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| Ladies at the practica I ran in Dundee |
At the tango /salsa / bachata night, a couple of times people who had danced very well said Yes, but I have to go to class to get - that old chestnut - the basics. The basics I said, are listen to the music, listen to the partner. There is nothing more fundamental. But many people have a mindset that "the way to learn is to pay someone to teach you else it isn't worthwhile". It is so ingrained in some people it is as though they believe If I'm not consciously thinking, I'm not learning.
I lost count of the number of times, that, having just danced with someone their next question was whether there were classes in Dundee. The salsa dance class teacher, who was picking it up quickly, was keen to learn. That is the obvious road ahead.
If they are not talking about "the basics" people often go on about technique. There are a few things guys commonly do that are not pleasant for the girl but you don't need class for them. If a new guy starts waddling or bobbing, twisting my hand or poking me in the back, I simply, as Silk does, swap roles and do the same to him. It is always funny for both of us and you usually only need to do it once.
Besides, guys all do different things, because everyone is different, so learning should be personalised, not the standardised "one size fits all" of class. Unless you dance with people, you don't know what it is like to be their partner. And even if you are their partner, what you like in them may not suit anyone else. Teachers on the whole simply teach their own preferences and prejudices just as many DJs who are dancers play what they like more than what the dancers they are playing for like. But when dancers don't discriminate and learners don't question, they are anyone's gulls.
Re "the way to learn is to pay someone to teach you else it isn't worthwhile", the last bit is wrong: it's well known that the best way to learn something is to love (be loved by) someone who is good at the thing. Ideally by being born in the right family, something like Paco de Lucia, if you wanna be a decent guitarist. But failing that we can always try to pick up the right person as adults. But sometimes love is fickle: and that's where money is useful... Instead of having to flail to seduce, you can give people money so they can get stuff they need more like food, electricity, while you still get what you want. Like Freddie Mercury said, it's a free world, play the game! I paid for spanish lessons before I finally managed to pull a hot Argentine. No idea what became of her, but do I criticise la estudentesa what taught me for 10 pounds an hour just cos I learnt more with my hot chica?? It's the same with dance: we pay for training cos it can help save time, otherwise we'd spend the whole time trying to invent the world from scratch and that's a waste of life! You learn the moves so you can make your moves! I mean sure you can learn languages at parties too, but we don't ban books just cos they're not as fun.
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