I firmly believe that learning shines contribute so much to partner work. It instills that confidence and flow. I’ve been dancing socially (seriously) for almost 3 years, and only started learning shines this last year. And my progress shot up exponentially. My confidence went up because rather than counting 123567, it grants me the ability to utilize counts 1-8. And it taught me how to really listen to music. You can learn partner work all you want, but if you don’t know how to shine you literally won’t shine as bright as you want to.