
Last month I had the pleasure of coaching with Alexandra Perzhu (Smooth and 9 Dance Champion if you aren’t familiar with the Pros yet). Coaching with her reminded me of my very first coaching experience and how terrified I was to work with a Pro I had never met before. Fortunately, my instructor pushed me to get over my fear, and I discovered how wonderful it is to work with amazing coaches. Before I jump into why working with coaches is so wonderful, let me first explain what coaching is.
Coaching Defined
A coach is someone, other than your instructor, who works with you on your dancing. Typically this person joins you and your instructor during your lesson, and can help you with technique, provide another perspective on areas you may be struggling with, or give you some new choreography. Sometimes coaches can be other instructors at your studio, or your studio may bring in professional dancers or judges to do coaching sessions.
Benefits of Coaching
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing coaches who have given me exciting, new routines, demystified some steps that just wouldn’t click in my head, and introduced me to new techniques that magically fixed areas I had been struggling with. Rather than going on about my personal experiences though, Alexandra was kind enough to give me an interview about why she thinks coaching is so important. So here, in her own words, are the benefits of coaching as explained by Alexandra Perzhu!
Why is coaching important for a student?
Do you have any advice for somebody who’s never taken a coaching and doesn’t know what to expect?
“I think coaching lessons should be done at any level of dancing. For example, I had a student who was dancing with me for a couple of years and then I took him to a competition. We started doing mambo, and I didn’t prepare him very much, so…[he] stumble[d] through the steps. Then we had a coach come to the studio, very famous name, Rufus Dustin. He worked for a Fred Astaire chain studio for many, many years, plus he’s been a champion in so many styles and divisions. He actually gave him (my student) a story about mambo, and gave him that whole (full) explanation, so by the end of his explanation my student had a much better understanding. Even without drilling all the actions, even though he wasn’t that experienced in the body movement, the story helped him to understand much more about the dance. So try it. It never hurts to try. Be open minded; let it happen. It’s an extra investment, but you realize that it pays off.”
Hopefully I’ve convinced you to take advantage of the great opportunity it is to work with a coach! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us, and stay tuned for more exciting coach perspectives over the next few weeks!
Coaching Defined
A coach is someone, other than your instructor, who works with you on your dancing. Typically this person joins you and your instructor during your lesson, and can help you with technique, provide another perspective on areas you may be struggling with, or give you some new choreography. Sometimes coaches can be other instructors at your studio, or your studio may bring in professional dancers or judges to do coaching sessions.
Benefits of Coaching
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing coaches who have given me exciting, new routines, demystified some steps that just wouldn’t click in my head, and introduced me to new techniques that magically fixed areas I had been struggling with. Rather than going on about my personal experiences though, Alexandra was kind enough to give me an interview about why she thinks coaching is so important. So here, in her own words, are the benefits of coaching as explained by Alexandra Perzhu!
Why is coaching important for a student?
- To have a mediator: “I used to be a student, and I’m still a student, and I know how much it means to me and why I believe in coaching. So from a student perspective, my answer would be to have a mediator between my partner and myself. To hear a common knowledge about something and a common explanation, because when you work with each other for a long time you tend to have tension about how you understand things. So when you have someone experienced come in to coach you, first of all, you have a certain respect and certain open mind because it’s new information, and you start to see a different point of view. Every coach has a very different way of explaining the same concepts - with different words, different images, and different personality types. So any coaching lesson you have to be smart and see, ‘OK that coaching really didn’t mean that much to me or didn’t do very much to me, [so] maybe that’s not my type of information that I need to do. Basically it’s all about that 3rd eye who is a mediator for me.”
- To have an outside perspective: “A coach sees something from the outside…that you cannot see yourself. You have to be open about it, and realize, ‘Ok I didn’t do that,’ and then sometimes you will think, ‘Oh I did it!’ and then they are like, ‘No you didn’t.’”
- To hear different viewpoints: “I think every coach has something to offer. I’ve had numerous coaches, and one coach was very good about footwork. The other one was good about connection. The other one was such a beautiful dancer that when I would watch it would give me such a full picture. I would be like ‘Oh I want to do that.’ It would inspire me. Some people are very good about telling the story behind the dance or behind certain concepts, so you get inspired by thinking about all these things [and] how they come together. Every person teaches you something different, so I think everybody should take coaching lessons. Not only for the sake of learning something new, but actually to have a healthy process and have that mediator between you and your partner.”
Do you have any advice for somebody who’s never taken a coaching and doesn’t know what to expect?
“I think coaching lessons should be done at any level of dancing. For example, I had a student who was dancing with me for a couple of years and then I took him to a competition. We started doing mambo, and I didn’t prepare him very much, so…[he] stumble[d] through the steps. Then we had a coach come to the studio, very famous name, Rufus Dustin. He worked for a Fred Astaire chain studio for many, many years, plus he’s been a champion in so many styles and divisions. He actually gave him (my student) a story about mambo, and gave him that whole (full) explanation, so by the end of his explanation my student had a much better understanding. Even without drilling all the actions, even though he wasn’t that experienced in the body movement, the story helped him to understand much more about the dance. So try it. It never hurts to try. Be open minded; let it happen. It’s an extra investment, but you realize that it pays off.”
Hopefully I’ve convinced you to take advantage of the great opportunity it is to work with a coach! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us, and stay tuned for more exciting coach perspectives over the next few weeks!