When is a right time to take private lessons

My instructor says that private lessons should accompany group lessons but I don't know. When is a right time to take private lessons and why would someone take private lessons? Right now I'm at the advanced beginner level.
 
Now's as good a time as any. Private lessons allow an instructor to work on things that are unique to you, that you need to work on. You'll find that privates can boost the rate at which your dancing improves.

Sure they aren't cheap, so ultimately it depends on how much you want to get out of your dancing.
 
A private lesson should be used for getting feedback about your current dancing. It often goes into technical aspects of the basics at a much deeper level than can be discussed in class and it will be specific to you.

If say you get 3 or 4 things to work on out of one private lesson, it may take months of social dancing to fix even 2 or 3 of those things.

Generally you should not use it to learn new moves. There is YouTube, DVDs and classes that are much cheaper for that.

Working on technical aspects of an example pattern that you can already do is one option but usually in the first lesson just working on the quality of basic steps, connection with your partner, the floor and timing are fundamental.

Anytime is good for a private lesson provided you remember the points and work on them when out social dancing or at class.

When you will be ready for a second private lesson depends on how quickly you need new things to work on. Sometimes only a few private lessons are necessary to put you on the right track ; so that you can work on improving yourself.

Like anything in life they're not absolutely necessary to get where you want to go but getting quality feedback early is an important step, especially if you have missed basic technique, picked up bad habits or have fundamental roadblocks in your dancing.
 
Some thoughts on how to make the most of your time. When I took private lessons with Magna, I would spend 1 hour with her and then spend the next month practicing my ass off on the things we worked on. You really want to make sure you have mastered the concepts you have been taught before taking another lesson. If you don't give that information time to get into your system, you'll just forget it when new information comes in so I absolutely agree with Smejmoon. If you are not absolutely prepared to practice a good 8 hours a week, you're wasting your own time and the time of your instructor.

Another good way to utilize your time is to ask for in-field sessions. Have the instructor take you to the club and dance with them through out the night. Have them observe you dance socially and get their feedback. If your going to learn something new about salsa, don't just do it in the studio. Go out and have your lesson in a social dance setting
 
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