Emily (community manager)Hi Emily, thanks for the reply.  I like your idea to have him count out loud. I'm going to try that and see what happens.

Patrick Holt He doesn't dance on time. He is the worst case of dancing off beat I've ever experienced. Most of the time he's dancing to his own beat and tempo. He's been dancing a little over a year and loves it. The woman love him as he is very friendly and dances with many different woman at a social dance. He's out dancing almost every night going to group lessons and dance socials. He takes private lessons from a few different teachers with me being one. I've dealt with this before quite a few times and my solution has been a drill to have the student tap their foot to the beat of the music and then, start showing me the down beat with their hand. After we're both convinced the student can do this I have him/her start the dance on the downbeat and continue dancing on the beat. This doesn't work with this person. As soon as he starts dancing he quickly looses the beat and dances to his own beat which is usually much, much faster than the song. Sometimes it's hard to believe how far off he is.

Hi Emily, I have a student how is a Leader and cannot hear the beat/tempo of the music. I've had students before that had this challenge and, with some coaching, I could get them to hear the downbeat and be able to dance on the beat with the tempo. This student is different and doesn't get it, therefore dances to his own beat. What do you recommend I do to teach him how to hear the beat and tempo?

Hey Brian, I was 58 when I decided to take Ballroom dance lessons. It's something I wanted to do for quite a while and finally got around to enrolling at a ballroom dance studio. I was successful in my business and was an accomplished martial artist having studied for over 40 years. Initially, the hardest part was having been at the top and having to start at the bottom was humbling and challenging in many ways. I had to 'suck-it-up, get to work and take a lot of lessons. I ended up retiring from martial arts at 60 as I found ballroom dancing extremely satisfying. Fast forward...I'm going to be 78 this year and very glad I started dancing. Along the way I studied hard for many hours and got certified as a DVIDA Dance Instructor. I've competed at Worlds and have seven 1st Place World Champion titles in my divisions. Needless to say, it was life changing in many ways.