Openness in learning
I have always been fascinated with the human learning process. Especially since starting beginners classes on a regular basis, I am even more interested to understand how to facilitate or even speed up the learning process.
From my own experiences, I believe one of the important ingredients in ensuring efficient learning is a willingness on the part of the students to receive new ideas. Simple, direct, and may almost too obvious, no? Otherwise, you may ask, what is then the point of attending a lecture, seminar, etc., if not to learn new ideas? Well, contention comes when the “new ideas” seem, at first sight, to be contrary to previous knowledge? Or when we feel we know it all? Or we know of a better way for doing certain things, etc.? It is too uncommon to see people attend a class with a fixed agenda and unwilling to change their mind-sets even for a little while.
Overseas injection
In the coming months, Singapore will host two visiting couples from Argentina. Firstly the return of Gato/Andrea after two years at the end of August and the first-time visit by Guillermo/Fernanda to Singapore in mid-October. In-between these two couples, the Taiwan Tango community will be hosting its 4th annual Tango festival in late September, which will be attended by a not-so-small contingent from Singapore. Finally, towards the end of the year, we will see another couple making the pilgrimage to Buenos Aires (lucky chums!), the Mecca for Tango.
Hopefully all these activities will give the local community the added boost in new ideas as well as attracting new blood and retaining the fringe dancers!
Building a community
Since commencing a series of Beginners classes and guided practicas a few months ago, it’s gratifying for me personally to see the steady improvements in some of the “regulars” (including not only my own students but also people who have been dancing for some time) who attend our weekly practicas. What can we learn from this particular observation?
Fun and laughter
There inevitably comes a time in any budding Tango dancer’s education that perfecting of the techniques, i.e. embrace, walk, etc., is constantly on his/her mind while dancing.
However – and this is, I suppose, more a reflection as a result of regular Beginners classes these days – I feel that we should not lose sight of the fact that Tango is, after all, just a dance. As a dance, we should aim to enjoy ourselves. From time to time, it’s good not to take ourselves too seriously. That is, despite the training and requirement for good posture, the connection, the navigational skills, the musicality, etc. etc., which are all good to have, we need to somehow inject fun back into Tango occasionally – if not all the time!