Surpassing your peers and teachers

It does happen.

If you work really, really hard, at some point in time, you may have invested more time and effort than some of your peers.

It is possible to surpass your peers, and sometimes even instructors, if you are continually growing and they have stopped growing at a certain point. It's simple mathematics. Someone who dances 15 hours a week for 1 year, will probably be better than someone who's been dancing for 1 hour a week for 5 years. At some point, you may have put more hours of work into your dancing than some of your peers have.

Of course you'll have to take into account efficiency and quality of instruction; constantly challenging yourself will allow you to improve more quickly than always staying in your comfort zone or practicing bad habits.

In a previous blog I mentioned that I am more likely, at least in my own community, to dance with a rapidly improving beginner dancer than an intermediate dancer who's been dancing the same way for many years. I am extremely curious about those caught the "tango bug" and I will pay more attention to the students who work the hardest rather than students who are the fastest at picking up the material.

Most of my students, in technique, were much better than I was in my first technique classes. People have so much potential, but it's those who actively find partners to practice with, seek out quality classes, do drills in their kitchen and supermarket, and dive head-first into tango seem to succeed the most in terms of improving.