bad association: how hanging out with numbers can get you into trouble

I think it was the apostle Paul, who, in his letter to the congregation of Corinth warned: “Bad association spoils useful habits”.

And though I may preach like a  fundamentalist dancer, by no means am I going to give you a bible sermon!

However, the method you use to learn to dance is of primary concern to me, as an instructor, who is obsessed with developing the most effective methodology to teaching people to become more spontaneous, vividly expressive dancers.

In the majority of  circumstances, learning movements by numbers association can get you into trouble on the social floor and for the most part, I think the logic is fairly straightforward –

If you learn by the numbers, when it’s time to execute, you will have little choice but to refer back to the numbers in order to recall what you learned. We like to learn by association because it works.

But it’s gonna cost you.

You see, the numbers don’t magically disappear with experience. Quite the lovely myth, executing a move learned by number association over and over, will not quench your addiciton to arithmetic. Nor will the tape recorder stop playing, as most of you have already discovered sometime in the past.

Every time you fire up that brain pathway that starts at number and ends at movement, you are more and more likely to walk down that path again. The numbers may “ghost” in your head but the groove in your record becomes deeper.

Why should you care? If the numbers work, isnt’ that all that matters?

Yep. If partner dance was a spreadsheet, you’d be correct.

Unforuntately, dancing to music, processing the mechanics of yourself and partner, and a slew of other variables takes RESOURCES.

And would you be interested in adding a cup full of something called musical interpretation to that dance of yours? Well, that takes a whole bunch of resources and focus.

You see, the brain doesn’t quite appreciate multitasking in that way.

You might find yourself counting in your head slapping turn patterns on top of your partner, while devoting attention to only the most superficial aspects of your couple dance.

Now when you get really super duper advanced, you can get really good at faking it. You’ve graduated beyond lipping the numbers and staring into the sky as if you were talking to spirits on the dancefloor, and learn to keep it all to yourself ..a little secret.

But as soon as the music changes, or the arrangements get complex and that conga drummer starts doing funny things with the beat you may find yourself caught on the dance floor, legs astride, turning your partner while that pesky music plays somewhere in the background.

I’ve learned plenty of movements and routines to the numbers and hot damn! Those numbers stuck like the Bush administration to a bullshit story.

Here’s the ironic part: learning based on numbers association works great in the short run, and it gives students something to latch on to in the beginning, so they are not entirely without benefit.

But it’s going to cost you in flexibility, spontaneity and the ability to generalize and apply certain learned principles over a broad spectrum of circumstance. You are also going to carry a more robotic appearance, while you pour over those digits in the back of your mind.

As a dancer who deems musical intpretation to be one of the most important aspects of a couple’s dance, I am with the Argentine Tango dancers on this one: for most situations, number association is bad association