[Tango-L] Hidden benefits of the wall (was Re: Women's technique)

[ceverett@ceverett.com]

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 01:06:39 -0700 (PDT), "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)"
<patangos at yahoo.com> said:
> I hope we all can see the problem with the wall method, and
> hopefully, the more imaginative people can see that it can
> be solved by having the student do the same exercise
> standing 3 feet away from the wall. Would one of the
> teachers still using it please explain the hidden benefits
> of the wall that outweigh the obvious problems?

Having just had to relearn how to lead front ochos from scratch, and
because I'm taking Florencia's Fundamentals class here in Minneapolis, I
may have had more recent experience with ocho pedagogy than many or even
most people here.

The benefits to the wall method are several:

-- one learns how to do ochos keeping a constant distance from an
external reference point
-- done close enough to the wall, one has to keep the chest facing the
wall and dissociate the hips to get around
-- one can practice rolling the contact patch of the connection from one
side of the chest to the other during the pivot

The key is having the discipline not to use the hands for balance at
all, to lightly brush the wall as you move in each direction.

Before anyone gets the idea that I'm anti-no-wall-ochos, this exercise
didn't become relevant (eg, possible to execute even poorly) to me until
I was able to do 5 or 6 180 degree no-wall ochos in a row.  No wall is
essential for learning to chose and execute the precise amount of pivot
you want.  There's a practice pattern I learned in my first year, that
has you take one step forward, and then do front ochos of 45, 90, 90,
135, 225, 270, 270 and 135 degrees -- wash, rinse, repeat 15 to 20 times
a day for 6 months and see how good you get.