Latest / ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong / Is Your "Advanced" Class Really Advanced? (S05 Ep56)

Transcript

Is Your "Advanced" Class Really Advanced? (S05 Ep56) · ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong

0:00
For me, the advanced dancer is the dancer that has embodied
0:04
several elements of the dance with ease.
0:07
When you just have like this advanced class, people do
0:09
advanced class for six months and they think they've learned
0:11
it all. To get someone from not knowing
0:14
president SO into being advanced, that takes so much
0:17
time. This study group is very much
0:21
trust the process show up and the miracle will happen.
0:24
I mean, all this excitement, all this fire to join the team, now
0:29
the people are in the team, start missing classes, you know?
0:32
If somebody asks you to go to a dinner on that night, you're
0:35
like hell no, I have team. Team is almost like there is
0:38
this thing we want to do and we want a group of people that
0:41
share that excitement that we can do it with.
0:44
It's a team, they know they're going to work hard every week
0:47
and their dancing will be better in three months.
0:50
I don't care how many spins to others counterbalances you can
0:53
do, your timing sucks. What makes advanced classes,
0:58
study groups, and teams different?
1:01
Are they all the same? Well, let's find out.
1:05
Hello Hello everyone and welcome back to Zook Nerds.
1:08
In this episode, we are talking about another highly requested
1:13
topic, the differences between advanced classes, study groups,
1:17
and teams. If you've ever wondered why
1:20
there are so many different kinds of classes, you are in the
1:24
right place. We'll explain how each level
1:28
serves a unique purpose in a dances progression from
1:31
mastering the fundamentals to completely embodying the dance.
1:36
Whether you are a student or a teacher, this is your guide to
1:41
building a strong foundation and a clear path forward.
1:45
We'll break down the purpose of each one to help you find the
1:49
best path for yourself and your students journey.
1:53
So let's go. Hello.
2:03
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode.
2:08
Once again, my name is Alison Sanji and let's welcome back our
2:11
beautiful Co host GI Prada. Hello, GI.
2:15
Hello. Alison, hello, everybody.
2:16
Welcome back. Welcome back everyone, and
2:20
welcome to you. If this is your first episode, I
2:24
don't think we've ever said that before, but this may be your
2:27
first episode and we hope to not scare you too far away because
2:32
we're here every week, hopefully every Wednesday, unless
2:36
sometimes we get a little delayed on the editing.
2:39
But welcome for any of you who are joining us for the first
2:43
time. We're very excited to have you
2:45
here. And today we're going to be
2:47
talking about what are the differences between advanced
2:51
classes, study groups, and teams.
2:55
For those of you who haven't been here long enough, this is
2:58
something that we talk a lot about and we've had people
3:02
reaching out to us to ask what is the difference between these
3:06
things that you guys talk about? Like, yeah, I get it, Beginner's
3:10
course, intermediate's course, advanced class.
3:13
But from advanced class to study groups to teams, are they all
3:18
the same level? Do they all learn the same
3:21
thing? Why are there 3 different
3:23
things? So we're going to explain that
3:26
to you guys. And also, hopefully this could
3:30
give you an idea to do something in your school, in your
3:34
community, or a group of friends who wants to practice and get
3:38
better at dancing, whether that is Brazilian Zook or anything
3:42
else. So if you were in our previous
3:46
episode, we talked about advanced classes and how we see
3:51
advanced classes and how we think of what an advanced class
3:55
is and of what an advanced dancer is.
3:59
And guy, you had a very particular way to explain this.
4:04
So I would like to give that to you and let the children have
4:09
it. What is the advanced class or
4:11
the advanced dancer like you said in the last episode?
4:14
Yeah, well, I was saying the last episode that I have strong
4:19
pet peeve when it comes to naming a class the defense,
4:23
because for me, the advanced dancer is the dancer that has
4:27
embodied several elements of the dance with ease.
4:32
You don't need to explain to them what a bonus is and how to
4:35
connect this to that. And it just flows.
4:38
So the advanced dancer is, for me very hard to achieve,
4:44
especially when we are talking about teaching people like
4:48
progression of curriculum. To get someone from not knowing
4:53
how to dance President Zoo into being advanced in Brazilian zoo,
4:57
that takes so much time because it's not a matter of how much
5:02
they know necessarily. It's a matter of embodiment of
5:06
the dance. And that thing takes time.
5:10
So that's why for me, we don't have advanced courses.
5:14
We don't have advanced classes in regular classes.
5:18
Unless you have that same person over there continuously for like
5:22
5 years continuously. Well, that's something important
5:27
to say continuously for all this time, which gave them time to
5:31
really embody the dance. So to get there, it's hard to
5:36
keep everybody engaged for that long, you know?
5:40
Yeah. So I guess a lot of the times
5:42
when we are planning our courses, whether it's in the
5:45
sea, Australia, here in Taipei, when we're going into what most
5:53
people call advanced levels, we like to label them for what they
5:57
are. This is a course into the terms.
6:01
This is a course in counterbalance.
6:03
This is a course in musicality. This is a course in connection
6:07
elasticity. The list goes on forever because
6:12
once you completed the basics levels and then you completed
6:16
the fundamentals levels, you've learned a lot of variations,
6:19
You've learned a lot about connections, you've completed
6:22
head movement levels. Then we can go into other
6:25
topics, ideas, other subjects, other soft skills, other
6:31
challenges where you could just very easily label that as the
6:37
advanced class. Oh, but we do all of that in our
6:39
advanced. Course that's.
6:41
Why we have a problem with that level name, not with that level
6:46
content? And let me backtrack a little
6:49
bit here. While back, we used to call our
6:52
courses Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.
6:55
And then because through so many years, people were like, oh, you
6:59
know, I want to join the intermediate level.
7:01
Oh, why? Because I've been dancing for 10
7:03
years. I don't want to do the
7:04
beginner's level. It's too easy for me.
7:07
And then what do we tell them that they're missing?
7:10
You're missing the basics. So then we thought, why don't we
7:13
name the courses basics Courses? Because before you learn the
7:20
intermediate level of any dance or anything, you need to learn
7:26
the basics of that thing, whatever that is.
7:29
Even cooking, massaging, gardening, you need to learn the
7:33
basics. So we start with the basics
7:36
level, not the beginner's classes, beginner courses, basic
7:39
levels. Then what is the intermediate?
7:42
For us, the intermediate is the fundamentals, the things that
7:47
you need to know beyond the basics.
7:50
If you're very curious about that, you can go to
7:52
districtzupa.com and just have a look at that to get more details
7:57
about it. But that's an example of the
8:00
fundamentals. And then beyond that, we start
8:03
naming things for what they are. This is the body awareness
8:08
course. This is the elasticity course,
8:11
like head movement from zero course.
8:15
I don't think we've ever used that, but like head movement
8:18
one, head movement 2, head movement 3.
8:21
Then we go on and on and on because then the journey is
8:25
forever, you know? And when you just have like this
8:29
advanced class, people do advanced class for six months
8:32
and they think they've learned it all.
8:33
I could tell you 3 years of courses and still be at the
8:38
beginning of how many advanced topics we can cover or advanced
8:43
classes topics we could name. So I think that's the start of
8:49
the explanation where we see as an advanced class.
8:53
So we can then go into a study group and then we go into teams
8:58
and make that very clear distinction because for us it's
9:02
very clear. But for any of you who have
9:04
never heard of it or never experienced it, it might be very
9:08
different. In the other day, guys, it's a
9:12
lot of matter of naming the thing.
9:14
The idea of naming it study group came from actually Brazil.
9:20
We realized that the higher level classes, they were named
9:24
study groups mostly because it's that idea of a group that
9:29
studies. It's like a group that gets
9:31
together in a room and like, let's dive deeper.
9:33
Let's see this thing a little bit further.
9:36
So for us here, the study group is the last stage of our
9:42
curriculum where people went through all these courses, all
9:45
the basis courses, all the fundamentals courses and all the
9:48
head movement courses and everything in between.
9:51
For example, right now we have a body movements course, which is
9:55
a course completely focused on odilations, isolations and
10:01
preparing the body, loosening up the spine into the head movement
10:05
courses or it's one of the courses that can prepare you for
10:08
that. And before I continue, there is
10:11
one thing that just popped up in my head that I want to share
10:14
real quick, guys. We don't necessarily consider
10:18
the head movements that you know, head movements that you
10:21
can do head movements like that you are advanced level or that
10:26
you are more experienced. We know, you know, we all know
10:30
that Brazilians Lucas is very particular dance where you can
10:33
jump into head movements right away if you want get really good
10:37
at it while skipping the whole part.
10:40
I can maybe ask somebody that knows how to do tuola to combine
10:45
our simple term with the bottles with the elastico and that
10:48
person I'll be able to make this combination while be able to do
10:52
tuola into side shikwatchi into shikwatchi.
10:54
You know, so it's not necessarily a correlation, the
10:59
complexity of head motion with this full embodiment of the
11:03
dance that we were talking about as the advanced dancer.
11:07
Yeah, I have seen it so many times.
11:10
Allison probably has seen this so many times as well.
11:13
We have a priority. Priority for us is that you
11:18
understand the vertical part of the dance as much as possible.
11:22
The footwork, the traveling, the connection, the head movements
11:26
are going to be placed on top of this solid foundation
11:30
vertically. So that's why before we get to
11:33
the head movement courses, there is 7 other courses to go
11:39
through, you know, before you go into the actual Pala pagad,
11:43
Fragasado and all these things. Yeah, so the study group comes
11:47
after the head movement courses. And so just to put a parenthesis
11:53
or a bracket, there 7 courses that means more than one.
11:58
Year. Before you touch head movements,
12:01
yes, Before you go into head movements, you already been
12:05
dancing for close to a year and a half.
12:08
That's how long it takes in the way that we structure it.
12:13
Because how many people out there do head movements or they
12:18
do very advanced movements, but they do with very beginner
12:24
technique, very, very beginner technique.
12:27
So they can handle it, they can survive it, but they're not
12:32
embodied, they're not understanding it, they cannot
12:36
improvise. If something goes out of script,
12:40
it's just like emergency body rule and basic stat because they
12:44
couldn't continue anymore. So yeah, let's continue.
12:48
Yeah, exactly, exactly that. And the study group is what
12:51
comes after we completed all the head movement courses, who are
12:56
three of them for us right now. And guys, we just have these
12:59
numbers of seven courses, three courses.
13:02
It's mostly because of how we were able to build the
13:04
progression in your place. Your progression might be
13:08
completely different because of, you know, many different
13:11
circumstances. For us, we can do that right
13:14
now. And we cannot do much more than
13:16
that because if we do much more than that, we simply don't have
13:18
space in the schedule to offer more than this amount of
13:22
courses. We already have too many.
13:25
Yeah. So the study group is when you
13:30
go after the movement courses and it's a ongoing course like
13:36
in the style that we used to have in Brazil.
13:39
I think we still do that. The course begins and just keeps
13:42
going and whoever joins, joins in whatever points we are in
13:49
that course. So we have actually in the study
13:52
group like more diversity of levels.
13:55
We have somebody who has been the study group for three
13:57
cycles, so that's six months. And we have somebody who is just
14:01
arriving in the study group fresh from the head movement
14:04
courses. You know, so we do have this
14:08
variety of levels that makes it more challenging at times
14:12
because somebody have done, let's say, a combination that
14:16
combines all the things from the head movement courses with
14:19
somebody who's just arriving and doesn't know these things.
14:21
So it's actually a really fun and challenging moment for us to
14:28
bring everybody together in this way.
14:30
And the thing we talked about a couple episodes ago, your
14:34
engagement as a teacher can make a big difference in situations
14:38
like that. Because in the rotation or as
14:41
you go through students, you do the thing we talked about in the
14:44
episodes, give those who can get a little bit more like, now you
14:49
guys go here, go there. So you have the thing you do,
14:53
you teach everyone, and you have the thing that you might be able
14:56
to give a little bit more to some of the students around.
15:01
That's our study group. That's how we structure it.
15:03
I know, for example, in another city, I remember that New York
15:06
had study groups, but it was really more of the idea of
15:11
people who got together, Jew exchange, you know, So it was
15:15
more of a horizontal thing. And then I think they progressed
15:20
into it becoming a class. There's someone teaching
15:23
everyone. Yeah, but with this idea of more
15:27
experienced people in the room. Yeah.
15:29
So a study group can be pretty much anything, honestly.
15:33
It could be just a group of friends doing a study group and
15:36
sharing things that they learned.
15:38
Could be a group of friends once again learning to gather
15:42
something new or just giving feedback and practicing.
15:46
But in terms of how we teach the study groups is really, I think
15:51
the dream of a class for a lot of teachers, which is the class
15:56
that I would label as trust the process.
15:59
Because let me just make this very clear.
16:03
Guys in the study groups. Sometimes you're just going to
16:06
walk, sometimes you're going to do a spin for a couple of weeks,
16:11
but then other weeks we're just going to walk and we're just
16:14
going to walk on weight transfers.
16:17
Oh, but that's beginner. Nope, that's not beginner.
16:20
Because honestly, that weight transfer that we're looking for
16:24
is the embodiment weight transfer.
16:27
It's not the weight transfer that you can just keep your
16:30
timing and feel your partner's weight transfer.
16:33
No, we're going beyond that type of weight transfer.
16:37
All we're learning body movement, yes, we're learning
16:42
body movement in steady group, but then we're diving deeper,
16:44
we're exploring different entrances, different exits,
16:47
different pathways. So it's not whatever comes after
16:51
had movements in the levels below, but it's everything from
16:56
the beginning through all the levels that they have already
16:59
done and beyond. It just changes.
17:02
It goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
17:05
It's something that it's not for everybody and it's something
17:10
that it's not every teacher that can feel comfortable teaching
17:14
because some teachers prefer more structure.
17:18
Some students prefer more structure.
17:20
This study group is very much trust the process, show up and
17:26
the miracle, you know, like really, go for it.
17:30
Go for it. And there's no time to end.
17:33
It just keeps going. That's the goal of the study
17:37
group, to always be evolving where to nobody knows what are
17:43
we working towards? Becoming better dancers,
17:47
becoming more embodied dancers. But there's no end goal.
17:52
There's no destination other than becoming better every day.
17:57
Yeah, it's free in a way to not having like a set curriculum.
18:03
For example, in our last cycle of study group, we spent three
18:08
or four weeks on the same topic. It was because the topic has so
18:13
much to explore and the topic was a combination.
18:17
The topic was actually a combo. It was not even a combination.
18:20
It was a combo. So it was a new pattern that had
18:23
different elements. When we started diving into each
18:27
element of that combo, we start to realize it is a combination
18:33
of fundamentals done in a way that is hard to perceive that is
18:38
that fundamental. So there was a peon there, but
18:41
it didn't look like it very much.
18:42
So we did it. You go back, let's do peon a
18:45
little bit. There was from Asado there, but
18:48
because it was coming in from another thing, people didn't
18:52
perceive as a simple frame lassad.
18:54
So we go back to the frame Lassad.
18:56
So there we have time. You can spend time in this study
18:59
group, which is amazing to me. I love it to just have this
19:04
freedom to work a little bit more.
19:06
And after that, I don't know if it's after that.
19:09
Actually, sometimes it's almost like something separate.
19:12
It's like something that is there, but it's not necessarily
19:15
part of the whole. It's our idea of teams and for
19:21
us the teams are, again, sometimes they are, there's a
19:26
theme for the team and sometimes there is like more experienced
19:30
people getting together for an amount of time.
19:34
Sometimes the teams, they have a season, so they have the
19:37
duration of the cycle, two months or more than two months.
19:42
They go a little longer and we audition people into the team
19:46
because we are looking for specific features so we can do
19:51
that specific work. That's one of the biggest
19:54
differences between the study group and the team.
19:56
There's an assessment and there's a minimum level
19:59
requirement that we want to see in the dancers in that team
20:02
because of the result that we want to achieve with that team,
20:06
whereas the study group is more of a flowing thing.
20:10
Yeah, and we started having more training teams.
20:13
We used to have performance teams like choreography teams
20:19
more, but now we have 1 performance team like the
20:23
followers team. But most of the teams that we
20:25
have had so far, they are training teams.
20:27
We noticed a shift in interest in the community from learning
20:32
choreographies to you know, getting more the technique down,
20:36
getting more stuff down and the qualifications that we require
20:41
are different. For example, there was a
20:44
performance team recently and didn't need that much.
20:49
It was just really because we're putting together choreography.
20:51
So you know, it's OK. But if we are going for a more
20:56
experienced team, then the process a little bit more, the
21:00
criteria, it's a little different or a lot different
21:03
actually. So that would be the biggest
21:05
difference that we have. The study group is sort of part
21:09
of the curriculum, part of the natural progression of the
21:12
curriculum, and a student can get there going through the
21:16
whole thing to get into the teams harder.
21:18
There's an addition and the whole thing's like an hour
21:21
thing, so it's a different process.
21:24
Yeah, it's like we normally do an hour and a half or two and it
21:28
goes like 60 people, 50 people in the room and we're going to
21:32
pick six couples. We're going to pick 8 couples.
21:35
That is because we have always something very set for the team
21:41
that we want to achieve. It could be a theme like Guy
21:44
said. But definitely for me, when I'm
21:47
looking for a team, I'm looking for a shift, I'm looking for a
21:53
transformation for that group that can be seen, can be felt
21:58
that they will understand that there was a transformation from
22:01
the beginning to the end. That to me is very important for
22:05
them to understand and that's why I like to separate them in
22:09
seasons. So this season we're going to do
22:11
this, this season we're going to do that.
22:13
This isn't we're going to do that.
22:14
And the other reason why I like to separate in seasons is
22:19
because again, the team is not for everybody, just like the
22:23
study group is not for everybody.
22:25
So it gives people a set time commitment of let's say four
22:30
months to start this and to end this.
22:33
Maybe they want to do it again, maybe they don't want to do it
22:36
again, maybe they want to go back to the study group, maybe
22:39
they just want to chill for two months and not do any classes.
22:43
So it gives people that flexibility to think about it as
22:46
a project, as well as sometimes the people who are in the team
22:52
are not putting in the effort, not showing up, not practicing,
22:57
or maybe missing a lot of classes.
22:59
It will. If they're missing a lot of
23:01
classes, we just don't let them continue.
23:05
But if they missed enough classes that they couldn't keep
23:08
up, it wouldn't make sense for them to continue in another
23:11
season. So that's why we do assessments
23:14
again. So basically at the end of every
23:16
team, everybody goes back to zero.
23:20
And then we invite the whole community again in and let's do
23:24
another team. And it might be a lot of the
23:27
people in the previous team or not every time it changes, but
23:31
the team definitely has like a goal to achieve.
23:35
And it's a level that we push, we work hard.
23:39
It's kind of like more fire instead of more chill.
23:43
That's the idea of the team. And there is this part that is
23:47
complicated and interesting right at the same time.
23:50
When we do the auditions, there is all this excitement, all
23:53
these people in the room and then when they don't go well in
23:56
the audition, they send you a message after can I re audition?
23:59
I was not feeling very well, blah, blah, blah.
24:02
Then you go ahead and start the team and then this thing starts
24:05
happening. People miss class several times
24:07
in a row. They don't come to training
24:09
several times in a row. And then you like, you wonder
24:13
man, all this excitement, all this fire to join the team.
24:18
Now the people are in the team start missing classes, you know,
24:23
and then you realize that they had a lot of stuff scheduled for
24:28
the time for the day of the team, like remember why?
24:32
So why audition? So that's why I think it's
24:35
really important for us to do it in seasons and reset from zero
24:40
because when that person comes back again and wants to audition
24:42
again, you have this consideration at the back that
24:46
man, you audition, you pass the team.
24:49
But out of like, I don't know, 16 trainings, you missed like 6
24:54
of them, which is a big number. That's the interesting part of
24:59
the team that I don't think we were fully able yet to figure
25:03
out a way, you know, maybe we need like a longer interview
25:06
process. Can you come to 70% of the
25:10
training if nothing happens like traffic, snow, get sick,
25:15
something happens, you know like in normal conditions of life?
25:20
Can you come to most trainings I think we might need?
25:23
For me. On addition and then an
25:25
interview and then let them in. For me, that's too easy on the
25:29
team. I want them to come when it
25:31
snows, I want them to come when it floods.
25:33
I want them to come when they're whatever.
25:36
If I can arrive there, you can arrive.
25:40
There, yes, that's true. Just kidding, guys, of course,
25:44
but like, just kidding. Kind of, but not really.
25:48
But you know, like for me, the team is that level, that level
25:52
of like if somebody asks you to go to a dinner on that night,
25:56
you're like, hell no, I have team.
25:58
If anything happens and it's not a real, real emergency, you
26:05
should be in the team. That to me is the level of
26:08
commitment of the team. Whereas a normal regular course
26:13
or maybe they study group is something that you're like, OK,
26:16
you know, I'm OK catching up next week.
26:19
But the team is more like commander boot camp style.
26:23
I think, you know, if you auditioned to enter something, I
26:28
think you need to show that commitment.
26:31
Yeah, a lot of the times the flakiness is a big issue and I
26:35
find to be very honest, but the flakiness comes more from the
26:41
people who think that they are very advanced.
26:44
Very much so. A lot of the times in auditions,
26:47
there are many dancers that are famous in the community for
26:52
people thinking that they're amazing and they don't make it
26:54
to my team. Why?
26:56
Because I don't feel the commitment.
26:58
Are they good dancers? Yes.
26:59
Do they have potential? Yes.
27:01
Are they that amazing? No, not in my opinion.
27:05
They could be if they actually took it seriously, but maybe
27:10
they're just dancers for the entire life, so they pick things
27:13
up very quickly. No, I don't like that.
27:15
I want students like me. I'm the kind of person who wants
27:20
to do things a million times just to understand it, and then
27:24
to feel it, and then to process it, and then to play with it,
27:27
and then to deconstruct it and then to build it again, and then
27:31
to change colors like that kind of student.
27:34
So sometimes you'll see that in the teams, it's not like, Oh my
27:38
God, the most advanced people in the community.
27:41
No, to me, the team is the most hard working people in the
27:46
community that I want in my team, you know?
27:49
So yes, there are times that some of the highest levels in
27:52
the community don't make it, but some of the people below make it
27:56
and they're like, oh wow, thank you for having me in my team.
28:00
I didn't think I was going to pass.
28:01
I saw everybody in the room and I was like, oh, I have no
28:03
chance. Like, look, I feel you.
28:06
I've seen you. I've watched you in class and in
28:10
the socials and in before class. After class, you're very
28:14
dedicated. You want to get better no matter
28:18
what happens in class. You're open to experience things
28:22
and to change things up. Sometimes when we tell you to
28:26
change things up, you're there. You're embracing it, you're
28:28
embodying it. And I think that's the team
28:30
spirit. Now, the people who are like
28:33
don't have that, but maybe they dance and they can do more
28:37
things, more techniques, and they may be a better dancer, but
28:41
for me, they are not a better team member.
28:45
That's very different. I think for example, for those
28:47
people, I probably would have like a study group, more of a
28:51
study group like, you know, come, do as you wish,
28:56
participate as you can and go with the flow.
28:59
Sure, but the team I want sweat, you know, it needs to be more
29:04
that mentality, which is again, different from your regular
29:09
advanced class study groups. So if you're thinking about
29:12
building a team, think about what style do you want?
29:16
Do you want more of like a course?
29:19
Do you want more of like a team slash study group or do you want
29:23
more of like a training team where people have a different
29:28
mentality on how they approach that learning?
29:31
Yeah, because the way we think about teams, I mean, here and
29:35
there in Taipei is this is space that we have as teachers to
29:41
communicate something that we might not have the opportunity
29:44
to communicate with everyone. So we auditioned to see who is
29:49
more prepared to receive that content.
29:52
So maybe the level of emotional investments that we have in the
29:55
process of learning is different and we really have this desire
30:00
of sharing this thing with this group of people.
30:03
So when the commitment is less, the frustration that we feel I
30:08
think is different. I feel a different kind of
30:10
frustration. For example, if somebody missed
30:13
the class in a curriculum class in like, you know, fundamental
30:16
scores, I'm like, it's OK, you know, But when somebody missed a
30:21
class in the training, I'm noticing that because the
30:24
smaller group, it's a group that was selected after a process.
30:28
So I noticed that that person is missing.
30:30
And I feel that absence, you know, And it feels different in
30:35
a way, yeah. The group gets affected for me
30:38
when a team member misses the team training.
30:42
They're affecting the group, not just the class.
30:45
Yeah, there's something, something happens.
30:48
There's a thing that happens in the flow of the whole thing,
30:51
especially if we are building up to something.
30:54
If we are slowly creating the whole foundational aspect of
31:00
thinking something that we are building up towards and there is
31:04
absence during the process, it does mess it up.
31:07
You know, and I know there are places that think about teams
31:13
differently. Some schools that understand
31:15
that they have the teams as a progression in their curriculum.
31:19
So they have the level 1 Q and then boom, the first thing.
31:24
I think in Seattle they have this process, so they have
31:28
beginner team, an intermediate team, an advanced team, and
31:31
another team after the advanced team.
31:32
So I think there are like four teams and I think there are 6
31:36
month long commitments, a monthly fee.
31:40
So the teams start differently in the sense that it's a
31:43
progression. I don't know if there are
31:45
dishes. I think there are dishes for the
31:47
higher ones, but for the first ones you complete the curriculum
31:52
courses or you can go straight into them.
31:54
I don't know exactly, but they think things differently than we
31:58
think. I think for us, team is almost
32:01
like a selfish fashion projects that we have.
32:03
There is this thing we want to do and we want a group of people
32:08
that share that excitement that we can do it with.
32:11
So it works differently as well for us.
32:16
Yeah, a lot of the times we see a group of students wanting or
32:20
we hear a group of students wanting something different, and
32:24
we're like, OK, we can do a team on that.
32:26
But to do that we need to select the people we need.
32:31
You know, like to have three or four months to get a group from
32:35
A to B. There needs to be a minimum
32:38
baseline. So that's why the team is very
32:42
different. And I know that a lot of
32:44
communities teams are choreographed.
32:47
All of the teams that we're talking here, we're talking
32:49
about social dancing teams, social dancing training teams.
32:55
When we say choreography teams, that's a different story.
32:59
But only the followers team is, I believe, half choreographed
33:04
because they still have the technique training class and
33:07
then the choreography class. So it's kind of half, half.
33:10
It's not even a full choreography course.
33:13
It's half, half. But the ones that we do, they're
33:17
usually just social dancing. And the one that I'm doing here
33:20
in Taipei, it's the same thing. It's just social dancing.
33:24
And it's interesting because what we did here in Topeo is
33:28
that we asked everybody what classes they're going to miss
33:33
before they sign up. Oh, do you want to sign up?
33:35
OK, cool. Those are the dates.
33:38
Are you going to be here for all the dates?
33:39
If not, let me know. And people are pretty sticking
33:43
to it, like they don't miss any other class.
33:47
So maybe that's an idea, you know, to ask people to commit
33:51
and show them the dates and ask them to tell maybe a Google
33:56
questionnaire. Please put yes or no if you're
33:58
going to be here. And then later you can come back
34:01
to if you have an issue with the students and go like, hey, what
34:05
happened to all of these weeks that you said you're going to be
34:08
here? All this happened, this
34:09
happened, this happened, this happened this happened of
34:12
course, being in big cities like DC, Taipei, Melbourne or
34:16
whatever, a lot of people travel for work, a lot of people have
34:19
things going on and sometimes it happens but communication is
34:24
everything. So that's something that we
34:27
expect extra in a team then forward communication, that
34:32
honesty instead of just like I'm not going to show up to class
34:36
and if the teacher asked me anything, I'll tell them, but if
34:39
they don't, it's fine. Yeah, that's a good idea.
34:42
I think could be something after the audition.
34:45
You know, like we do the audition, see who is in, and
34:48
then send this Google form asking how many classes they're
34:51
going to miss. Yeah, it's good because every
34:54
time I go to class I have like this spreadsheet where I see how
34:58
many leaders and followers are going to show up on that time.
35:01
Yeah, so. I can already kind of like tweak
35:04
the Class A little bit to understand like who is going to
35:09
be there, how many are going to be there?
35:11
Or sometimes maybe there is a guest instructor around and
35:15
maybe we can ask them, hey, do you want to come over to the
35:18
team? We're missing 1 leader or
35:19
something and ask them to join the team on that night or
35:23
missing a follower. So there's some flexibility
35:25
when, you know, ahead of time, but I think it's an idea to
35:29
maybe make people better at their own commitment to their
35:34
time and attendance to have them actually put it down that
35:39
they're going to be there on those dates instead of just
35:41
like, yeah, I think you'll be here for the next three months.
35:46
I think you'll be here. Doesn't work.
35:49
Yeah, when I think systematically in there, when I
35:52
think about the whole process of the learning and of someone who
35:56
is joining the studio, who's joining the school for the first
36:00
time, having the teams there in this way in which it's something
36:04
that you need to audition for. It's a smaller group.
36:08
And, you know, like more of this different kind of learning.
36:12
He has a potation of creating like something that the student
36:16
is excited about to achieve over time, you know, So it becomes a
36:21
motivation aspect of the learning process, you know, and
36:25
that itself is valuable to have something that motivates people.
36:30
I remember when I was in Jaime Roche's studio in Rio de Janeiro
36:35
in my early days, there were no teams, but they were advanced
36:39
classes that were truly advanced because these are people that
36:43
have been there for 10 years already, literally.
36:47
And it was amazing to me to watch them or to be waiting for
36:54
my class and see the tail end of the more experienced class.
37:00
So seeing the more experienced people, knowing that there is an
37:05
experienced class that I can get into was a huge motivating
37:11
factor to me. And also watching them there's
37:14
in the social, of course, but I think the motivation would come
37:18
a lot more by watching the class, by watching them in
37:22
class, by seeing what are the things that they were doing.
37:26
And it was so cool. And I just remember like these
37:29
little pieces of class that I watched, there was stuff that I
37:34
knew how to do. I learned the thing, but the way
37:37
that they were doing was so different.
37:39
It was so cool. There was so much variation and
37:43
embodiment and speed and whoosh. So there was so much more
37:48
texture into how they were doing, what I knew what to do,
37:53
what I thought I knew what to do.
37:54
That was very motivating. And the last piece of that
37:59
motivation, it was that it was someone like me, meaning it was
38:04
not a professional. It was not someone that
38:06
dedicates their life to this. It was someone that, like me,
38:09
was dedicating parts of my time to learning this craft, you
38:14
know, So it was in the hobby realm.
38:18
It was like, wow, somebody that is not a professional and it
38:22
dedicates more or less as much time as I do, but it's just has
38:25
been doing this for a longer time, can do all these things.
38:28
So that was really enticing, motivating to me.
38:32
So the team can also serve that purpose.
38:35
It served the purpose of motivating everybody else who is
38:38
not in the team. Yes.
38:39
So as a summary, we have the advanced classes, which we
38:44
personally like to call them for what they are.
38:49
So call them concepts or techniques or themes.
38:53
And you can even have like a learning pathway of going like
38:58
first you do your level, blah, blah, blah, and then you do your
39:02
level ABC and then you move into the concepts level, the themed
39:08
levels. It doesn't need to be beginning
39:10
to media advanced. So I think we can free ourselves
39:15
from that structure. And then you can go into study
39:18
groups maybe, maybe forget about the advanced classes, forget
39:22
about the themes and just do a study group.
39:24
Maybe you're in a small community and you're like, you
39:27
know, I don't know what to do. I have some students who've been
39:29
dancing for a long time and I don't have a level for them.
39:32
OK, cool. Maybe invite them to do a study
39:34
group where you share something every week, or maybe one of them
39:41
bring something to work on every week.
39:43
Sometimes in our staff training, we have those sessions where
39:48
someone in the staff, whoever they are, maybe they're just
39:52
joining the staff team or maybe they're one of the teachers
39:56
who'll bring something fun to do on that day and we learn so much
40:00
from it. So a study group could be just
40:03
that, somebody who knows anything or who just came back
40:07
from a Weekender and would like to practice and train something.
40:11
And then we have the teams. Which are more, let's say,
40:15
strict and requires more commitment and more
40:19
accountability. Where there's an audition,
40:21
there's a minimal level requirement, there's a minimum
40:24
level of attendance, there is a start and an end.
40:28
Usually for me, it has to have a start and an end.
40:31
Otherwise it's just a study group.
40:33
It's a team, it has a season and everybody knows what they're
40:38
going to get from the start to the end, not in terms of how
40:41
many moves or how many sequences, but they know what
40:45
they're going to work on and that they're going to work hard
40:48
every week and they're dancing will be better in three months.
40:52
In whatever journey we go, it'll be better.
40:56
So I think that's a small summary of everything that we
40:59
do. And then in addition, of course,
41:02
like we mentioned before, we have our basics levels in our
41:04
intermediate levels. Now, all of these has some
41:08
flexibility, and I'll tell you, if I go to a new city, I'm
41:13
probably gonna look at that structure and go like, OK, I
41:15
think I can use this, I can use that.
41:17
But these parts don't fit into this community yet, or it will
41:22
never fit into this community just because of the way it is.
41:26
So hopefully this episode, it was a way for you guys to learn
41:32
a different way to look into everything that you already do
41:35
as a teacher, as a school honor director or as a student in a
41:41
way that you can plan to learn in a different way or plan to
41:46
structure your learning in a way that, OK, I see now these are my
41:51
fundamental courses that I have done.
41:54
These are my basic courses that I have done.
41:57
I feel like I'm missing these and I'm missing that.
42:01
So then you can look for that information, maybe through
42:05
private lessons or through Weekenders if you don't have a
42:08
regular course in your community in your city.
42:13
Yeah, that's it. You say it all.
42:14
I think the models that we have described here might not fit at
42:19
all to your reality. I think it's important to come
42:23
up with something for those with more experience, 100%.
42:27
So we came up with a study group and we came up with the teams,
42:30
something to give them the opportunity to learn in the
42:33
group setting. So whatever you can think about
42:37
that provides that whatever name you want to give, good to go.
42:42
You know, for us here, the main aspect of it is that you have
42:47
some sort of filtering of those who go into this courses.
42:52
But guys, this is really important.
42:54
How many times we have been around and visiting places that
43:00
had like an advanced label course, they had free entry in
43:05
their weekly program, in their regular classes.
43:08
And then of course we understand the aspect of like we need
43:11
people to pay the room, we need people to make this happen in
43:15
the 1st place. Our suggestion would be don't
43:19
call advanced, you know, or like we talked about the previous
43:23
episodes, do something about transitions, do something about
43:26
variations, which are really challenging already.
43:30
You know, like sometimes we think that naming stuff advanced
43:33
will attract people. And to be fair, it does.
43:38
Sometimes it does attract people, but it's creating the
43:42
culture of progression through very fine.
43:47
If the person is really ready to progress into this course, you
43:52
need to get people used to it. That's the thing that takes
43:55
time. So you need to start at some
43:56
point creating some sort of filter for those coming into
44:01
these classes. Yeah, because if for us, it's
44:04
really valuable to learning the group setting and then if you
44:08
have the opportunity to learn the group setting that everybody
44:11
is more or less the same. I'm out of level of experience,
44:15
guys. It's really amazing because in
44:17
that exchange when we are practicing, new things come up
44:21
and we learn from each other a lot, you know, so you don't need
44:25
to call the study group, but you need to call it a team.
44:28
But what I think you need is some sort of process to filter
44:34
who comes into those courses. That's really necessary and we
44:39
really mindful of your minimum prerequisites, let's say the
44:46
timing. If somebody doesn't have the
44:47
timing down, creating the strength in your soul to say not
44:52
yet, not yet I. Don't care how many spins to
44:56
others counterbalances, you can do your timing.
44:58
Sucks. So the other guys, I think
45:01
that's pretty much what this boils down to.
45:03
It's like we are creating opportunities for the more
45:06
experienced people to learn in groups, and for that to truly
45:09
happen, you need to make sure that everybody in that group is
45:13
more or less at the same level of experience.
45:16
Absolutely. And with that, we want to thank
45:19
you once again for being here. Thank you, Guy, for
45:22
participating in another episode and sharing this beautiful
45:26
wisdom. Or Buddha Guy.
45:28
My pleasure and. We hope to see you on our next
45:33
episode and please don't forget to follow, subscribe, like,
45:37
share, do all the things to help us continue reaching out to more
45:41
people. So we continue doing this
45:44
beautiful podcast that we love so much.
45:47
Once again, thank you. Thank you business, business
45:50
Abrazos and tell everybody. Tell my people.