{Fear} less in the dance floor * Escape the dance of boredom * Be bold be beautiful be YOU

“I want to feel creative, I want to share the moment with my partner… Isn’t that what Tango is really about anyway…?” H

One of my students Mr. H, was really frustrated when he joined Intelligent Tango. During our welcome call, he shared his passion for Tango but also his deep disappointment of how he felt stuck, nervous, and robotic while on the dance floor.

Knowing that Tango is an improvisational dance he was hoping to be “creative and expressive” on the dance floor and able to enjoy his dances with his partner.

This is one of the biggest Tango- pains… Longing for THAT moment of freedom, for when we will be able to just dance, and be ourselves, that never comes…

Why we are not creative on the dance floor?

Most people will say that it is lack of confidence. And that is partly true… I mean, of course the more you dance the more comfortable you will get with it and therefore you will be able to enjoy it more

BUT are you going to be creative, or are you just going to be preforming more moves with ease..?
They are two very different things!

So, lets take a step back and look at the big picture, here for a moment. What do we have..?

We mostly have classes and workshops that are based either on technique or on sequences.
Personally, after having spent a few years teaching sequence-based classes and then switching over to technique-based classes, I came to realize that both are deficient in one of many ways: they are strictly instructional!

Now why is that a problem, you may wonder… we need instruction after all, no?

Yes of course we do!
At the same time though, we need a bridge from instructional, to improvisational, to spontaneous, to creative.
If we as teachers do not provide our students with that bridge they will always feel stuck in the instructional phase.
Even if they know enough sequences that they can put them together and dance a full song, they will still not feel/ be creative.

A bridge between instruction and improvisation

The first step towards improvising, towards creating is noticing

It doesn’t matter if the class is technique or sequence based, as long you start paying attention to how a movement–as it is developing–is changing your body, what it feels like, whether your senses are picking up any feedback.

The second step would be mapping or tracking that experience

It could through a mechanical tracking device…haha… a video camera. Or through a physical tracking device, your own nervous system.
Part of what our nervous system does is to record patterns.
This way you can come back to those experiences, revisit them, and see if you want to build on them or if you want repeat them.

Ok! I am feeling I need to share an example here…

This image above shows us the efficient way to walk, how our body was built to walk.
Notice on the top row  right in the middle, how the manikin’s body has a forward intention. The chest is open, the hips are back, the spine is long… Do these remind you of anything..? Tangoooo Class! haha

Notice#1: your body goes through these cues every moment of your day that you happen to take a step
Notice#2: as you are practicing your walks pay attention to all the other positions of transition
Notice#3: get a sense of how it is to walk in the way your body was build to walk
Notice#4: how does it make you feel? And how it affects your dance?

Track#1: instead of trying to confirm the rules of Tango, and what you already know, trust and dive into this with an explorative mind, let every practice make a mark in your unconscious
Track#2: Write down or share your experience with a friend in great detail
Track#3: make videos, look at yourself going through the motion without being judgemental but trying to identify the patterns of movement

How do you know it is working?
If the next time you go in, to practice on your walk, and the first thought that comes to mind is: “Remember yesterday when you did X and your walk felt like Y..?”

When you can ask yourself: Remember yesterday…?
You are on the RIGHT path!
And when you start feeling you actually have the awareness to answer: “YES! Lets explore further”
You are actually progressing towards being creative

What does being creative really mean?

Many people when they hear creative the first word that comes to mind is: FREE!

And I am one of these people..hahaha
But what does being free means?

Free doesn’t mean absence of rules. Being free means you have such a deep knowledge and such a great understanding of the rules, that you can revisit them, you can break them, you can change them and you can create your own.

As the Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen has said in her book “Sensing, feeling and Action”: “Our creativity flows out of our unconscious–an unknown giving birth to knowing as our consciousness listens. Our conscious mind can then discover the form or pattern that emerges from the unfolding of the creative process. The insight into the pattern of the process can further open and expand the awareness of unconscious expression”

As you may understand it is a beautiful dialog, between our conscious and unconscious mind. and though it seems abstract and like a long way there, it is TOTALLY worth it!

We can do it together if you want to… the only thing you need to do is to subscribe!

Hope to see you in the Bautanz Community,
Chrisa

P.S: More on getting more creative: The penultimate rules on being more creative– by James Altucher