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Most Zouk Scenes Don't Need More Socials! (S06 Ep04) · ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong

• 0:00
  So what is a practica? You have your class and then you
• 0:02
  have your social. What we do offer is a time after
• 0:06
  class or maybe a time another day where people get together to
• 0:10
  practice their moves and practice their technique.
• 0:13
  The main goal is to get people to invite the new content to
• 0:16
  practice what they learned and to change partners and try the
• 0:20
  things with as many people as possible.
• 0:21
  So no, I don't think it's unpleasant to have songs ending,
• 0:26
  to be honest. And I think that's actually
• 0:28
  quite helpful, especially for as as teachers, we're trying to
• 0:31
  dance with as many students as possible.
• 0:34
  For example, leaders have this ongoing, never ending as all
• 0:39
  this time issue of feeling that they are boring.
• 0:41
  They don't know enough movements.
• 0:43
  Oh my God, my father's going to die in my hands because they are
• 0:45
  so bored. Yeah, I think most scenes don't
• 0:49
  need more socials, they need more.
• 0:50
  Practice. They need more practice and I
• 0:52
  think there's so much that we can gain from spending more time
• 0:56
  or to have more time for the beginners, students to practice
• 1:00
  fear free. If they can practice fear free,
• 1:03
  I think we might start walking towards the end or the reduction
• 1:09
  of this problem. Leaders, rotation.
• 1:11
  Yes, rotation and community. Growth in general.
• 1:14
  Community growth in general. Hello, hello everyone and
• 1:24
  welcome back to another episode of Zook Nerds.
• 1:28
  My name is Alison Senji and today we have our amazing Co
• 1:31
  host GI Prada. Hello everybody, Welcome back.
• 1:34
  And today we're going to continue our experiment, which
• 1:38
  is to read one of the questions from our Facebook group and
• 1:43
  share our experience as if this was AQ and a or a one-on-one
• 1:47
  session in person. So what is the question today,
• 1:50
  GI. Today, the question comes from
• 1:53
  Star Bolton after some light investigation comes from Hawaii.
• 1:59
  Yeah. And the question about the after
• 2:01
  class one hour social that we call.
• 2:04
  Practica. Yes, our practice time and goes
• 2:08
  on saying talk about like, the main goal is to get people to
• 2:11
  invite the new content to practice what they learned and
• 2:15
  to change partners and try the things with as many people as
• 2:18
  possible. And she mentioned the fact that
• 2:21
  someone suggested that instead of playing a Spotify playlist,
• 2:26
  they put a set list made by a DJ so people can get on the floor.
• 2:31
  And then they bring up the aspect of the long dances in a
• 2:36
  way now when people just stick with one partner for a long
• 2:40
  time. The marathon.
• 2:41
  The marathons. And then they realized that
• 2:44
  sometimes followers were going home without dancing a song
• 2:47
  where they sing very little. And that's she they ask in the
• 2:52
  end, is it really so unpleasant to allow songs to end?
• 2:57
  And that was the question. And this is a really good
• 3:00
  question because very recently, maybe 3 or 4 days ago, I was
• 3:06
  having this exact same conversation with an organizer.
• 3:10
  And this is something that at District Zook, we also talked
• 3:15
  fairly much about. And recently there was a
• 3:18
  decision made that we will play Spotify playlists again, not
• 3:23
  necessarily the set list for particularly specifically for
• 3:27
  the practica, because it does help to have a clear ending to
• 3:31
  the song. When people who are in the
• 3:34
  beginning of their journeys, you know, it's better for them to
• 3:37
  know to have a cue how the song is over.
• 3:41
  I can change parts. Yeah, and when we're talking
• 3:44
  about Spotify playlist, we really mean just music with a
• 3:48
  clear start and a clear end. It could be Spotify, it could be
• 3:52
  any playlist of music that you make it on your own in your
• 3:56
  phone or anything like that. The purpose here, we're talking
• 4:00
  about practicas. So what is a practica?
• 4:04
  So you have your class and then you have your social.
• 4:07
  What we do offer, and this school also offers is a time
• 4:11
  after class or maybe a time, another day where people get
• 4:16
  together to practice their moves and practice their technique.
• 4:20
  And a lot of the times there are also teachers and more
• 4:23
  experienced people being in the room who can help with some Q&A
• 4:27
  and some helping hands and corrections there.
• 4:31
  In this specific, very specific scenario, we believe that is
• 4:36
  much, much better when the reason really that DJ flow, you
• 4:42
  know, when specially for new dances for students who are
• 4:46
  learning to dance, they appreciate a little help from
• 4:51
  the music to let them know, hey, this is already the end of one
• 4:55
  song. Ask your partner if they want to
• 4:58
  continue or maybe just end the dance there and then ask your
• 5:03
  partner to dance again another time later on that same session
• 5:08
  or the next session. So no, I don't think it's
• 5:12
  unpleasant to have songs ending, to be honest.
• 5:16
  And I think that's actually quite helpful, especially for us
• 5:19
  as teachers when we're doing practical sessions and we're
• 5:23
  trying to dance with as many students as possible.
• 5:27
  It's actually helpful for the both of us not to feel awkward
• 5:30
  or to feel bad. As if, well, they only danced
• 5:34
  one song with me, they didn't enjoy dancing with me.
• 5:37
  That's absolutely not the point. The point is like, OK, we've
• 5:41
  danced with you, we've given you some feedback, or maybe we
• 5:45
  didn't give feedback, but you know, we practiced, we enjoyed.
• 5:49
  And now I would like to attend to all of my other students, not
• 5:54
  just because I feel that I have to, not at all.
• 5:59
  It's more because I want to do some research and some
• 6:03
  experiment with my students and check if how I'm teaching and
• 6:08
  how I'm explaining things are actually incorporating in their
• 6:12
  bodies. So it helps the students and it
• 6:15
  helps us. I think it's perfect, yeah.
• 6:18
  It's perfect because it addresses so many issues that
• 6:22
  people have in the beginning. For example, leaders have this
• 6:26
  ongoing, never ending as all this time issue of feeling that
• 6:31
  they are boring, they don't know enough movements.
• 6:34
  Oh my God, my father's going to die.
• 6:35
  My hands because they're so bored.
• 6:38
  This is a very present issue and sometimes because Brazilian
• 6:43
  Zook, and that's another aspect that we have taught so many
• 6:45
  times. You're a took nurse.
• 6:47
  Brazilian Zook doesn't have a set etiquette in terms of social
• 6:51
  dancing as some other dances have.
• 6:54
  As a matter of fact, Brazilian Zook is the only social dance I
• 6:58
  dance out of the different styles that I know that blends
• 7:03
  music together. All the others, the music is
• 7:07
  over. There's like this half a second
• 7:09
  of break between songs, sometimes almost no break, but
• 7:13
  the songs are not blended together.
• 7:15
  You have a clear finish for the song.
• 7:17
  And when we go to a Latin party, maybe a salsa bachata party, and
• 7:22
  the DJ makes some blending, we're not talking about that.
• 7:26
  We're talking about clearly sometimes the DJ has gone
• 7:31
  through 5 songs but mashed so artistically that you don't
• 7:36
  know. And then you see it's being like
• 7:38
  15 minutes. Sometimes I get confused,
• 7:40
  sometimes I don't know that the song has ended.
• 7:43
  Yeah. You know, and as much as would
• 7:47
  be ideal that people are aware and the people are able and have
• 7:55
  the capacity and the possibility of ending the dance at any
• 7:58
  points, we know that that's not the case in reality, especially
• 8:02
  for beginners, especially for the beginner followers.
• 8:07
  So I remember there was a class in our basics course at District
• 8:10
  Zoo that we had the specific training.
• 8:12
  I said, guys, I'm not going to say high 5 rotates after the
• 8:16
  second song followers thank the leader, go to the next leader
• 8:20
  clockwise. And I played a set and it was a
• 8:23
  really interesting experiments because simply could not notice
• 8:28
  that the song and it's and it was actually even in class, even
• 8:34
  as an exercise, it was hard to end the day.
• 8:37
  It was hard to say thank you even though everybody else was
• 8:40
  doing. Yeah.
• 8:41
  So there is like this aspect of being a beginner as a leader and
• 8:45
  as a follower who have their particular difficulties.
• 8:48
  The leader have the difficulty of thinking that they need to
• 8:52
  know is much stuff to do 2-3 songs and the followers have the
• 8:58
  difficulty of Andy the Des. So almost like when the leader
• 9:03
  like star said when the leader came pouts and then with one
• 9:08
  follower, the follower has a hard time ending the Des.
• 9:11
  So creating the mechanisms and then creating the confidence so
• 9:14
  both leader follower can end the des his importance.
• 9:18
  However, since that takes time, why not give a little help with
• 9:23
  giving the people a clear ending to the song so there's a queue
• 9:27
  for them to change partners in the practicals, especially in
• 9:30
  the practicals. Mostly in the practicals.
• 9:33
  And even for experienced dancers who've been doing Brazilian Zook
• 9:37
  for a long time and have occurred to pretty much any DJ
• 9:41
  set that you can imagine out there, sometimes we get confused
• 9:45
  too. So imagine for students, there
• 9:48
  are moments where I find it quite interesting and
• 9:51
  frustrating at the same time. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I
• 9:54
  don't. Which is like when the
• 9:57
  transition is so good that you're waiting for that
• 10:00
  confirmation of like, yes, this song has changed.
• 10:04
  And then you get to the awkward moment where you've gone too far
• 10:09
  and now it's too late to change. And then you're like, OK, I knew
• 10:14
  it, I knew it, but so just confirming it was too late.
• 10:18
  Songs with violins, stuffing with saxophones, anything that
• 10:22
  like this instrumental? Songs.
• 10:25
  When they're blended too well, it's very hard for me.
• 10:29
  I admit here in national television, it's very hard for
• 10:33
  me at times. There are some DJs that I think
• 10:36
  they take pleasure on the fact that they make people confused
• 10:41
  because they're really, really good at it.
• 10:43
  And I've spoken to them and they're like, well, you know,
• 10:46
  people can stop dancing whenever they want to.
• 10:48
  I'm like, it's not that easy. It's not that easy.
• 10:53
  But yes, we are in full support and we actually think there are
• 10:56
  many, many benefits to go back a little bit and to have more
• 11:01
  clear end of songs. Even to my events that are
• 11:06
  organized, I do ask the DJs to make sure that for most of their
• 11:11
  sets, especially for those DJs playing the first few hours of
• 11:15
  the night to make the music more easy for people to practice,
• 11:21
  more easy phrasing, not too many crazy instruments that will
• 11:26
  confuse their timing, and most importantly, clearer.
• 11:31
  Not completely stop, start, but clearer transitions where people
• 11:36
  can have a sense of like, OK, I could continue, I could stop.
• 11:41
  Maybe, you know, towards the end of the night or if the social is
• 11:45
  going really late, then you can go more into a vibe of like,
• 11:49
  let's just go, let's just go. And most of the times by that
• 11:54
  time the newer dancers have already left as well because
• 11:58
  they've danced enough or they're tired or they are getting ready
• 12:02
  for the class next morning at 10:00 in the morning.
• 12:05
  So then that's fine. So there is a place and time for
• 12:09
  everything and definitely for practice and for start of
• 12:13
  regular circles, even your Saturday social.
• 12:16
  We do think it's important and we recommend you to think about
• 12:20
  having easier type of playlist to encourage and to also get
• 12:28
  people more rotating and dancing with each other on the dance
• 12:32
  floor so we don't have marathons from the start to the end of the
• 12:36
  socials. Yeah, there's something
• 12:39
  interesting that Star says. I hope students will try their
• 12:41
  new move socially with at least three different people.
• 12:44
  And I think that's really important, really valuable
• 12:47
  because there's another thing that they mentioned here that,
• 12:51
  you know, that development comes with doing the same thing with
• 12:55
  different partners to see if their work.
• 12:57
  So specifically for the beginner students, specifically for the
• 13:01
  moment right after a class, it's really nice if we can do that.
• 13:05
  Brazilian Zook still doesn't have the culture of actual
• 13:09
  practica. The actual practica, the volume
• 13:13
  is really not nearly as loud as in a social.
• 13:17
  It's a little lower. Lights are fully on.
• 13:20
  You can stop the dance to like, let's do this again, you know,
• 13:24
  like a full on practica has this very formal aspect to it that we
• 13:29
  still don't have Brazilian Zook. So if we can bring dance more
• 13:34
  often, I think would be really good for the beginner students.
• 13:38
  Yeah, I think most scenes don't need more socials, they need
• 13:43
  more. Practice.
• 13:43
  They need more practice. Especially for those newer
• 13:47
  dancers who are too afraid to actually jump into a full social
• 13:51
  on Friday night or Saturday night because they feel like,
• 13:53
  no, I'm not ready yet, not ready yet.
• 13:56
  A practical right after the class, Perfect.
• 13:59
  A practical, Maybe another time, another day.
• 14:01
  Also very good because then after a few of those they will
• 14:06
  go like you know what, I think I'm ready to just give it a go
• 14:09
  and go to the social, the once a month social or something like
• 14:13
  that. Instead of having them wait for
• 14:15
  six months of one month socials to then you know, have their
• 14:19
  first practice experience. Yeah.
• 14:22
  So if we can make people's lives easier and take out all the
• 14:28
  shoots that my existing scenario has in regards to how they
• 14:32
  supposed to behave, treats the beginner students as someone who
• 14:38
  is still getting to know in and outs.
• 14:42
  And then that's the expression I think of the scene.
• 14:45
  They're still getting acquainted with how things work, and some
• 14:50
  of them are still very frightened.
• 14:52
  No, they are on the verge of giving up.
• 14:55
  They're on the verge of letting go, you know, And I think
• 14:58
  there's so much that we can gain from spending more time or to
• 15:03
  have more time for the beginners, students to practice
• 15:08
  fear free. If they can practice fear free,
• 15:12
  I think we might start walking towards the end or the reduction
• 15:19
  of this problem. Leaders, rotation.
• 15:22
  Yes, rotation and community. Growth in general.
• 15:25
  Community growth in general. Yes, practicals help attend.
• 15:29
  Yeah, so put an end to the song. That's fine.
• 15:32
  No problem at all. Yeah, that's the summary of
• 15:36
  everything we've said so far. Exactly.
• 15:38
  And thank you, Star Bolton for this question and for this
• 15:42
  discussion that a lot of people got involved.
• 15:45
  And for those of you who do have a question, please post them on
• 15:49
  our Facebook group in Zook Nerds and you might be in the next
• 15:54
  episode indeed. So thank you.
• 15:55
  Thank you. Patience, relations, abrasions,
• 15:59
  and Ciao. Ciao.