scared stupid: the “folley” of technical instruction

for many years, I was in love with technical instruction. just the very idea of “techie talk” in dance gave me a good feeling.

attending dance classes where the instructor rattled on and on with complicated barrages of technical terms to describe moves and actions gave me a feeling of security. or should I say, gave my mind, ego mind, a false sense of security.

“this guy must really know what he is talking about”, said a young Eduardo.

strangely enough, the results themselves didnt matter all that much. i just liked the sound, feeling and comfort given by long lists of technical directives.

it wasn’t until I had a chance to teach children to dance, that I realized the pitfall of what we commonly accept as instruction. given the limited vocabularly of my mini students, I quickly had to make changes in my approach. things like “placing your arms slightly below your chest level, with elbows pointed downward…etc” were replaced with me putting my arms and chest level and saying “do this”.

and of course, the learning comes fast and furious.

but what about all those words…? did they not require my expertise? sure they did. but the expertise of an instructor lies in their ability to teach the student to teach themselves. inside out, not outside in.

at this point I thought it would be interesting to attend beginner dance classes and just observe the reaction of students and myself to technical instruction.

first off, when a movement is taught and combined with technical instructions such as exact angle of feet, numbers, precise positioning etc., the directions must be “unwrapped” within the brain of the student. when this cannot be done successfully, doubt and fear are introduced because the verbal instructions were not understood.

fear and doubt give rise to anxiety which tend to degrade performance and set up loops of self judgment.

perhaps you didn’t quite understand “place f00t at 45 degree angle slightly in front of and to the right of left foot with knees bent and weight distributed almost completely on the spinning leg”. and you may have even exerted mental effort to try and shut out the instructor’s words and focus on the image itself –that smart body of yours trying to do what it does best.

was the preceeding instruction set even necessary? no. nor can words ever precede or replace experience. they are simply a way to try and approximate some action that someone discovered through their own experience. unfortunately, your body is not my body. and words can be twisted and deciphered a million different ways.

if I had simply demonstrated in silence, without judgment or analysis you would have executed more in line with your own body’s way of doing things. there were no words to hold on to, so experience guided the learning. as refinement i would now simply point your awareness to certain areas, so that you can make the subtle changes naturally, as the end result -spinning in this case- would require, in order for you to successfully complete the task.

you can only feel what works and doesn’t work for you. I’ve realized that words, when used as a replacement for experience, will only frustrate and push you to conform to a standard that may not even work so well for your body.

at paso, we’ve begun working almost completely with instruction methodologies that are based on the natural learning process built into every human being. we ditch the technical instruction and focus on experiential learning –the kind that helps you develop your dance at a much faster and more efficient rate.

nature is effortless. grass doesn’t contemplate growing, and planetary alignment isn’t based on discussion. it simply happens. let’s allow the learning to happen, the way nature intended.