[Tango-L] tango learning-- Overcoming bad habits

[TangoDC.com]

All,

Thanks for the feedback. I look forward to more responses, and I'll be 
happy to post my findings as they continue to happen.

To address one point raised so far...

=="Wrong" techniques==
Doing things wrong on purpose, in the full light of consciousness, has 
helped me, and it has helped some of my students, so I'll keep using it 
where I think it's appropriate. It's like learning a word's connotation 
by learning its antonyms-- which is a perfectly fine way of going about 
it. (What's "right"? Well, it's not what's "wrong," and it's not what's 
"left.") Writing a bad poem deliberately is an excellent method for 
acquiring a brain.

Also, certain "bad habits" arise Because we aren't paying full 
attention, and the more we ignore them, the more we get stuck with them. 
I'm sure there's a fair number of dancers out there who have gone 
through (or are going through) that "cemented foreheads" connection, as 
I did. Doing it deliberately is one way to realize you're doing it at 
all. Then, by more careful experimentation, one can learn exactly How it 
screws things up, so that one can then recover those losses with a more 
comprehensive gameplan.

On that note, however, I've found that teaching "wrong" techniques has 
another use. (This applies more to advanced students, or to those who 
will clearly get to that level.) A technique that's clearly wrong in one 
context can occasionally jumpstart discovery in another, and while this 
isn't common, I have seen it happen. Doing "kicky" barridas, e.g., isn't 
kosher; but if you can find the right moment (in the case I'm thinking 
of, the follower doing the "kicking," and the leader doing a front boleo 
or a planeo-- an adornment-with-a-cause, in either case), it turns into 
a new idea.

Maybe not an elegant idea, but one that could learn to be elegant.

Anyhow, there you have two circumstances in which it's okay. And if 
someone misinterprets my teaching, and learns something else (right or 
wrong) by mistake, I don't charge them anything extra.

Jake Spatz
DC


Euroking at aol.com wrote:
> Jake,
>  
> Interesting, only one caution on your list of correcting bad habits. I  would 
> NEVER teach anyone an incorrect movement under any circumstances. I  would 
> rather take them to a position where their error does not work so they can  feel 
> the problem and then have a starting point to unlearn. Teach them something  
> wrong and they will remember as your truth at the wrong time.
>  
> Just a thought,
>  
> Bill in Seattle
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