WCS - Where can you find a moves focus

[frodo]

As per this (http://www.cerocscotland.com/forum/land-1000-dances/13006-wcs-teachers-who-do-you-rate.html) thread there appears to me to be quite a few highly rated UK or UK visiting teachers, but my impression is that they tend to focus on technique.


Even in Tango, the land of endlessly looking at some minor aspect of something else, there is a choice.

While they might not meet with the approval forumites, some Tango threads mention (quite popular) London Tango classes which do focus on moves (Tango Federico). The posts were helpful as I've been looking for somewhere move focused.


So similarly does anyone do popular WCS classes without all the (mind numbing to some) focus on technique.

[Caro]

I'm confused...
why would you want to learn moves, rather than the technique that will allow you to dance ? :confused:

[frodo]

I'm confused...
why would you want to learn moves, rather than the technique that will allow you to dance ? :confused:Many good reasons. I'm not sure whether it is best to detail them on a different (new or existing) thread though.

[Caro]

As you said yourself,


.... there appears to me to be quite a few highly rated UK or UK visiting teachers, but my impression is that they tend to focus on technique.
...
While they might not meet with the approval forumites, some Tango threads mention (quite popular) London Tango classes which do focus on moves (Tango Federico).

the consensus on the forum tends to be that a good teacher will teach you technique and not moves. Therefore, if anyone was to post 'X teaches mainly moves but doesn't bother with too much technique', they would be implying that they are bad (by 'forum standard', whatever it's worth...) teachers.
Not sure anybody will really want to do that... May be the re-incarnated GaG might volunteer... :whistle:

Of course, you might have thought this through, and just be wanting to stir things a little... :devil:

[David Franklin]

if anyone was to post 'X teaches mainly moves but doesn't bother with too much technique', they would be implying that they are bad (by 'forum standard', whatever it's worth...) teachers.
Not sure anybody will really want to do that... May be the re-incarnated GaG might volunteer... :whistle:

Of course, you might have thought this through, and just be wanting to stir things a little... :devil:I assume the impetus for the thread was
... my experience is that many teachers succumb to the temptation of rapidly pleasing their class by teaching flash patterns taken from youtube videos of top US WCS dancers, or simply to hide their own lack of actual understanding of the underlying techniques.which I have to say is a million miles away from my personal experience of WCS teaching.

[johnah]

I'm confused...
why would you want to learn moves, rather than the technique that will allow you to dance ? :confused:


:yeah:

Well said.

[Caro]

... my experience is that many teachers succumb to the temptation of rapidly pleasing their class by teaching flash patterns taken from youtube videos of top US WCS dancers, or simply to hide their own lack of actual understanding of the underlying techniques.


to be honest, I don't blame them as 1. it takes an awful lot of time to absorb those techniques, and 2. they still deserve a lot of credit for bringing wcs in this country. :respect:

However on a personal point of view, being very passionate about this dance, and having had the chance to get a (relatively) lot of exposure to tuition from the pros, it pains me when they teach stuffs that are blatantly... incorrect, by most standards. I guess I'm saying I can cope with classes with little technique involved (i.e. moves based), but not so much with classes of flawed technique. :sad:

[spindr]

why would you want to learn moves, rather than the technique that will allow you to dance ? :confused:
I think you need both -- you need to learn the technique in order to dance the move -- and the move as an aide-memoire for the technique.

The problem comes when the move becomes the reason, rather than the by-product.

It gets even worse when a technique gets taken out of context, watered down, and then rehashed as a move, c.f. tonight's pseudo-lindy twist-twist in the Ceroc intermediates class (supposedly led by a huge circling of the handhold). Rather than the technique being that without an additional lead a follower should walk away until stopped, i.e. as far from the lead as a handhold permits, and then turn back to face the leader -- styled with a twist-twist motion.

SpinDr

[Brady]

I guess I'm saying I can cope with classes with little technique involved (i.e. moves based), but not so much with classes of flawed technique. :sad:

:yeah: I could agree with this as for new WCS dancers it's better to receive none than bad technique. A famous quote that I live by with my dancing, "Practice makes permanent", so practice bad technique and you'll dance with bad technique.


but my experience is that many teachers succumb to the temptation of rapidly pleasing their class by teaching flash patterns taken from youtube videos of top US WCS dancers, or simply to hide their own lack of actual understanding of the underlying techniques.

From my experience teaching in the UK, the majority of those taking on WCS are coming from MJ where on average it is expected that for your money, you can walk into a class and get 4 moves in about an hour. When these people come to a WCS class, they often have the same expectation. This is where it gets difficult as a teacher in the UK to find a balance between patterns and technique. Note that this isn't to say that I back the teaching of flash patterns in a regular class. I'm personally not into flash patterns (just watch my clip on YouTube from San Diego, or if you saw Susan and I at WSM) and think they should be saved for a class/workshop teaching choreographed patterns, as many of these won't work or aren't suitable for social dancing.

Here in the US, the class with Arjay and Melissa tends to be a short sequence which incorporates various technical aspects of the dance. Most of the patterns are already known by the class and therefore more focus can be put on the technical and styling side of things. I honestly don't think the UK is ready for this approach just yet. Although, if it was somebody of Arjay and Melissa's standard and for only $12 (£6), it might take off.

Brady