Dancing & learning styles

[Feelingpink]

There are theoretically three styles of communicating & learning - visual, kinetic and auditory. We all have a preferred style and most easily understand someone else who communicates in our style. A visual person needs to see to learn, a kinetic person needs to do it and an auditory person needs to hear it/an explanation.

I wondered if there have been any dance lessons/workshops/teacher training where this is taken into consideration. It could be either as something that dance teachers need to know or in a more overt way - perhaps dividing a class or workshop into the three groups so each of the three can learn in the most effective way. Anyone heard of this happening?

[Minnie M]

There are theoretically three styles of communicating & learning - visual, kinetic and auditory..........
So true :yeah: :flower:

I am a visual learner and most people can not understand that - just watching good dancers I can pick up moves far more easily than doing a class, then in the freestyle my mind pictures these moves.

The only dance instructor I REALLY communicate with is Steve Mitchell (from America) and he is very visual. He sometimes sings his way through the moves he is teaching with all the feeling that goes with it. Amazing :worthy: and his partner Virginie follows with such sexy body movements that just make you want to learn. He is Lindy based, but would really love them to teach a MJ class

[Lory]

So true :yeah: :flower:


Yes, and I'm definitly kinetic, it doesn't matter how much I watch, or in how ever much detail someone explains something to me, the only way it sinks in, is for me to actually DO it! :)

[Aleks]

I'm lucky to be able to learn from a mix of all three :smug:. My family was very aware of this when I was small and would consciously give me all three approaches when showing me new stuff.

I also studied NLP (neuro linguistic programming) which showed me extra skills to communicate more effectively with people with each learning style.

It is something I bear in mind when I taxi.

[Chef]

I seem to have a mixture of all three, but the order of them can be quite important.

If you tell me something and I don't instantly rank it as important then I lose the information.

What works best for me is to see something, then to do it, and the fine details brought in from being talked through it as I do it (particularly if it describes helpful images).

I often see dance on DVD and run through it frame by frame to work out where hands and feet go. I then practice the body movements imagining where my partner is going and ensuring I am doing all the correct things smoothly (closing my eyes helps here).

I then do the same thing with the ladies (or followers) part so that I try to understand what my partner will need from me and where I might make life difficult for her. I then try to work out a way of meshing the two parts together.

Then I start to work with my partner and between us we work out what feels flowing and smooth. We then video the result and compare it with the DVD and refine things on the basis of that.

Verbal images really do help me understand. My latin american teachers are really good at it. When you step forward in latin american dancing you have to commit the whole of your body weight to the front foot and I could never get this right. It wasn't until he told me to "step forward like you are just about to pull open a heavy steel door" that it finally clicked with me.

I found a great book in my library on the use of Imagery in Ballet. I was so useful for this idea.

Happy Dancing

[Andreas]

I am a mix of visual and kinetic. While I have not problem memorising whole routines and the moves just from seeing them, more complex moves I simply have to 'feel'. In general, if I can form a mental picture of something I can also physically do it more or less straight away. But if I struggle to form that picture it becomes a medium nightmare for me to learn :blush:

[Feelingpink]

....

If you tell me something and I don't instantly rank it as important then I lose the information.

...



There's also the thing in learning/teaching where you need to be teaching from the edge of what people know. In other words, if you start teaching something which is well within a person or group's capabilities, they will be bored and not concentrate. If you start teaching well outside their capabilities, they will not be able to connect what they already know of the subject with what you're trying to teach and most probably reject the lesson.

I wonder if this is what is happening to you - if you find a piece of information that isn't useful to you YET, then you can't connect with it. When you've learned a little more (filled the gap in the middle), it is useful. I think it's why good teachers (in dance or other fields) will try to find the level of the students/dancers before they start a lesson.

[Rhythm King]

Monkey see, Monkey do, for me. The description is useful of course, but nothing beats actually doing a move, then going over it until it clicks. Amir is very good at giving people time in classes to work things out for themselves, in their own time. What frequently can throw a spanner in the works is if a lady "helpfully" tries to reverse lead ahead of where my addled brain has got to, in the move :mad: . However useful tips and feedback (eg "turn your hand the other way", or "you're giving a mixed lead because your right hand is suggesting I turn one way while your left hand is telling me to go the other") are always gratefully received :worthy: .

R-K

[Chef]

I wonder if this is what is happening to you - if you find a piece of information that isn't useful to you YET, then you can't connect with it. When you've learned a little more (filled the gap in the middle), it is useful. I think it's why good teachers (in dance or other fields) will try to find the level of the students/dancers before they start a lesson.

When I am in dance lessons I will look and listen intently. I am assuming that everything is important at that time and will refrain from general chit chat with my partner which is one of the reasons that I like doing advanced classes with my fixed partner). If I feel that I have missed something important I will miss out doing a run through with the teachers so that I can watch and concentrate on a particular foot placment etc.

I have enormous trouble remembering peoples names (not just of all the people that I meet dancing) but can often rememeber number sequences quite easily - weird. In a class enviroment the teaching from the stage is ranked as important but my partner (for the next 45 seconds) name is not ranked as important.

The only time I have trouble is when a teacher is either very giggly (one lady in mind here), having so much banter with his personal friends in the audience, or just so placid and monotone that I just tune out the irrelevant information to the point where I am not listening anyway. I no longer even think about going to these peoples classes because it either irritates me (just get on with the lesson and leave the banter with friends for your own time) or bores me to the point of looking out of the window.

I enjoy the gentle bickering that Nigel and Nina and David and Lily have because it is relvant to the lesson, hugely entertaining and is quite brief.

So I think that is it. I focus in on the meat of a subject and the perhiphery (like the name of a person I am unlikely to meet again) is forgotten. Too much verbal clutter switches me off and I prefer to abandon that teacher.

I do chemical research and it involves reading a huge amount of research literature each day and holding 3D pictures of molecules (that you could never see in reality) in your mind and imagining how the look in space and interact with each other. Not sure if I am good at that because of my job or I am doing my job because that is how my mind works.

Love your signature line - feelingpink.

Happy Dancing.

[bigdjiver]

I need to feel the flow of the move, repeat it until it is "muscle" memory. Sometimes I will just do the move in a class, instead of breaking it down like the teacher is doing, so I get the flow. Other times, usually when I have to do two or three things at once, I have to do the move very, very slowly. Hand here, change grip, foot there ... and I am struggling,
[QUOTE=Rhythm King]... What frequently can throw a spanner in the works is if a lady "helpfully" tries to reverse lead ahead of where my addled brain has got to, in the move .../QUOTE] and often any chance of getting that move is gone ...

It is swings and roundabouts. Just as often a lady will tell me where I am going wrong, when I cannot work it out for myself.

[Magic Hans]

Think I'm more of an Auditory/Kinaesthetic. I remember being in a tango class at Camber. Going through the moves, I found I was getting more and more bored, and less and less interested .... that is, until the music started!!!! Only then did I remember what I was their for!!!!

Another model (I'm sure there are many!) that I have come across is a cyclical one:

Analyst -> Pragmatic -> Activist -> Reflector -> (back to) Analyst etc.

On this cycle most of my learning seems to happen in the Analyst and Activist phases.

[Lynn]

All of this reminds me I need to get on with my assignments :tears: (on learning and teaching).

[bigdjiver]

I'm lucky to be able to learn from a mix of all three :smug:. My family was very aware of this when I was small and would consciously give me all three approaches when showing me new stuff.

I also studied NLP (neuro linguistic programming) which showed me extra skills to communicate more effectively with people with each learning style.

It is something I bear in mind when I taxi.A useful start on NLP - with an interesting gizmo for allegedly relating where you are looking to how you are thinking / feeling. (The eyes have it exercise)

http://nlpinfo.com

[Rhythm King]

I tried an experiment at the Jive Bar last night. As there were men over for the intermediate class, I sat out and tried the following. Firstly I watched one move as taught, and tried to remember all the aspects from a visual basis. I then looked away and concentrated on listening to the instructions for the next move.
The move I had watched was a catapult variation with which I was not familiar, but I was able to lead it on the dance floor following the class. The move I listened only to was one with which I was familiar, but had a slightly changed ending, to fit the subsequent move. I found I had to physically move my arms to make sense of what was being described. Also when I then watched the move, the lady was not where I would have expected, because I hadn't paid sufficient attention to the follower's part, as I was still trying to work out the lead.
As I said earlier, Monkey See, Monkey Do. I will try this again, when the opportunity arises, but sit on my hands to prevent physically trying the move!

R-K

[Gadget]

I don't know which I use - probably all three - but I have to translate what I see to an internal image. The hardest bit is getting my body to actually fit within that image and move to match what's in my head.

Visually, I watch little things like angles of hips, tilt of hand, timing of where they are at a specific point, their position to each other,... I pick up more from this than what's being said and taught. I never watch the stage when actually dancing with my partner or going through the moves with them.

I also tend to listen to what the teacher says - and am sometimes the only one in the class that does what they say to do instead of what they are demonstrating! :what: I blame Lorna's teaching "<move> return... ... ...lower the hand and step back". :wink:

Kinetically, I think it's more a reinforcement of my internal image of the move and discovering potential problems that I may have to pay attention to. (Like an arm does not bend that way :blush: )

[MartinHarper]

Funny Minnie should mention Steve Mitchell - this thread reminded me of something he said in a class: "I'm training your eyes". He seemed to take the view that visual learning was a valuable skill, rather than a preference, and keen dancers should attempt to acquire it.