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Style vs Technique: Finding What Fits Your Body (S06 Ep03) · ZoukNerds • Learn | Build | Belong

• 0:00
  How do you do when you are taking a class of a technique or
• 0:04
  a way of this in Zook? There's not necessarily the way
• 0:06
  that you do. Should you do how the teacher's
• 0:08
  doing in the class and then decide if you like it or not?
• 0:11
  If you have done the studies and you understand your body in a
• 0:15
  way that you can tell me and say, look, this is what works
• 0:17
  best for my body, I'm just going to go like, cool, OK, now let's
• 0:21
  see how that integrates with the rest of your dancing.
• 0:23
  In the end of the day, the different methodologies and the
• 0:26
  different ways of teaching I think are all trying to convey
• 0:30
  something similar. What is correct, what is right,
• 0:33
  what is Brazilian Zook? There's hundreds.
• 0:35
  There's no two latter eyes that look the same or two basic steps
• 0:38
  that look the same. But in the end of the day, we
• 0:40
  are a great example of this. You know our history here.
• 0:43
  We have different approaches to so many things, but the end goal
• 0:47
  is the same. As a teacher, over time I
• 0:50
  developed my sights to look or to separate issues things.
• 0:54
  There is how something looks like and there is how something
• 0:58
  feels like. To me it's a big turn off when
• 1:01
  teachers go into explaining something or go into correcting
• 1:06
  somebody in class and saying that's wrong.
• 1:09
  This is right. A teacher answer should be
• 1:12
  trying to understand where the question is coming from, trying
• 1:15
  to understand the experience that that student is having and
• 1:19
  why the question came in the first place.
• 1:30
  Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode.
• 1:34
  My name is Alison Sanji. Today we have.
• 1:37
  Brother, hello. Hello everybody.
• 1:40
  Welcome back to a more special episode at Allisons Apart.
• 1:45
  Today we're going to be doing the same thing as we did in the
• 1:47
  previous ones, which is to read some of the questions in our
• 1:52
  Zook Nerds Facebook group and share our experience as if this
• 1:57
  was AQ and a A1 on one from us to you.
• 2:01
  So what is today's question? Today our question comes from
• 2:06
  one of our top contributors here as Zook Nerds, Emily Lumetal.
• 2:12
  And it's actually a long post. Yes, that she talks about
• 2:16
  different teachers teaching Zook differently.
• 2:19
  And a lot of her question is about how do you do when you are
• 2:23
  in a class, taking a class of a technique or a way of this in
• 2:28
  Zook, there's not necessarily the way that you do, should you
• 2:31
  do what the teacher is doing, how the teacher is doing in the
• 2:34
  class, and then decide if you like it or not.
• 2:36
  So there's several aspects that she approaches here.
• 2:40
  We're going to focus on the very last question that she
• 2:43
  approaches the teachers. And the whole group basically.
• 2:48
  Teachers. Emily asks how would you feel if
• 2:52
  a student said something like I know you teach to do this X way
• 2:57
  but I have concluded that's not the right fit for me, at least
• 3:00
  as a default. So I'm going to stick with Y as
• 3:04
  my default, but I'd love to get a feedback on other aspects of
• 3:09
  my dancing. How would you feel as if this
• 3:12
  student comes to you and says something?
• 3:14
  Totally fine. I mean, like if you have done
• 3:18
  the studies and you understand your body in a way that you can
• 3:22
  tell me and say, look, this is what works best for my body.
• 3:26
  I'm just going to go like, cool, OK, now let's see how that
• 3:30
  integrates with the rest of your dancing.
• 3:32
  And then if I see some contradicting things that I'm
• 3:36
  might want to share my opinion, I'm just going to ask and say,
• 3:39
  hey, I know you told me this and you want to continue doing this,
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  but would you mind if I share some of my opinion on how this
• 3:49
  is affecting other parts of your dancing?
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  And then once again, you make the decision, you go ahead with
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  your own dancing choices and may continue consider or completely
• 4:04
  not even take note of what I say.
• 4:07
  And that's totally fine. I mean like if as a teacher you
• 4:10
  take anything personal that situation then you are going to
• 4:14
  have a lot of problem teaching. Yeah, I think it's important to
• 4:18
  detest yourself from your way. I'm talking to the teachers
• 4:23
  here, right? And to the dancers, too.
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  Detect yourself a little bit from your way in the sense of
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  this is the way. Yeah, We're not Mandalorians.
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  This might not be the way and it's important that we remain
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  open in some ways. So I have actually had stuff not
• 4:40
  exactly like this because I think these are very particular
• 4:43
  and have very clear example, but versions of this have come to
• 4:48
  me. For example, very recently in
• 4:50
  Rio, there was actually a private lesson where the
• 4:55
  students said, I want to show you how I do and how I explain
• 4:59
  this thing. And I see you doing something
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  similar and I wanted to see if that makes sense to you or not.
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  And then she went ahead, explain how she does the thing.
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  And then she said, this is what I default to, this is what I
• 5:14
  like, and I want to keep doing this.
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  I think I'm going to keep doing this, but I just wanted to hear
• 5:18
  your take on it, Not necessarily that I'm going to apply.
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  I'm curious. And it was actually a very cool,
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  very valuable back and forth actually, because I realized in
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  the end of the day, we were trying to convey to those we are
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  teaching a similar sensation. She went from one path, I went
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  to the other path, but we are trying to get to that same
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  sensation. And that's the cool thing.
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  You know, I'm so sometimes in the end of the day, the
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  different methodologies and the different ways of teaching I
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  think are all trying to convey something similar.
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  The things that each teacher found a way to get there.
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  There is one example that I really like, which is this thing
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  of the followers seeking the connection of the hand of the
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  lid on their back. And then I remember there used
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  to be the teaching that you actually with your back go into
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  the hands. Or there is the teaching that
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  with your back you go to the sides and almost like you
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  inflate your back so your back and like splashes onto the
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  hands. Or there is the idea that I like
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  to use the most is where we don't seek the connection, we
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  let it come to the body. So you stay in your axis and the
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  hand will come to your body and then it connects.
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  You see that all three of them are aiming to a same sensation,
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  the presence of the connection points, but one of them six this
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  way, the other than six this way, and the other stays and let
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  the hand come, you know. So I think in the end of the
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  day, it all works. It's just like, you know,
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  whatever works better for you. And in certain situations you
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  will notice that something feels better than something else.
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  Like Emily was saying here, I realized that this works for me,
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  this doesn't. So I'm going to stick with this
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  thing here. And that's where we open more
• 7:23
  room for discussion in this specific example of the hand
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  seeking the back or the back seeking the hands.
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  For example, when sometimes I have danced with people that use
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  the back seeking hand idea, which is amazing when feels
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  fine, they double off axis is not heavy at all.
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  And I have danced with the back seeking the hands where it was
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  too much into the hands too sick here.
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  And if I took the hand away or something like you know, there's
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  some variables that I think are related to the level of
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  awareness of the person applying the technique.
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  I think certain techniques, certain ways of approaching what
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  the body is doing or requires more body awareness in order to
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  be done in a way that doesn't throw you off, in a way that
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  doesn't get heavy on the body. And I think that's something
• 8:21
  that Emily is approaching here. Like I found a way to use as a
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  default that is easy on the body.
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  So I'm going to stick with it. And the teacher told me
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  something else. I would try this thing but it
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  might not work for me, maybe because the level of awareness
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  that I have of what my body can do doesn't allow me yet to use
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  their weight and have the same sensation that I have when I use
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  this way here or something like that.
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  And I'll go on one step further. I would say 99% of the times
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  that somebody's doing something different from what I would
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  teach, I'll tell them, hey, totally valid.
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  I know that this is a technique that a lot of teachers teach
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  right now or used to teach, or I used to teach even there are
• 9:12
  situations where I will encounter somebody who is doing
• 9:15
  a technique that I used to use primarily as a default.
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  And then I learned all their things about the dens and then I
• 9:23
  decided to switch to a different technique and I'll approach them
• 9:27
  and say, hey, totally cool. But there's another way that we
• 9:32
  can do this and this other way. I found that opened this store
• 9:38
  and this store and this store. So would you be OK trying it out
• 9:43
  and then see if this works for you?
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  I would say most, most, most of the times it doesn't come to a
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  place where it's right or it's wrong.
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  To me, it's a big turn off when teachers go into explaining
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  something or go into correcting somebody in class and saying
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  that's wrong, this is right. To me it's a big turn off
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  because you're just commanding something for me without telling
• 10:14
  me why and without telling me the difference between 1 and the
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  other. I had so much problems in
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  school, normal school, like fundamental school, high spy,
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  when things like that because I'm somebody who always thinks
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  about 10 things at the same time.
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  So when the teacher is telling the class, this is how it is,
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  this is how it is, this is how it is.
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  I would put my hand up and say, but why?
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  The other one that we learned last week went from here to
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  there, and this one goes from there to here.
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  What is the relationship? What is the benefit?
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  How does that work? And most of the times,
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  unfortunately, because of the way the educational system
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  works, I'll just be shut down. The teacher will tell me that I
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  didn't know what I was talking about.
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  The question made no sense. Or then I'm just not paying
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  attention. So if I pay attention, I'll
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  understand. I mean, I don't think that's a
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  teacher's answer to be honest. A teacher answer should be
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  trying to understand where the question is coming from, trying
• 11:28
  to understand the experience that that student is having and
• 11:33
  why the question came in the 1st place.
• 11:36
  You know? So if a student is coming to me
• 11:39
  and telling me that they are very OK with a certain technique
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  and I go there and I totally don't teach that technique, but
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  I don't see a problem, why would I correct it?
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  Why would I go there and try to change them and say that what
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  they're doing is wrong? What they're doing is not
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  Brazilian Zook or not, whatever dance style that I'm teaching,
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  you know? So that's where I am with
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  things. I'll say maybe 1% of the time
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  when it comes to mechanical things in the body or things
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  that can cause injury, that's when I'm going to say, look,
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  this is really not good for your knee or this is not good for
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  your neck posture. And I wouldn't even go and say
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  this is not Zook or this is not good Zook technique.
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  I would say look as far as I understand about the spine or
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  about your hip, about your joints or about the way you use
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  your muscles, there's a more efficient and Safeway.
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  So would you like to try that out?
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  Like, you know, kind of like leaving the dense style because
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  bro, like how many styles of Zook are there?
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  Like some people don't like when we say styles of Zook, but how
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  many teaching ways are out there?
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  How many expression ways? There's hundreds.
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  There's no two letter eyes that look the same or two basic steps
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  that look the same. But in the end of the day is
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  what Gee said. And we're a great example of
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  this, you know, our history here.
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  We have different approaches to so many things, but the end goal
• 13:20
  is the same. Yeah.
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  So just trying to focus on that is the way that I would approach
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  in any situation with the students.
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  Yeah, it's like there are two things, right?
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  There is this idea of style and the idea of proper technique,
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  which is a term actually that we read quite often hear.
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  What is correct? What is right?
• 13:44
  What is Brazilian Zook? Yeah.
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  And what is proper technique and what is the style, you know?
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  And this is something really interesting.
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  One day Electrical Value told me his definition of style and it
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  was really interesting because for him a different style is
• 14:01
  when you use a different technique all together.
• 14:05
  So for him there are only three styles.
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  There was Neil Zuk, there was Lombarden and there was
• 14:11
  Brazilian Zuk, because they use different techniques, different
• 14:15
  ways of using the bad. From the ground up.
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  From the ground up. Not just a certain group of
• 14:21
  movements. Exactly.
• 14:23
  And now Zook for example, there was a lot of things with joints,
• 14:27
  yes. Or use the joints you don't step
• 14:30
  the same way of. Contact as well.
• 14:33
  Different points of contact, sometimes not even the basic is
• 14:37
  clearly, you know, defines. And it's more depending on who
• 14:41
  you're looking at. It's also more counter clockwise
• 14:44
  and clockwise, yeah, which is very different from regular
• 14:49
  Brazilian Zook that we see in dance.
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  Really fascinating and Bada use the body in a different way and
• 14:55
  Brazilian Zook residential presidential.
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  So for him there were three styles, and then I liked that
• 15:01
  definition a lot. And then there's a definition of
• 15:04
  style that is more broad, which is more the way that you use
• 15:08
  your body, the way that you express the dance with your
• 15:11
  body. What do you decide to do with
• 15:13
  your head, with your shoulders, or what kind of movements you
• 15:16
  decide to make the most? So like what whole of movements
• 15:20
  are you using the most? So for example, several people
• 15:24
  come to me in private essence and they mention my style like,
• 15:29
  oh, because in your style, in your style of dancing.
• 15:33
  And I hear this more with these ears of like, oh, in the choices
• 15:38
  than you make when you're dancing, the moves that you make
• 15:42
  in your. Expression my.
• 15:44
  Expression when I. Your expression in Brazilian
• 15:47
  Zook, My expression of Brazilian Zook, We don't have different
• 15:50
  styles. Exactly.
• 15:52
  It's just more like a different way of using Alison knows how to
• 15:55
  do viragi, I know how to do viragi.
• 15:58
  Maybe I use more viragi and maybe I do more often, maybe I
• 16:01
  do more clients. I don't know.
• 16:03
  It's OK. So we have the idea of the
• 16:06
  styles and the idea of proper technique that we are talking
• 16:09
  about. So that's a very complex topic.
• 16:12
  I think for me, this idea of proper because implies correct.
• 16:17
  What is the correct technique in the end of the day?
• 16:21
  I think as a teacher, over time I developed my sights to look or
• 16:27
  to separate shoe things. There is how something looks
• 16:32
  like and there is how something feels like.
• 16:36
  Sometimes when the teacher is teaching you a way here that you
• 16:40
  might be trying class like Emily talks about here.
• 16:44
  Sometimes it might really be related to how it looks like.
• 16:48
  Sometime it might be related to the shape that you are creating
• 16:53
  with your body and your partner's body when doing
• 16:56
  particular movements. Sometimes related to how the
• 16:59
  movement feels like or the sensation that we are trying to
• 17:03
  bring with the movements. So, for example, the preparation
• 17:07
  for the first step in the basic, for many, many years, there was
• 17:13
  this idea of going up, to go down, to expand, to go back.
• 17:19
  And then I started realizing why are we doing so many things?
• 17:22
  Just to take a step back, you know?
• 17:24
  Yeah, yeah. So dinner nerds.
• 17:28
  Yeah. Like, why we do so much?
• 17:31
  You just take a step back, man. So then I realized all these
• 17:36
  things are being done is to indicate to my partner, look, I
• 17:40
  am in one leg, my other leg is free.
• 17:43
  Hey, we are going in this direction.
• 17:45
  So there's a preparation. So there's a feeling of a
• 17:50
  complete weight transfer that is highlighted by all these other
• 17:54
  things that you do in your body. And there's a visual aspect of
• 17:58
  expansion that gives that particular look of your body
• 18:02
  getting ready to take one step back and for the following step
• 18:06
  forwards. So then I realized, so there's a
• 18:08
  visual to it, which is this expansion.
• 18:11
  And there's a sensation to it, which is a full and complete
• 18:15
  weight transfer and an indication that the weight
• 18:18
  transfer is complete. Let's go, you know, So then I'm
• 18:21
  like, OK, so there are two things here.
• 18:24
  Then I decided to focus on the sensation.
• 18:27
  How can I highlight the sensation of a weight transfer,
• 18:31
  not necessarily with the shape aspect of it.
• 18:36
  And then I would say this way of this in this style started to
• 18:42
  take shape because it was more pay attention to the sensation
• 18:46
  of a weight transfer and just that.
• 18:48
  And what is the minimum that I need to do with my body to shift
• 18:52
  to age completely. And then it goes through
• 18:54
  anatomy, body mechanics, all these things that, you know,
• 18:56
  people like detest from the visuals.
• 19:01
  So one invitation that I make students when listening to the
• 19:06
  instructor and then something that I'm telling Emily too, I
• 19:09
  agree. If you're listening to this,
• 19:12
  when you listen to the teacher talking in a technique that you
• 19:16
  might not identify yourself with, I try to resonate with
• 19:21
  what is the sensation that they are trying to convey?
• 19:24
  What is maybe the sheep that they are trying to convey?
• 19:28
  And also maybe sometimes what is their backgrounds as well.
• 19:32
  So the dancers that come from a background of like dance
• 19:35
  companies stage, they will come with an information embedded
• 19:42
  with all of these elements of the stage of the dance
• 19:48
  companies, of the performing aspects of the dance.
• 19:52
  And then if the teacher is coming from a background that is
• 19:56
  for example only purely social dancing, their information will
• 20:01
  come a lot with this aspect embedded in it.
• 20:04
  And there's also, of course the avatars that come a little bit
• 20:07
  with both. But when I started seeing.
• 20:12
  The background of the teacher and a lot where the information
• 20:16
  was coming from. I could connect with information
• 20:20
  a lot deeper and a lot more than looking at them with my eyes.
• 20:27
  I needed to put their glasses on in order to look at the
• 20:30
  information that they were convey maybe from the point of
• 20:33
  view that they are coming from. And that helped a lot to connect
• 20:37
  with several ways of seeing the dance.
• 20:40
  In conclusion, most of the times from our classes that we know
• 20:45
  each other's teaching very well, when the student asks a very
• 20:48
  specific question like is head movement this and I'm like yes,
• 20:52
  no, maybe sometimes more or less.
• 20:54
  We give the lawyers answer because depends.
• 20:57
  Yeah, because it depends on what we're doing.
• 20:59
  Sometimes, yes, we have more hip connection.
• 21:02
  Sometimes we don't need the hip connection and then so on and so
• 21:06
  forth. We could go on forever.
• 21:09
  So most of the times all can be used.
• 21:12
  All can be applied in different situations for different
• 21:16
  reasons, for different music that you're dancing with or
• 21:20
  partner that you're dancing with, high body, all of those
• 21:23
  things. In the end, learn from all of
• 21:26
  the teachers. Learn as much as you can, even
• 21:29
  from the teachers that may not directly connect with how you
• 21:32
  like to dance. Learn from them because there
• 21:34
  will be something there that you can use and then build your
• 21:38
  dance over time. Following only one teacher, I
• 21:41
  don't think that's a good thing. But learning from all of them
• 21:44
  and having an idea of what's your body type and dense type
• 21:49
  and expression type, that's what we are always trying to do and
• 21:53
  continuously reinventing, continuously reconstructing
• 21:58
  everything about our debts. So we do hope that this was
• 22:02
  helpful for you guys and we'll see you.
• 22:05
  On the next one, see you next time.
• 22:07
  Thank you, Emily, and thank you guys.
• 22:10
  Precious, precious Abrasus.