I thought most people learn dancing by someone telling them the steps. At least in ballroom dancing. How do they explain the steps? "left, left, right, 1,2,3,4 turn" or similar. I never got really good but I think was a competent dancer.

In any case, this thread is not fun anymore. Either I am totally weird or there is some communication going wrong.

> I thought most people learn dancing by someone telling them the steps.

No. Most people learn dancing by watching and repeating, with some explanation along with it.

> At least in ballroom dancing. How do they explain the steps?

In large part by demonstration (there's description that goes along, but the demonstration is primary.) Source: I've nearly completed a long course of instruction for ballroom dance teachers, from a well-regarded teacher-of-teachers, and have taken lots of ballroom dance classes, some from internationally-recognized teachers.

> "left, left, right, 1,2,3,4 turn" or similar.

That's more how they cue students going through a pattern that's been demonstrated than how they explain a pattern. You can explain a pattern in words without demonstration (manuals do this, for instance), but that's usually done as reference material that accompanied traditional teaching-by-demonstration (or, for auto-didacts, videos in place of in-person demonstration), and it sucks on its own; you need a lot of contextual knowledge to get value out of it.

Teaching dance by steps is like teaching racing by telling the student to turn left 4 times each lap.