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What it Takes to be a Confident Social Dancer

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Chandler ballroom dance instructionDo you know what it takes to be a confident social dancer? How great would it be to go to a local Country bar or Latin dance club and be the first one on the dance floor? What about being that guy that all the ladies line up to dance with? I would say that’s a pretty fantastic feeling for any man, wouldn’t you? To become a confident social dancer in styles like the Swing, Country Two Step and Salsa dancing, you need a few things immediately. Here’s my short list of the top three things you can do be that dancer before long…

Start with laying a solid foundation as a social dancer by signing up for Beginner’s Private Dance Lessons, rather then Group Classes, at your local ballroom dance studio. With one-on-one instruction, you will definitely get key bits of information personalized to the way you learn best that you could not receive in a group setting. These tips are your keys to your success on the dance floor! They include: exercises on how to properly lead or follow, specific instruction on dance frames and detail on how to execute each move so that it feels comfortable for your partner. With Private Swing, Country and Latin Dance Lessons, you will definitely be on the fast track to becoming an awesome social dancer!

Next, identifying the music and knowing how to stay on time is critical as a leader on any social dance floor. Not everyone can find the beat in a song naturally and that’s OK, but this skill can be learned. Taking the time to get proper and professional instruction on how to stay with the beat is well worth the time it takes to understand. In trickier styles like Salsa and other Latin dances, this may require a bit more time to be proficient, so be patient with yourself as you are going through the process. Again, you can gain this knowledge through working with a trained professional dance instructor.

Lastly, it is essential to be able to navigate around a crowded dance floor with confidence. Getting the tools you need on how to make your way comfortably around masses of potentially drunk people and wild dancers will save you from freaking out later when you’re in that situation. It’s also a nice thing to avoid running your partner into oncoming traffic, right? Inevitably most dancers will not be trained, so if you’re going to invest in your dancing, take the time to discover how to avoid mishaps like this. Your partner will surely appreciate it!

When you’re ready for it, a fun game your instructor can play with you is to set up obstacles on the dance floor in the studio. Then, it will be your job to get around them all without knocking them over. Pretend they’re real people and see if they all remain standing by the time the song is over. That is a great way to train yourself on how to dance on a crowded floor with ease.

Becoming a confident social dancer takes time. Like learning to play the guitar with fluidity, or speaking a new language that just rolls off your tongue, knowing how to dance does not happen overnight. With patience, practice and formal instruction, though, you can be a great dancer! Get the ball rolling for yourself by contacting your local social ballroom dance studio today!

Country Thunder 2016 is Coming Soon!

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Country dance lessons in ArizonaArizona Cowboys and Cowgirls, grab your boots and get ready for one of the biggest Country events in AZ of the year…Country Thunder 2016! Are you ready!!?? There’s only one way to really get prepared for a four-day party like this, and that’s by learning how to Country dance!

If you haven’t started taking dance lessons yet, now’s the time. With less than two months to go, it’s not too late to look great on that dance floor.

If you happen to live in the Phoenix East Valley, come visit us at Dance FX Studios to get started with beginner’s Country Western dance lessons. We teach couples and singles how to Country dance six days a week, and we’d love to make you feel and look incredible by April for Country Thunder 2016 too.

The best way to get started with Country dance lessons is by trying out our New Student Offer for only $25. This rate is good for a single or a twosome, so you really can’t go wrong. In your introductory dance lesson, you will get useful tips on how to lead and follow, how to hold you partner properly on the dance floor, how to connect with anyone while you’re dancing, and how to do the basics of several Country dances! That’s a lot in an hour, so come prepared for fun and to learn!

“Which dances will I learn?,” you may be wondering. Great question! You will definitely need to know how to Two Step. There are several versions of the Two Step, so it would be good to explore a few styles. That way you can fit in anywhere.

Country Swing dancing is also very hot right now. Once you know how to Swing dance, all those fast songs will be easy to dance along with! There’s a ton of Country Swing dance moves, spins and dips that are a blast to know, so we can’t leave this popular dance behind.

There are many more Country dances, from the Waltz to West Coast (another Swing dance style), but I would say that if you know how to Two Step dance and Country Swing dance, your bases will be covered for Country Thunder.

Dance FX Studios borders both Chandler and Tempe, and is located just off the 101 highway in Mesa, AZ. We are in our 15th year as a local dance studio that has served the entire Phoenix valley since 2001. We specialize in social dancing only, not competitive ballroom dancing, so getting ready for events from weddings to holiday parties to Country Thunder is our forte. Come check us out and be ready for any exciting opportunity that comes your way. Social dancing is a blast to learn and even more fun to use! To get started, call us today at 480-968-6177. We hope to see YOU on the dance floor!

Country Two Step lessons

Doing What Makes You Happy…Dance!

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Country Two Step lessons for beginnersI’m in Starbucks again today.  There are two men sitting across from me.  I like to watch people.  These gentlemen are speaking rather loudly, so I cannot help but over hear their conversation.  The men are talking about life and their beliefs.  It sounds like one is counseling the other on his ideal life.  I don’t quite see the happiness in the vision he portrays, but it makes me reflect on what each individual considers to be happiness.  We all are so very different.  One of my favorite versions of happiness is social dancing.

When I began social dancing as a profession (think Country dancing, Latin and Swing dancing), I received a lot of grief for it.  People did not see it as a real job.  They’ve been this way about many things in my life.  But, as those who know me know, I’m a free bird and must try things out for myself.  Over the past few years, I have tried to train my brain not to dwell on others opinions.  Dancing makes me happy.  I think it is important.  I wonder how many people out there haven’t begun dancing because they are afraid of what people will think of them.  They are postponing their own chance at happiness due to fear.

Here’s my advice to you, my dear.  Jump in.  Go for it.  I read an article once explaining how you know you are on to something good when you begin to receive resistance.  I think that is correct.  I think the best things in the world come with some kind of push back.  If you are interested in partner dancing, and you’re receiving some kind of negative or discouraging feedback, I encourage you to fight the negativity!  Take a leap of faith.  I can only begin to tell you of all the wonderful benefits of dance that you will experience when you cross over to the other side.

Give it a chance.  Take some time to relax, de-stress from your busy schedule, or do something fun for yourself. Country dancing, or Latin dancing can give you just that.  Maybe what you really have needed all along is a new hobby and the opportunity to meet new people. Perhaps you and your spouse are in need of a night out and some quality time together away from the kids or work.  Social dancing is perfect for adding a bit of romance to your relationship.  Whatever your reasoning is, don’t let fear prevent you from finding a little piece of heaven in dancing.

Dance FX Studios in Mesa, Arizona (where I teach) offers so many options for individuals or couples seeking to learn to social dance.  We have everything from Latin styles such as Salsa, Merengue, and Bachata to Country styles like the Arizona Two Step and Country Swing.  We also offer less genre specific styles such as West Coast Swing and Nite Club Two Step, so you’ll never be left without a song to dance to.  Whatever your style or preference, we can help you get on the dance floor.  You’ll have our support and encouragement the entire way.  Take part in our New Student Offer, and schedule your introductory dance lesson today.  We are open six days a week:  Monday through Friday from noon to 8pm, and Saturday 11am to 4pm.  I hope today is the day you do something good for yourself.  Take a chance and have some fun. 🙂

Arizona Swing dance lessons

Swing Dance Your Way Into Summer

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Arizona Swing dance lessons for beginnersHere in Arizona, many would argue summer started last month. As we head into the official summer start date, we start dreading the inevitable and begin asking ourselves the big question – how do I get “bathing suit ready”?  Am I right? We here at Dance FX Studios have the solution, Salsa or Swing dance your way into summer with beginners social ballroom dance lessons! Aside from the benefits of learning a skill that allows you to meet new people, social ballroom dancing provides some serious body benefits including cardiorespiratory fitness, firmer calves and legs, an overall better booty and fat-loss from exercise that is at what is called the “target heart rate” for burning fat while keeping muscle. Sounds pretty good, right?

When you are out Country Swing dancing at your favorite Country bar here in Arizona, have you ever stayed on the dance floor long enough to become winded? If your answer is yes, that means you experienced something called cardiorespiratory exercise! “In 2014 about 136,830 people are predicted to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the US, and about 50,310 people are predicted to die of the disease. In both men and women, colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death”, according to the American Cancer Society from 2014.  Did you know that recent medical studies indicate that colon cancer is best prevented by regular participation doing, guess what? Yep, cardiorespiratory exercise and two dances perfect for cardio exercise are the Country Two Step and Country Swing Dancing! YEEHAAAW!

The Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, which was conducted over 29 years, found that cardio fit people also have a significantly reduced risk of digestive system cancers. Further, their findings support regular cardio exercise, i.e.: Tango or Swing dancing, provides a protective role against total digestive tract, colorectal, and liver cancer deaths, especially in men.

Staying on the health topic, let’s talk about what the true “target heart rate” is for fat burning. This is a topic that few people understand because most people have been told over and over to head directly to the treadmill, stair master or a high intensity cardio exercise like aerobics for an hour, or longer, in order to lose weight. This type of workout, where you feel your heart racing, does burns calories, but it also starts to burn off something highly coveted – muscle. The fact is that low intensity workouts like yoga, weight lifting or ballroom dancing, not only provides cardiorespiratory fitness, but it is also ideal for burning fat! So why not Salsa or Cha Cha dance your way into lean muscles and a toned, firm body? We think you should.

Body builders have it all figured out. They do lots of weight training and low intensity exercise and maybe only 30 minutes of cardio every other day for their muscle building routine. That is soooo much better than overworking that body unnecessarily! Try beginner dance lessons and you will get your health and social benefits knocked out all in one!

Though you do care about your health, I am betting all of you are reading this because you also want to look sexy and shapely! The first example of just such a body that comes to mind is Jennifer Lopez. She has been famous for that shapely body, and her sought after bottom, long before another “endowed” star, Kim Kardashian, ever became a household name! J. Lo may tell you her famous booty is directly due to her time spent dancing. Growing up in the Bronx, in New York, her Puerto Rican parents enrolled their children in singing and dancing to keep them out of trouble. Jennifer specialized in ballet, jazz and flamenco dance genres. Jennifer gained attention showing off her dance talent and physical beauty as a back-up dancer for New Kids on the Block and catapulted to national attention dancing as a “Fly Girl” on the television show In Living Color. Ladies, are you listening? You can get your hips moving to all sorts of spicy Latin dances like Salsa, Merengue, Argentine Tango or Bachata!

When I think of male bodies who attribute their chiseled abs and muscular thighs to dancing, the image of a long ago famous poster of Mikel Barisnakoff in his white tights immediately comes to mind. Other examples of what dancing does for a male body are: Patrick Swayze, Ricky Martin and Maksim Chmerkovskiy. If this does not convince you what dancing can do to transform your body to shapely, sexy and bathing suit ready, there are many other fit-bodied dancers to view, simply by watching the popular TV shows like Dancing with the Stars. Guys, are you listening? Start learning popular social ballroom styles of dancing to get fit and be as popular with the ladies as these famous stars are by summertime!

Find out what learning to County Swing, Country Two Step, Salsa, Tango, and other styles of social ballroom dancing can do to get your body looking great and feeling good, not only for the local pool side barbeque but out on the dance floor at your favorite club.

Maybe there is another event in your future, like a a wedding, a high-school reunion, or a team-building event for your company? So, are you ready? Fat burning exercise and lots of FUN is waiting for you with us at Dance FX Studios in Mesa, Arizona! Why not discover dancing now and get that body of yours summer-ready? Call our dance studio today at 480-968-6177 and make your appointment for a New Student Offer today. Dance FX Studios is located conveniently in Mesa, bordering Tempe and  Chandler, Arizona. We hope to see you on the dance floor!

private dance instruction

How To Avoid Date Night Disasters

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private dance instruction in ArizonaSo she didn’t turn out to be as cute as you had hoped she’d be, and he isn’t nearly as funny as he was on the phone. Now you’re sitting across the table from each other, desperately trying to figure out how to save this night from yet another blind date disaster. The movies may work, since you won’t have to spend too much time interacting. But if you want to truly see what your date is made of, boy do we have a fun and creative way to spend the next few hours! Our plan for turning a date night “never again” around? Take her out dancing! Yes, dancing is a great ice breaker, stress reliever and an easy way to see if there is some underlying chemistry between the two of you after all. Plus, hitting a Country bar with live music, or a trendy Latin dance club is so much more interesting than chatting over a cup of joe.

Of course, if you do not yet know how to Country Two Step or Salsa dance, this idea of ours can end up in one of two ways. Either she’ll think you’re adorable for trying to explore something new, unique and exciting, or you’ll completely embarrass yourself and never step on to another dance floor again. Let’s avoid the latter with an easy solution: dance lessons from a local studio. How better to prepare yourself than by getting some great tips on how to sweep her off of her feet?! With Private Dance Lessons, you will also learn to lead like a champ, making you a hot commodity for future love interests if this one doesn’t pan out.

Now that you know how you’re going to WOW her, where do you begin when it comes to this dancing thing? Let us show you the steps (no pun intended) to becoming a great social dancer.

1. Work Backwards: Before you begin taking lessons, start thinking about where you would like to go dancing. If Country music is your thing, check out a few local venues that play Country dance music and see if you can envision yourself hanging out in that place with a date. Get acclimated by visiting the bar several times and watching the other dancers.

If Latin dancing is more up your alley, frequent a Latin dance club and watch the dancers for a bit. See what is popular right now and take it all in before you get a chance to step on that floor one day. Preparing ahead of time will give you that comfortability factor as well as give you a sense of familiarity; two key things that will give you peace of mind when you are taking out someone new for the first time.

2. Go With Private Dance Lessons: There are no shortcuts to becoming a confident social dancer. You can take months and months of group dance classes and learn just as much, if not more, in several Private Dance Lessons. Make the investment in yourself and get on the fast track to feeling great on any social dance floor with one-on-one instruction.

3. Come Prepared: So you may not be that guy or gal in the scenario that we opened with, but why wait until you’re in that situation yourself before doing something about it? Begin taking dance lessons now and see what a confidence booster it actually is to have such a skill under your belt. She will probably fall on the floor just by you asking her to go dancing! Then, when you take her out and show her that you’ve actually spent time really learning how to Two Step or Swing dance, trust us, she’ll see you in a whole new light.

Knowing how to social dance is something that you will have forever and use over and over again throughout your life. From your wedding, to nights on the town with friends to holiday parties and more, you will be ready to conquer any dance floor with ease. What a cool thing to be able to say that you can do!

Spice up your life and become the life of any social gathering with social dance lessons. Dance FX Studios’ New Student Offer is a great way to discover the many benefits of dance for just $25! Come visit us today and see how dance FX you!

 

Couple two step dancing

Holiday Gift Certificates for Dance Lessons Are Now Available!

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Couple two step dancing in ArizonaHoliday shopping season is in full swing and the options for what to get those you love seem to be endless! From ugly sweaters to fine bottles of wine, you can literally find anything and everything to gift these days. While that box of fruit and nuts may seem like a safe bet, have you considered an out-of-the-box idea for family and friends this year? How about a gift so great that it can last a lifetime? Well, if you are looking for that WOW factor without spending too much money, do we have the perfect gift for you…social dance lessons! You know those cool dances that you see your friends having a blast with at the Country bars or in the Latin clubs? Think Country Swing, Two Step and Salsa. Well that’s what we offer here at Dance FX Studios in Mesa, Arizona! For those of you who live here in Phoenix with us, you will be bringing joy to anyone who receives a gift certificate from you for dance lesson with us.

Dance lessons are an excellent present for anyone who needs a way to relieve stress, have more fun and do something healthy and active besides going to the gym. Social dancing offers these benefits and so much more. Imagine how great it would be for your shy neighbor to get out of her house and do something for herself for once. Through dancing, she can gain confidence, meet others and build a network of friends who have a similar interest in dance. For your best friend and her husband, private dance lessons are an incredible gift of time together away from the kids. With Argentine Tango or Swing dance lessons, they can re-connect on a more intimate level once again. Dance lessons are also ideal for that wound up co-worker who never leaves the office because he always “has too much to do”. If he had an appointment weekly for an exciting new hobby that will truly enhance his life, he can have a reason to leave the paperwork behind and dance!

The best way to give the gift of dance with us at Dance FX Studios is through our Online Store. After discovering our New Student Offer for private dance lessons (singles or couples welcome) as well as our 4-Week Group Dance Classes for couples, head over to our online store for a gift certificate. Certificates can be printed with several designs and backgrounds, or even emailed on the date of your choice, if that is preferred. The best part of giving the gift of dance this year at Dance FX Studios is that for every $100 that you spend in gift certificates, you get a $20 credit towards services for yourself! How cool is that?!

Dance FX Studios is located on the southeast corner of Dobson and Guadalupe Rds. We are in Mesa, but are also very close to Tempe and Chandler, just off the 101 highway. We serve all Phoenix residents in cities from Scottsdale to Queen Creek and Gold Canyon to Gilbert. Make 2015 a magical year by sharing the joy of dance with those close to you.

Contact us to begin your dancing journey…

 

Private dance lessons are available by appointment Monday-Friday from 12-8 pm and on Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm.