""I'm not in favour of "fencing in" anyone just because you assume he¹ "can't handle" something else. I find that a thoroughly paternalistic attitude, especially if you are saying he need to be "tracked" into one form; even beginners are not cattle.
Of course, you can't confuse the heck out of beginners by mixing different styles in beginner courses, but you *can* limit yourself to one style without closing people's minds, by explaining exactly what style you're teaching and why you made certain choices. Tell them that you aren't "tracking" them into anything (which is coercive), but that you're just growing their knowledge by starting from a small kernel and extending around it (rather than "jumping all over the place" in the object space)."" I respectfully disagree with all of the above....an 'explanation' of what is being taught isn't going to stop the total mystification of the student....."hmmmm, but I explained".....yeah right. this whole ideal of 'not fencing in' a new student and helping them 'learn' and 'grow' is at the heart of the degradation of the present-day dance outside of BsAs. ...all in my own opinion, of course. Speaking from my own experience, it wasn't until I simplified and fine tuned the focus DOWN to a few figures and a few basics that I was able to, for the first time, understand the dance as a whole and actually begin to dance it as a complete entity. And today, almost two years after that first discovery (watching the dance of Beto and Amalya) I am now simplifying it even more.....of course I added something and am now slimming it down again.. I entirely agree that teaching different styles before the traditional style is learned is to do a giant dis service to the student ...to confuse, and mystify them while their traditional basics are corrupted...and to keep them coming back for more and more classes. ... www.theopendoorway.org/audiovisual.html www.mario7.deviantart.com/ www.youtube.com/user/nacotete www.tangoandchaos.org THE WAR IS MAKING YOU POOR! _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l