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.