Eric says:

I guess its because they fear the instructors will suddenly grow 5 heads with horns and call down rains of fire on them and obliterate them from the dance floor. Well gals and guys, its a urban legend.. and is not true... well mostly not true anyway.

The thing is that non-instructors often view the instructors with awe and thus feel they are not in the same league and therefore assume the instructors wouldn't want to be bothered with someone like them. That's somewhat not true. Most instructors would happily dance with someone new sometimes. Some non-instructors also feel that they will get undue scrutiny from the instructors when they dance, thus stress. While this is somewhat true, its not ALWAYS the case. Then again, even if the instructors do scrutinize, ask them after the dance where you could improve and where you did well (if any :p ).

Ultimately, instructors went thru the same process as you and me and are more or less mostly human. So why not tap on their experiences and expertise and get some advice on how to improve your dancing? After all, dancing with someone better can only serve to improve your own dancing rather than worsen it. So get some guts, ask and ye shall receive.

Eddie says:

Maybe I can offer my 2 cents worth as a lead. In my opinion, dancing with an instructor in a social setting can be intimating at times. Amongst other factors, it is probably easier to point out that extra eyeballs will be focused on the instructor in action, expecting some advanced moves or styling. Invariably, some of the extra attention may overflow to us as well, which can work for us or otherwise.

It is personally gratifying when our moves are executed with prevision (hopefully with some nice shines plus warm smile thrown in, etc) and the good dancers start asking us after that. On the flip side, things may begin to go wrong on the dance floor and we lose our cool. Worse still, we continue to mess up.

To overcome our fear of dancing with instructors, it's a good idea to grab couple of solid dances first so as to gain confidence. Unless we are very familiar with the instructor, we should first focus on executing the moves we are most comfortable with first before trying out the fancier stuff. When the dance begins to look bad, fall back on the comfortable moves again and move on from there. Don't forget to smile though, coz it will help to put ourselves at ease. It's social dancing after all! We should have fun dancing with anyone, including the instructors! =)

Chan says:

Well, I guess every student fears making mistakes, especially in front of the instructors. So that explains why we are so afraid to ask instructors to dance. I can still remember vividly when I started dancing. I always "siam" Jean coz I'm too afraid to dance with her :P Too worried that I will make mistake. To overcome this, I guess the best way is to get to know the instructors more in person. Once you know them well, you will not put the "instructor tag" on them on the dance floor and you will feel more comfy dancing with them.

Regine says:

I'll not hesitate to ask my instructors for a dance actually! I feel that it's one of the ways to truly test yourself to see if you're interpreting the leads and stepping correctly. It's also a great way to see if you're able to just feel the leads and just be lead into new moves that you've never learnt or done before. So if you've been able to dance your way through a few dances with your instructors without stumbling much, it shows a great deal. Plus, it's great fun too! Just put your fears & inhibitions aside and ask your instructors for that next dance!

Mary says:

I think I was fortunate I never had that problem because my instructors (Jean, Wendy, Alex) were like my friends. So I guess the key to overcoming any fear of asking your instructors to dance, is to get to know them better, and to be their buddies! Through experience, yes, your instructors can be brutally honest and crush whatever confidence you have left of your salsa, but hey, it's better than hearing it from a total stranger that you've just danced with right?

Joe says:

Hmmm... this is both easy and tough. Easy coz the reasons are all too obvious to me....tough, because they are too trivial and irrational to make sense to me.

The heart pumps, the sweat pores oozes, the temperature drops and the knees goes jelly. Its like meeting your girlfriend's parents for the 1st time. You don't wan things to go wrong, not to step on her toes (literally in this case) and make sure u do things right. Sounds familiar?? But then what's the worst your instructors can do? Scream, smack, stomp, embarrass you? Well its time to put on your best smile, slap on your thick skin and dump your ego. Coz its a dance, not a exam. So Jean and Wendy, next time u see me in union, move with me. I need some major refresher and ego bruise.