[Tango-L] Women's technique

[dwyliu@gmail.com]

Keith,

That is probably a little harsh.  Sean is a teacher who cares, and who is
working not just to find creative ways to help his students improve, but to
then communicate a difficult concept with all of us.

I suspect that the main problem is that talking about the technique rapidly
becomes very wordy and stilted-sounding.  It is a problem with communicating
via e-mail rather than in person, not necessarily a problem of his
understanding of either Tango or dance.

A slightly edited quote: "Technique must be mastered only because the body
must not stand in the way of the soul's expression" - La Meri

Best,
David

On 7/16/07, Keith <keith at tangohk.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Sean,
>
> There you go again with your new-fangled teaching techniques. I think my
> beginner students understand ... "twist at the
> waist". I don't think they'd understand ... "disassociate the hips and
> ribs and to sense the positions of their ribs and hips. And
> your students have to develop that sense before you actually teach them
> the Ocho? Wow, with that kind of dedication, I'm not
> surprised your students can walk, do rock steps and Ochos - and all within
> 6-months.
>
> Sean, you sound like my advanced-level Ballroom instructor. I certainly
> hope teaching Tango isn't going in that direction, where
> the dancers are concentrating so much on technique that they lose the joy
> of dancing.
>
> Keith, HK
>
>
> On Tue Jul 17  4:26 , "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)"  sent:
>
> >Keith's error is in thinking and teaching that
> >disassociation is created when "you twist at the waist".
> >Movement of the body occurs at joints. There is no waist
> >joint. Disassociation of the hips and ribs is only possible
> >by twisting the spine, particularly the lumbar spine. This
> >is not a pointless semantic distinction. When you think of
> >twisting the spine instead of the waist, it becomes
> >immediately apparent that creating tension in the back is
> >counterproductive.
> >
> >Good teaching becomes an exercise in problem solving. A
> >problem with having beginning students execute ochos in the
> >middle of the floor is that they tend to turn as a block.
> >Having them execute ochos against a wall solves the
> >turning-as-a-block problem, but it defeats the purpose of
> >the exercise, and it creates worse problems. Our solution
> >is to use exercises that teach the students to disassociate
> >the hips and ribs and to sense the positions of their ribs
> >and hips. (When they start, most students can't feel the
> >difference between turning as a block and spiraling.) Once
> >they develop that sense, we introduce the ocho exercise. We
> >might introduce the ocho exercise later than some teachers,
> >but I am sure our students become proficient much more
> >quickly than students who got a "head start" by working
> >with a wall.
> >
> >Sean
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tango-L mailing list
> Tango-L at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
>