I would strongly suggest taking classes whenever you have the opportunity over self-teaching theory, because there is a lot of information to learn and it can be hard to figure out what you need to learn and when. Here's a decent free little course that goes over a lot of the essentials you'd probably need to know to feel comfortable. If you feel like you need to learn more, look into the local community college class!

There is a point where theoretical knowledge will be less applicable to making dance music, so don't feel like you need to learn everything. A mastery of counterpoint might be really cool to apply to dance music, but it's definitely not necessary. Just absorb each new level of information as it comes - there's a lot of contradictions, a lot of "you don't do this, but later on you'll learn why you do do this", and everything else that comes as a result of hundreds or thousands of people experimenting over centuries to figure out all this stuff.

thanks mussar! I'll definitely check that link out. I just want to become the best musician I can be, but the thought of taking a class makes me feel sort of conflicted when my idols are against going to school for music.

And you don't have enough personality to decide things for yourself?

my idols are against going to school for music.

Have you really looked at why they think that way, though? Most of the time someone says they don't like music theory, or formal music education, it's because it somehow limits what they can do and sets "rules"... which is bullshit. Theory doesn't tell you what you can't do, it just describes what's already there, and my high school music program was REALLY helpful when I actually had to start composing stuff.

You can take a look at these:

http://www.global-trance.com/misc/music_theory_tldr.pdf

http://www.musictheory.net/

These are the basics of music theory. You can decide on the fact whether you like this or not, if you want to go to school. But there's a lot that you can learn on your own.

everything is available online now, i dont think school can teach creativity though which extends beyond general music theory