984  a different kind of teaching

Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 00:12:24 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: a different kind of teaching

I think, in many kinds of learning there comes a point when you forget your
serious student's attitude and just fly.
Marcelo and Analia are in Japan. They have a way of teaching where they like
to confuse the set structure in their students' minds and make them
understand that dancing can be just like free play. They use very unusual
kinds of music, sometimes it is not tango at all, sometimes it may be tango,
it may be not, it's got the bandoneon in it, it's got a certain tango beat,
but God knows what this is, sometimes there are sudden stops in the music,
slilent moments, then it goes on, never heard it before. And they tell
people to dance to it anyway, and see what they can do with it, just
following the music, and do what the music tells their bodies.
Analia led me through one of those songs, a most interesting experience.
Then we practised giros with sacadas and mentidas, without music, just
endlessly spinning and circling around each other, playing with each other's
feet. Me and my partner for the song, who is usually are rather formal
Japanese ex-ballroom-dancer, eager to learn tango, finally ended up with our
legs wrapped around each other, our bodies entwined, and laughing out loud
in exhilaration, and he had become very friendly and simple, lost all his
seriousness somewhere along the line.
I noticed how my body became more and more flexible, my knees softer and
softer, my walk more catlike, and for the last song Marcelo danced with me,
I closed my eyes and felt simply ecstatic, feeling him walk me around the
room, in big steps, swinging me around, turning me, moving his legs in and
out, back and forth, and just gliding along with the music in the dark,
blindly.

Astrid