Having come to ME dance around 3 years ago, ( in my 50s)and never having had music training of any sort, I had problems with hearing the beat, and co-ordination. It was so frustrating, It has just taken time, a lot of time of training my 'ears', and I found using slow music and just listeming and swaying to the underlying beat helped me, then I began to use slightly faster music, and would get up and dance to it, I did well at home, but once in class I would find that at first I would be OK, but as the lesson went on, I would find another instrument "talking" to me, and unconsciously I would suddenly begin to move to that instrument, talk about forcing my body/mind back to what it was suppose to be doing, I would get so annoyed with myself. The other thing is my instructor always tells me I think too much, and that throws me off. Even when I try to stop 'thinking' and just go with the flow, it doesn't always happen. I am getting better, I play ME music several hours a day, and just dance around when the drive to do so comes along and the exposure has helped a lot.
I notice in class the younger ones tend to find the rhythm/beat very quickly, and the older you are especially without some musical background, the slower you are at tuning in.
I think it is wonderful that your student continues to stick with it and that you continue to help her. Maybe your student is like me, and thinks too much and the thinking overides all else. The thinking I believe is a fear of messing up and looking foolish and of course that causes you to mess up LOL! Maybe she will never quite get it, but as was suggested if she dances with a group and can follow she will still have a sense of achievement and pride in getting out there and dancing.
~Mosaic
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