LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like this teacher should be applauded from here to No Man's Land. How many others possess her unselfishness (I'm sure she could make a fortune flogging stuff to this captive market if she wanted) and her courage at taking a stand against it. It can't be winning her any popularity contests in some circles.

I've always been a player, and the little bit of dancing I've done was greatly helped by my experience of the music, so yours is a good point in both directions. My world dancing premiere wasn't a show-situation, but a place in a ceilidh set with experienced dancers who all knew what to do without any prompts, and moved with clockwork precision. The only way I managed to cope - and I did - was knowing the structure of the tunes and where the changes came (plus a sympathetic partner) but I didn't let him or anybody else down. This was ENTIRELY from an inside knowledge of how the music works, and that came from playing it.

The other thing I find is that playing for dancers really knocks the spots off you. I always stress this to my students when trying to make them develop their rhythm (and not accelerate beyond their ability, another pet peeve...). Without an external framework their beat often wanders, which is why I tell them to listen to the old trad musicians, whom you could pit against the atomic clock at Greenwich.

The ART of playing or dancing or singing is what's important, and the beauty of what you are trying to communicate. Not some pile of plastic corkscrews perched precariously on your head.