Good and bad tango teaching

When learning tango I had my fill of good and bad tango teachers. Some tango teachers are good at tango but bad at teaching, others though not great dancers are great teachers. Though not a great tango dancer, beginners to tango say I am a good tango teacher. The man above may be a great dancer but may make a bad teacher. So what makes a good tango teacher, and a bad one?

Bad tango teachers teach by imitation. They say for example 'Do this, do that, then do this...' when teaching a sequence of steps, or 'Copy this: step 1, step 2, step 3...' They think tango teaching is all about showing sequences of steps for students to copy.  Some bad tango teachers do not spend time checking and helping individual students in their class. So bad habits go unchecked, and students struggle to remember what they have learnt in the last lesson. What they learn by simply imitating the teacher goes into short-term memory and is soon forgotten. Each lesson the teacher will ignore what has been taught and go on to something new. What students learn from these teachers is shallow and their progress slow.

What good teachers do is teach tango for understanding. They demonstrate a whole sequence before teaching it through breaking it down into small parts. They emphasise posture and technique rather than simply repeating steps. They introduce students to the vocabulary of tango by giving each move its proper Spanish name. They spend time assisting individuals to improve their style. Once a step is mastered they teach variation, showing related moves and how different entrances and exits can be danced. They encourage musicality by moving and pausing to the music. They encourage students to improvise once they have internalized the moves. They show how practice can be continued at home, and revise taught moves in future sessions. This encourages deep learning.

The following summarizes the basic principles of good tango teaching:

1 Teach for understanding
2 Model good posture and technique
3 Teach the vocabulary of tango, naming each move
4 Offer students individual help to improve their style
5 Show how moves can be varied, extended and improvised

Tango: 'two bodies one mind'

                                                       Two bodies one mind, acrylic, 21x30cm, after Allen Jones

While dancing tango I sometimes feel time and space give way to a unique moment of presence, or flow, within and between me and my partner. What makes tango special is this fusion of two people into one unit, summed up in the saying: ‘two bodies one mind’, illustrated in my picture above.

During tango dancers can feel their individuality dissolving into a unity with their partner giving rise to feelings of aesthetic bliss. But like all artistic practices that demand great skill, it also presents a puzzle. How do dancers configure their minds and bodies so that they move in such dramatic harmony? Recent research suggests how people achieve this fusion of ‘two bodies one mind’ in tango.

Our brains create a mental representation of the physical self, what scientists call ‘a body schema’, that enables us to move through space without bumping into things. Our brains learn to identify the edges of our bodies using information from multiple senses to create or mental representation of our body and its boundaries. This body schema is fluid and can incorporate objects that we interact with, for example after using a tool for some time, people become aware of the end of that tool just as they are aware of the edge of their hand. The brain learns to treat a much-used tool as an extension of their hand until it feels like it is part of the body. Physical actions with other humans can lead us to integrate their bodies into our own body schema. Dancers in tango sense their partners as physical extensions of themselves.

The way a person’s body schema relates to other human beings is influenced by their culture and by learning. Some cultures are more ‘physical’ in accepting physical contact between people, being more ready to kiss, hold hands or embrace each other.  Tango, which relies on physical entanglement, originated in an Argentina where  physical contact and social interdependence already was part of their culture. Coming from a less ‘physical’ culture it took me time to accept close physical connection with my partners and to feel their bodies as extensions of my own.

Tango, like culture, is learned through repeated practice. When people regularly move together to a beat, rather than moving independently or to different beats, it creates a greater sense of interdependence, cooperation and their partner becomes an extensions of themselves. Tango is not merely a dance form, it creates a unique interdependent relationship between two people that can endlessly be filled with wonder and surprise. In tango you have another body with which to express yourself. 

Adapted from ‘Can Another Body Be Seen as an Extension of Your Own?’ Surprising results show the fluidity of the ‘body schema’ by Julie Sedivy, Scientific American, January 12, 2016 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-another-body-be-seen-as-an-extension-of-your-own/

  

Tango and balance

 

Boleo, acrylic and pastel, 21x30cm

 

Tango is good for your sense of balance. Recent research shows that learning Argentine Tango significantly improves balance and reduces risk of falls among cancer patients according to research at The Ohio State University. Another study found that patients with Parkinson’s disease who had regular tango dance classes showed significant improvements in balance and mobility compared to patients who did conventional exercise, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine. Many aspects of tango help improve balance including pivoting on one foot, turning, changing direction, moving at different speeds and walking backwards.

When first learning tango I would sometimes wobble from side to side or up and down, and found keeping a firmly balanced and stable body while dancing quite difficult. But doing the following exercises helped improve my balance

The first exercise is simply to stand tall, with head held high and shoulders down so you feel both tall and physically ‘grounded’. Standing tall is essential for good balance and for dancing tango well. As one teacher kept saying to me before taking a step: ‘Zip your body up!’

Test your balance and posture with this exercise: Stand tall, carefully balance an empty CD case (or book) on your head and walk forward slowly, keeping it balanced on your head for as long as possible. It is a surprisingly hard thing to do! An easier option is to imagine you are balancing something on your head and to walk forwards and backwards, maintaining that posture. Try to lower your shoulders.

Here’s another great exercise: practice standing on one leg, like a stork, without any rock or roll. With feet together, raise your right leg so the upper leg is horizontal to your body and your lower leg hangs down. Hold your leg there for as long as you can then lower it. Repeat this with your left leg. It helps if you ‘soften’ your standing leg and keep your shoulders down to feel better grounded. Now lift each leg as before, and move it across your body to the right and then to the left.! Or try lifting each leg back (as in the picture above). Then try the above exercises with your eyes closed. Like all practice, little and often is best. So head up each day for a better balance!