Flamenco revisited
After a break of close to two months, finally managed to convince myself to go back to the Flamenco classes Monday week. In fact, up until the time I was leaving the office, I was still trying to come up with good excuses for not going. 🙂
I guess laziness is a common human trait… And another is the fact that once you have put aside something, it is in general quite hard to pick up again!? However, I am glad that I made the effort last week and this week, because the classes have been very interesting and challenging – especially since we have started on the castanets.
Adding flames
In an attempt to add more spice and hopefully improve my Tango, decided to try out Flamenco. Well, it was either this or tap dance, as is practised by Pablo Veron, of The Tango Lesson fame. 🙂
Responsibility
From time to time, I hear ‘complaints’ (both in person and discussions on the Tango-L list) about visiting Tango teachers’ teaching methods as they run a series of workshops during their short stays. These can range from techniques, styles, choice of words, the embrace (open or close), etc. Inevitably, there are concerns that people are not getting the ‘real deal’, or the new material have not been explained clearly enough?
Workshop learning
Someone recently commented in passing that it is extremely difficult to learn and progress in Tango by attending special one-off workshops. By the way, he is quite a good dancer, and he is certainly not disputing the value in workshops. It’s just the instructional benefits which he has serious doubts about. For example, there is a lot to be said of the awe-inspiring nature of workshops, which gives all of us the extra impetus to carry on.