A challenge for an instructor designing lesson plans and curriculum is how to maintain interest and at the same time develop strong leaders and followers. The root of the problem in ballroom dance is the preoccupation with patterns. I am not suggesting that teachers do not teach patterns, but I think we, as ballroom teachers and dance sport trainers could learn something from looking at how classes in ballet and jazz are taught. The end result is teaching a pattern or combination but the bulk of the class is focused on technique: body line, strength training, combining skills, etc., in order to achieve maximum results when the dancer does the pattern.

As a ballroom teacher with a strong background in teaching ballet and jazz, I try to emphasize leading and following skills as well as styling. Teaching patterns is a tool to teach dance not the main focus in a class. Or at least I don’t believe it should be, especially on the beginning levels. So many classes teach dance by dividing the class, teaching the followers their side and teaching the leaders their side and then throwing them together like puzzle parts. There is often very little attention to teaching leading and following skills. The problem is often these puzzle parts do not match very well to create a good fit resulting in followers dancing ahead of their partners, because they know the combination before hand, and leaders thinking they are leading when in reality they are simply doing the same choreography as their partner. If you have two people that both have a good musicality sense and both remember the pattern you have the ingredients for a smooth flowing symbiosis but they are not leading and following. These same people may be surprised when they cannot lead or follow with other people in a social setting, and it is because they are not really being taught how to lead and how to follow in their classes. If we are teaching choreography that is fine, but let’s call it what it is. However, I think when one is teaching social dance the main objective is to teach people how to lead and how to follow because they may not always be with class members when they go to a club or social.