Latest / ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong / How We’d Teach if Time Didn’t Matter (S05 Ep77)

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How We’d Teach if Time Didn’t Matter (S05 Ep77) · ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong

0:00
I thought about the idea of defensive teaching.
0:02
I think sometimes that's what we do.
0:04
We are teaching defending ourselves from people living the
0:08
class after the second class. I am a mega nerd for body
0:13
mechanics and that's what I would focus on first because
0:17
this is the biggest struggle with everybody dancing.
0:20
Any dance style out there, they struggle within their own body,
0:24
not necessarily the dance itself.
0:27
The main issue for me is that we need time.
0:30
That's the dream scenario. The dream is the dream of time,
0:32
and the people are OK. We're spending the time.
0:36
Look, if we had classes every night, maybe five times a week,
0:41
I think we would get to head movements after six months.
0:45
Yeah, I think I would release them into the wild and then see
0:48
what happens. I should be very fascinating.
0:50
They learn driving in the service.
0:52
But then, OK, let's go to the traffic, but the Fogo Hijani and
0:56
see what happens. How?
0:57
Long is this going to take? I don't know.
0:59
I know that the people that are good have been dancing for like
1:01
610 years, so I'm expecting to take that long to get to a good
1:06
level. And let's just be clear here,
1:09
when we're talking about 6 years of dancing, we're talking about
1:12
dancing pretty much every night, including Saturday and Sunday
1:15
trainings, Not just once a week. Six years.
1:20
OK, let's dream with me here. What if we could learn to dance
1:25
without the stress of getting it right?
1:29
Imagine spending months just finding your own rhythm before
1:34
ever touching a partner. Could taking the pressure off
1:38
actually make you a better dancer?
1:41
Well, let's find out. Hello.
1:44
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Zook Nerds.
1:47
In this episode, Guy and I imagine the Ultima Zook dream
1:52
world. We talk about why I would spend
1:55
months on body mechanics, how to teach hard skills through magic
2:00
tricks, and why having more time is the greatest gift a student
2:06
can get. Let's explore how to find the
2:09
real heart of your dance. So let's go.
2:22
Hello. Hello everyone and welcome back.
2:25
My name is Alison Sanji and let's welcome our beautiful Co
2:29
host Gib Prada. Hello, Gib.
2:31
Hello, Alison. Hello, everybody.
2:33
Welcome back to Sookie Nerds. Oh my God, guys, this episode is
2:37
something that we're so excited about.
2:40
It's a happy one. We've been doing a few heavy
2:43
ones, but this one is going to clear the air and hopefully
2:48
uplift your dance dreams because we're imagining this dream world
2:54
where we have this group of students that maybe is going to
3:00
be with us for two or three years and they just going to
3:05
learn, learn, learn dance. More specifically Brazilian
3:10
Zook. So picture this, you have a
3:15
group of students, everything's paid for, nobody has to worry
3:19
about anything. And the whole project is to
3:24
learn from 0 all the way into as much as we can, and then they
3:31
will jump into the Brazilian Zook world community.
3:35
How would we teach them if we didn't have all the distractions
3:40
of the world or the fear that the students are not going to
3:44
enjoy this exercise or that exercise and so many things that
3:51
comes with teaching. The anxieties of teaching, the
3:54
stress of planning a curriculum in a way that keeps people
3:58
challenged and engaged, but at the same time that we're
4:01
teaching them the good things and the soft skills.
4:06
How would we start? Let's Go gay?
4:09
What would be your first stage for this group?
4:14
As you would say, a term came to mind.
4:18
I thought about the idea of defensive teaching.
4:21
I think sometimes that's what we do.
4:24
We are doing defensive teaching. We are teaching defending
4:28
ourselves from people living the class after the second class,
4:32
defending from this fear that is moving too slow.
4:36
You know, there's all these things that we are trying to
4:39
address in the desire to retain people in desire to at the same
4:45
time teach what we think is important while preparing them
4:50
for the jungle there when they go to the sources and things.
4:54
So if those were not concerns, Oh my gosh, where would I start
5:03
after my observations teaching all these years?
5:07
I think weight transfer rhythm and playing with dynamics are
5:15
the three main things that we spend a lot more time on.
5:19
Lot more time. Like I just was saying, if this
5:22
group is there and not wondering why we're doing certain exercise
5:27
or not getting frustrated aboard because we're doing the same
5:32
thing for two hours already. If I had a container that
5:38
everything is good to go, I would spend more time in weight
5:42
transfers, in walking and I would spend more time in the
5:47
rhythm, but more in slowing down and picking back up, slowing
5:54
down and picking back up and being very intentional and very
5:58
good at communicating those dynamic changes.
6:01
So these three things and in partner work, we would spend
6:08
much more time in the beginning just understanding the basic
6:14
steps function back basic in your basic Coinculata Rao and
6:19
back and slowing down, spinning back up and getting very clear
6:26
weight transfers. And when I say clear weight
6:29
transfers, I mean with a good posture, with a stable posture,
6:34
clearly in one leg, clearly on the other leg, meaning your
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whole center of gravity or center of mass moves to one leg,
6:42
moves to the other leg. So getting that understanding
6:46
and the torsion, the Contra body motion, I would spend also a lot
6:51
more time in that configuration of stepping forward, Contra
6:55
body, stepping back, Contra body.
6:58
So weight shifts on the spot, weight shifts on the walk, slow
7:03
the down beats on the beach, then on the rhythm, then doing
7:08
that with a partner, Wi-Fi with connection and going to the
7:13
rhythm, going to the beach, going to the downbeat, and
7:16
playing with these variations of dynamics.
7:19
From there or concurrently, I would work on aspects of
7:25
connection, borrowing a lot of principles for contact improv.
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So using contact improv exercise and elements, so we can
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understand more about compression, we can understand
7:38
more about leverage, and we can understand more about modulation
7:42
of tension on the body and the beautiful amazing principle of
7:48
minimal efforts. And that being the tool for
7:52
connection. That being like the initial tool
7:55
for connection, because contacting problem is very
7:57
playful. A lot of games evolved.
8:00
So you can learn about all these very important and set of skill
8:04
principles while you're playing. So I think that'll be really fun
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to do as well. So I think I would spend, I
8:12
don't know, maybe the first month or two just in these
8:16
structures, basic lateral Virginia, slow down, speed up,
8:22
contact, improv and repeat. Just that.
8:27
What about you, Allison? How'd you start?
8:29
I think I would be before you. So let's say we're in the same
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school and we are taking turns in teaching.
8:36
So maybe I'll come before your classes because what I would
8:39
like to do is to spend the first few weeks at least a good month
8:45
on the body Before the partner work.
8:49
Absolutely before the partner work.
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I know it's a partner dance, but we're thinking about a dream
8:54
world here. How much time we have to spend
8:58
at the same time that we're teaching partner dance.
9:01
We have to spend so much time on teaching people how to
9:06
understand their own body. So that's where I would go to.
9:10
Still focusing on the things that he said, you know, the way
9:13
transfer all of those things, but in a solo way, which is
9:19
maybe already a dream world that I kind of live in because most
9:25
of my classes, a good portion is on solid training.
9:29
But that's where I would go at the very very beginning,
9:33
teaching people how to understand from their feet to
9:38
the head how each part moves, how much engagement they need
9:44
for each type of movement, where is the balance in their body,
9:50
where is the energy generated for each type of movement, and
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all of those things. I am a mega nerd for body
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mechanics and that's what I would focus on 1st.
10:03
When I say about all The Walking, the way transferring,
10:05
these things I would do solo. The only partner part we would
10:09
have more would be the contact improv as this way to introduce
10:14
contacts. But a lot of things would be
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solo mostly like half or 6% of the class.
10:20
Solo 1st and then with contact. Yeah.
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So I think we're on the same page because then with the body
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mechanics, I would then incorporate some mirroring
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dancing exercises and then some contact dancing exercises before
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the structure of Brazilianism. So building the body of a
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dancer. And maybe, just maybe after that
10:50
first phase, they could actually migrate and going to another
10:53
style and still have a good strong foundation of what is to
10:58
be a dancer. That's where I would love to
11:01
start because I think that this is the biggest struggle with
11:06
everybody dancing. Any dance style out there.
11:10
They struggle within their own body, not necessarily the dense
11:15
itself. It's something that we see day
11:18
in, day out. People who are still not aware
11:22
of what their hips are doing, what their shoulders are doing,
11:25
how to roll their feet, all of those things that for me, it
11:30
took a long time as well because I didn't really have those
11:33
detailed instructions. Most of the teachers that I had
11:38
at the very beginning were very natural dancers, so they didn't
11:43
break things down for me. But once I started learning from
11:47
more nerdy teachers who would really take their time and break
11:52
things down and move super slow, that's when I was like, Oh my
11:56
God, I love this. So yeah, if we had all of the
12:03
threats from people walking away from dancing removed, I would
12:08
spend a good one to two months on that first stage of getting
12:13
to know your body and how to communicate with your body in a
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way that you can communicate with another person.
12:21
Nice. Yeah, I would think I would do a
12:23
hybrid, a hybrid of a lot of solo work and some partner work
12:29
in the beginning, similar in the idea of not too much in the
12:33
structures of the dance. I think the basic structure
12:36
would be back and forth, basic La Tadao going in and out of it.
12:40
So that incorporates Viragena. And we would just do this to an
12:45
extent that just doing this would start to feel enough.
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And that's, I know that's the dream.
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So the people start to feel this joy of just going back and
12:57
forth, the joy of just going side to side.
13:00
Because what you mentioned artists from knowing their
13:02
bodies, it is indeed something really, really challenging.
13:07
Because this for me, it speaks to the idea of embodiment, idea
13:12
of noticing your body, feeling your body, feeling the movements
13:15
of your body, seeing your body as or perceiving your body with
13:22
qualities and sensitivity that you would not normally
13:27
otherwise. Because the main issue with
13:29
partial dance in general is you teach the dance to be LED and
13:35
followed. So you have the codes to lead
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and follow and we are executing the codes.
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But whether or not the person is feeling that rotation in their
13:44
hips, they're feeling their feet on the floor.
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And by feeling, I mean they can notice it, control it, they can
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change it. So the embodiment is when you
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become more intentional about the movements that you do.
14:02
And you really feel the movement of your arms, the movement of
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your hands, you close your eyes and you can notice those things
14:08
going. And you can choose the size of
14:11
things and the speed of things. As Alison knows for sure now, we
14:17
have been teaching for all these years and sometimes we have been
14:20
seeing people progressing their dance journey for 6-7 years.
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And you take them out of their social dance, their bodies.
14:28
They don't feel comfortable moving their bodies on their
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own. So the movement, the dance
14:33
becomes very much associated with leading, follow someone
14:36
else and bringing the movement to your body on your own.
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That would create such an easier path, I think when we talk about
14:47
the subtle skills of leading, follow the subtle skills of
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connection. So I think there will be such a
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dream, such a dream, if we can really just do that for a couple
14:58
months. After that, I will move into
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introducing the structures of the dance, not going through the
15:08
fundamental patterns, but going through the principles.
15:12
So first understanding for me the tracks, the tracks of the
15:17
dance, the track that the follower is and the tracks that
15:20
the leader is and how we navigate the tracks.
15:23
So basically doing the basic footwork of track navigation.
15:28
So the follower is becoming really good and really balanced
15:33
and keeping that direction in before and in basic.
15:37
And the leaders getting really fluent and moving around the
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tracks and staying on the right side of the left side of the
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fall in front, behind doing all of these things.
15:48
And then eventually introduce the footwork of changing
15:52
direction and changing where the tracks are.
15:56
So then you add one more layer. So this I think will be my first
16:01
layer because we have the back and forward basic, we have the
16:05
Villagini, we have the let that out, we can move into, OK, let's
16:09
expand, let's explore these things.
16:12
And now we move more into hand to hand connection more and then
16:16
we're going to move into flexibility of shoulders.
16:18
So more elements of embodiment and finding the freedom of
16:25
moving inside these very known structures, you know, so
16:29
understanding these really safe containers that we can expand
16:34
on. So then there'll be another
16:37
month or two just doing this before we even think about
16:41
turning. What about you Also be the next
16:44
step? Well, if I continue from where
16:47
you are, yes, I would probably go into like the difference
16:54
between the linear structures and the circular structures,
16:59
which then introduce some turns like searching or, or other
17:04
movements. But I'm trying to avoid naming
17:07
names here for movements so we're not too limited.
17:11
But yeah, the structures of linear, circular and travelling,
17:17
those things are like the bread and butter of social dancing.
17:22
It's something that I really encourage my students to
17:25
understand, that once you know those three things, You Can
17:30
Dance with anybody. Anybody.
17:34
I'm not saying you can do anything because yes, there's
17:37
still a lot of different things that we haven't covered, but You
17:40
Can Dance with anybody. Somebody who understands the
17:44
linears and the circulars and the travelling structures.
17:47
You Can Dance with anyone in the social.
17:50
At least one beautiful song, if not multiple songs.
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Have fun, enjoy, and make both of you actually feel like that
17:59
dance was complete even though we didn't have the higher level
18:03
things. That's kind of like the first
18:06
stage goal for me. I want my students to feel like
18:10
they can have multiple songs, dance with one person or with
18:14
multiple people, and without a lot.
18:18
They still feel like it was a complete meal and they had
18:23
dessert, even a dessert, even a little dessert here.
18:26
Maybe with some musical things, dynamic things or somebody
18:31
movement before we get to the crazy stuff.
18:35
Yeah, I agree so much with that. Because if we have that's more
18:42
embodied experience, we already can slow down and speed up.
18:47
We are more aware of tension, We are all more aware of pressure
18:52
elasticity when we build. I think after this moment of
18:57
slow, that slow progression, after let's say this first 4-5,
19:04
six months, we're all there. I think everything's going to
19:08
start moving so fast because the structures are now, they're not
19:12
set. So, for example, after you
19:14
change the directions and you introduce the turns, so you
19:20
introduce well be all the variations of simple turn from
19:24
the basic, from the side basic traveling, you know all the
19:29
variations of it. And then you introduce the bonus
19:32
principle a turn and a half, and then you introduce the zucchini
19:35
principle. Then you have the whole dance.
19:38
The whole dance is there, now that I think of it, that we are
19:42
discussing this thing, Allison, I think it's more because we're
19:46
doing defensive teaching. We end up bringing these things
19:51
that we would do later anyway earlier.
19:54
But now that I think of it, if we maybe gave ourselves more
19:59
time in this early structure, we could still cover the whole
20:03
thing in like a year and a half. We still cover a lot of grounds
20:08
in a year and a half. So we would have a slow start.
20:12
But because the structures are so much more understood, once we
20:17
start introducing more things, maybe repetition of content will
20:21
be faster, will be better. I don't know.
20:25
I've been going with these ideas.
20:28
I've been playing with these ideas of, for example, let's
20:31
just teach this one structure here for 12 hours, 456 hours.
20:39
Let's see what happens, you know, and you see that there is
20:42
a way to do this where people stay engaged, They stay in it
20:48
because they start seeing the richness of what is there in
20:52
that structure. But we still have this
20:56
limitation of footwork. The structure is there.
21:00
We can play with the structure, but to play with the structure,
21:03
at least from the leader's perspective, variety of footwork
21:07
is really helpful in building confidence.
21:10
So another thing about defensive teaching is by giving people
21:15
more of the patterns of the things, we are also giving them
21:19
what they think they need to feel confident to go out and
21:22
social dance. If we had a perfect environment,
21:26
when that's not a problem, I think that confidence will be
21:30
built as a natural progression without the need to hurry in
21:36
developing or helping develop that confidence.
21:38
And I think it needs more controlled environment too.
21:40
In this fantasy, the points of reference that exist are each
21:45
other. So I think it would be easier in
21:48
this way as well because the people will not think that they
21:51
will need to know this much and others should go out and dance,
21:55
which is another issue that we have with Brazilian Zook.
21:59
People think that they need to know a lot of things of the
22:03
dance and others should go out and social dance.
22:06
So after all the footwork structures and oh, we didn't
22:13
talk about traveling as well. So we start introducing the idea
22:17
of traveling too. So basic tracks, understanding.
22:21
Then we change direction, then we introduce some turns, then we
22:25
introduce the traveling, the circular structures, and then
22:30
from there build the hand movements.
22:33
So I just somehow would you slowly build the hand movements
22:38
in this laboratory? Where would you start?
22:41
How much time would you spend in this initial structure that
22:47
you're going to share? Because I think I know what
22:49
you're going to do, what you would do.
22:52
I don't want to know how long would you stay in that thing.
22:56
Look, if we had classes every night, maybe five times a week,
23:02
I think we would get to head movements after six months.
23:07
If we're talking about what we normally have now, which is like
23:11
one class per week or maybe two classes per week at most, and I
23:16
still would have that dream group.
23:19
I would probably take a year and a half or two to get to head
23:22
movements because I would like to explore pretty much
23:27
everything that is there to explore before the head
23:30
movements. Yeah.
23:32
Now with that answer, I would say that I would also make sure
23:37
that the body movements are all covered, the undulations, the
23:41
isolations, the flow of energy from down, up, from side to
23:47
side, up, down, all of those things.
23:49
See, if we already have covered that during all the mechanics,
23:54
then we can get to head movement.
23:57
But I wouldn't necessarily get into head movement with the
24:02
topic of getting to head movement.
24:04
Stay with me here. This is going to be a little
24:07
tricky, but I would get into the topic of head movement as a body
24:13
movement exercise or as a body movement topic.
24:17
So we've worked on body movement for the hips, for the legs, for
24:21
the chest, for the shoulders, for the neck, for the arms.
24:25
And now we are incorporating the top, the very, very top, where
24:30
instead of just doing undulations and keeping like the
24:33
head stable, we're going to do undulations and allow the head
24:36
to go all the way sideways or maybe forwards and back, which
24:40
kind of can already be incorporated earlier in the body
24:44
movement part. But this time it would be like
24:48
head movement, but without doing the peon, the balloon, the
24:53
things that we normally think of head movement when we see a
24:57
workshop or the weekend there about head movements, right?
25:01
And from there going like, OK, so now we're going to use that
25:05
circular motion in the peon. Now we're going to use that
25:09
circular motion in the basic step.
25:12
Instead of putting this idea that in a head movement class
25:18
you're going to learn the head movement, it's more like you're
25:22
going to learn how to use your body to create new shapes.
25:26
What are those shapes? Well, those shapes, they are in
25:31
the group of movements that expresses the movement mostly
25:37
from the top. So with your spine, which
25:40
results into what we see as head movement.
25:44
So it's a little a little complex here.
25:46
I hope you guys understand my brain because sometimes I don't,
25:50
but that's how I would think about it.
25:53
Head movements as a body movement, not as a new topic
25:58
like counterbalance or spins, more as a continuation of the
26:03
fundamentals of body mechanic and connection, which to be
26:06
honest, honestly, that to me is when head movement feels the
26:10
most amazing, when it's part of a whole body experience, not
26:14
when it's just the top of the spine moving.
26:19
Yeah. That makes sense to me, man.
26:21
That makes sense to me. That was very clear actually.
26:23
And I like that idea a lot of making the head movement be like
26:27
a continuation of body movement, consternation of the
26:30
undulations, continuation of spine movements that we start
26:35
doing. And now that you said all of
26:39
this that is shared, all of this, I started thinking again
26:42
about this structure. And then because in this dream
26:45
scenario would be to bring more of these ideas or these ways of
26:52
teaching. They're more common when I was
26:54
learning and where the learning of the structures is combined
26:59
with the learning of the sensations, how it feels, how
27:02
the dance can feel like in that first part that we talked about,
27:07
that would be very present from the start.
27:12
How can we make this feel really good?
27:14
That's why I wouldn't be rushed. That's why we would take that
27:19
long with that part, because we will be also addressing how it
27:23
feels to walk together, the clarity of slowing down and
27:27
speeding up again. So how everything feels like
27:30
would be very present from day one and with that idea that
27:34
after things go, they go, the feeling of things would be
27:40
implemented there. There are however, more
27:42
complicated topics like elasticity, flow, you know, use
27:48
of momentum challenge that are also related to how the dance
27:52
feels like would be also incorporated, very much
27:57
incorporated into these dream scenarios.
28:00
So for example, we'd spent all this time in the start and then
28:05
after a certain point we would we saw all the structures here,
28:10
now let's make them feel amazing.
28:13
So there'll be an aspect of experimentation, doing with each
28:18
other, give and receive a feedback.
28:21
So we also engage the process of horizontal learning where people
28:25
learn from each other based on how they share with each other
28:29
how something can feel better for them and start working on
28:33
this more complex topics of like we said, elasticity and stuff
28:39
like that through lab like classes.
28:41
They are not only or in the structures and that would
28:46
include the body movements as well so much because sometimes
28:51
one is doing body movements and the other one is leading and the
28:56
other one is receiving the lead without necessarily matching the
29:01
emotions. So it'll be especially body
29:05
movements that take more time. I think the body movements would
29:08
take more time than the walks and the way it shifts to really
29:11
feel really good to be together. So now that you mention that
29:14
it's on the body movements, I think the same amount of time
29:19
that was spent in the beginning with The Walking and the way it
29:22
shifts and other things would be as much or more for the body
29:28
movements in our own bodies solo environment.
29:32
And then giving as much time as needed to do them together with
29:38
the goal of feeling incredible. Most.
29:41
I think I will start focusing on that actually.
29:45
When you think about it, let's just be honest here.
29:49
Back then, 20-30 years ago, it was that dream group scenario,
29:54
right? We didn't have YouTube, we
29:56
didn't have social media, we didn't have what to compare.
30:00
That is true. We didn't have people looking at
30:02
videos and going like, oh, you know, I want to learn this crazy
30:05
thing, this crazy thing. What we had was our beautiful
30:09
teacher showing how beautiful the dance is.
30:13
And that was our world. Like God, back in the dance
30:18
school, I think you were probably a beginner for the
30:20
first three years. Three to five years, you're
30:23
still a beginner. Like people who were considered
30:26
somewhat advanced, they were dancing 10 plus years.
30:32
Easy, easy, easy because that was the environment.
30:37
Yeah, it took six years for you to be an assistant at the dance
30:40
studio, the Jamie Russo Dance Studio.
30:43
All assistants had at least six years of dancing and.
30:48
Let's just be clear here. When we're talking about 6 years
30:52
of dancing to get to an assistant level, we're talking
30:55
about dancing pretty much every night, including Saturday and
30:59
Sunday. Trainings for assistance, for
31:02
teachers, for teams and things like that.
31:04
Not just once a week, six years, because that was similar to my
31:08
school as well. My school was not a JAMA Roshi
31:11
school, but it was kind of like JAMA Roshi method type of
31:17
school. All of my teachers went to
31:20
Jamarosh in Rio to learn constantly every few months.
31:24
So we followed that same path where if you are jumping from
31:30
student into more like becoming part of the both sister trainee
31:35
and then assistant, that becomes your second full time job.
31:39
You were there all the time, and you're not just there doing
31:42
dance classes. You were there working for the
31:44
school. You're doing admin, you're doing
31:47
cleaning, you're doing organizing, you're doing a bunch
31:50
of things because you really became part of the community.
31:53
You became part of the family. But yeah, that was just a note
31:57
that I wanted to make that I think teachers back then, they
32:00
did have sort of this environment where they could
32:05
take their time and teach however they wanted to because
32:12
those classes were very much like, what are you going to
32:15
learn today? I don't know.
32:17
My teacher is going to teach me what style.
32:19
I don't know. My teacher is going to teach me.
32:22
I'm going to a dance class. How long is this going to take?
32:25
I don't know. I know that the people that are
32:27
good have been dancing for like 610 years.
32:30
So I'm expecting to take that loan to get to a good level.
32:34
I'm not expecting to be done and you know, not think that I need
32:40
to learn anything after six months or 12 months.
32:43
Very, very complex. Exactly.
32:46
I think that awareness that it took that long made me feel very
32:50
little rushed for anything. I knew it was going to happen
32:55
because I could feel the difference in their body then.
32:58
But since these days are gone, and thinking now in this dream
33:02
scenario, and as I talk about this dream scenario, I'm
33:06
starting to realize that in a way, I think we are already
33:09
implementing some of these things or we're getting better
33:14
at conveying these things that take longer in a way that people
33:19
still feel engaged, you know? We're becoming better
33:22
tricksters. We're becoming better, you know?
33:26
Hey, look here, look here. Exactly.
33:30
Kind of making people look at the One Direction, but then
33:33
we're kind of like injecting some of the important things
33:37
while they're looking at the beautiful colours, we're
33:40
injecting some of the difficult things that they need to learn.
33:43
Yeah. I think we're kind of doing
33:44
stuff like this already, you know?
33:47
Yeah, I agree. The thing though, is that we are
33:50
doing this thing already more to those who are already hooked in
33:52
the dance and in this dream scenario would be doing this to
33:56
people to complete Muggles. They're coming in, they don't
34:00
know what's going on. So there will be, I think, the
34:04
next phase to try to implement this in reality.
34:08
But as we talk about this dream scenario, I'm realizing that for
34:13
me, what is being important is also giving time for the soft
34:18
skills enough. So giving time for how the dance
34:22
feels like and not necessarily doing the classes and the
34:28
exercises for them to always have a perceivable outcome where
34:33
the student comes in knowing how to do something they didn't know
34:36
when they came in, when they leave.
34:38
Knowing these things that they didn't know before they arrived
34:41
and normalizing again this idea that they will come to class and
34:47
they will leave class still not knowing something new.
34:52
But more and more aware that their bodies are learning
34:56
something, their bodies are incorporating something of what
34:59
we just did. The main issue for me is that we
35:04
need time. And that's the thing I think in
35:06
this dream scenario, actually, as soon as I think about it, the
35:10
dream is the dream of time, of having time, of we are receiving
35:15
the time and the people are OK with spending the time because
35:20
in a way, I think we are already doing the things of the dream
35:23
scenario. We just take less time because
35:27
we might, you know, oh, we need to teach them something new
35:31
because of the wise. It's already the third week.
35:33
We're doing the same thing. Let's do something new.
35:36
You know, we don't necessarily want to do something new after
35:40
the third week because we want to, but because we think we need
35:45
otherwise we're going to lose the engagement or nothing's
35:48
going to happen. And sometimes after the third
35:51
week, it's good to give something else just to like
35:54
shake it off PP Then we come back.
35:56
You know, there are just two possibilities too.
36:00
But as we the more we talk about it, the more I realize that for
36:04
me, the dream is to have time is to have time with people.
36:09
And in that time that I am receiving from them, we are all
36:14
engaged in the task of developing a dance that feels
36:19
really good, feels enough, you know, and we don't struggle to
36:26
practice or to learn that everything feels easy.
36:29
The body feels at ease, the mind feels at ease because with very
36:34
little like a weight transfer and a walk, walk, walk, we're
36:38
still having a great time, you know.
36:40
So I'm going to think about that after this episode is over a lot
36:44
and see how I can put that more into.
36:47
Practice. Yeah.
36:49
I was just doing some calculations here because that's
36:52
my brain. And if we think about 19 minutes
36:56
classes per week, OK, 19 minutes classes per week, 52 weeks a
37:01
year. We have 3.25 days of dance
37:05
classes per year. Thing.
37:09
Guys, if you want to be good at something, do you think that
37:13
learning something for 3.25 days a year is enough?
37:19
You know, if we want to learn language, we do at least an hour
37:22
a day. Or I mean, if you want to learn
37:24
proficiently in a short amount of time, like if you give
37:28
yourself one or two years to learn a language proficiently
37:31
fluently, you're going to give yourself at least a good 30
37:35
minutes a day or a few hours per week.
37:38
If you want to be qualified on something to be able to teach,
37:44
you're going to have to spend multiple hours a week, maybe 2
37:48
full days, three full days during a course for a whole year
37:53
or two to be able to teach that. Or to be able to be at a certain
37:57
level where you can maybe become an assistant to that skill,
38:02
whatever that skill is. So when we think about dancing
38:06
that man like 52 hours a year or maybe 7080 a hundred hours a
38:13
year, that's nothing. That's why the dream, the dream
38:17
is to have so much more. And this is just a side note.
38:21
Sorry. I just got thinking about
38:23
numbers and I had to bring that up.
38:25
But yeah, I wish, I wish that we would have more than one class
38:30
per week as standard, just like what we used to have in Brazil.
38:34
Every course that you sign up, it's either Monday and Wednesday
38:38
or Tuesday and Thursday. You have to pick.
38:41
And you should always be attending both classes per week
38:45
because I don't know, it's just not enough to do one class and
38:50
expect a transformation. Or honestly, transformation is a
38:55
big word here, but expect a decent progress after six months
38:59
and look back and go like, well, I've spent six months of my life
39:02
in this, how much did I get? I'm sorry, but if you've done
39:06
one Class A week and you haven't done any extra practice or
39:10
social or anything else, you might be disappointed with what
39:15
you can achieve in six months. And then you might think, you
39:18
know what? This is not for me.
39:19
I don't want to do this anymore, but is the problem the dense or
39:24
how much you've invested in it? Just like a language.
39:28
If I learn a language one hour per week, after six months I'm
39:32
not going to have a lot to show or maybe even have a decent
39:35
conversation, especially if it's a language that is very, very
39:40
different from my primary language.
39:42
Yeah, let's say Japanese, Chinese or something like that.
39:47
And Brazilian Zook, to be honest, it's not one of those
39:50
easy ones, not one of those easy ones.
39:54
Because in it's very, very pure form, it can be easy, right?
40:01
If we strip away all of the other extra things that makes
40:05
Brazilian Zook exciting, we can have a simpler language model.
40:10
But. When we get deep enough that we
40:12
want to explore the beautiful things that Brazilian Zook offer
40:17
that maybe other dances don't, then you really need to get deep
40:21
in it. Really, really deep in it.
40:24
Yeah. I think now going back to what
40:26
we were talking about the next part, I think I really would
40:30
invest a lot of time on dealing with unexpected things.
40:36
So creating scenarios where things actually don't work
40:41
because let's be honest, this group has been learning together
40:43
for a long time. So it's very hard for things not
40:46
to work because they're like part of this breed of people
40:52
that all drink the same water. But the reality is not that, you
40:57
know, like you may learn how to drive in the back streets of the
41:01
suburb, but once you get to the real streets, things are going
41:05
to be different. So I would actually create
41:07
environments where things don't work, which is something that we
41:11
do in some of the dance team trainings and dance labs and
41:16
things like that, where we challenge timing, challenge
41:19
connection, challenge things by maybe just dancing with one
41:24
hand, maybe only moving towards One Direction.
41:27
Or sometimes I keep skipping the music so the timing that they're
41:33
dancing is actually going to be off because I jumped the music.
41:37
And then people go like, Oh my God, I need to find the timing.
41:40
And I'm like, yes, you need to find the timing, but you cannot
41:43
stop dancing. You have to continue dancing,
41:46
continue stepping and maybe skip a bit, maybe hold a bit, maybe
41:51
double your footwork to make sure that you come back on
41:53
timing and don't lose the connection, don't lose the flow,
41:57
You know, introducing these kind of things before I get to maybe
42:01
the more complex combinations. So it's kind of like, OK, we got
42:06
the structure, we've got some of the yummy stuff, now let's break
42:11
things up a little bit because everything was too proper for
42:14
now before we get to more the creative, complex ideas of the
42:19
dance. Yeah, I think I would release
42:23
them into the wild. You know, after getting to the
42:28
body movements and things, I think I'll release them into the
42:31
wild and then see what happens. That should be very fascinating,
42:36
you know, because like Addison said that they learned in the
42:40
suburbs and then driving in the service band then OK, let's go
42:44
to the traffic. But the Fogo huge I need and see
42:47
what happens and that would be they could be fascinating
42:52
actually to see that thing happening and then come back and
42:55
discuss how was it for you? What happened, how it was.
42:58
We already have some sort of elements of the happening when
43:01
somebody just trains and learns in one place, in one location
43:05
when their city, and then they go somewhere else and then they,
43:08
Oh my God, I don't know how it is what just happens, you know,
43:12
and then they come back with this hunger to learn.
43:16
However, I think that teaching in this way, even if we are
43:21
training in the suburbs, I think we'll be more or better equipped
43:27
to deal and deal with universities.
43:28
Because in the training there was a lot of things involved in
43:33
perceiving variations in connection, perceiving
43:35
variations in compression, in elasticity, perceiving
43:38
variations in size of steps, variations in speed of steps.
43:43
So in theory, the skill of adapting, the adaptability of
43:48
the dancer would be higher, perhaps because we are more
43:53
attuned with the body, we are more embodied, we are more
43:57
attuned with the soft skills of connection and touch.
44:00
So be a matter of maybe be more intuitive for them to adapt,
44:06
noticing the differences, but not getting shaken by the
44:09
differences, just noticing them. Oh my God, it's very different.
44:13
But knowing how to adapt, you know, I think that could
44:17
possibly happen. You know, I remember I stayed
44:21
for many years just dancing at the Time studio and I remember
44:25
when I went to a Social Outsides for the first time.
44:29
It was very strange. And there are several things
44:33
that I couldn't do. But because we focus so much on
44:37
connection, I could perceive the changes and mold into them.
44:42
The things that I couldn't adapt was things that I really didn't
44:46
train, for example, dancing to fast songs in Sambuca Theatre or
44:52
all the jumpy stuff in Somebody as well, stuff that we never
44:56
trained. But when leading, I could
44:59
perceive, oh, I need to step smaller with this partner
45:02
because if I step big, I'm going to lose this connection here.
45:07
So in the end it would be, you know, like it was still a safe
45:12
environment, but I think because the tools we gave, people would
45:16
still be able to do well in the jungle after they are released
45:22
from the laboratory. Yes, I think they would be so
45:27
much better equipped. You know, there are pros and
45:30
cons to a controlled environment.
45:33
Speaking as people who learnt English as a second language, we
45:37
learn English in this English school.
45:40
We're. Learning with the same people,
45:44
learning the same thing, saying the same things in class so we
45:48
can have the same level of conversation.
45:52
But then you go on the street and you ask somebody for
45:54
direction and they start talking like regular people do on the
45:59
streets. And I'm like, Oh my God, I
46:01
haven't done this level. I haven't covered this, these
46:04
other things. Then you kind of realize that,
46:09
yes, what you know is good in their environment that you are,
46:13
but once you get out of the environment, you need different
46:17
skills. And that's kind of, I think the
46:21
next phase, which I would spend a lot of time on to make sure
46:26
that they're better equipped. Sometimes we do in dance labs
46:30
and weekenders and we go like, OK, everybody, now we're going
46:33
to do an exercise which is kind of like dancing in Brazil.
46:38
We put a bunch of chairs around the corner of the room.
46:42
We put 30 couples in the same space that maybe 3 couples would
46:47
dance. And then we'll say, everybody,
46:50
welcome to Brazilian party. There's no space.
46:54
There's 100 people in a place for 20.
46:57
Let's go. So kind of doing these drills
47:01
and exercises to get people used to situations that they may
47:06
encounter because it's funny, like even our students back in
47:10
DC, they are spoiled for space and then they go up to New York
47:16
City dancing at Solas on Tuesday night, bro, good luck.
47:21
It's scary. Then the other type of skills,
47:24
like music, you know, what kind of music do you dance to?
47:29
That influences a lot because you may go to a dance party that
47:33
plays completely different music from what you used to listen to.
47:37
Some people only listen to remix.
47:40
Other people only dance to traditional.
47:42
And then when they listen to something else, they're like,
47:44
oh, I don't know how to dance to this.
47:46
It's so complex or so repetitive.
47:49
You know, people who love remix, they say traditional is too
47:52
repetitive. People who love traditional,
47:54
they say that remix is too crazy.
47:56
Oh man, there's so many things. It kind of gets me excited.
48:01
I wish I could just do that. I would offer, honestly, I would
48:06
offer a group and go like, look, if you sign this contract that
48:10
you're going to give me one year, at least 10 hours a week,
48:14
15 hours a week, I'll train these people.
48:18
No pay, no pay just for the pleasure, just for the pleasure
48:24
of seeing these people like really understanding everything
48:31
that that is to understand in a way that they're going to feel
48:34
so happy and fulfilled. And as a teacher, of course, I
48:39
would feel so accomplished to see these people like feeling
48:45
the power of knowledge indents and not feeling the pressure
48:50
from the outside world to be something or to achieve
48:53
something. More like a power that they
48:56
discovered within, not a power that they were chasing because
49:01
they were looking outside. Yeah, I think we can find people
49:06
like that who are already dancing and are really excited
49:10
and really dedicated. The dream is to find those who
49:14
don't dance yet, you know, and go away.
49:18
But after these episodes, I'm really thinking that we can
49:23
bring certain or several elements of this dream like
49:26
scenario into what we already have.
49:29
You know, I think we can do it and after some time we will let
49:35
you guys know here what we were able to implement after this
49:38
conversation. Absolutely.
49:41
And hopefully, guys, this was once again a very informative
49:46
and helpful episode. And if you like this, please
49:50
help us by following, subscribing, sharing, and
49:53
helping us grow this passion project of ours that we love so
49:57
much. We hope you're enjoying too, and
50:00
we'll see you on the next one. So thank you.
50:03
Thank you, everybody. Pictures Pictures Abrasus and
50:08
Ciao. Everybody.