One of the excuses I hear a lot from new students is that they never tried to dance because they lack the confidence needed.  The first step to overcoming your lack of confidence is to analyze what you think you don’t know.

I’m constantly surprised by students that shy away from participating on the dance floor because they think they know too little.  They don’t realize that their fears are unwarranted, since the basic steps in any dance style are the foundation to any advance maneuvers. In other words, the basics are still used by the most advanced dancers hence a higher level dancer can always dance with a less experienced dancer since the dance style is based on the same basics.  The dance leader would just have to adjust to the skill level of the dancer and then both leader and follower would be able to enjoy their dance together.  At Piel Canela Dance School we explain to our students that “there will always be someone that knows more”, so focus on enjoying the dance at any level and you’ll find you’ll have more partners wanting to dance with you than ever.

Sometime students have a hard time seeing themselves doing the dance well, hence decide to not even try for lack of looking good on the dance floor.  I would ask that you analyze why you want to dance, is it for the sake of looking cool to others or because you want to have a great time for yourself and a partner?  If you answer is the latter then dancing will be a much more enjoyable experience, since you are more interested in the act of dancing rather than posing.  Try not to worry about how you look but instead focus on how at the end of the night you will look even better, since the many dances will only help in polishing your moves, until the next time you take to the floor.

Another way to gain more confidence is to become more knowledgeable of the dance itself.  Attend more classes, ask a ton of questions and most of all ask for feedback from anyone you dance with and slowly but surely you’ll be able to gain confidence by the amount of knowledge and experience you have learned from all of your attempts.

I’m sure I missed a few reasons why you feel your not confident, so comment below and let’s discuss it!