Bill Bryson, in his book A Walk in the Woods, writes that of all the people that start the 2,100+ mile long Appalachian Trail, 50% quit the first day. The first day. What did they expect?

Everyone learns to dance, if you want to. The only thing you have to do is to show up. No matter how awkward you feel, eventually, you will be able to dance. For line dancing, if you are a novice dancer, expect it to take you about 100 hours to get to the intermediate level. That is going once a week for two years. If you practice or go more often, the time will be shorter. If you miss weeks, your progress will be slower.

Square Dancing and Contra Dancing are among the easiest dances. There is no footwork involved, so you can do these dances the very first day. If you are a novice or even beginning dancer, you should go to Square or Contra Dancing, so you can experience the fun of dancing without having to put in the years of work it takes to match your footwork to the music.

If not knowing how to dance makes you anxious in dance class and makes you quit, you need to take a class for novices that goes super slow and is super easy. You need a class that will teach you the basic skills of dancing, such as how to walk to music and how to do a grapevine step.

Here is a simple test.

1. Start counting evenly, 1-2-3-4.
2. Now start walking forward four steps and then backward four steps in time to your counting.
3. Now count 1-2-3 Hold-4.
4. This time, walk three steps and pause on 4, without taking that fourth step. Do not put any weight on that foot.

If you cannot do this yet, you cannot dance yet. It is not because you do not know what to do. You cannot dance yet, because you do not have the physical skills. You have to train your body to move in time to music. That takes time.

You are welcome to go to the beginning line dancing class even if you do not have the physical skills, but you will not be able to do the dances. If that does not bother you, it does not bother anyone else. Go and have a good time. Eventually you will acquire the skills.

However, if it does bother you when you do not know what you are doing, go to the novice session, where you can learn the skills that will let you learn the dances.

Since novices do not stay novices very long, we only schedule novice sessions occasionally. If you want to take a novice session, contact us.