walk this way

You must practice. There are no two ways about it. You must go out and social dance, but at the same time, you must must must must practice what you have learned. Failure to do that and you risk losing everything that you’ve paid to ‘learn’. There are two places to do that. One is usually right after class or a private lesson, and the second is what we call a ‘Practica’.

A Few Simple Questions

Question: How often should you practice ?

Answer: As often as possible!

Question: Where should you practice ?

Answer: At a Practica, in Private Practice Sessions, Anywhere at all really!

Question: What is a Practica ?

Answer: A ‘Practica’ is a place where you can do anything with anyone for any length of time. The rules of the Milonga are thrown out the window. Tandas disappear. So you need not dance with someone longer than you want to. You can say ‘thank you’ at any time. You can offer feedback. You can offer advice about what’s worked for you and what hasn’t. But the one thing you can’t do is TEACH at a practica unless you are a teacher, and even then its considered rude (I break this guideline a lot myself and I shouldn’t).

Your #1 goal, one among many, should be to try out what you’ve learned, try out things, explore options and opportunities to grow as a dancer. Not to be a star, not to be the most amazing dancer that people just line up to dance with, but rather a dancer with a clear and clean foundation. This is the one place where you can do that.

Guideline for Communication at a Practica.

Before I get started with the guidelines, its really helpful to approach any conversation with any dancer from a place of knowing nothing. Exploring options. The beginning of all knowledge is to say that you don’t know anything at all. Start there. Its also helpful in my opinion, to come from a place of humbleness. You are no better or worse than the best or worst dancer in the room. You are, in effect, a beginner by many standards even if you’ve been dancing many years. Time matters not in tango, in my experience, but experience counts a lot. Which is to say that your experience frames how you learn and what you’ll learn.

One more thing, feedback is sometime hard to take, hard to offer, and hard to give openly for fear that you’ll hurt someone’s feelings. So its important that you check in with whomever you’re dancing with and ask if its ok to give or receive feedback. Some people come to a practica and use it as a social dance experience instead of going to the milonga, mostly because you can talk at a practica, openly. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the goal of the practica should be to practice what you have learned.

That said….

1.) It is a good idea to offer feedback in small chunks. Be as succinct and clear as possible. Too much feedback and people get overloaded too quickly and can’t handle the load. Some people can’t handle more than 3 or 4 things at a time. Some people can. Keep your feedback limited to 1 or 2 things.

2.) When offering feedback use the following phrases to introduce the idea that you’re looking to explore, “Can we try something out ?”, or “I’d like to try something different”, or “Do you mind if we … “, and then explain what you’re attempting to do.

From a leading perspective: Its a good idea NOT explain what you’re attempting to do, but rather try it out a few times, and then stop and ask for feedback. What you’re trying to do is see if you can lead what you’re attempting to lead WITHOUT verbally explaining it.

From a following perspective: Its a good idea to see if you can follow exactly what you’re being led to do, not what you THINK it is, but rather what it feels like. If it hurts, stop and say that it hurts. Don’t try to do something if its painful. This is the one time where you have to stop immediately and state very very very clearly, “HEY!!! THAT F*CKING HURTS, PLEASE STOP!” or words to that effect.

3.) Followers Note: BE BLUNT! Don’t sugar coat it. Don’t be nice. You’re not doing your leader any service by sugar coating it. How do you offer advice if you don’t lead? You talk about what it FEELS like! If it feels like X, Y, or Z, state that.

4.) Leaders Note: When asking a follower for a dance at a practica, try to begin the ‘conversation’ with, “WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON TODAY ?”. Don’t tell her what’s wrong with her, don’t try to fix her either. Unless you follow, and more than likely you don’t, or unless you’re one of my students, you can’t possibly understand what she’s doing! You can however, tell her what it feels like to lead her. Again, clearly and succinctly let me put this to you if you are leading: DO NOT TELL HER WHAT’S WRONG WITH HER AND THEN GO ABOUT TELLING HER HOW TO FIX IT! You are not a teacher, you are not running the practica, and you are not any better than your follower. Just because you lead does not make you the soul of all tango wisdom. Quite the opposite actually. She’s a better dancer than you are on multiple levels. Remember that she has the hard job, not you. You are moving her from place to place. She’s making you look 10 times better than you, so please for the love of god, do not try to fix her. Tell her what it feels like to lead her if it feels uncomfortable, but short of that, talk about you and your stuff. Not her and her stuff!

5.) Both Lead and Follow: Who’s ever practica this is, when you want for clarity of a point, you find the resident teacher and ask them (if its their practica, and it usually is) for clarity of a certain point. Do not ask your dance partner! You do however, state that you’d like an outside opinion and would like to see how they do x, y, or z.

Lastly, I don’t need to say this but I guess I do, because I see this NOT happening all the damned time: Say, “THANK YOU” when you are done with practicing with that person!