When you start learning to dance, you will definitely feel overwhelmed at times. You will probably jump to the seemingly logical conclusion that you feel like you should concentrate on learning one dance and getting good at that one dance before you learn any others. While this idea might seem to make logical sense, it is actually a misconception. You will learn faster if you learn multiple dances at the same time.
Now, I’m not advocating the opposite extreme; if you’re a complete beginner, then learning 42 different dances all at once is probably too much. But learning a collection of 5 or 6 of the most useful dances will not hinder your progress, and you will actually make better progress overall when learning multiple complementary dances at the same time.
Why? It’s because you’re learning the same fundamental skills in all the social partner dances. You are learning to step in different directions within a lead/follow partnership in coordination to music. Those skills are the same in every social partner dance. As you advance, the stepping patterns become more numerous and the lead/follow communication more nuanced, but that progression is also the same in every dance you learn. Some dance styles will put greater emphasis on certain TYPES of movements, but they are all just stepping sequences with a partner to music.
You have a choice: you can learn only the stepping patterns for one dance style, or you can learn stepping patterns for a diverse array of dance styles. In both cases, you’re doing the same thing: learning multiple stepping patterns. Under the first option, you’re limiting yourself to dancing to one style of music; under the second option, you’re expanding your repertoire to cover many styles of music. Under the first option, every new pattern you learn is different and needs to be memorized in its own right; under the second option, you’re learning the same concepts across all your dances. For example, after you learn your basic pattern in Merengue, Hustle, Swing, Waltz, Rumba and Salsa, you will learn your underarm turn in Merengue, Hustle, Swing, Waltz, Rumba and Salsa. The patterns you learn will be very similar across your dances; each new pattern and the skills that go with it will apply to all your dances, giving you the versatility to dance to many styles of music, but also giving you multiple opportunities to practice these similar patterns and skills.
Why is it that stepping patterns are so similar across all the partner dance styles? It ties back to the more fundamental question: Why do we have so many partner dance styles? You will hear me say frequently that—technically—you could do any 4-count dance to any 4-count song… so why don’t we? Why don’t we have just one dance that we do to everything?
The answer is: musical expression! We might as well ask, why don’t we just have ONE musical style that ALL songs have to follow? I hope that answer is obvious! What a boring world it would be if there was only one style of music on Planet Earth!
Just as musicians continually innovate new sounds and styles of music, the dancers listening to them change in response. One style of dance gets established to a particular style of music because the dancers listening to that music create movements that feel expressive. As the musicians create and innovate and change their sounds, eventually the dancers find themselves in a situation where their previously established styles of dance just don’t seem to fit. So, they innovate in accordance with the new sound. Chances are they aren’t inventing something radically new out of thin air. They are taking their previously established dances and tweaking them so that they feel like a better fit for the new styles of music they hear on the dancefloor.
In this way, new dance styles are born! They are not freshly invented, but rather subtly adjusted based on a previously established dance. As a result, social partner dance styles have a remarkably similar array of patterns. When you’re learning multiple dance styles, you’re not learning a completely separate set of patterns for each style; you’re learning how to translate the same types of movements to different types of music.
When you’re working on learning multiple dances at the same time, the muscle memory you’re building each time you do ONE dance simultaneously builds your muscle memory for the same skills, movements and patterns in EVERY dance you do. In this way, you’re always multi-tasking; every new dance you learn works to make ALL your dances better.
Learning more dances also helps you to be more versatile. I’m guessing you probably started learning to dance, at least in part, because you love music? Don’t you want to be able to dance to any music you might hear at any social event? If you only know one dance, you’re going to be at a loss when you encounter other musical styles. Let’s say, for example, that you’re an accomplished Salsa dancer. Maybe you also know Bachata and Merengue because you go salsa dancing (see my previous article: “What is salsa dancing?” for more about how these three dances cluster together). Those three dances are going to serve you very well at all the salsa dancing events around town, but what happens the next time you go to a family wedding? You will hear Salsa, Bachata and Merengue music at SELECT weddings, either because of heritage or strong musical affinity from the hosts. But the default wedding DJ isn’t going to play the sort of music you hear at salsa socials. That DJ is going to play Top 40 pop music from the last several decades. What are you going to dance to that? If you only know three Latin club dances… maybe nothing? But if you know some Swing and Hustle you can dance to most Top 40 fast dance pop songs. If you know some Rumba or Nightclub Two Step, you can dance to most slow dance songs, both recent ones and oldies. Same if you stop at a bar or club and there’s a cover band. Some bands play particular genres of music that may give your Latin club dance trio a workout, but most local cover bands I know play pop music and oldies. What about that “Great Gatsby,” Prohibition, Roaring 20’s or Speakeasy themed party? Music evocative of this era is all Fox Trot and Jitterbug! Maybe that question sounds random, but I see this type of event all the time, it is such a popular party theme! I see it for fundraisers, holiday parties, costume parties, Mardi Gras parties, and cruise dress-up parties. I’ve even seen it as a wedding theme! I started to pay attention to it when several of my students reported planning to attend events like these. A surprising number of them got invited to separate, unrelated events with this theme, and they all got a lot of use out of their Fox Trot and Jitterbug!
Do you want to be standing around at one of these weddings or parties, itching to dance, but not knowing how? Or even worse, someone comes up to you, knows that you’re a social dancer and says: “Hey, I thought you were a dancer. Why aren’t you dancing?” And you have to explain: “Oh, yeah, I dance… just don’t know how to dance to THIS music.”
Instead of sitting around wishing you could be dancing, you can easily diversify your dance skills. If you’re already a hobby dancer who does one or two styles, then you already have the fundamental dance abilities, you just need to learn how to translate them into other styles. If you’re a complete beginner, you can just get started right off the bat with a personal lesson teacher who will emphasize giving you the “survival skills” to enjoy any and all of these types of dance events. Next time you go to a wedding, cover band or theme party, show up ready to dance the night away to anything the DJ puts on next! You’ll learn faster overall and be more versatile if your dance curriculum includes multiple dance styles.
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