A
note of caution to anyone who is learning the art of Argentine Tango.
You may already have experienced a phenomenon I can only describe as
deconstructing and rebuilding your dance after a lesson with a maestro.
Debbie and I have experienced this many times during our tango
development as we strive to improve our dance and seek authentic
movement.
As we look back on our development, we realise that elements of
incorrect technique, bad posture and poor style can creep into this
dance in minutes and then take years to eliminate. I can confirm this
from my own experience and have observed the struggle in dancers I
teach to rid themselves of bad habits.
It is very easy to learn how to cheat tango movement! The problem is
that there may be a disparity between the required, authentic movement
and our actual movement. How we think we are moving is different from
the way we are actually moving. |
This is a
documented and widespread curricular
challenge called the Kruger-Dunning Syndrome. You can read more about
this pitfall that can affect dancers and teachers alike here: LINK
My advice to dancers who do not want to waste time and energy
correcting bad habits is to take steps to avoid them. One of the
reasons I developed the video based tango Bodyshop workshops was to
present
dancers with a true reflection of their technique, posture and style
using live video recording and playback on a life sized screen.
This process has meaning and benefits for dancers of all levels and is
undoubtedly intimidating and brutally honest in its refelection of
one's movement. However, there is no stronger incentive to improve than
seeing flaws in your technique that you were unaware of.
Take every opportunity to dance, walk the walk and deliberately
practice, but whenever possible, do so under the watchful eye of an
experienced teacher. |
