How To Learn Dancing Effectively: Your Ultimate Guide

YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE
HOW TO
LEARN DANCING
EFFECTIVELY
8 TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
By Monika Matyszczyk
getdanceonline.com
SIGN UP FOR MY FREE LIVE TRAINING ON HOW TO GET CONFIDENT
DANCING IN PUBLIC AT: GETDANCEONLINE.COM/MASTERCLASS
Speaking from experience.

If we haven't officially met, my name is
Monika Matyszczyk and I dedicated my life to
helping adults go from avoiding the dance
floor to feeling confident when dancing in
front of others.
If you're currently at a spot where you've

been trying to learn how to dance for a while
without seeing results or maybe you just
decided to start learning - you're in the right
place.
Not only I was able to turn my <social> life around by learning how to
dance, I was able to help thousands of adults feel confident both on and
off the dance floor by changing their dance skills forever.
Here are some of the things my students come to me with:

not being able to enjoy going out because they are terrified of the
dance floor
not feeling confident when dancing in front of other people
lacking basic dance skills like rhythm and coordination
While learning all the necessary skills when it comes to dancing, my

students realized that HOW THEY LEARN matters.
Knowing how to learn effectively saves time, yields fast results, and
makes the skills permanent.
getdanceonline.com 2
If it sounds too good to be true, take a look at one of my students, Nan.
When Nan joined my program she, in her own words, 'watched many
good dancers and paid for one-on-one lessons and learned nothing'.
Her main struggle was rhythm - hearing the beat and dancing to it.
She also found it difficult to dance in social settings due to a lack of
confidence.
But just 3 weeks into my program, Nan has seen an incredible

transformation in herself - a transformation so spectacular she is
recommending me to her friends. This is what she said:
And then there are text updated like this one that I live for:
Nan was able to accomplish her goals so quickly, along with other
students in my program, because she learned how to learn dancing
effectively.
In this short guide, I will show you my 8 tools for successful learning
that all of my students use to accelerate their results and become
confident dancing in social settings.
In this guide you will learn:

- how to get the most out of your learning experience
- how to successfully learn any dance movement
- how to create permanent dance skills
So let's change how you learn dancing

forever!
1
set goals
Tools For Successful Learning
getdanceonline.com
You need to have 2 types of goals when it comes to learning how to

dance:
1. Know what you want to accomplish, where you want to be in your

learning experience (macro goals - long term goals)
2. Know what you want to accomplish in every class/practice session

/exercise (micro goals). It will make each practice session more
meaningful for you and will help you stay focused.
Ground rules for setting goals:
1. Make sure that the goals you set for

yourself are attainable - realistic but they
should be challenging.
If you set the bar too low and accomplish your goals right off the bat,
you won’t be motivated to learn further.
Example: If you say to yourself: 'I want to know 3 dance moves'.

You will learn those 3 steps quickly but it won’t mean that you'll be
able to dance. Overall, you won't be happy with the result and you
might feel discouraged to learn any further.
If you set the bar too high, you will lose motivation very quickly once
you see that no matter what you do, it doesn’t bring you any closer to
achieving your goals.
Example: 'I want to dance for Beyonce in a year'

If you have 0 dance experience and you set a goal like that for yourself,
I hate to break it to you but you might be aiming a bit too high.
2. You want your goals to be specific.

Saying simply that you want to learn how to dance is too broad.
Yes - you will get there but it is helpful to set smaller goals along the
way.
When it comes to dancing, pick a problem area:
lack of rhythm,
lack of coordination,
looking stiff when dancing,
failure to remember movements, etc.
and set a realistic time frame of when you want to be able to develop
that into a skill.
That way your teacher can guide you through what you need in order
to accomplish your goal. You can create a step by step program and
tackle each goal one by one.
Don’t be concerned with the final product only. Enjoy the process.
Know that everything you’re doing is getting you closer to your goal.
3. The goals you set for yourself don’t have to

be ‘perfect’ right from the start.
Goals can change so adjust your goals regularly during your learning
process. There's no such thing as nailing the right goals. It's a dynamic,
never-ending process. As long as you learn, you should be setting goals.
Sometimes achieving your goal faster than you expected may surprise
you. You can then set the bar higher. Reviewing your goals ties in with
feedback on your end - you want to regularly assess where you are in
your learning process.
In my own personal dance journey, initially, my goal was to dance well

enough so that I have the courage to go out on the dance floor and be
able to dance in front of strangers.
As I kept learning and working towards achieving my goal, I realized I

really enjoy the process and want to keep learning. I then readjusted my
goal from becoming confident dancing in social settings to becoming a
professional dancer. And from there - to becoming a dance teacher.
2
practice
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It's obvious for some people, less obvious for others but...
Practicing is the only way to develop dance skills

and become confident when dancing in front of
others.
When we try a dance movement for the first time we will feel
awkward, disjointed, and uncomfortable.
And that is totally normal.
With practice, we will notice that it gets easier to do it and we’ll start
to feel a bit more comfortable with every repetition. That’s because we
strengthen the connections in the brain, we gain body awareness and
motor control.
You might have heard of the term MUSCLE MOVEMENT MEMORY.

What is it and how does it help us learn?
It’s not really that your muscles remember movements, it’s your brain
cells remembering the muscle activity. Our brain stores information
about whether the movement is right or wrong, it focuses on the right
action and makes that action permanent through repetition of that
action.
When such movement is stored in long-term memory, it takes less
brain activity to recreate it. We can repeat it easier, quicker and the
movement starts to feel natural.
How much should you practice?

There are still debates over how many repetitions are needed in order
to create muscle memory. Numbers range between 300-500 (for the
movement to start to 'click') to thousands of hours (to perfect a
movement).
But here's the good news:
If you are learning something new and it doesn't look good on you right
away - no problem - it's not your fault. It's fixable, it just needs time.
Getting good at dancing is all about the numbers and repetition.
How often should you practice?

I’m a strong believer in keeping the practice regular. It is far more
productive if you practice 20mins-1hour at a time more regularly
(every other day or every 2 days) than 3 hours but less often (once
every 2 weeks).
I suggest trying out different methods to find what works for you.
Assess different practice intervals and time spent practicing and

answer these questions:
Was it easier/did it feel better to dance when you practiced more
often?
Were you able to remember more movements when you practiced
more regularly?
Are you burning out?
You can then adjust your practicing schedule as you go.
3
focus
getdanceonline.com
Learning any new skill requires concentration

and focus.
There are 2 types of concentration styles:
If you have an external focus, you are sensitive to and easily
distracted by your surroundings
If you have an internal focus, you may find yourself easily
distracted by your thoughts
Btw usually it's not the 'happy thoughts' that are distracting us.
You thinking to yourself: 'I can't do that' when learning something that
seems difficult for you, IS an internal distraction. It is absolutely
getting in a way of you learning something effectively
Once you identify what is distracting you, you need to learn how to
bring the focus back to the task at hand.
How to stay focused?

To maximize your learning potential, analyze what is happening at the
moment in your learning process.
You can bring focus to what you’re doing by asking yourself these
questions:
- Am I dancing on beat?
- Are my movements exaggerated? Should I adjust their size?
- What can I do to look looser? Am I tensing the muscles that don’t

need to be tense?
You can also keep the focus on rhythm.
Try counting with music in your head (1, 2) or use a sound

corresponding to a snare drum when you’re moving to that rhythmic
pattern.
If you're constantly counting in your head, you won't be distracted by

your surroundings. Of course, it doesn't mean you will have to do it
forever (dancing wouldn't be much fun then).
With practice, when you acquire a skill, it will require less

concentration. As you become more advanced, you’ll be able to
perform that skill without conscious thought.
4
translate
getdanceonline.com
This technique is truly a game-changer.

It allows you to 'steal' anyone's moves with little effort. Professional
dancers use it on a daily basis.
If you've ever taken a group class in any dance style I’m sure at some
point you were surprised at how fast people around you are able to
pick up movements.
That usually happens because they are utilizing translating and

assessment tools very well. They are 100% focused on analyzing -
understanding demonstrated movements and then translating them
onto their own bodies detail by detail.
Imagine going to the club: you see someone who is a great dancer and
you're able to ON THE SPOT learn his or her movements in a matter of
seconds.
How cool would that be?
When learning a new movement you have to

translate it onto your body.
So how do you do that?

Before you translate a movement pattern, you have to comprehend
it.
You don’t want to just copy something that you don’t understand.
Not only chances are you will do it incorrectly but you won’t be able to
memorize the movement you’re trying to get.
Don’t take the movements you're learning for granted.
When you see a complicated movement with different layers simply
take it apart. Analyze it.
Ask yourself these questions:
Is there footwork involved?

What are the feet doing on the snare (main beat)?
What other body parts are moving?
Are they moving with the same rhythm as the feet?
What’s the position of the arms?
Don’t attempt to get it all at once.
I usually suggest starting from the GROUND UP.
Here's the order I recommend:
1. footwork (are they moving to the tempo/snare, etc?)

2. knees (is there a change in levels?)
3. hips
4. torso
5. shoulders
6. arms / hands
Remember that getting the movement correctly is far more important

than getting it fast.
When I’m demonstrating any movement, I like to do several

repetitions so my students can get all the details.
I also like to repeat the same movement in the following classes so that
if they haven’t noticed everything there is to notice about the
movement, they can get those extra details then.
Of course, if you're learning by yourself, for example on YouTube, you

can easily rewind the video several times until you learn everything
there is to learn about the movement.
Always strive for copying the movement precisely until it becomes

obvious and automatic. You will see that with time, picking apart any
movement and then executing it, will take you as little as a couple of
seconds.
A common issue with learning:
Very often I see students who are learning especially through

YouTube and TikTok not really paying attention to getting the
movement 100% correctly.
As a result, the move they learn looks only kinda, sorta like the
movement that's being demonstrated.
The result:
- Beginners not happy with the way the movements look on them
- Dance moves easily forgotten in a matter of weeks (if not days)
Why is the ability to translate the movement

correctly beneficial?
When you're paying attention to translating the movement onto

your body, you're teaching yourself.
YOU are the one explaining the movement to yourself, action by

action so that it starts to make sense.
What does it do? It makes the movement permanent.

First of all, it will be very difficult for you to forget such a movement.
Second of all, if you ever do - you'll be able to quickly re-teach yourself
because you did it once before.
Learning how to dance is like learning a new language...

When you're learning a new language, you’re trying to get the
pronunciation of new words the best you can. You will strive to say the
word as close to how you’re hearing it because you’re afraid of
sounding funny, right?
The same should happen with learning how to dance.
Copying the teacher and your ability to

improvise
You might ask: 'Why do I need to copy somebody else's movements

precisely when my goal is to be able to freestyle in the club?'
Of course, when you dance in social settings, the goal is to be able to

freestyle - improvise comfortably, being able to create a response to
the music that you’re hearing and express it with your body.
However, before you start expressing yourself on the dance floor,

you have to develop basic skills and know basic dance movements so
that you have the tools to express yourself with.
There's no way around it. Take a composer, for example. They can
create their own music but not without knowing time signatures,
notes, etc. first. Otherwise, whatever they create wouldn’t be pleasant
to the ear.
5
assess
getdanceonline.com
I'm not a fan of having students rely on teacher's feedback only. I think
that way, you become dependent on someone to always tell you
if you're right or wrong.
When you're dancing in front of others (in the club, at a party, wedding,
etc.) where will you find a dance teacher then to correct you?
You'll be on your own, therefore you have to learn how to rely on your
own feedback and assessment.
When it comes to learning how to dance you should be assessing:
1. What you’re currently learning in class or your own practice

session (if you're learning on your own), i.e. a specific movement or
movement combination and if you translated it into your body
correctly, or when we are stretching you want to assess if your form
is correct
2. Where you are in your dance journey: your progress related to the
goals you set for yourself
When we know how we’re doing and where we

are, we become aware of where we are going.
Students in my online program do get personalized feedback from me

but my goal is to also teach them how to effectively assess their own
progress. How to analyze what they’re doing and be able to implement
corrections.
Why is that useful?
Simple answer: so you don't need a dance teacher for the rest of your
life. That way you can learn anything anytime and you won’t need to
rely on somebody else to tell you what’s right and what’s not.
Not to mention that...
Very often you’re doing what YOU think is being shown because the
movement might look familiar to the movement you already know.
Always second-guess yourself - if the movement feels comfortable
right away, chances are you’re not doing it right.
After each class or practice session ask yourself ‘What did I learn?’
What will then happen, you will start assessing yourself while you are
on the dance floor. You will go through each lesson with a purpose and
you will recognize that purpose every time you dance.
No matter how you're currently learning how to dance,

make it a habit to assess your progress whether in your practice
session or overall.
6
ask
getdanceonline.com
Teachers love questions!

(and if they don't - they should)
Asking questions is a clear sign that you want to learn, that you are
dedicated to your success on the dance floor. By asking questions - you
learn.
I want my students to FULLY comprehend the movements not just copy

them without any thought process, that's why I always encourage
questions. If I can clarify something and make it 'click' for you - nothing
makes me happier!
If you don’t ask and just move on, you’re not solving the problem and
most likely you will encounter it again.
If you're learning with a teacher, never shy away from asking questions.
7
implement
corrections
getdanceonline.com
You want to avoid making the same mistakes

in your learning process but rather implement
corrections consistently.
If your teacher gives you corrections or if you correct yourself based

on your own assessment, try to hold on to that correction.
Next time when you’re doing the same movement (whether it's at
home or on the dance floor), make sure you apply the correction on
your own.
A lot of times, we go back to what we were doing wrong because we

don’t hold on to the correction (we can repeat something incorrectly
again after only a few minutes!).
Make a mental note of where you’re always messing up and to be

more focused next time you execute the same movement or the same
exercise.
Be aware and check if you’re not messing up doing similar movements

to the corrected one as well.
This will help you take full advantage of your practice sessions and
help you develop your dance skills faster.
8
remember your
motivation
getdanceonline.com
What is the reason you want to be confident

on the dance floor?
How will your life change when you are?
Maybe you’ll stop missing out on having fun in the club with your
friends?
Maybe you’ll be able to stop wishing you can dance with your
girlfriend/boyfriend?
Maybe you will finally have the courage to meet someone on the
dance floor?
Never lose track of what motivated you to start learning how to dance
in the first place. Focus on the end goal and the outcome you want to
achieve.
Forget about the ‘how’ and focus on the ‘why’.

If you know YOUR ‘why’, you can deal with any strategy and any
setback. Use it to fuel your work.
WHY are you here? What do you want? What is your motivation?
We already established that it is impossible not to improve (Tool #2

'Practice'). You know that dance is a physical skill and it depends on
your practicing and just doing the work.
**Plus now you have all the tools for successful learning I explained in
this guide.
After several practice sessions, you’ll notice that you’re doing better,
that dance won't be such an abstract concept anymore. It will take you
less and less time to learn new movements.
Use it as motivation to keep pushing forward. Remember your
beginnings and how far you've got in your learning process and make
sure you don’t stop there.
To help you stay motivated:

- Go back to your goals
Set challenging yet realistic, specific goals and tackle them one by one.
Whatever your problem on the dance floor is - whether it's lack of
rhythm, not being coordinated, lack of dance moves, or looking stiff -
these all can be learned and/or improved.
- Focus on facts
As a beginner, you have to get the movements into your body and it is
just a numbers game. Each movement needs roughly 500 repetitions to
start to 'click' for you. And even more reps for it to start feeling natural.
- Turn off the chatterbox

You’re going to encounter limiting beliefs, that negative voice in your
head saying you cannot do something.
We all like to be comfortable, we don’t want to get out of our comfort
zone. These limiting beliefs are a way to protect ourselves from having
to get out of our comfort zone, having to put effort into something, to
make a change. So we say these things to ourselves because we don’t
really want to do the work - we want to be excused from having to do
the work. But without putting in work - nothing will change.
- Use motivational words or phrases

Henry Ford once said: “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re
right”.
Learning how to dance, just like learning anything new and unfamiliar
requires the right attitude. You can't expect success overnight, it is
most definitely a process but it is simply worth it. If you believe you
can - you will.
This is my favorite quote I always say to myself when things get tough:
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see

when you take your eyes off your goals” -
unknown
Now, what's next:
Having and understanding this blueprint is one thing... But how do you get the
dance skills that will take you from avoiding the dance floor to feeling confident
when dancing in front of people in any social setting?
I’M HOSTING A FREE TRAINING ON HOW

YOU CAN GET THE CONFIDENCE
ON THE DANCE FLOOR IN 8 WEEKS OR LESS
GIVE ME THE
CLASS TIMES
OR GO TO : getdanceonline.com/masterclass
TO SIGN UP FOR THE TRAINING

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YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE

Speaking from experience.

If you're currently at a spot where you've

Here are some of the things my students come to me with:

While learning all the necessary skills when it comes to dancing, my

If it sounds too good to be true, take a look at one of my students, Nan.

But just 3 weeks into my program, Nan has seen an incredible

In this guide you will learn:

So let's change how you learn dancing

You need to have 2 types of goals when it comes to learning how to

1. Know what you want to accomplish, where you want to be in your

2. Know what you want to accomplish in every class/practice session

Ground rules for setting goals:

1. Make sure that the goals you set for

Example: If you say to yourself: 'I want to know 3 dance moves'.

Example: 'I want to dance for Beyonce in a year'

2. You want your goals to be specific.

When it comes to dancing, pick a problem area:

3. The goals you set for yourself don’t have to

In my own personal dance journey, initially, my goal was to dance well

As I kept learning and working towards achieving my goal, I realized I

Practicing is the only way to develop dance skills

And that is totally normal.

You might have heard of the term MUSCLE MOVEMENT MEMORY.

How much should you practice?

But here's the good news:

How often should you practice?

Assess different practice intervals and time spent practicing and

You can then adjust your practicing schedule as you go.

Learning any new skill requires concentration

How to stay focused?

- Are my movements exaggerated? Should I adjust their size?

- What can I do to look looser? Am I tensing the muscles that don’t

You can also keep the focus on rhythm.

Try counting with music in your head (1, 2) or use a sound

If you're constantly counting in your head, you won't be distracted by

With practice, when you acquire a skill, it will require less

This technique is truly a game-changer.

That usually happens because they are utilizing translating and

When learning a new movement you have to

So how do you do that?

Ask yourself these questions:

Is there footwork involved?

Don’t attempt to get it all at once.

I usually suggest starting from the GROUND UP.

Here's the order I recommend:

1. footwork (are they moving to the tempo/snare, etc?)

Remember that getting the movement correctly is far more important

When I’m demonstrating any movement, I like to do several

Of course, if you're learning by yourself, for example on YouTube, you

Always strive for copying the movement precisely until it becomes

A common issue with learning:

Very often I see students who are learning especially through

Why is the ability to translate the movement

When you're paying attention to translating the movement onto

YOU are the one explaining the movement to yourself, action by

What does it do? It makes the movement permanent.

Learning how to dance is like learning a new language...

The same should happen with learning how to dance.

Copying the teacher and your ability to

You might ask: 'Why do I need to copy somebody else's movements

Of course, when you dance in social settings, the goal is to be able to

However, before you start expressing yourself on the dance floor,