HOW TO USE A GUIDED PRACTICA

Welcome to the guided tango practica. This is a time for you to work on the things that make the dancing better. You already have lots of material from the many classes you have taken, and this is the place to work on any material you like and better understand how to make it work more smoothly and comfortably for both you and your partner. If you are a beginner, I will work directly with you to establish the basics you will need in order to dance with other people. You are building towards developing your own dance and style, and presumably you would like to enjoy dancing with a variety of partners to a variety of music possibilities. Even if you plan to dance primarily with one particular partner, you would want to make it a rich experience for both of you. To this end you should use the practica to get closer to those goals.

•Feel free to approach me at any point to ask questions about any figures or material or just to have me watch and give you feedback.

•Sometimes I may be working with someone or a couple and you may want to listen or join in because I might be addressing something you are interested in also, and that is fine.

•I will try to circulate around and approach different people to offer suggestions and/or to ask if there is some way I can help as you are dancing.

•In order to keep improving the dancing we can all benefit from an outside eye to help diagnose and/or identify patterns that we are not aware of that may be keeping things from working smoothly, no matter what material you choose to do or in what style.

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Benefiting from practice needs to include critically looking at what we are doing and trying to become more consciously aware of what is working and where things go wrong, and then devising a strategy to use what works to address what doesn’t. Practicing is about working with awareness to make positive changes and taking responsibility for knowing our own road block issues. We all have them, but when you become clearer about what they are, you are on your way to making improvements.

I’ve been working on my roadblocks specifically in dancing Argentine Tango for about 22 years and am happy to share what I have learned along the way for what it is worth. Use me however I might be helpful. Thanks for sharing your practica and your dancing with me. I expect to learn a lot, which is ultimately what is in it for me. Thanks.

Judy Phelps


© Dragorange5 2012