Learning to Dance: The Big Picture and a Philosophy of Learning (3/3)

[toc]

Practice Moves You Already “Know”: Improving Technique Versus Learning New Moves

Practicing dance moves you "already know" is far more useful than it may seem. The more you dance, the more your technique improves, and these gains cut across all the steps that you do, so they are far-reaching.

Musicians (and singers) often warm up by practicing scales, for example.  This is very useful but it is not done because they don’t know the scale or forgot how to play it.  Rather, it is useful because the player’s fingers become increasingly nimble, the movements increasingly natural and easy, etc.

Likewise, as you practice dancing, you get to know the steps you are doing better and better. So you naturally execute them more competently---at faster tempos, with less thought, more easily adding embellishments, etc. Practice clearly improves your dancing, even when you are practicing steps you had already learned.  Moreover, the more automatically you can do the fundamentals, the easier it is to use those components in more advanced moves.  (See footnote 1.)

In short, the time spent in class, refines and smooths out your execution and makes your lead/follow feel comfortable to your partner.  Trust me----if you join a Rueda circle during club dancing, you'll see the tremendous value in this.  The music at a club is much faster than what is generally used in a class, and the calls are very hard to hear and recognize in noisy clubs. Plus different callers say the names of the moves slightly differently.  To dance Rueda successfully in a club, you have to know the moves "like the back of your hand." 

Tips On Rhythm and Timing

When someone has trouble with Salsa or Rueda de Casino timing, the most common error is that the "slow" step in the “quick quick slow” rhythm gets shortened. As a result, the three steps in the musical measure are equal or more equal in time than they should be. (See footnote 2.)  The "slow" step should be exactly twice as long as a "quick" step. 

Timing issues are a very hard thing for people to correct on their own. If they could feel the correct rhythm, they'd be doing it. Progress can be made, but it is long and slow. Generally, when I teach in a Rueda circle, if I say "quick quick slow" or "step step step" in the correct rhythm, people can match their steps to my words relatively well. So that tends to help dancers stay on time and keep the Rueda circle flowing in class.

But how can someone practice and improve this when they are not in a Rueda circle with a teacher hammering out the beat? I've found that it can help to practice a particular move very slowly, to get the feel of the “slow" step taking twice as long as the “quick" step. 

Many people can keep the rhythm ok in the basic step but lose it as soon as they are turning or doing something more complicated.  For example, dancers may lose the quick quick slow timing when they do a turn like vacila.  But if they walk the movement through very slowly in the correct rhythm, that helps give them insight into how this rhythm should feel.  

Since many people who have trouble with timing are aided by having a teacher on hand to count out loud for them, I made a CD on which I voiced over the quicks and slows for students. Using the CD, dancers can be sure they are practicing correctly! More information on my CD is here: https://danceintime.com/miscellaneous-1/2017/3/22/cd-on-rhythm-and-timing

If you have had a teacher tell you that your timing is off, it's a good idea in a Rueda circle to pay special attention to what others are doing. Many students don't take advantage of the benefit they can get by watching others and trying to match them. You move when they do. For example, if a follower is coming across for the cross body lead too early, that can be corrected by trying to mimic the timing of others in the circle. Likewise if leaders are moving to their next partner too early or late, they can watch the other leaders and synchronize with them.  

Leaders in one on one Salsa dancing who are aware of having a timing problem can pay special attention to their partner's timing. I have watched couples dancing where one person is off time and the other is attempting to step correctly. If the person who is off time were aware of the issue and tried to be responsive to his/her partner's timing, that would no doubt help. 

To complicate things further, be aware that Salsa and Latin music change tempo a lot, so dancers really have to be listening to the music constantly!

What If One Teacher Tells You One Thing and Another Tells You the Opposite?

What do you do when advice from two teachers, or from any two people, is contradictory? I would submit that if one teacher tells you to have tighter arms and another tells you the opposite, that doesn't mean one of them is wrong. Lots of things are correct in one place and not in another (i.e. different steps or different parts of the same step). Also, the “proper” level of tension is a matter of degree, and different teachers may draw the line a bit differently. In addition, your arms may be “right" for dancing with one person but not for dancing with another (due to the level of tension your partner has); etc.

Different teachers emphasize different things, conceptualize things differently, explain them differently, and have different tastes, strengths, and weaknesses. All these things affect how and what they teach. So they'll sometimes say opposite things, but that doesn’t mean one of them is necessarily wrong.  They may both be right if you fully understand the point each of them is trying to make.

Oftentimes, I hear students comment in frustration that they are told opposite things by different teachers or by the same teacher (said at different times) and they don't know which piece of advice to follow. This is a difficult matter, and it happens to many people as they learn. You have to evaluate and analyze what is meant, and how you can best understand the intent of the advice. 

Teachers are generally trying to help students learn to dance as smoothly and comfortably as the student is able.  That may lead the teacher to say something to exaggerate a point, for example, if the teacher feels that is the only way to be heard.  You can see how this might lead someone thinking that a comment made to them must be wrong.

My point here is that contradictions are not always an indication of an error. As you progress in dancing (or in your understanding of anything), you get more of a handle on the sense in which two opposite pieces of advice can fit together and both be valid and valuable.  That kind of sophisticated understanding requires a broad perspective and comes from experience.  So keep an open mind as you try to grasp the meaning of the advice that a teacher gives you!  (Remember, you can both love and hate someone, too!  So things that appear opposite aren’t always mutually exclusive!)

Mistakes — Learn To Love Them!

My philosophy on mistakes is that they are the best learning tool anyone has. When I taught mathematics, many moons ago, I preferred that my students write in ink and not erase their mistakes. It is very instructive to look at your errors and understand why you thought that way, and of course, why it's incorrect.  I'd much rather have students guess wrong if they aren't sure so we can address the matter, than guess right and squeak by, still confused.

When I teach dance, I sometimes stop and ask the class if they can figure out what I did wrong that messed them up. For example, calling is a frequent source of error. No one can mess up a Rueda circle like the caller can. One bad call---too early, too late, too soft, a mixed up step name----and the whole circle is shot. So when I make mistakes, I like to use them as learning tools, just as I do with students' mistakes. When the students can assess what I did wrong, they are on their way to understanding the dance better.  I don't sweat my mistakes and I'd like students to feel the same way.

If you can think of your own errors as opportunities to learn and go forward, you'll be more comfortable making them. And you can't learn much unless you are willing to make mistakes, particularly not in dance!!

WORDS OF WISDOM:
“I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.  
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”

—Michael Jordan

Who Was Responsible For That Mistake? It’s All About Us!

There is another dimension to errors that I'd like to point out. When two people dance together, as when they do anything together, what they do affects each other in a profound and ongoing way. For example, if a couple is dancing together and the follower doesn't have quite enough tension in her arms, the leader must lead more forcefully so the steps can be followed. To avoid feeling yanked, the follower may loosen up further. The leader must then lead even stronger.  As 6-year old kids on a playground might say, "You started it!" But the reality is clear — they are both creating this situation.

The interactive nature of dance understandably gives lots of opportunity for partners to subtly affect each other. So when there is a mistake, it can be hard to parse whose error it was, and really it doesn't matter. It was the partnership that failed. Better to grasp the complex nature of this mini-ecosystem where everything affects everything else, than to regard matters as simple. (See foonote 3.)

Moreover, sometimes when a mistake is made, a good many people all played a small role. Here is an example: I was dancing with a wonderful, considerate friend, and while turning, I lost my balance slightly. As a result, I swung out a bit farther from him than he had reason to expect. He moved toward me to "stabilize the partnership" but before that maneuver was complete, I lightly bumped into another couple on the floor. The truth is that they were dancing "a bit large" if you know what I mean.

My partner immediately gestured that it was his fault, since it's the guy's responsibility to watch out for the other couples on the floor. The other couple apologized because they then realized they were taking up too much space for how crowded the floor was. And of course, I felt my everyone else was just being nice; it was largely my fault for swinging out too far. Truthfully any one of the three parties involved could have avoided that collision. 

So whose fault was it? Many things are joint affairs just like this. To learn from mistakes, it is helpful to appreciate the complex nature of how they come to pass rather than regard one person as causing the error.   

Here is another way of thinking of this matter.  There is generally a range of what is correct in terms of how a move is done. For example, consider the matter of how partners stay connected.  Each partner must have a certain level of tension in their hand so the handhold is maintained and partners stay in contact.  However, there is a range of tensions that will be satisfactory.  

If the leader is in the proper range but at the low end and so is the follower, they may disconnect even though they were both dancing “correctly."  There is a temptation for an individual to feel that since he/she did nothing wrong, it must be the other person's fault.  But again, it can be the partnership or the union of how those two individuals dance together that really caused the error.  

I don’t mean to imply that nothing is ever fully wrong. Certainly there are times when one person made a mistake. My point is, simply that just because you were "right" doesn't mean the other person was necessarily "wrong."  Sometimes no one was exactly wrong!  And in any case, partners need to learn to work together effectively, looking at what happened to figure out how both can contribute to avoiding errors in the future.

Consideration On The Dance Floor

Dancing is a social experience and a contact sport. This has many implications. It is nice to smile (but not stare) at your partner. Also, if a leader’s partner has difficulty doing certain moves, the leader should try to adjust so those steps aren’t led.

Some people worry that they won't look good if they "dance down"—meaning that they dance with someone less skilled and therefore have to do more basic steps. But your partner will always appreciate your leading moves they have some hope of following, or slowing down your pace (how quickly you initiate one move after another). And overall you may look better than if you are forcing a partner through moves that can't be done gracefully. 

Besides, everyone who goes to clubs knows very well the level and style of everyone else's dancing. If you dance with someone who is more of a beginner than yourself, what you really look like is someone who is generous and willing to share your talent with others.  There is absolutely nothing that endears you to other dancers more than this! And of course, dancing for fun shouldn't be primarily about how you look!

• Footnote 1

  I want to point out something else here. People sometimes regard learning as a relatively "all or nothing" proposition, but that's not really the way it works. By that I mean that we tend to feel that we either know a step or we don't, or maybe are at some mid-point in between. But I believe that there are many more degrees of learning than is commonly appreciated. Even if you can do a move well from memory, if you practice it more and more, it will improve in some ways. I see learning as highly incremental, and I think it's helpful to appreciate the implications of this. 
  Let me give you a simple example of the incremental nature of learning from my days as a math teacher. If you teach a class to add fractions, you can start with a simple problem like 1/6 plus 3/6. You can "move up" to a problem where they have to get a common denominator like 1/2 plus 1/4. Students can almost visualize these problems, imagining that fraction of a pie and they'd know what the sum is just from experience. A teacher might feel that if the student can correctly solve these problems, then he/she knows how to add fractions.
  But if that student cannot also find the sum of 2/9 plus 5/20, then I would submit that he/she doesn't understand how to add fractions that well or that fully. It is the level of complexity of problems that someone can correctly solve that measures how well they understand. Understanding is very incremental, and the harder the problem a student can solve, the better they have to understand the material. All learning is like this, including dance.

• Footnote 2

  I used to sing in a barbershop quartet for women, and the most common error that was made in singing was also for the timing of the notes to be equalized. That is, short notes were lengthened and long notes were shortened to make them all more equal in length. I originally became aware of this because I harmonize by ear and often "resolve a chord" over the course of several beats when I sing with others. But many times, before I can achieve the final resolution, the person I am singing with has begun the next phrase----very frustrating!!

• Footnote 3

  I once took tango lessons from a teacher who spent a lot of time analyzing in great detail this kind of interaction. There was virtually no dance problem we encountered that didn't have a contribution by both partners. I consider the teacher a sort of "psychologist-dancer." His lessons were really fascinating; he taught me some valuable lessons.