--- On Tue, 7/5/11, Chris, UK <t...@chrisjj.com> wrote:
>
> I note this list of the points that "most people can judge
> themselves"
> doesn't include being able to dance to the music.
Correct. The average social dancer thinks that just being on the beat is
dancing to the music.
> In my experience the advanced (or even average) social
> dancer is most
> definitely NOT fine with 12+ count sequences. He/she abhors
> such stuff.
> 12+ count sequences are for poor dancers with good memory.
You miss my point. If you've studied cognitive memory, then you're aware that
people have short term memories of 5 plus/minus 2 chunks of information. These
chunks get bigger as experience and muscle memory grow. Thus, a 12+ count
sequence only becomes about 2 or 3 chunks, still leaving plenty of room to
accomodate more chunks of information. The average social dancer usually can't
handle more than a 4-6 count figures.
At an advanced workshop, the advanced dancers are obvious. The teacher shows a
new figure once or twice. The advanced dancers immediately try to copy the
movements and work out how to do it on their own. The teachers actually does
very little compared to intermediate or beginning workshops. Mostly these
workshops show a new way of thinking about things, not new figures. That's
usually the point of these long sequences.
If this is not your experience, then I would think that the "advanced"
workshops you've seen aren't really "advanced" workshops. Or you may not have
seen just what advanced dancers are capable of.
Trini de Pittsburgh
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