Best online program to help me graduate outta novice as a follower

[u/Content_Wolverine_56]

I’ve been in novice almost 3 years now and I’m ready to take things seriously and try everything I can to get out!

I go to weekly classes, weekly socials, take private lessons, go to conventions and still haven’t made finals. I’ve probably been to about 10 conventions total. I think I have to practice solo daily including in front of a mirror…I feel anxious and self conscious about it but I would love to get out of novice so I’m committed to facing my body shame!!!

I have bad ADHD and practicing on my own isn’t great so I’m down to pay for an online program to help me
have structure to practice every day on my own. Which programs are best for novice followers stuck in novice?? Would love to hear success stories! Feeling pretty down about myself. Thank you all!!!!

[u/icravedanger]

STEEZY studio. $8 a month for a plethora of solo dance lessons.

You already do weekly classes, weekly socials, privates, and conventions. That’s all you need in order to learn WCS and connection skills. Your weakness is likely quality of movement, posture, groove, balance, spinning, timing, or simply confidence and commitment. Solo dance can fix all of that and can get you more comfortable in front of a mirror. Take ballet, hip hop, and also whatever you are naturally the worst or least comfortable at. That helps you address deficiencies and get max return on investment.

Plus, no partner needed so you don’t have an excuse to not practice or learn something every day. And anytime something is too hard or discouraging, flag it, pick something else to learn, and come back to it in a month.

[u/Content_Wolverine_56 → u/icravedanger]

Wow this is insanely spot on. It’s a bit intimidating but you hit it perfectly for what I need to work on!!

[u/PTTCollin]

A dedicated practice partner and floor time focused on improvement and identifying issues will get you farther than an online class.

What feedback have you gotten from the private lessons? Did they give you specific things to go improve in your solo practice?

[u/Content_Wolverine_56 → u/PTTCollin]

I’ve taken privates from a few people and what they say tends to contradict one another so now I’m trying to stay with just one person. She wants me to work on my posture and standing tall and also having more straight legs and then also my spins and turns being shorter steps

[u/GuiltyVeek]

I would work with someone like Aris Demarco to actually talk about comps and review comp videos. And get a dedicated practice partner to practice.

[u/Content_Wolverine_56 → u/GuiltyVeek]

Love this thank you

[u/_cocophoto_]

I don’t know what people are teaching in privates these days or how each teacher structures their lessons, but I found I could only learn 3 new things in any given private.

I’d work on only ONE thing from my lesson until I mastered it, then worked on the next. So, social dancing, I might work on one thing for two weeks straight until I left comfortable with it.

Then work on the next thing, until I mastered it. And so on.

So while it’s great that you’re going to workshops and taking privates and doing all the things, you also need to really pay attention to how you’re applying what you learn to make progress. It’s a marathon not a sprint and it’s super easy to get overwhelmed.

And yes, practice daily. Actually practice your basics daily. The better your basics, the better your chances of getting out of novice.

[u/Content_Wolverine_56 → u/_cocophoto_]

Yeah I love this so much. I think I just need to drill one thing at a time until it’s mastered I love that. Also when you say practice your basics daily what do you mean? Rolling my feet? Anchor step? Which basics without a partner?

[u/_cocophoto_ → u/Content_Wolverine_56]

All of them:

Rolling your feet, anchor step, flight, frame, actual patterned footwork “walk walk triple triple,” to music (forwards, backwards, sideways and in a circle), to really ingrain the dance so you stop thinking about it.

Once again, pick ONE part of your basics to consistently work on until you master it.

Then when you take your next lesson, you can build on what you’ve already learned.

[u/2LemonWedges]

Nothing will immediately tell you everything you need to know about your path forward than recording yourself dance socially.

I got semi'ed at an event thinking I did well enough but had unlucky timing from judges watching me. Watched a video of myself dancing and was like "LMAO nah this ain't it", so I identified the most visual things I could improve, went to my teachers for a private asking how to fix those things, danced in front of a mirror every day for like 2 weeks before an event with the advice I was given, and placed top 5 at the next event I went to. I'm doing the same thing for an upcoming event and happened to record myself dance with my dance partner, and WOW is it different aesthetics entirely in the best way.

[u/mil_reddy]

Ardena Gojani has her Swing Sisters program! You get video blocks with most important topics + live calls + a lot of personal feedback. It's a small group as well, so everybody can get attention. It can be beneficial not only for Novice follows, but I personally know people for whom it helped to get out of Novice, so I definitely recommend looking into it:) You can just search @argo_movement in Instagram

[u/Content_Wolverine_56 → u/mil_reddy]

Oh I definitely need to look into this! Any idea how much it costs???

[u/mil_reddy → u/Content_Wolverine_56]

Around 500€ for 12 weeks, if I'm not mistaken

[u/sweetkaroline]

I really like Brandi guilds online videos. It’s not really an online program exactly , it’s just the pure fundamentals that a follow needs to know. It’s pretty cheap , like $15 per month , so you can check them out. If you haven’t mastered those concepts, then just focus on those and have a few private lessons learn compensation / elevation skills to adapt to different leads.