Latest / ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong / Longevity vs. Tradition: Why Dance Changes (S05 Ep61)

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Longevity vs. Tradition: Why Dance Changes (S05 Ep61) · ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong

0:00
The more we micromanage, the more we hold their hands too
0:04
much, the less we're actually letting them learn.
0:07
I'm sorry to everybody that took classes from me maybe six years
0:11
ago because of the things that I used to ask you to do that I
0:14
don't ask anymore. Teachers, sometimes we don't
0:18
have to stop the entire class to mention something that only a
0:22
few people are doing. So please, teachers, go to the
0:26
people that need that. Feedback.
0:28
We're teaching pachina because that's what we used to do when
0:31
we dance, but then we realize man, people are spending so much
0:34
more time when learning bonus because of the goddamn patching.
0:39
In the end they will learn bonus in 5 minutes and then it would
0:42
take the whole class just to clean the patching.
0:45
Maybe the physiotherapist, the masseuse and the chiropractors
0:47
are not as happy with us, but we are so glad that in Zook we
0:51
don't do cumbre to clean the floor anymore.
0:54
That was pretty much the level of flexibility and strength that
0:58
you were expected for almost every company from beginners.
1:02
Like what the hell were we thinking?
1:06
Have you ever been confused when a teacher says don't do that to
1:11
a move or technique you had previously learned?
1:14
Why are some classic techniques or movements no longer taught?
1:18
Why did Albert Tudor became wrong and then came back into
1:22
style? Well, let's find out.
1:25
Hello. Hello everyone, and welcome back
1:27
to Zook Nerds. In this episode, we are bringing
1:30
back the history books to explore the evolution of our
1:34
dance and to dive into the constantly changing landscape of
1:38
Brazilian Zook technique. We'll look at techniques we used
1:42
to teach, such as intense muscle squeezing and constant ups and
1:47
downs, and many others. Finally, we'll show you how the
1:51
pursuit of a less tiring and less injury prone social dance
1:55
experience has fundamentally changed how we teach, and how
2:00
changes in the technique have made our dance more inclusive,
2:04
focusing on natural movement, comfort and longevity on the
2:09
social floor. So let's go.
2:20
Hello. Hello everyone and welcome back.
2:24
My name is Alison Sanji and let's welcome once again our
2:27
amazing Co host Ghee brother. Hello Ghee.
2:31
Hello, Alison. Hello, everybody.
2:33
Welcome back. In today's episode, we are going
2:37
to be talking about something that we bring back the history
2:41
books of things that we used to do and used to teach, but we
2:47
don't anymore for multiple reasons.
2:50
Maybe the dance changed, maybe we changed, maybe the music
2:55
changed, something has changed, but we don't teach anymore.
2:58
So this is kind of a travel back in time to think about the
3:03
things that have changed in the dance community or in our dance
3:08
personally and in our teaching. If you have been part of the
3:12
dance community, especially in Brazilian Zook, you might know a
3:16
couple of things here and there that you learned maybe five
3:19
years ago. And now all the teachers are
3:22
saying no, don't do that, or things that we didn't used to do
3:26
and now all the teachers are saying yes.
3:28
Now we do it like this. And as a student, it can be very
3:32
confusing. It can be sometimes frustrating.
3:35
Actually. A funny thing that just came to
3:37
my head was that when I was living in Australia, I used to
3:41
go to Brazil every year for about a month or two to just,
3:45
you know, recycle and learn what's going on in Brazil
3:49
because we're that old and YouTube and social media wasn't
3:53
that present back then. So we had to go to the source in
3:56
person and be there in class and maybe have like a video camera
4:01
with tape inside. Some of you are too young to
4:05
know what I'm talking about, but my stuff back in Australia, in
4:10
Perth, they would always have this mixed feelings of
4:14
excitement and dread whenever I came back from Brazil.
4:20
Because as soon as I came back from Brazil, I was like, OK
4:23
guys, let's regroup, let's do some training and let's rethink
4:27
the curriculum. Because they would always come
4:29
to me and say, oh, here we go. Allison is going to change
4:32
everything. And now we're going to have to
4:34
change all the classes and how we teach and how we do things.
4:37
And we just going to have to do it because he says that this is
4:41
how people do now. And yes, nowadays I think
4:45
there's less of that issue because of social media.
4:47
You too, You just see things as they happen.
4:50
Somebody did something in Brazil today and then tomorrow people
4:54
are ready, learning and copying. There's almost no delay.
4:58
But there are things that I think that comes to the essence
5:02
of the dance Reiki, like things such as opening versus crossing,
5:08
things such as up and down in dancing or our famous beautiful
5:13
yummy Pacino that we don't even really do much anymore.
5:20
Now, what are other things that you can think about gay and what
5:24
do you think about this evolution of dance?
5:27
Yeah. I think I want to start what I'm
5:30
going to say here saying I'm sorry to everybody that took
5:34
classes from me maybe five years ago, six years ago, because of
5:40
the things that I used to say, the things that I used to ask
5:43
you to do that I don't ask anymore.
5:45
I'm going to start with a simple one.
5:47
I would ask people to when they have their hands on their
5:51
partners to keep their fingers closed like this.
5:54
And then realizing that I do this sometimes, but most times I
6:00
am little bit more spread with my fingers or fully open.
6:05
And then realizing that we have more surface to have more points
6:10
of contact when we are here versus when we are here.
6:13
And realizing as well that when we close the fingers too much,
6:18
sometimes we create a little pocket of air in the palm of our
6:22
hands and then they start sliding.
6:25
So then for some time, I would watch a hand with the fingers
6:30
all the way spread like this and ask people to close because I
6:34
thought it was like, I don't know, more unaware or more
6:38
floppy. But nowadays I ask people to do
6:40
exactly what I asked them not to do.
6:43
So I asked people to spread their fingers and then relax
6:46
them, right? Just to have that space.
6:48
So this was one, this is one, just one.
6:50
I want to start chill like that. Do you know where that comes
6:54
from? Because I have an idea, but I
6:57
want to hear from you. This.
6:59
Yeah. They're closed hands.
7:01
For those of you who are not actually seeing the video, you
7:04
might just be listening. We're talking about, like,
7:06
bringing the fingers close together and really squeezing
7:10
them hard with the thumb. So having, like, a hand almost
7:14
as if you're gonna slap somebody.
7:16
Yeah, like that kind of. Like a choppy fingers Actually.
7:19
I would ask people to bring their fingers together and then
7:23
shape the hands to the shape of the part of the body they are
7:27
touching. My whole thing was just that
7:29
they would not spread their fingers.
7:31
And I think for me was like maybe for the visuals or for the
7:37
intention of the hands to bring in more certainty.
7:41
I don't know. I don't know what I had in mind,
7:43
but I don't know when I realized what I was doing.
7:46
When I was dancing, my fingers were closed, but they would also
7:51
relax, you know, so there would be space between my fingers and
7:54
my hands from time to time. Yeah, on that one, I didn't
7:58
realize that I had a connection between what we did in Brazil
8:03
and maybe other dance style until I started doing ballroom.
8:08
So I did ballroom for about 3-4 years in Australia about 10
8:14
years ago. And when I started dancing
8:17
ballroom, it is like that. I mean, at least the way I
8:20
learned very much close fingers, very strong position of the
8:27
hand. And as we know, a lot of things
8:30
in Brazilian dance was inspired by European ballroom.
8:35
So there were teachers that brought multiple things based on
8:39
what they saw either on videos or when they traveled and they
8:43
saw ballroom. And when I was learning ballroom
8:46
and I learned that I'm like, oh, and maybe this came as a visual
8:51
influence or maybe a technical influence in ballroom.
8:54
Because let's put it this way, when Brazilian dancing was
8:58
starting on the streets, I don't think anybody was doing that.
9:03
So then it took somebody to learn from somebody that the
9:07
hands should be like this to then that somebody teach
9:11
everybody else in a dance school scenario that the hands should
9:16
be like that, right? So just thinking about this
9:19
connection between the street style of dance that we learn
9:23
that people used to do before our time, and then the dance
9:27
that we learned in our time, which was a more methodical,
9:31
more academic dance that we learned in dance schools versus
9:36
now what we do. When we took that shape that we
9:41
learned and thought, how can we make this more natural and more
9:44
comfortable? So we went from as natural as
9:48
possible without even thinking into let's clean this up and
9:53
make this as I don't know, as Hollywood movie or ballroom
9:58
competition as possible or even ballet influenced into now let's
10:03
make this as human and as natural as possible.
10:06
So I think there is a relationship between those
10:09
things with almost everything that we're going to talk about.
10:12
Yes, I think so too. I think it's like this
10:15
adjustments that we make from making something a little bit
10:18
more polished or a little bit more polished looking and then
10:22
realizing, oh, I think that's too much.
10:24
We are losing the organic aspect of it.
10:28
Let's go back. I think everything we're going
10:30
to say has this characteristic for sure.
10:33
Is there anything that you used to say that you don't say
10:35
anymore? I used to teach it.
10:37
Don't teach it the same way anymore.
10:38
Yeah, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is the
10:42
relationship with your muscles and your bones.
10:45
Maybe a little technical here, but hello, we're here as a
10:48
Canards for a very, very long time.
10:52
I was taught, and as a result I also taught that we should
10:58
squeeze muscles. Right.
11:00
And you've heard this in class. You may be still hearing this in
11:05
class, that when you do this, you should squeeze your abs, you
11:09
should squeeze your butt, you should squeeze the muscles in
11:13
your legs, or when you engage in your frame, you should squeeze
11:17
the muscles in your shoulders and things like that.
11:19
And that's something that I learned because, I mean, that is
11:23
the way. But once again, were the people
11:26
who danced this dance in the early days on the streets doing
11:30
that? I don't think so.
11:33
So then it took somebody who learned maybe ballet or learned
11:39
some other type of movement and dance and took that information
11:44
that to have more stability, we should squeeze our core, we
11:47
should squeeze our glutes and so on and so forth.
11:51
Because that generation wanted to clean things up, wanted to
11:56
Polish things up and make it more academic, make it more
12:00
well, if you learn to dance from a professional dance teacher,
12:05
this is how things are because we are aiming to be like ballet
12:09
level of cleanliness, ballet level of execution versus
12:14
keeping some of that organic original root of the dance.
12:19
But again, just like I said 5 minutes ago, this is where we
12:22
are now, at least myself. I don't talk about squeezing the
12:26
muscles because I think the words squeezing the muscles
12:30
locks the body movement. But I do talk about engaging the
12:34
muscles as needed. So sometimes we're just standing
12:39
there. We don't need to do any more
12:41
engagement then enough for you to stand nice and tall.
12:45
But then there are moments where you're going to push something.
12:48
There are moments where you need a little bit more engagement in
12:51
your flat, maybe because you're supporting a movement or you're
12:56
supporting a turn, or you're supporting some weight and some
13:00
force or like squeezing the biceps or, you know, hooking the
13:04
fingers. So any kind of muscle, bone
13:07
structure and engagement that used to be overdone, in my
13:11
opinion, that's the first thing that comes to mind.
13:14
And if you still hear your teacher talking about it, I
13:18
would probably send them this episode so they can hear from
13:23
our perspective and maybe rethink.
13:25
But also I would be more open to feel how it feels in my body.
13:31
I'm not saying that your teacher doesn't have a reason to say
13:34
that, but also I think that there are more ways other than
13:39
just one way to do that one thing, right?
13:42
So it falls into that category I think.
13:45
You know what I think there are two things.
13:47
I think 1 is we are all trying to solve the same problem.
13:53
So for example, when people ask that for me is my favorite
13:57
engage your inner size. I have a hard time trying to
14:02
engage my inner thighs. Such a OK muscle to engage for
14:07
me in my body, you know. But I think we are all trying to
14:10
solve the same problem, which is to keep the legs together.
14:14
And I like to connect your inner thighs and have a little bit of
14:17
a turn out. So I think we are trying to all
14:19
solve the same problem. And then some people say engage
14:22
your inner thighs, some people say engage your legs.
14:26
I've heard different ways of asking people to do something to
14:30
achieve legs together. And then I remember what we used
14:33
to do at Shimerosha. Basically like we would
14:37
literally hold a pen between your legs.
14:39
Just hold something between your legs.
14:41
And also the act of holding self enrich in your legs without
14:46
squeezing the thing, just holding enough.
14:48
We are already engaged in certain muscle because we had a
14:52
task to hold the thing. We would engage just enough and
14:56
same thing as I'm used to talk about the happy butt and the sad
14:59
butt. Butt meaning your ass and the
15:02
sad one. It was when you would release it
15:05
and your back would curve backwards and the happy 1 is
15:09
when you would engage a little bit and your lower back would go
15:12
straight. So we'll try to solve a problem.
15:15
What was the problem? Straight backs, straight lower
15:18
backs to be more precise. And then I've heard people say
15:21
engage your core, align these, align that.
15:25
So I think we're all trying to solve a problem and then we find
15:29
a way to voice that, to ask people to solve that problem.
15:34
And I think over time we change the language for the solving of
15:39
the problem, for example, engage the lats.
15:43
And then I realized maybe by engaging lats or shoulder
15:46
blades, we are actually trying to solve the problem of shoulder
15:49
misalignment. So you want people to align
15:51
their shoulders and keep their shoulders down.
15:54
And then I remember Jean used to say keep your shoulder in your
15:57
ear aligned. He wouldn't talk about engaging.
16:00
And then I realized maybe it's a problem of alignment, unless a
16:04
problem of engagement, because by aligning your shoulders, you
16:09
need to hold certain muscles in place.
16:12
So the alignment is kept there. But then later on, I did this
16:15
class called the anatomy of axis that I realized that the
16:18
shoulders do have a natural slide forward, but just a little
16:22
bit. And I realized maybe the
16:24
alignment does need to be so perfect to the side.
16:27
It's more like down, you know, So it's more like our process of
16:31
learning and heal, learning about the same thing and coming
16:35
up with a new way to describe a way to solve the problem.
16:40
And the problem is something that we want the person who is
16:44
learning from us to achieve in their bodies some alignment or,
16:48
you know, a more healthy way to position their bodies.
16:52
And I think there's a second thing, my friend, which is maybe
16:56
in the beginning, we are teaching people to dance based
16:59
on how we dance or based on how we understand the dance.
17:02
And over time, we start to teach people how to dance based on how
17:08
can this be achieved more easily perhaps, you know, And then I
17:13
think Patchinga is a good example.
17:16
We're teaching patchinga because that's what we used to do when
17:19
we dance. But then we realize man, people
17:21
are spending so much more time when learning bonus because of
17:27
the God damn pachina. In the end, they will learn
17:30
bolus in 5 minutes and then it would take the whole class just
17:34
to clean the pachina. Yeah, and they're like, what is
17:37
a pachina? However, the pachina, it's a
17:39
rock step. It's the half back part basic.
17:43
So let's just do a rock stab. Let's just do basic and then you
17:48
teach bolus in 20 minutes, You know, So here's another thing
17:53
too, that I think we changed the language as we start to see what
17:57
is the way that I can teach this dance that can bring more people
18:01
in and not teach this dance in the way that I learned
18:04
necessarily, you know, because the dance also evolved.
18:07
So I think there's these two things.
18:09
We are trying to solve a problem and we are moving from teaching
18:13
people the dance in the way that it works in our bodies to try to
18:17
teach people the dance in the way that can work in their
18:19
bodies and that changes the way we explain things.
18:24
And it all comes also from different influences.
18:28
For example, the Pacina in Brazilian Zook, I believe it was
18:33
a stylistic influence that came from the other Brazilian dance
18:37
called Sochino that also came from another dance that I would
18:43
more direct towards the ballroom jive that has the exact same
18:47
movement before it was in Brazil.
18:50
So sometimes it's just stylistically, oh, we're doing
18:54
that. Why are we doing that?
18:56
Because we need, because the movement needs.
18:58
No, because somebody taught you to do that.
19:01
And then that was just passed on generations and from teacher to
19:06
teacher, and that became the way we do things.
19:09
But then nowadays, for the lucky people who has learned Zook in
19:14
the last few years, you probably don't even know what we're
19:16
talking about. OK, For those of you, Pacino was
19:20
just a way to style the rockstep of bonus.
19:24
Just an open and closing of the hips that kind of finishes on a
19:27
little twist. So it was a little twist, twist
19:30
that, yes, it was. Oh my God, It was harder than
19:36
just doing bonus itself, or it was harder than so many other
19:40
things in the beginner's level. So I'm so glad that nowadays
19:43
it's not part of the expected way to learn bonus.
19:47
Because back then, when it was expected, if you teach bonus
19:50
without pachina, you're not teaching it properly.
19:53
You're missing. It's like 70% there, but the
19:56
pachina is missing. A teacher would probably spend a
20:00
whole private lesson fixing your bonus because you're not doing
20:03
pachina. That was a thing.
20:04
You know, or another one that we can mention here, Cumbres, Lord,
20:09
thank God, maybe the physiotherapist, the masseuse
20:13
and the chiropractors are not as happy with us.
20:15
But we are so glad that in Zuk we don't do Cumbre to clean the
20:21
floor anymore. And this is an expression that
20:24
maybe it doesn't make sense for anybody who doesn't speak
20:27
Portuguese, but in Brazil we say that back in the day, the hair
20:31
must be cleaning the floor. It's kind of like a broom
20:34
sweeping the floor because if you're not touching the floor,
20:37
if you're not seeing the floor behind you when you do cambra,
20:42
you're not doing cambra. Nowadays, we understand that
20:45
cambra is simply an extension of your spine.
20:49
It can be in the smallest angle to the deepest angle and
20:54
preferably keeping it light and gentle for most of the social.
20:59
And then occasionally you go all the way and you do that company
21:03
100%. That was another one because
21:06
sometimes when I'm teaching company to my students, they
21:10
have already done some workshops and they're like, what's the
21:12
difference between Cambrai and Chicachi?
21:14
What's the difference between this and that?
21:16
And this is a maybe a topic for later today or another day.
21:21
But yes, nowadays because Chicachi and Cambrai is so
21:24
shallow in terms of the apple, it is hard sometimes to like
21:30
make it clear for the student. So then I bring back, I go like,
21:35
OK, guys, this used to be the beginner level Cumbre back in my
21:40
day. And then we show it.
21:42
And for those of you who have not seen it, we're talking about
21:46
a bridge. OK, Imagine somebody who does
21:49
gymnast, somebody who does some martial arts or ballet or
21:54
something. You know, when they do like a
21:56
bridge, hands on the floor, feet on the floor, full arch, like a
22:01
full on bridge. That was pretty much the level
22:04
of flexibility and strength that you're expected for almost every
22:09
company from beginners. Like, what the hell were we
22:13
thinking? I mean, back then I don't think
22:16
we were thinking much because we were mostly students, but like,
22:19
what the hell were the people before us thinking?
22:22
Yeah, that was the cambra. Miss the cambra table that he
22:26
would do the cambra holding both hands of the follower all the
22:29
way down and it would come from a Titanic.
22:32
The followed go forwards and then on the way back they would
22:36
bend hair sweeping the floor. That was the same cambrai but
22:40
now the leader doing backwards. The cabaret was deep, so the
22:44
difference between Shiquachi Cambrai was very clear.
22:48
Yeah, Shikachu was more about the effect.
22:50
Cambrai was more about the bendiness.
22:53
Because yeah, a lot of the times the Shikachu wouldn't even have
22:57
the head back back then, even the head back nowadays, it's
23:00
something that is kind of expected of Shikachu.
23:03
But for a long time, Shikachu was just the hair.
23:07
If the follower goes Chicochi hair and then bend back, maybe
23:12
that's a Chicombe, A Chicochi comedy, you know?
23:15
But a lot of the times the Chicochi was just coming up,
23:19
boom, come up straight, no actual back bending.
23:23
That's another one. And now maybe going back into
23:27
the roots, the transition between what was the standard
23:32
Lambada footwork, which was always opening, opening, like
23:36
Malanzo opening, opening. And because Brazilian Nazuk was
23:40
very much once again cleaned up by teachers or polished to look
23:47
a certain way or to maybe be a little bit more cohesive with
23:53
the other Brazilian Indian styles.
23:55
You know, because we've heard this from historians in
23:58
Brazilian dances that when lambada was brought to Brazilian
24:01
Zook was very much like dance at Salon, inspired and adapted.
24:09
And dance at Salon is the Portuguese word for ballroom
24:13
dance. But as Brazilians, when we say
24:16
ballroom dance, we actually mean the ballroom dance that is not
24:19
Brazilian. Otherwise we say dance at Salon,
24:22
but it's just a English translation.
24:25
So when they brought to the Brazilian Dance at Salon schools
24:28
in Rio and Sao Paulo, they were like, OK, what if we do the
24:32
Bolero basic? What if we do this like Vida
24:36
Gina from Bolero, which didn't exist in Lambada because Lambada
24:40
was mostly opening, opening, opening, and in Bolero you turn
24:44
and cross, turn and cross. You rock, step, rock, step.
24:48
So some of these things were just like, OK, let's make this
24:51
dance a little more familiar for everybody who already know these
24:55
dance styles. So then we can also teach them
24:58
this dance with a little bit of a blend and a mix.
25:02
So I think there's that too, because for quite a while in
25:07
Brazilian Zook, it was kind of like the wrong technique to open
25:13
versus there are moments where you open and there's a reason to
25:17
open. Opening was almost for some
25:20
teachers, like no, you don't know this dance if you're
25:25
opening all the time, but then what if you're dancing more
25:29
expensive, more like outwards? Then opening made sense.
25:34
But now you know in the black and white eras of Brazilian
25:38
Zook, that was just right or wrong.
25:41
Now, thankfully, we understand that it just depends.
25:45
Yeah, when I started teaching in 2017 and I was fresh as a
25:52
teacher, so everything I knew was what I learned back in the
25:56
day. And then I realized that people
25:58
are crossing all the time. They're crossing, crossing,
25:59
crossing, crossing. Like what is happening, people,
26:01
are you crossing all the time? You know, because I was so used
26:05
to open to the sides, like you open, side opening, simple turn,
26:09
side opening, searching, side opening, you side opening all
26:13
day. Then over time, I started
26:17
understanding the benefits of the crossing to the point that I
26:21
started modifying my teaching to also embrace the crossing more.
26:25
But it's still acknowledging that the side exists and the
26:28
side has its value. Because I remember when I was
26:31
testing Brazilian Zook back in the day when it was called Zook
26:34
Lombard, that we were side opening all the time.
26:38
There was always this push and pull thing.
26:42
Go away and go and go away and go, which sometimes we would
26:47
really exaggerate and would really open.
26:50
After the 4th song, my friends, I was drenched.
26:54
I was so tired because there was so much this so Ching so Ching
26:58
was crazy because the so Ching was like the opening for heart.
27:02
This so Ching for heart that you side open.
27:05
However, with the Zook rhythm, it was more effort, a lot more
27:08
effort. So I understood the value of the
27:11
crossing in the sense that you don't move your axes away to
27:14
then come back and then away and then come back.
27:16
So the axes are stable. So then I embraced the crossing.
27:21
The thing is that I think I embraced the crossing too much
27:25
and then I needed you scale back to like, look, in these
27:29
situations here, you can step to the side, you know?
27:32
So it's that thing that we keep moving back and forward because
27:35
there are things that I'm modified or that I used to say
27:39
that I don't say anymore because of how students would interpret
27:43
what I said. So I remember I used to say that
27:47
in the posture when we were standing up to dance in
27:50
Brazilian Zook, we have the hip slightly projected forward, not
27:54
projected forward, not pushing the hip forward, but the the hip
27:57
is available. It's right there.
27:59
Then I realized that people started to tirelessly seek each
28:04
other's hips. So there will be this pushing
28:07
into each other off the hips. And then they would say no, But
28:11
you told me to do that and said no, no, no, no, no.
28:15
I did not tell you to push your hip on your part.
28:17
I told you for your hip is there like so the way you position in
28:21
your posture, your hip ball, it's there, it's open.
28:24
And then again, I did more classes about what is the
28:28
neutral posture, the meaning of bone stacking and understanding
28:32
that in the neutral posture, the neutral position, your hips not
28:36
forwards, your hips not in front of our line with your rib cage
28:39
necessarily. So modified the teaching to say
28:44
that the hips will connect when you adjust, when you go down,
28:48
when you flex your knee, and when you actually project it
28:52
forward, but not in its neutral form.
28:54
So that's one thing that I modified because of how students
28:58
would interpret it. The other thing, the matter of
29:01
knees bent, that's another thing that modified as well, realizing
29:06
whenever you say bend the knee, the student will like bend three
29:09
times or twice as much. So we need to say breathing,
29:14
they need the breathes or they need that is flexible.
29:17
Instead of saying bend, you know, unlock the knee versus
29:21
bending, unlock the knee. Exactly because of the level of
29:24
body awareness, the person understands the word bend as
29:28
really bendy. So the lunges were like really
29:31
dull, you know, So then modify into more neutral knees and
29:36
versus bending the knee. And the last one that I think it
29:39
was maybe 1 of the things that I changed, the way I explain about
29:45
it because of what happened to me is the rolling of the feet.
29:48
We would almost like religiously ask people to roll their feet
29:52
from ball to heel in every single step like crazy.
29:56
And I did that so much. My people that I created like
30:01
injury on my left foot, exactly on the metatarsal, exactly where
30:07
the foot rolls because of how many hours of teaching I was
30:11
doing and how much I was rolling my feet.
30:13
There was an inflammation there. And then I realized that from
30:17
all the desks that I do, Brazilian Zook is the only one
30:20
that has this requirement. Then I started watching people
30:24
dance and realizing that myself and other people, we don't
30:27
always all the time roll the foot from the ball to the heel.
30:32
Yeah, we use both. So I modified the way I teach to
30:37
say that you roll your feet from the ball of the foot to the heel
30:42
to create this sensation when you want to bring this feeling.
30:47
And you roll the other way from the heel to the ball of the foot
30:50
when you want to create this sensation and bring this
30:52
feeling. So just more attaching.
30:55
We're still rolling our feet, but not always in one way,
31:00
embracing both ways, acknowledging the value of both
31:05
ways, and noting that when you do 1, only one too much, you can
31:12
literally have an inflammation on your feet.
31:15
So these are, I think, the three main things that I realized I
31:20
needed to change the way I was referring to them and teach them
31:24
because I saw how students were interpreting it and what
31:27
happened to me. So the hip protected forward or
31:32
the seeking of the hip connection, the bend of the knee
31:36
and the rolling of the feet. So I think maybe the three small
31:40
things, small, big things. And I think that's a great segue
31:44
for what I want to say, which is the next few things.
31:48
The going up and down South, Brazilian Zoo, going up and
31:52
down. We're down and up and really
31:54
going over the hill, down the hill, over the hill, down the
31:57
hill. It's something that we don't
31:59
teach anymore so much we do with social dancing.
32:04
We do it, but we do it as an expression of flavor or of
32:10
dynamic or something specific to that moment, not something that
32:16
we do every single basic, every single letter out.
32:19
And I think a lot of what we're talking about here has been a
32:24
blessing, like a blessing in disguise.
32:29
I think that's what they say has been a blessing in disguise
32:33
because of the pursuit for more comfortable dancing, for a
32:39
dancing that is not so tiring or that doesn't wear your body out
32:46
so much. OK, so the Cambrai measure, the
32:50
Cambrai bridge, the ups and downs, the over bending, the
32:55
opening all the time in Sochi. Oh my God.
32:58
Like all of this was probably contributing to the fact that we
33:04
could only dance. One dance per person.
33:08
Like one song per person. Because you had to have a break.
33:11
You absolutely had to have a break.
33:13
Like to do 2 songs, both of you would absolutely have to sit
33:17
down because it was just too much.
33:21
Imagine like a demo level of intention and energy and power
33:29
for every single dance of the night.
33:31
That was it. But nowadays You Can Dance Zook
33:35
and bro, you can Just Dance a whole song.
33:39
So nice, so chill and not even sweat because you're just being
33:44
as natural, as organic and as comfortable as possible.
33:48
Maybe not everybody because they I sweat even just standing
33:52
still, but the meaning of like working hard.
33:57
Yeah, so we don't have to work so hard within those 3 minutes.
34:03
We can just like overtime, build that dance up into something
34:09
more intense with higher energy and complexity, and then bring
34:13
it down and have a little bit more chill and then bring it up
34:16
again because we have multiple songs to dance and we don't have
34:21
to cram everything over one song.
34:24
And then again, another topic for another day, one dance,
34:28
multiple dances, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.
34:31
How long is too long? How long is long enough?
34:35
But I think a lot of the things that we are talking about here,
34:39
they came from that pursuit to make the dance less tiring, less
34:45
injury prone. And most importantly, and this
34:49
is something that Gay and I will agree so much, whenever we're
34:52
talking about what technique to teach inclusivity, what type of
34:57
technique can most bodies, most people, most heights and body
35:05
shapes and sizes do in the social?
35:08
Because bringing back the days of tangling movements and
35:13
pretzel movements, that cancelled out a lot of people in
35:17
the community because they didn't have flexibility or the
35:20
height or the body type to do those movements with anybody.
35:24
She cancelled me out. People have dislocated.
35:28
Shoulders, yes, that couldn't, you know.
35:32
So then every time we're thinking about should we teach
35:35
this? Should we teach that we're
35:37
thinking about it. Even 2 weeks ago I was in
35:40
Germany teaching with my beautiful partner Christina, and
35:43
we were teaching a challenge class where we were going to do
35:49
some like pretzels. Pretzels, for those of you who
35:52
don't know this terminology, it's kind of tangling movements.
35:55
Think about like tangling your shoelace.
35:58
That's kind of like what it feels like.
36:00
But as we're preparing for the class, we were discussing, you
36:04
know, like how many people can actually do this variation?
36:07
Yeah, maybe not so many people. OK, so let's not teach that one,
36:12
let's make one and let's think about different ways.
36:16
Then we can connect this movement to the other one that
36:19
we wanted to go that doesn't cancel out people in the class.
36:24
And thankfully that has been something that we've done in
36:27
Brazilian Zook, and I think that has really helped the community
36:32
to grow. I think a lot of those things
36:34
that we're talking about here today, things that we used to do
36:37
and we don't do anymore, is in that pursuit, Pursuit for
36:41
comfort, pursuit of inclusivity, pursuit of just a healthier
36:46
body. Yeah, it's basically we didn't
36:48
know better, I think. I think we just didn't know
36:52
better. And our curiosity and
36:55
observation LED us to change the way we teach and the way we
37:00
address things because we are noticing that what we were
37:02
saying was having an impact that we didn't anticipate or create
37:08
the opposite of what our intention was.
37:11
So I'll give another very good example.
37:15
Let's talk about pion. Pion.
37:17
So I had this weird experience in a private lesson once that
37:22
the person was doing pion with me.
37:24
And it was feeling very strange because this person was at any
37:28
cost trying to maintain his legs connected to mine.
37:32
And then it was throwing us off a little bit.
37:35
And then I don't know what I asked him or what I said, but he
37:40
said he was trying to do what I told him to do in class.
37:43
And then I was like, Oh my God, what did I tell you to do?
37:46
And he said, oh, to keep this connection with the leg and
37:49
stuff like that with the right leg and that right leg with
37:52
right leg. And then I researched my memory
37:55
and didn't Remember Me saying that, but then I remembered that
38:00
the person who I was teaching with uses this technique quite
38:05
often. And then I realized, oh, maybe
38:09
it was like they did together. And then this happened Na, na,
38:13
na, na. And then I start to modify what
38:16
I say about Pion because in that look, in that research for the
38:20
right legs to be with the right leg, that is actually quite
38:23
challenging to do, you know, So, and then it depends on the
38:27
amount of power you want to have, the amount of whoosh you
38:29
want to create the model turn you want to have.
38:32
So there's a lot of modifications.
38:34
So nowadays when I talk about Pion, I basically teach three
38:37
different possibilities and talk about 3 different things and
38:41
talk about this person will ask you to do this, this person has
38:44
to do this, this person has to do this.
38:46
For our purposes right here, right now that we are doing just
38:49
one 360 and go back to the mirror, you don't need all that.
38:52
We need just as much, you know. So again, we didn't know better
38:57
and we saw the impact of what we're seeing the students.
39:01
So if I could give an advice for those who are listening and are
39:05
teaching really intentionally and with a high level of
39:11
engagement, observe and feel the impacts of what you say.
39:15
Bend the knee, engage this, connect that, seek this and see
39:21
how that impact is the experience of the dance.
39:23
It's really, really insightful when you observe that.
39:28
Yeah. And sometimes we don't realize
39:31
that. What I didn't realize for a long
39:35
time that a lot of students are very literal.
39:38
OK. Yes, Oh my God, you're.
39:40
Very OK, so here's my feedback to you guys, dancers, students
39:46
and teachers. Sometimes we don't have to stop
39:51
the entire class to mention something that only a few people
39:55
are doing. I would rather play another song
39:58
and go to those people and give that feedback because especially
40:03
the people who are very literal. They might already be doing it
40:07
good. And then you stop the class and
40:10
say everybody, come on, come on, come on, guys.
40:12
We need to like stretch those steps and take bigger steps.
40:16
But in fact, you only stopped because maybe you saw two or
40:21
three of the students doing it. And now the people who are doing
40:25
it good, especially the people who take things literally,
40:29
they're going to start overdoing it.
40:31
They're going to start overdoing it.
40:33
And then in my experience, the people that you actually wanted
40:37
to fix, they're not going to be fixed because they're not even
40:40
aware, not aware. So you stop the class to give a
40:44
feedback to the people that are unaware.
40:47
And after that feedback, now all the people who are doing good
40:51
are doing too much and the people who were unaware, I still
40:55
unaware. So please, teachers, go to the
40:59
people that need that feedback. Really, really.
41:03
Or sometimes just give another song.
41:06
A lot of the times things fixed themselves.
41:09
Yes, a lot of the. Times give students the time to
41:13
play and mess around a little bit.
41:16
Oh my gosh, this is something super important to mention, I
41:19
think, Allison. That we used to do it.
41:21
We don't anymore. Yeah, yes.
41:22
We used to do it, don't anymore. Yes.
41:24
I think thank God. It's something that we used to
41:26
do it don't anymore, which is to stop the class or stop the song
41:31
too early. Yes.
41:33
For example, we just start the new thing and we play the song
41:37
and we saw something like right away and then we stopped
41:41
micromanaging. Talking about micromanaging,
41:43
There are two things to say there.
41:45
Sometimes what just happened that 30 seconds is so bad that
41:50
you really need to stop and like, OK guys, come on, come on.
41:52
OK, I'll give like an example. You spend the whole time talking
41:55
about shifting weights and then starting to dance when you are
42:01
synchronizing the weight transfer.
42:02
And then you play the song and the person just goes like, no,
42:05
it's been a long time talking about these.
42:08
Yeah. OK.
42:10
Well, if you're talking about like a pattern or something like
42:12
that, sometimes just let this struggle happen.
42:16
Let this struggle happen a little bit late.
42:18
And this is something that is being interesting actually,
42:20
because some people who are taking my classes recently, they
42:24
have been observing that. It was funny because I was in
42:27
Bali for the retreat this year and one of my Co teachers there
42:32
and it came to me and said, I'm noticing that you are letting
42:35
them struggle a little bit, a little bit longer.
42:38
And then I said, yeah, I am. Because normally we see the
42:44
people struggling behind you and you want to right away stop and
42:48
then but my people, I learned this from Kelly Hayes, one of my
42:54
important teachers and informal mentors that I had.
42:57
She would tell me, let them be, let them be a little longer.
43:02
But she would tell me these things when I was not a teacher,
43:05
you know, because I was observing as she was doing it.
43:09
And I was realizing how quickly people were evolving in her
43:12
class. And then she told me, I realized
43:16
that we were holding their hands too much.
43:19
Yeah, let them be a little bit. And then when I became a teacher
43:23
years later of becoming a teacher, I remember what Kelly
43:27
told me when I was not a teacher by just observing her classes.
43:32
And then guys, it's a magical process.
43:35
Now we are doing, I think we told you one of the episodes,
43:37
the partner warm up. And in the partner warm up,
43:40
people struggle. Bus people are struggling bus.
43:43
In Portuguese we say Katambu Cavaco, which is like impossible
43:48
to translate, but they're struggling behind me and I'm
43:51
watching them on the mirror struggling.
43:53
But then eventually you see the magic happening.
43:55
You see them slowly catching up. I just talked Mach Module 7 and
44:01
I did the partner world map as a tool and some teachers were
44:05
there and they also noticed. So you let people struggle
44:08
behind you and I said, yeah, let them there.
44:11
And then eventually they caught up and then everybody cuts up.
44:14
But we only move on after at least 80% of the classes
44:19
together, 8090%, and then we move on to the next thing you
44:23
know. So there is an observation too.
44:25
If people are struggling to the points that you cannot do
44:28
anything else, then you really need well now.
44:30
OK, let's stop this thing here and review this thing.
44:32
Yeah, slow it down, Yeah. But leave people some time to
44:37
absorb. And that's something that our
44:39
students started telling us too, that they want their rotations
44:42
not to go so fast. They want to stay a little
44:45
longer with the same partner dancing to the music.
44:48
So this almost like impulse to stop at first sight.
44:54
You saw the problem and you stop right away.
44:56
I think there's another important change that we had to
45:00
We see the struggle and they were like, OK, let them try a
45:03
little longer and then we stop if needed.
45:06
There's two sides of this, right?
45:08
There's the side that you can look from the perspective of
45:11
like, well, if you're teaching me, don't let me do wrong more
45:16
than once because I don't want to get bad habits.
45:18
So as a teacher, we're like, no, no, no.
45:21
If the students do this too many times, they're going to get bad
45:24
habits. But then there's the other side
45:26
that wait, we just wanted to get a feel for the thing before we
45:33
go deep into details because like, how many times guys, come
45:36
on, all of you Zook dances. How many times you go to a class
45:41
and the teacher spends 15 minutes on the prep and you
45:45
haven't even done the movement once.
45:48
Halfway, yes, in the class, halfway in the class, you
45:52
haven't done the movement once. And then you're going to get to
45:55
the last part of the movement just before the recap.
45:58
How many times in that hour did you do the full movement?
46:02
Maybe once or twice because the teacher's like, oh sorry guys,
46:05
we got to do the recap now, but you can practice later.
46:08
Are you going to practice later? How many people are going to
46:10
practice later? You know the answer.
46:14
So our methodology is this. Let's teach the bare minimum
46:19
first. Get everybody to feel it.
46:21
OK, Vita Gina, learn simple turn bonus.
46:25
We're going to get them through this as fast as possible then.
46:29
OK, now let's work on the next layer.
46:32
Let's work on having more travel, or less travel, more
46:36
elasticity, less elasticity. Or if we're doing a head
46:40
movement workshop. OK, now let's get the feeling in
46:43
the body. Let's move, yes.
46:45
OK, wave this way, wave that way, waitress, boom, boom, boom.
46:48
Instead of spending the 1st 15 minutes explaining how to
46:52
compress onto the ground, rotate your pelvis and roll your spine
46:57
1 by 1. And then by the end of the
47:00
class, you haven't waved once, right?
47:03
So that is the idea. We're not talking about letting
47:07
students do things in a wrong way.
47:10
So then they will build bad habits.
47:13
No, but that's the fear we had. OK?
47:16
That's the fear I had for many years.
47:18
Like, no, if I let my students do like twice, that's going to
47:21
be there. We're not enforcing bad
47:23
behavior. What we're trying to do is to
47:27
bypass the brain 1st and go into the body and then going back to
47:31
the brain and then go back to the body, but try to get the
47:34
body as fast as possible and then the brain later.
47:38
Yeah, I think it's more like how early you introduce the
47:41
correction. Yeah, because the problem was
47:44
the correction is being introduced right away.
47:46
Like the person tried once and you stopped the song, you know.
47:50
So it's basically like, let them try a little longer and that's
47:53
the whole thing. I don't even think there is time
47:55
to embody a bad habits. There isn't time for that.
47:59
I think the time to embody the bad habit is continuous
48:03
repetition over months, maybe years.
48:08
But in the course of one hour class, there is no time to
48:11
embody bad habits. Believe me, there's no time.
48:14
There is not even time to embody anything, you know, let alone
48:18
bad habits. So I think what we are saying,
48:20
to be more precise, is how early you stop everything.
48:26
You do the correction. It's almost like you were
48:30
teaching person a new language and you're teaching them the new
48:32
words and you say to them, OK, let's go Koshitusanalisima mage.
48:39
That's the Portuguese word koshitusanalisima mage and the
48:43
person go constitute. No, no, no, no.
48:47
The person barely started saying the word and you're already
48:51
correcting them. Let them try say constitute a
48:56
couple times and then you say slowly after a couple tries.
49:01
You did, you know. So it's more the aspect of this
49:06
we as teachers holding our anxiety to correct right away.
49:11
The more we micromanage, the more we hold their hands too
49:16
much, the less we're actually letting them learn.
49:20
Exactly. That is my conclusion with the
49:23
experience that I have today. OK, So yes, the struggle is
49:27
real, but it's better for the long term, you know, if you
49:34
experience and we didn't learn that way and from most of the
49:39
teachers that we learned from, we didn't learn that way.
49:41
And for a little bit of time, a little bit too much time, we
49:45
taught that way too. So that's something that we
49:47
don't do anymore. And guys, let me just be honest
49:51
here, we could go for another five hours because there's so
49:54
many other things that we want to talk about.
49:57
But I think we have already told you enough for today.
50:02
And hopefully this has once again giving you a little bit
50:08
more information about the community, a little bit more
50:12
information about the evolution of the dance and why things
50:17
sometimes change. And I don't have good news
50:21
because one of the reasons why I love dancing is because it's
50:25
constantly changing and evolving.
50:28
So it's going to continue and maybe six months we can do this
50:32
episode again and we're going to have another 100 things because
50:35
honestly, it's changing all the time.
50:38
So thank you very much for being here with us once again.
50:43
And as I always ask you, please follow, subscribe, and share and
50:48
help us grow this beautiful family of Zook nerds so we can
50:52
continue doing what we love here and connecting with you guys.
50:57
And don't forget to share with us if you have any topics that
51:00
you want us to cover here or any topics that you want us to redo
51:06
because the way we did was missing something or you want to
51:09
see a different perspective. We've been receiving multiple
51:13
already. So we're very thankful to those
51:15
of you who sent very nice, very, very, very nice.
51:19
Don't be shy. It may not happen in the next
51:22
episode because as much as we can, we try to keep things
51:26
balanced as well as record things ahead of time.
51:30
But we'll get to it. We'll get to it.
51:33
We will not forget. We have a system here and we'll
51:37
get to it. And sometimes they just combine
51:39
them, like one of these, one of these, one of these, and we put
51:43
in one episode. So it may not be a full episode,
51:46
but it'll be combined somewhere. So please continue sharing with
51:50
us. We love it and we really
51:52
appreciate it. And with that in mind, thank you
51:55
very much. I'll see you next time.
51:58
Precious, precious everybody, Abrasus and Ciao.
52:04
Everyone to next time.