How to Actually Get Better From Dance Classes - And Why Many Students Underuse Them
- Rafael Piccolotto de Lima
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Why Many Intermediate Dancers Stop Fully Using Classes
One thing I have observed repeatedly over the years teaching weekly forró classes is that many students begin underusing classes precisely when they become more socially comfortable dancing.
Ironically, this often happens right after the beginner phase.
At first, beginners usually pay very close attention because everything is new. They repeat movements carefully, try to understand the structure, and stay focused on the exercises being proposed.
But later, something interesting starts happening.
As students become more socially comfortable dancing, many gradually stop using the class as a space for focused practice.
Instead, they begin using it primarily as a space to dance freely, socialize, or reinforce movements they already know well.
And honestly, this is completely understandable.
Social dancing is pleasurable. People want to feel fluid, relaxed, connected, and musically comfortable with their partners. Especially for leaders, there is often a subtle tendency to avoid moments that temporarily disrupt that comfort.
So instead of focusing deeply on the exercise proposed during class, many dancers instinctively return to movements they already control well. They begin improvising freely, mixing unrelated patterns into the practice, or using the moment mainly to maintain a smooth social interaction.
Why Class Practice Is Different From Social Dancing
The issue is not that this type of dancing is bad.
In many ways, social dancing itself is one of the most important parts of development. It builds adaptability, musical fluency, comfort, timing, social awareness, improvisation, and real interaction with different partners.
The problem is not social dancing itself. The problem is that classes offer a type of focused practice that becomes difficult to recreate later in normal social dancing environments.
A class creates temporary conditions where one specific movement, technique, timing, transition, or connection dynamic can be isolated and practiced repeatedly with multiple partners in a more concentrated way.
And this matters much more than many intermediate dancers initially realize.
Outside class, very few people will naturally spend an entire song repeating the same movement dozens of times in slightly different ways.
In a social dance environment, everything becomes more fluid and unpredictable. The music changes constantly, partners respond differently, the available space shifts all the time, and the overall flow of interaction is much harder to control.
And often, the very movement that needs repetition to become integrated is the one people avoid because it still feels unstable.
This is one of the reasons why class practice can become so valuable.
A movement can already exist in your vocabulary and still remain underdeveloped.
Sometimes what is missing is not the movement itself, but the ability to adapt it comfortably to different bodies, different timing, different musical situations, different energies, and different types of connection.
And that type of integration usually requires much more focused repetition than people initially expect.
A Moment in Class That Revealed This Very Clearly
In many of my classes, I specifically encourage students to temporarily narrow their attention during certain practice rounds.
If we are working on a new movement, connection idea, or technical concept, I often suggest that students spend several songs focusing primarily on that material instead of immediately returning to fully free dancing.
Not because free dancing is wrong, but because concentrated repetition creates a different type of learning environment.
One situation from a recent class stayed in my mind because it revealed this dynamic very clearly.
One of the teaching assistants in our weekly classes began dancing with me shortly after the pandemic, when we were still teaching and dancing wearing masks. She started as a complete beginner and over the years gradually became one of the strongest and most adaptable social dancers in our community here in New York.
What always stood out to me in her learning process was how seriously she used class time itself. Even now, after many years dancing and already helping newer students during class, she still remains very focused on the exercises being proposed instead of immediately shifting into completely free dancing.
Recently, after introducing a specific movement and giving students time to practice, I paused the class and asked if anyone had questions.
The room became quiet for a moment. Then someone casually said:
“Maybe we can move to the next movement.”
So I jokingly asked:
“Oh, so everybody is already doing it perfectly?”
At that moment, I looked at her and noticed she had the expression of someone wanting to say something. Then she laughed and replied:
“Actually… nobody was really practicing the movement. People were mostly dancing other things.”
And honestly, she was right.
The room had slowly drifted back into freer social dancing instead of staying focused on the specific idea we were trying to develop.
Once everyone noticed that collectively, the energy of the class changed. People returned to the exercise with more attention, and the material immediately started progressing more clearly through the room.
Focused Practice Versus Free Dancing
Interestingly, I also structure my classes around this balance.
At the beginning of many weekly classes in Manhattan, after the warm-up, I usually include a few songs of more open social practice. Students reconnect with movements they already know, warm up socially, and relax into the environment.
Sometimes I also leave more open practice rounds near the end of class, where students can integrate the material more organically into freer dancing.
Those moments are important too.
But during the central part of class, when we are isolating a new concept or exploring a specific technical question, the objective changes slightly. That is usually the rare moment where students can deliberately stay inside one specific problem long enough for deeper adaptation to begin happening.
Social dancing develops many important skills. But classes create rare moments where specific aspects of the dance can receive concentrated attention.
Why I Still Approach Workshops This Way Myself
And honestly, I approach workshops the same way myself.
Even after almost a decade teaching weekly forró classes, there are still many movements, aesthetics, dynamics, and dance languages that do not naturally belong to my personal vocabulary.
Sometimes I attend workshops where the movement itself is already familiar to me. Sometimes I already know multiple versions of the same idea.
But I still try to fully engage with the proposed exercise.
Partly because I understand that other people around me are genuinely trying to learn that material, but also because there is almost always something deeper hidden inside the process itself.
Different teachers often organize movement in very different ways. Sometimes the timing changes, sometimes the pathways through the movement feel different, and sometimes the emphasis shifts toward another quality of connection, transition, texture, or body dynamic.
What becomes interesting is not necessarily the movement itself, but the perspective hidden inside the movement.
Some of the most important changes in my own dancing did not come from learning completely new patterns.
They came from revisiting familiar movements through different bodies, different teachers, different aesthetics, and different forms of attention.
Today, even when I participate in workshops involving movements I already know reasonably well, I often use the opportunity to test different timing, different partners, different qualities of connection, or different ways of organizing the same idea inside the dance.
And in many ways, this is something classes continue offering long after the beginner stage - not only new movements, but temporary spaces where specific aspects of the dance can receive focused attention before dissolving again into the unpredictability of social dancing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima is the Founder and Educational Director of Forró New York, as well as a Latin Grammy-nominated composer, arranger, and music director.
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