I have been teaching Ballroom Dancing for a very long time. I have a lot of training and a lot of experience. I have seen a lot in those many years. I have seen trends come and go, people come and go, and it seems that the more things change the more they stay the same. I am continually amused and dismayed whenever a new teacher rolls through town, thinking he or she is the new big shot who knows it all. Unfortunately, although the people change, it seems that the arrogance, boastfulness, and ignorance has not.
The young teachers will invariably criticize the older teachers, claiming that the older teachers are “too old” to know all the “new stuff”, or that they are out-of-date with their technique. The young teachers claim that they know “what is being done now”. This kind of attitude is very harmful to all the teachers, the students, and the dance business itself. That “new thing” they think they just discovered, that “new thing” that they think “the old guys” are too old to know about is the exact same thing that I have seen come and go three times already in the years I have been teaching. And it probably wasn’t even “new” the first time I saw it. It was just new to me. The same goes for all that “new stuff” and that “new technique”. In all the years I have seen this happen, none of the “new stuff” has ever been new. Not the costumes, not the figures, not the technique, nothing. The only thing new is the new guy. That old guy or lady that they criticize has been teaching twice as long as they have been alive. The older teachers have the wisdom of experience and deserve our respect. A lot can be learned from them.
During my training, I intentionally sought out older experienced teachers, and they always had incredible, insightful, and valuable information to teach me. There were never any exceptions. I remember taking a lesson from a gentleman who, by outward appearances to the uninformed, looked like he would have difficulty just walking across the floor. While he may or may not have had the stamina to dance a full set, he certainly had, and was able to demonstrate and teach some of the best technique I have ever seen.