning, then you would probably need two separate teachers. (The only person I can think of to teach both would be Nigel, but given your other posts about Mr Anderson I can't see that working somehow...)
If you have the time and money, my gut feeling is the best of all worlds is having a regular class with a top "all-round" dancer, and then seeing other people for specialist areas. Your regular coach can then help you integrate the specialist work into an overall package.
Once you find a teacher you like then I'd certainly try to do a series of lessons with them so you've got the time and continuity to almost put together an extended "programme".Originally Posted by Woodface
I wouldn't try and do a class a week though - it's too frequent and won't allow you time to practice and ponder enough between lessons. As I said earlier, I wouldn't have more than one lesson every 6 to 8 weeks. The amount you can cover in a single private lesson is enormous and you tend to focus on things which are quite difficult to get right - particularly if have to "un-learn" bad habits. Whenever I've had a series of private lessons over a short time frame (typically in Buenos Aires where we've only had 3 week "windows" to cram in the lessons) the later ones have turned more into "coaching" sessions - not having had the time to fully assimilate the first couple of lessons we end up working on the same things we covered in the first privates. That's really valuable but is quite an expensive way of correcting faults.
I remember a class with Ernesto Balmaceda & Stella Baez where, toward the end of the 90 minutes, I was trying to remember the 8 things they had me working on plus all the stuff that had fallen out of 4 lessons with Nahuel & Noelia Barsi; I was in a complete daze! (And we'd been practising for a few hours every day and social dancing almost every night so we'd had a fair bit of time to work on stuff).
This is what i was trying to cover. A great teacher of aerials might not be great on style.
Also with Nigel, Im sure most people see his dancing as great, for me it just wasn't my style which leads to the other thing of finding someone who teaches a style you like. Is it worth going to a ballroom specialist if you are in to the more funky style?
Simon and I have had lessons with Amir, David and Lily and Nigel and Nina and have found all three invaluable.
As I said in my PM to you - (did you receive that by the way?), it depends on what you want to work on. If you are soley looking at competitions, then you need to be a master of all styles, not just one. You need to be able to demonstrate the ability to interpret the music and funky to latin, or latin to funky will not impress.
Of course, if you want to compete in aerials, then suggest experts such as Nigel, David and Lily or David Franklin (not sure if David teaches though).
Elaine
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