My personal article : Making the most as a student

Making the most as a student
- by Anand Majumdar



During the process of learning Partner Dancing most people experience a variety of problems. Sometimes these difficulties are anatomy-based, sometimes attitude-based and also sometimes knowledge and skill-based

I am going to try and break down most of the common difficulties experienced by students and I hope that life becomes slightly easier

1. I could cram my entire history encyclopedia in one night, so what’s the problem? :

One of the biggest handicaps people suffer from (and most of the time they don’t know that they do!!) is that they don’t know HOW to learn. Learning itself requires some skill sets and it isn’t the same as cramming data into one’s mind before a test

2. Why? :

Because in learning dance there are two kinds of difficulties on would experience. The first would be the COMPREHENSION level difficulty. What this means is that one is not able to understand what is required of one in doing the dance. This is very easily surpassed (most often). The second kind of difficulty is the APPLICATION level difficulty, which means that having understood what is required of us, we are not able to do it. Just understanding what we need to do isn’t sufficient for us to be able to do it. Necessary yes, sufficient no.

3. So how does one take care of this application – whatever – business? :

Practice. The ONLY parameter, which will bridge the distance between understanding and application, is practice. Most people aren’t able to do stuff because they do not devote time after class practicing (remember me telling you “practice everyday for 15 minutes”). Over-confidence, Boredom, Lack of a partner, Tough schedules (I mean I barely make it for class) are some of they reasons why most people don’t practice. Too Bad. Don’t take classes if you can’t practice. It’s wasting everyone’s time and your money. And this is coming from an instructor. So I can’t be lying. I need your money remember. One of the other reasons why people don’t practice is because being over-enthusiastic they want to learn more without having devoted enough time to the move at hand. Learning 5 moves well is better than learning 15 not to well. So all the available time is spent in learning more. I used to and even now sometimes do make this mistake.

4. Trust your instructor:

Trust your instructor. Trust your instructor. Trust your instructor. Trust your instructor. Trust your instructor. I didn’t copy-paste these. Typed each one of them. Your instructor knows what’s best for you. Don’t pre-empt, don’t try to teach, don’t question his/her plan for you. He/She understands your body, mental make-up, schedule and likes-dislikes best. Hence He/She is best equipped to know what you need, not you. Honest. But how do I know if the instructor is a good one. Who recommended you to Him/Her? Your friends, family, colleagues or other students who weren’t exactly your enemies, right? Why did they do that? Because it helped them. The number of students recommending him/her always determines the quality of an instructor and how many of his/her intermediate and advanced class are filled to the brim with students. Easy to con students to join the basic class, but if your student comes back to do the next level that’s the litmus. Still can’t find a great instructor? Well I’m one. Come to me. Contact information below.



Anand Majumdar