Partner Rotation at Workshops

Sent the following to a friend of mine that organized a Tango workshop about partner rotation. Maybe this sounds like sour grapes.
Poor me, no one wants to dance with me. Still, I think it has some merit.

------------

Thanks for running the workshop with Ney and Jennifer.

I enjoyed them as teachers and learned a lot.
Thought you did a good job in organizing the workshop.

The only issue was the rotation, which I thought was bad,
though better than prior workshops. At least we are improving.

You rotated and are a good community participant.
There is no fault with you. Others messed us up.

I just got back from taking 11 workshop sessions at the Tampa Bay
Classic in West Coast Swing. Each session had 50 to 200 people.
Every session started with the teachers organizing a rotation,
which everyone stuck to strictly. Only one time did I come across
a couple that was not rotating. At this event, everyone was treated
the same and had the same opportunity to learn.

In contrast, at our Tango workshop, those people that stuck to the
rotation were screwed. Since this is an ongoing problem with our
Tango workshops, we should seek a solution. Here are some of the
problems that I experienced.

1. Many of the more experienced dancers partnered up and did not rotate.
It would be one thing if they only ever danced with their spouse,
which would be sweet, and I would have no objection. However, all
these people regularly dance with different partners. Maybe they wanted
to learn with someone they could practice with later. Not an objectionable
motivation.

However, the result is they do not take their turn without a partner,
they do not take their turn with the less experienced dancers, and
they make it difficult for the rest of us to have an orderly rotation.

2. There were more men than women, still some women wanted to dance lead.
This took two women out of the rotation for the men.
The women that did dance lead, did not do it in the context of the rotation,
but grabbed an experienced woman to follow. So not only did they take two women
out of the rotation, but two experienced women.

Imagine there being more women than men and some men wanting to dance follow,
and those men following dancing only with the experienced men leaders. The
women would be upset if that happened.

It is fine if women want to dance lead. They should do it in the context
of the rotation and take their turn dancing with novices and sitting out.
Or they can find themselves a partner and dance outside of the rotation.
What they should not do at the workshop is grab their favorite partner
when they want to try something out.

3. Even though Ney and Jennifer told people to stay in the circle in order,
a number of people ignored that, passed people during dancing and grabbed
their favorite partners during rotation. This make rotating orderly a
problem for the rest of us.

4. Because of 1, 2 and 3 the rotation was a mess. Some of the experienced people
that would normally be happy to rotate, left the rotation, formed little cliques
and only changed partners among themselves, going backward or across the circle.
They took themselves out of the rotation and made things even more difficult for
those trying to rotate orderly.

5. Consequently, those of us that behaved according to the teachers instructions,
spent much of the time without a partner, dancing with inexperienced people who
could not do the things being taught or dancing with other men. All of those things
are fine, but it would be nice to dance with an experienced female partner too,
since that is what we are going to the workshop to learn how to do.

I do not know the exact numbers, but here is an estimate.
Say there were 12 men and 11 women and say 3 men and 3
women were inexperienced. Say that half the experienced
people did not rotate and either paired up or formed cliques,
and one woman danced lead and grabbed a partner.
Here is how it breaks down.

Leads Follows
======= ========
6 men - 6 women : paired up, formed cliques
1 woman - 1 woman : woman dancing lead with preferred partner

What is left in the rotation is 6 men and 3 women, composed of

3 men experienced - 1 woman experienced
3 men inexperienced - 2 women inexperienced

That means these 6 men have no partner or are dancing with other
men half the time. Most of the rest of the time they are dancing
with women that do not have the skill to dance what is being taught.
Only 1 time in six do they have an experienced female partner.

This feels pretty accurate according to my experience, especially in the
later workshops when a couple of the nice out-of-town women had left.

Proposed Solution:

A. When you plan a workshop, decide if the workshop is going to
have a rotation or not and let us know. This way, if there is
not a rotation, we can arrange for partners beforehand. If there is
a rotation, then be clear about and enforce the rules of the rotation.
Following are the rules I propose.

B. Everyone who wants to rotate dances in the circle of rotation.

C. Those who do not want to rotate, dance on the far side of the floor,
outside the rotation.

D. Those in the rotation, stay in order and do not pass anyone else.
If they happen to get out of order during dancing, the man returns
the couple to the correct position as soon as the dancing stops.

E. Those without a partner, stay in order in the rotation and do
not change their position. The person can practice by themselves
in position. Or, if the person stepped out of the rotation during
the dancing, they return to the same position in the rotation after
the dancing.

F. Everyone rotates one partner in the rotation when the instructor
calls for the rotation. If there are people the person does not
want to dance with, they need to find a partner and not dance in
the rotation.

G. If you are concerned about different experience levels, the class
itself should have an experience level associated with it. If people
do not have the prerequiste level, they can arrange for a partner
and dance outside the rotation. Everyone in the rotation should have
the prerequiste level. For me, there is no problem mixing levels.

Thanks,
Andy

www.gainesvilledance.com

Shooting is the easiest skill in basketball

(Cut from PD)

Shooting is the easiest skill in basketball.
All you do is line up your wrist, elbow and shoulder with
the basket, then extend your arm, hand and fingers perfectly
straight towards the rim.
If you do that, the ball will be on target and
all you have to do is adjust for distance.

You have to practice a lot of hours to be able
to shoot effectively under game conditions.
You can imagine a big, strong athletic guy,
six feet four, 190 pounds, with long arms,
who can run and jump, trying to stop you from shooting.
You have to move fast, fake the guy off balance, spin
and get your shot off quickly and accurately if you
want to score.
You have to train your brain and body to automatically
get you into the correct position so you can shoot straight
and instinctively apply the needed force to get the
correct distance, all in a fraction of second.

The way you train is to practice fundamental elements
repetitively.
After you master fundamental movements,
you add on additional ones.
In the case of shooting a basketball, you must first
perfect the alignment of your shoulder, elbow and wrist,
so you can extend your arm and fingers straight towards the basket.
Until you perfect this movement, your shooting will be ineffective.
After you perfect this movement, there is still much
work to do, but at least you can shoot straight.
To perfect this form you have to drill.
You have to repetitively practice exercises that
will develop the pathways in your brain to cause
your body to perform the perfected movement.

Signal with Your Body - Not a Light Lead

A number of people have mentioned to me about my policy of a "light lead" and I want to clear up what I mean.

I do not advocate a light lead. I do not like the term "lead" at all. To me the term "light lead" implies there is a range of how to lead a woman, going from light, to medium to strong. If you lead by pushing and pulling the woman then this is true.

Pushing and pulling directly affects the woman's balance. I do not advocate leading by pushing and pulling the woman, so I do not advocate light, medium or strong leads.

It is not a matter of degree. Pushing and pulling leads by coercing the woman into movement.

Partnership Dancing(tm) provides a different method of communicating that is the opposite of pushing or pulling.

In Partnership Dancing, the man does not do anything to the woman. He moves his own body and the woman moves on her own in response to how she feels the man move.

I advocate the man signaling the woman by using his body and inviting the woman to respond.

Tango Provides Another Challenge Met By Partnership Dancing(tm)

Partnership Dancing(tm) meets another challenge. This time one provided by Argentine Tango.

Tonight in Tango class, Andrea tried to lead the women in class in a particular step and they all did it wrong. Only Brian followed and that was because Andrea has been working with him individually much more and had already taught him what to do.

This was a step I have been struggling with for a long time and was glad it came up. I was not able to do this step and and did not know what was wrong. I did not know why Andrea could lead this step and I could not. (I know now, she told them what to do.) To get them to do what I wanted, I had developed an awkward method of twisting and leaning my body, which worked, but was uncomfortable and incorrect.

When Andrea explained what the followers were supposed to do, she said they had to be loose and feel what she was leading. They did not get it at first.

I saw right away that what they were supposed to do was follow the laws of Partnership Dancing(tm).

That excited me. For a few reasons.

First, Partnership Dancing(tm) explained exactly what the woman was to do by following the general principles, without needing to know the pattern.

Secondly, the author of Partnership Dancing(tm), me, could not do the step and did not understand why, but Partnership Dancing(tm) still worked. This is an indication of how powerful the principles of Partnership Dancing(tm) are, that they transcend the ability of the author.

Lastly, I was excited to see that Partnership Dancing(tm) worked for Argentine Tango and was more precise than the instructor's explanation.

Here is what we were doing.

The step, for the man, is a forward rock with the left foot, step behind on the right with a quarter turn to the right and close with the left.

For the lady the step is a back rock on the right, a forward step with the left
and a forward step crossing in front with the right, finishing with a quarter turn to her right and close with the left.

The lady's that did not know the step, all followed the same way. They naturally turned on step three closing with their right without crossing in front.

Steps

Man
1. Left forward
2. Right behind
3. Left close and turn 1/4 right
4. Right in place

(A) Lady Not Disassociating
1. Left back
2. Right forward
3. Left close and turn 1/4 right
4. Right in place

(B) Lady Disasociating
1. Left back
2. Right forward
3. Left forward crossing over with a full step
4. Right close and turn 1/4

The key moment is on step 3, where the man gets out of the woman's way after she has started her forward movement.

Without instruction, women naturally do (A). When they feel the man turn, on step 3, they turn on step 3. This is not what we want.

What we want is (B). On step 3 we want the woman to complete her forward step and cross over.

Every woman in our class did (A) until she was instructed to do (B). As a general rule, how does the woman know to do (B) not (A)?

Partnership Dancing(tm) answers this question. Here is how.

1. At the beginnning of step 3 the woman is given the signal to step forward.

2. According to the Law of Direction she is to continue in the forward direction until she is stopped.

3. She is stopped if she is blocked or when she reaches the end of her connection.

4. Since the man stepped out of her way, she is not blocked, so she is to continue forward until she reaches the end of her connection.

5. When she completes her forward step, she is at the end of the connection and stops going forward.

What is wrong with option (A) is that in number 4 above, she cuts short her forward step and turns to face the man. This violates the Law of Direction which is she is not to stop her direction until she reaches the end of the connection or is blocked.

Pushing and Pulling Is Slower for Lindy Hop

Was in a Lindy Hop class and the teacher said that you can use a light touch when going slow, but when going fast you have to hang on to your partner. I had the impression the teacher said that for my ears, since he had been in one of my classes.

He was teaching the eight count Lindy turn. He was showing that you had to hang onto
the woman's back at the midpoint and then at the end you had to hang onto her hand otherwise she would fly away at those two points.

This is true because the woman is out of control and not maintaining her own balance. She is relying on the man for to balance.

You can dance this way.

Dancing this way is not covered by Partnership Dancing, because Partnership Dancing is based on the social principles of Safety, Courtesy and Comfort, the dance principles of Naturalness, Universality and Partnership, and the Law of Balance: everyone maintains their own balance.

The claim that dancing this way is faster has to be false.

To execute a Lindy turn this way, the woman is going to overshoot her midpoint turn around spot. The man has to hang on to her back to slow her down and pull her to help get her to go back the other way. This overshooting and recovery takes time.

Executing a Lindy turn using Partnership Dancing is essentially the same as if the woman went through the steps by herself, since the man applies no force to her. Doing a Lindy turn by herself is using five steps to make a half-turn, taking a step or two steps forward, turning half way and repeating. A lady can easily take a half turn with a single step, so 5 steps for each half turn is very easy for a lady and she can do this very fast by herself. The man, then only serves to set the spot and get out of her way in Partnership Dancing.

What is faster? Doing a Lindy turn pulling on a partner or doing a Lindy turn esssentially by yourself. By yourself has to be much faster. I plan on testing this on Sunday.

Dancing with a Partner is a Language

Was at a class in Ft. Lauderdale and the instructor, Billy Fajardo told the men not to force the women through the patterns. He said, "You are learning a language. Everyone in this class is learning a particular language that means to do certain patterns. If the woman does not know the language, trying to force her through the steps does not work. It is not possible to push her through the moves in time to the music. If you are dancing with someone from somewhere else that does not know the same language, these same moves, you will not be able to do them."

I loved this. He is right.

This is exactly what Partnership Dancing is about. Partnership Dancing takes the language to a level more basic than the patterns. Partnership Dancing takes the language down to the fundamental movements.

After all, all patterns are made up of steps and there are only a limited number of steps. Partnership Dancing defines the signals that indicate the steps and the rules on how to proceed.

Companion Workbook Structure

Determined the structure of the Companion Workbook for Partnership Dancing™. This is the book with the exercises. The intent of the workbook is to teach Partnership Dancing™ through exercises.

The book teaches Partnership Dancing™ through explanations.

One of the things I love about Partnership Dancing™ is that the ideas write themselves. The structure of the workbook is a wonderful example.

After mucking around with the lessons in the workbook, I was not thrilled with the structure. I added lessons as I needed to explain ideas. I was thinking about how would I teach Partnership Dancing™ to a new dancer by having them do exercises to experience the concepts. Did not have any plan in place. When I got to a new idea, if there was a prerequiste, I added the prerequiste as a lesson before the new idea.

Started to consolidate the structure and suddenly the structure wrote itself. Not only did the structure encompass what I had written so far, but the structure completed the process adding the last two elements that I had not thought about yet.

The structure is now beautifully organized logically and elegant in simplicity.

The funny thing is, I did not write it. Of course, I was the one that wrote it, but I feel like I was writing down something I witnessed and not making up something from my head.

Partnership Dancing™ has done this repeatedly, revealing its inner consistency when I have been able to strip away all the nonsense I pile on top.

This is a big deal for a writer. When the ideas are organized logically and simply, as I said, they write themselves. The author only needs to type.

When the ideas are in a cluttered pile, the author has to go eat some cookies and take a nap. Equally productive, but not as professionally rewarding.

Here is the structure as revealed by Partnership Dancing™, excerpted from the Companion Workbook.

What Is in this Workbook

This workbook teaches you the method of Partnership Dancing™ through exercises.

Novice level covers the Social Dance Contract and the Law of Balance. You learn what you should and should not do when dancing with a partner. You learn not to do anything bad, so you can safely proceed to dancing with a partner.

Beginner level covers the Law of Connection. You learn how to communicate with your partner through altering your balance.

Intermediate level covers the Law of Direction. You learn how to signal your partner to do more than one step at a time. You learn how to communicate so you can do all the choreography in
every social dance.

Advanced level covers new possibilities in social dancing made possible by Partnership Dancing™.

The 98 - 2 Rule: Practice the Skills You Use 98% of the Time and Do Not Worry About the Rest

The email from the prior post got me thinking about the 98-2 Rule, which I just invented.

The 98-2 Rule: Practice the Skills You Use 98% of the Time and Do Not Worry About the Rest.

Seems obvious, but I can tell you this rule is infrequently followed. Take basketball as an example.

I have seen so many little kids practicing basketball by throwing up three pointers. You might say, actually that is what they do 98% of the time in games.

Perhaps the 98-2 Rule needs amending to read "... Practice the Skills You SHOULD Use 98% ...".

What kids should be practicing is dribbling a basketball. Once they are on the path to effectively learning to dribble, they can add passing and catching to their practice schedule.

Only after these skills, should they add shooting to their practice routine, and that should be from short, short range.

I played basketball for thirty years. Every day I picked up a basketball, the first thing I practiced was dribbling. Volleyball the same thing. Every time I picked up a volleyball for thirty years, the first thing I practiced was passing. Tennis, hitting the ball against a wall. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. The 98-2 Rule.

Dancing is like any other activity. Practice keeping time with the music, balance, posture, basic footwork, walking, left and right turns, communication. You cannot get good enough at these things.

The Ego, Self-Image and the Resistance to Accepting Critique

Got an email today, which got me to thinking about the 98-2 Rule, which I just invented and will be in my next post.

This email raised the question about why do people resist help from others. Here is my reply to the question.

>> Why are men so reluctant to learn from each other?

In sports, men learn from other male coaches. In business, men have mentors. Guess the ego needs to be willing to accept input from where it is offered. A person with a sincere desire to learn above all else will seek knowledge wherever they can find it. If other priorities, like self-esteem, are more important than knowledge, the person will put up barriers to protect their self-image.

>> What is it? False pride? Fear of male competition?
>> Thinking about WHO (who one wants to listen to) as
>> opposed to WHAT (what one wants to learn)?

Yes all those things. Fundamentally self-image, I suppose.

>> I see a whole lot of men (and women) hurt themselves
>> by shielding away potentially beneficial input.

Absolutely. I do it to my own detriment and have to catch myself. Human nature, I guess to protect the ego.

>> Also, many people fail to ask themselves what they are
>> trying to accomplish, i.e. Giving their partner an enjoyable
>> experience, or showing off, etc. And then, even if they choose
>> the former, they fail to ask, "WHAT makes the experience enjoyable?"

Consider yourself lucky you think this way. I do. Gives us an advantage to catch and surpass the competition.

I played beach volleyball for many years. Crushing a spike in warm ups wows the crowd, but does not score any points. Mastering basic skills and eliminating mistakes wins tournaments, not fancy plays.

Same with social dancing. If you are putting on a show for the audience, you want to wow the crowd.

If you want to wow your partner, seems to me the best way is to make it easy for her so she feels good about what she is doing. The best way to do that I think is to be really, really good with the basics. Try to perfect keeping time with the music, walking, balance, communication.

That is my strategy, exactly the same I use for every sport I played. I just practice the 98% we need all the time and do not worry about the 2% fancy stuff. You see a lot of people spending their limited time practicing the fancy stuff they hardly every use and hardly ever practice the basics they use all the time.

Lead and Follow Instruction

Was looking for a quote about dancing and came up with a number of websites with detailed techniques about Lead and Follow. Started to read through three of them.

There was quite a lot of information. The information was focused on dance skills, not patterns, which is good.

However, they were all a mish mash of ideas, none based on principles.

From Partnership Dancing™ point of view, much of the little I read was wrong.

Clearly none of these people understood what was happening. They had assembled what they considered wisdom learned from others and their own experience, but did know why things worked like they did.

With the tools from Partnership Dancing™ it is simple to go through each statement and explain why the particular claim works or does not work.

Small Groups Changing the World

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead

Came across this quote today.

In the Preface to Partnership Dancing™ there is a section about Small Groups.

You do not need a lot of people to get good. You can have the best time with the fewest people.

If you come across a small group, give them a chance. You might be surprised.

Sensation of Movement in the Woman is the Signal

Partnership Dancing™ takes advantage of the natural sensations of the human balance system to communicate.

The motion produces the sensation.

The sensation is the signal.

The signal is to continue the motion.

The sensation is the signal to move in the way that produces the sensation.
There is a natural harmony between the signal and the motion.

Since the signal, the sensation and the motion are in a sense all one,
the communication is at its most efficient possible.

This is yet another reason not to use force. Force is the application of motion in some way different to that of the natural movement of the partners' bodies. Communicating through the use of force adds a layer of translation. The communication is then less efficient, slower and less accurate.

I realize this sounds both vague and mystical. In Partnership Dancing™ I detail the procedure for how to move to accomplish this communication. I explain the specific technique that allows two people to communicate throughout the length of their step to accomplish two people dancing as one.

Settled On How to Address the Reader

Think I have settled on how to address the reader. At least will give this a try. Unless there is a compelling reason otherwise, will address the reader in the third person as the man and the woman in the singular and present tense, such as "the man goes first and the woman follows".

Still unsure about other times. When addressing both people, may use the second person. Not exactly sure. Writing "the man and the woman" instead of "you" seems cumbersome, such as "move from your center".

When I want to include myself in the conversation, may use "we".

Companion Workbook started

Have started writing a first draft of the Companion Workbook, which contains excercises for Partnership Dancing™.

Partnership Dancing™ Book Version 00.02 online

Have posted version 00.02 of Partnership Dancing™. This is a significant rewrite. The concepts are the same, but have cleaned up the writing, simplified and improved the organization.

Addressing the Audience

Am struggling with exactly how to address the reader. At times I write in third person, such as "the lady does". At other times I write in second person, "ladies, you should" and still other times I write in first person, "when we dance, we". To compound this issue, I mix tenses, past, present, future, and those names I cannot remember from high school English like future past present. Maybe I will leave the clean up of this mess to version 00.03.