[Tango-L] Pedagogic approaches to teaching/learning to dance tango

[Jonathan Thornton]

On 7/29/06, Andrew RYSER SZYMAÑSKI <arrabaltango at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Actually, the step interferes with the music: when you
> learn a new move, you develop your kinaesthetic
> perception in order to establish new reflex
> connections, and any music played at the same time
> will be ignored. Once these connections are
> established and fluid enough there is a chance that
> the student will be able to open their ears and move
> to the music. Too often instructors, even world famous
> ones, ignore this basic physiological fact and insist
> on playing music from the very beginning.


I think you bring up something very important here. We can only be conscious
of so much at one time and learning new material and figuring out all the
parts of the new takes time. In the same way musicians when working out
complex fingerings for example take it very slow and may at first ignore the
rhythm as they try to figure out which finger will go where. Once they get
comfortable with this they can begin to bring it up to tempo and get the
timing and then the phrasing correct. It is a process that proceeds by
stages.

All they are
> successfully doing is blocking the ears of their
> students for many years to come, by encouraging the
> early [& therefore more permanent] development of a
> music-ignoring reflex.


But I very much doubt this conclusion. I think you overstate. I think that
while trying to do a new action at speed frustrates the learning, it can
still happen eventually, and then students can listen to the music. Though I
would agree that this is not the most effective way.

Issues of phrasing and musicality are of great interest to me but I think
the problem is much more complex than this nor do I think the problem is
solely the result of teachers blocking the ears of students though I agree
that this practise might tend to keep student's attention too focused on
steps and distract them from the music.

I think a thread devoted to pedagogic approaches to teaching dance would be
interesting.  In fact I've just decided to change the subject of this post
to reflect this and begin a new thread for discussion on this topic.

I'll make this prediction. Someone will claim that a particular approach is
best as it works really well for them and then some will disagree. Or
someone will claim that a particular approach is terrible and someone else
will say that is the best way to learn. Neither will, in my opinion, be
wrong. They will be correct as regards themselves and people who share there
learning style. I'm particularly interested in learning about the different
ways people learn and thus get some idea of how many different basic
approaches it might take to be able to deal with a typical diversity of
learning styles.

Paradoxically these are usually
> the ones who say they can tango to any music [but who,
> on closer inspection, can't dance to any].


And then I have to very much wonder what personal but obscure axe you are
grinding here?
Who are these teachers who can't dance to any music whilst claiming to tango
to any music (not a claim by any teacher I've ever heard) and who teach by
having music playing the whole time? Is this a jab at a particular
individual teacher? perhaps local? But the use of the plural "these" and
"they" seem to indicate you believe this a group? But I haven't encountered
a group that meets all the specifications.

Jonathan Thornton

-- 
"The tango can be debated, and we have debates over it,
but it still encloses, as does all that which is truthful, a secret."
Jorge Luis Borges