[Tango-L] Breaking the 'paso basico.'

[Tom Stermitz]

It depends on the situation.

On stage, no problem.

For an advanced dancer, no problem.

On a social dance floor, the 8CB w/DBS is COMPLETELY non functional.  
When you are social dancing, you have to break the pattern every two  
steps, so why bother to learn a useless pattern.

For a beginner, it is harmful:
  - It creates rote-patterns,
  - It takes away their prior ability to "just walk around the room"
  - It doesn't feel like dancing
  - It is impossible for them to dance it with grace and musicality.

It is completely possible to take a brand new dancer, and in one-hour  
teach them to walk musically around the room. The 8CB w/DBS forces  
them into months of lessons before they achieve the walk around the  
room, and many months or years before they come back to the music.

OH WAIT! Maybe it is a business strategy.

It's like teaching patterns in Ballroom Dance: Bronze, Silver, Gold.  
Restrain their learning so they keep buying expensive lessons. Instill  
bad habits so they have to take lots of private lessons.


On Feb 12, 2008, at 9:44 AM, Keith wrote:

> Mash,
>
> To break a habit is not difficult - just stop doing it and stop  
> whining. Problem solved. There's nothing wrong with the 8-step  
> basic. But if you've been doing it over and over until it became a  
> habit, that's ....