[Tango-L] Women's technique

[Jennifer Park]

Hey all,
I'm one of Sean's (Trina's) students/past student.  Cut the guy some slack, 
will ya!  Years ago, he gave me the dances of my life at my first milonga 
and I'd barely danced tango.  He led well and was considerate of my beginner 
abilities and made it so fun all I could think about was getting more tango, 
and more and more...

Guinness fan,
Jen
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dwyliu at gmail.com>
To: <keith at tangohk.com>
Cc: "Tango-L" <tango-l at mit.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 2:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Women's technique


> 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
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Tango-L mailing list
> Tango-L at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l