[Tango-L] Milonga 101 -- conversation between dances

[Igor Polk]

Trini:
"What interests me is why some
teachers are able to use complex sequences successfully
while others are not.."


Attracted by "Contact improvisation" term I've made a bold visit to a Modern
Dance class for "to-be-professional" dancers. It turned out that contact
improvisation is considered so complex, that it is taught only to selected
advanced members of the group. So that class was about choreography.

The instructor, and director at the same time, auditing new dancers for his
show, was giving sequences and other had to repeat them. Each sequence
contained about 5 figures as I guessed. It was so hard for me, that I was
hardly able just to mimic a general line. He has shown them no more than 2
times. And they did it ! These trained-since-babyhood girls and boys.

It seems to me that they were so highly trained in technique, figures and
choreography, they had well developed "movement memory", that some variation
and specific choreography of this "ballet" was not of difficulty for them at
all. The emphasis was on who does it better. Theatrically.

I think a choreography lesson works the best when people are able easy to
execute any small part of it and have developed "movement" memory. It may be
useful to show the general line of the dance, how elements and figures work
together. Putting them into unusual combinations develops inventiveness and
fantasy.

I remember myself being a beginner I visited lessons of one teacher which
were based on choreography only. I would say it was useless except that I
have learned how to distinguish small parts in a complex dance and developed
"movement memory" by observing movements, so to speak "movement logic". That
in turn greatly helped me when I have being learning tango from video tapes.


Igor Polk
PS Again, all things can be done right or wrong..