I wrote a few months back about retaking a dance class being a great way to increase your self-confidence. But, what if confidence boosters aren't for you? What if you'd rather receive incredibly conflicting, opposing messages about yourself instead of just the boring positive ones? Well, you're in luck--I figured out how to do that too!
Here's the secret: take two dance classes at once. But wait, there's more--they can't be just any two dance classes. I recommend taking two classes in the same line (like two ballroom classes, or two Latin classes), one class that is incredibly easy for you and the other almost impossibly difficult.
That's what I did this semester. After two days of Dance 184 (Beginning International Standard, aka Ballroom) I decided that it was far too simple for an Astair-ian genius like myself. So I waltzed right up to my teacher (oh dear, that was punny) and asked if I could take Dance 284 instead (same dances, higher level). She said that I really shouldn't skip the beginning level class, because beginnings are great places to start and all, but did agree to let me take them both concurrently.
About thirty seconds into my first day of Dance 284, I realized how woefully unprepared I was. Not only was I ignorant about all of the technique that I still had to learn in 184, but I had missed the first three days of class and didn't know any of the steps in the routine!
And so it began. Every day at 9:00 I go to Dance 284, pretend like I almost half-way know what I'm doing, apologize to every poor girl who has to dance with me, and try not to seriously injure anybody or their feet before 50 minutes are up. Then, somehow, the entire world turns over on itself by 10:00 for Dance 184, where I become a demigod of dancing dexterity*, mastering each and every move in the blink of an eye and then flawlessly demonstrating them for the rest of the class.
They say there has to be opposition in all things, so I guess this is probably good for me. Somehow.
*In the spirit of declaring my own cleverness that I started in paragraph 3, I just had to point out that that was really cool alliteration.
