Here you can find what some people who took part in a class of any kind have to say about my teaching.
“More than the technical aspects of dance, it is rather the research of a connection between the music, myself and the others that amaze me in his classes.
When I met Samuel I could immediately see his passion for teaching and dancing. Every class is a moment of fun, learning, discovering and sharing. While teachings the dance steps, Samuel really cares that you understand the rhythms, the movements and the presence of your body in relation with the others.
In term of timing it is only one hour and a half, but I keep dancing in my mind for all the week after =)
All are welcomed!”
– Beatrice, London
“Over the course of 3 hours I watched Samuel transform beginning-intermediate dancers into darn sufficient blues dancers. By the end of the workshop, I was floored with the improvement that all the dancers made. I could feel it at the end of the workshop when everyone finally danced with each other. We spent an hour on just practicing basic steps on our own. Everything within the steps were broken down and practiced. I fully appreciated all the simple variations on the basic. Basic variations bring a whole new dimension to the dance and are easy to teach beginning dancers. We then moved on to basic partnering and again everything was broken down simply. I think the most interesting approach he had was how he taught underarm turns and passes. After spending two hours on basics, he spent less than a minute explaining how to do the turn, and forced us to practice it without much explanation. It forced us to realize again everything is just a variation on the basic. Everything in a style of dance is just complications of a basic move. How can you become a better dancer without spending hours and hours learning and relearning the basics? The entire dance is built off of those basics!!”
– Alex, California (read full blog post)
“When I attended my first taster with Samuel, I wasn’t sure what to expect: I had never danced blues before and I was very worried that I might be that annoying beginner who slows down the class for everyone. Samuel’s teaching instantly put me at ease, firstly because he wasn’t focused on showing off how good a dancer he was – he was focused on making sure everyone could follow his explanations and enjoy themselves. When on the dance floor, Samuel’s moves look complicated and difficult to master (at least in my beginner’s eyes) but, when teaching, he has a way of stripping them of all superfluous decoration so that they are simple to copy and to understand. Secondly, he fostered a good learning atmosphere within the class – encouraging us to talk but to be kind and gentle when giving dancing advice to each other, answering all questions with respect and never making any of us feel stupid for our mistakes. Another thing I appreciated greatly was his open-mindedness and his inclusive use of language – at no point in his
class did he say something about girls being follows or guys being leads, in fact, he made a point of having every person in class switch between being a lead and a follow frequently. Not only did this help me understand the dynamics of the dance better, it enabled everyone in the room to experiment both roles and decide which they felt most comfortable in. I learned a great deal within this hour and a half long class and every subsequent experience I had with Samuel’s teaching has been both instructive and thoroughly enjoyable. In my ten years of practice of various dances, from flamenco to folk, I will say without hesitation that Samuel is one of the best dance teachers I’ve ever had the pleasure of learning with and that his approach to dancing is one of the most inclusive and respectful I’ve seen.”
– Lucille, Switzerland