Tag: student-teacher relationship

Ask the Girl Episode 11: Finding a Balance

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“I can’t. I have dance.”

I’ve said some version of this statement more times than I can remember. I’m not the only one. Apparently, the phrase is common enough that people thought it was worth putting on a t-shirt! Or a sweatshirt, or a tank top. Search “I can’t I have dance” on Amazon and you’ll get 20 pages of results.

A fellow ballroom student commented on my last blog post, asking if I ever found myself arranging or even rearranging my schedule around my teacher’s availability and withdrawing from things and people I would normally spend time with, just so I could get my dance fix.

The short answer is “uh, yeah!”

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Ask the Girl Episode 10: Love And Ballroom

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After reading my articles on the pro-am relationship, one of my readers asked if I would write about how the relationship between a student and their ballroom instructor might affect relationships outside of the ballroom. He noted that a lot of the students at his studio came to ballroom after a romantic relationship had ended. Ballroom has helped heal a lot of emotional wounds for them.

It makes sense; a ballroom studio and a good teacher provide a safe arena in which someone can start to trust and connect with another person again.

So what happens when you start looking for a new romantic partner? How does your connection with a dance partner affect your connection with potential life partners? How do your expectations change? How does your approach change?

I took extra time to think about this topic because there are so many different layers to explore. The more I pondered, the more there was to ponder. I reached out to other ballroom dancers to get their insight. And still I am having trouble coming up with a clear outline or angle. So I said screw it, just start writing and see where it goes!

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The Business Side of Ballroom

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As students of ballroom dance, we are faced with countless challenges: the dance itself, the goals for progressing the dance, the funding of the dance, the personal growth triggered by the dance, the emotional bonds formed with dance teachers, etc., etc. After reading the blogs of some other ballroom students, I realized there is another challenge that should be addressed: the fact that our dancing dreams don’t always align with our teacher’s career path.
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