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How to Select Practice Music
To make a long story short, albeit oversimplified, select music that you enjoy listening to. This is of first and foremost importance, as often times we forget the enjoyment factor when either dancing, or listening to music. The problem with putting enjoyment second, is that enjoyment and proficiency are quite intimate. In fact, they share the same bed quite happily. Not that you can’t become good at something you don’t completely enjoy, but trust me when I say that there is no way in hell you will reach your maximum...
read moreseed, sun, and teacher.
I love watching you grow. Extracting every bit of possibility from those who walk through our studio doors, gives me a sense of fulfillment and purpose. Sometimes it’s funny to note the differences in the viewpoint of the dance instructor versus the dance student. You see the seed. I see the tree. You see your current stage. I could care less about the current stage, and ignore it almost completely. If you’ve grown enough trees in your lifetime, you know that there is a process which is as beautiful as it is infallible, and that...
read moreyoga makes it better.
The more and more Yoga I do, the better everything seems to get, especially in regards to dance. Read this article, “Play at Your Peak”, from Yogajournal.com: http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/2657?page=2. It’s four pages or so, but will give you tremendous insight into how Yoga can bring out the top performer (oak tree) that lies within you. After that, go take a Yoga class. I love Sommer and Paul’s classes down at Triangle Yoga..they rock.
read moreacorns
You can’t see, smell, taste, or feel that towering oak tree inside of the acorn. According to any of your conventional senses, the oak tree doesn’t exist. You can break open the acorn and search until your face turns blue, but you won’t find it anywhere. But the potential is there. And given nourishment, it will become an oak tree. No belief is needed. Oak grows from acorn. Without hoping or wishing, it just does. With the right conditions, growth is more or less imminent. Practice dancing, and you will grow. Enjoy...
read moreposture awareness, 24/7
A guest post by Yoko Hisano What are we seeing? In class, spend a good amount of time looking at ourselves in that huge mirror. And as we align our bodies, check our posture, we look into the mirror. We see ourselves. Maybe a little hunched over, maybe not. Tailbone sticking out or tucked in? Sometimes it’s difficult, as human beings to truly ‘see’ our alignment when we are so used to walking and moving through the world in that very way. In this week’s newsletter, I included the basic alignment checklist, with the...
read moreYoga Benefits for Dancers
A guest post by Heather Green We’ve all heard everyone from our moms to The New York Times sing yoga’s praises. Fortunately, all this fad-y nonsense about yoga and deep breathing isn’t just, well, nonsense. Mom’s up to something when she says you ought to give it a try to improve your dancing. Physical Benefits of Yoga for Dancers With regular practice, yoga can improve flexibility, posture, balance, strength, and breathing. These are especially beneficial to dancers, who rely on all of these things not only in the classroom but also...
read more5 Quick Ways to Rinse Off That Beginner Smell
And no, I am not talking about the Axe body spray, although if there were a number 6 to this do-not list, I might be tempted to add it. As we say, “it’s not a crime to be a beginner. However, it is a crime to look like one”. Being a beginner and looking like one are two different things. Apply these 5 simple tips, and you will go a long way in looking, and more importantly feeling, like an old-school dancer. 5. Dance Floor Chatter Social dance doesn’t mean to verbally socialize. A comfort-zone tool, and a staple in the newbie toolkit,...
read morewhen getting our point across, do we rely too heavily on words?
“We teachers – perhaps all human beings – are in the grip of an astonishing delusion. We think that we can take a picture, a structure, a working model of something, constructed in our minds out of long experience and familiarity, and by turning that model into a string of words, transplant it whole into the mind of someone else. Perhaps once in a thousand times, when the explanation is extraordinary good, and the listener extraordinary experienced and skillful at turning word strings into non-verbal reality, and when...
read morewhat does your dance project?
If you wanted to make a blog story short, I’d say, you. But ‘you’ gets a bit complex. It could be you that day, that week, or just you in a crappy moment. Nonetheless, when you get on that dance floor, you are projecting something to yourself, your partner, and those around you. What are you projecting? What would you like to project? How could you eliminate the gap between the two? Your body movements, facial expressions, and the manner in which you hold yourself and your partner, are all saying something. Go inside and find out what...
read morewhat no instructor can do
We can give you tools, techniques, ideas, and even the rare enlightenment moments here and there. But the one thing that no instructor can do, –that is arguably the most important- is teach you to feel the music. No one can create an emotional connection between you and the song you are listening to. I’ve seen dancers go on for years, listening to music that for them personally, served as little more than a method of organizing their steps and movements. On the other hand, i’ve seen beginners come to class on day 1, and be completely...
read moreLooking to Learn a Dance? Here’s What NOT to Do.
Once upon a time I found myself in the very same position as many of you out there. I knew I wanted to learn a couple’s dance of sort –it looked interesting enough- but wasn’t quite sure how to get started. Alas, in a few of my learned dance forms, I took the scenic route. When I say scenic, I don’t mean Yellowstone. “Scenic” as in a slow drive through California’s skid row, a car breakdown in the middle of Detroit, and a few extended stays somewhere in New Jersey. But there’s a lot to learn from bumps and scrapes. You get to...
read moreThe Flexible Social Dancer
On the dance floor, flexibility pays. At its most basic level, flexibility means adjusting the subtleties of your movement in response to your partner. This could be as simple as adjusting your timing to on1 because she just can’t seem to get the on2 thing, or dancing in a slot because the circular movement just isn’t working. It could mean adding an additional ‘dialect’, such as NY or LA style Salsa, to your existing Salsa speak. And if you’ve got a strong grasp on your native tongue, it could be as aggressive...
read moredance without physical awareness is dead.
When is the last time you noticed the way you walk? As strange is it sounds, this is important because in order to answer, you must have had to actually feel and notice the way that you walk. This requires physical awareness, the currency of dance learning. If you can’t feel your body, how else are you going to make the detailed changes that dancing requires? And how many times have you heard, “I didnt even notice myself doing that!” Uhh huh. You see, we give commands to our physical self throughout the day, but rarely do we...
read morebad 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...
read morea two-way street
A guest post by Yoko Hisano I believe that students and instructors both have an equal amount of responsibility in making a class meaningful and successful. It’s a two-way street. Speaking ...
read morelet me fix your dance
A guest post by Yoko Hisano “The Man and the Eagle There was once a man who had never seen an eagle. One day a magnificent eagle landed on his windowsill, and when he saw it, he exclaimed, “What an ugly creature!” The man grabbed the eagle and pulled it into his house. “First, I’m going to fix that curved beak of yours.” He used a file to remove the hook in the eagle’s beak. “Those claws are vicious looking,” the man said as he clipped the eagle’s claws until there was lit- tle left. When he finished, the man...
read moresecrets to paso methodology: the assumption
we use a lot of tools and tricks in Paso to get the absolute best from our students. these days im noticing more and more the power of assumptions. one of the major changes we made is in how we view our students. from the moment you come in class, we assume that you already know how to dance. ok, maybe you don’t have tons of “smooth moves”, but I think movement to sound is innate in human beings. but there is method to madness and it works something like this– if you want someone to complete a particular task, make that...
read moreget connected
a guest post by Yoko Hisano Have you ever skied or snowboarded? Did you ever change the speed or the size of your turn to adjust to the slope? From my experience, even within the same slope, it could be steep or easy or narrow or wide. I’ve done both: without changing much and with major changes/adjustments of the speed and the size of my turn. When I didn’t make any changes to how I skied, I was exhausted and felt disconnected with the mountain by the time I was at the bottom of the mountain. Ok, there’s the slight...
read morescared 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...
read moreoutcomes
you can’t control them, only the action that helps create it. when I find myself on the dance floor, I keep in mind that I have absolutely NO control over my partner -not realistically. the moment I begin a movement, the outcome is out of my hands. I control nothing but my own action. not the music, not my partner, and not the outcome of anything I do. make this your dance lesson of the week: the outcome of any movement is out of your control. you control what goes in, but not what comes out. try to stress a little less out there on...
read moredances with wolves
dancing with concepts of what ‘should be’ is dangerous. concepts themselves can be dangerous if we are not careful to become ensnared by them. just the other day I found myself infuriated over a concept..over what ‘should have been’, but was not. due to concepts, reacted. i didn’t chose a reaction, i simply reacted. technically, everything is ‘as it should be’. and the word ‘should’ itself is rather worthless. it’s a lot easier for me to dance without concepts than it is to go through...
read morethe burden of judgment in dance
. judgment creates turbulence in our minds. judgment and learning don’t play nice. mental turbulence and learning don’t go together. try going through an entire day without once judging, labeling, or defining people and situations. first thing you notice will be how exhausted you are by day’s end. second, you will notice the sheer amount time we spend on a daily basis judging, defining, and labeling people and situations. you’d be surprised to realize how much of the world you see as a shadow of your own thoughts,...
read moreIntertwined Experience: Pottery Making and Salsa Dancing
a guest post by Yoko Hisano Through the salsa dance practice at Paso, my body and mind has both been encouraged to work on the fundamentals. Although, always working on the basics is sometimes tiring… (sorry Eduardo!!) I’ve found it helpful to center my body and quiet my mind through breathing on the dance floor especially when working on the fundamentals. For the past couple of years, I’ve started including meditation in my everyday life, but meditation has always been done through the act of non-movement. There is a form of...
read moreeffortless effort
I was once a notorious “double learner”. it was in a Tango class when the instructor referred to “double leading”, the act of trying to lead a movement, when the movement itself generates the lead. for example, turning your partner with assumed tension in your arm, even though whether limp or rigid, the very act of your arm moving is compelling your partner to turn -the tension is unnecessary extra. during closed position movement, there is no need to use your right arm on her back to direct, for the most part. the...
read moreperfection. now or never
“When you realize that there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you” – Lao Tzu I was inspired to write this piece after our latest round of rock-solid evaluations. And despite the fact that we were evaluating the presence of certain movement qualities -weight shifts, timing, etc- I was reminded within myself, that these students lack nothing! they were complete in movement the moment they walked in to the studio. We just made them aware of movement possibilities that existed long before they came to...
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