When I began to study Argentine Tango, I tried to remember the step sequences that the teacher presented in each class. I thought that it would be useful to keep a library of "official tango steps" in my head. I pictured myself recalling these sequences at the milonga and dancing with ease.
That plan didn't work out so well.
Despite my best efforts, I would forget most of the class material after about four weeks. This was frustrating. I questioned why I was paying for classes when I wasn't going to remember the material.
Unfortunately, my inability to memorize was only part of the problem. The sequences that I did manage to remember didn't always work well on a crowded dance floor. This opened up additional concerns. Why was I trying to remember steps that didn't work in the real world? Was there a way to translate what I was learning to the milonga?
Seeing The Big Picture
Eventually, I realized that the step sequences themselves were not the primary objective. They were designed not as official movements of Argentine Tango but rather a examples through which I would learn technique and principles.
While I was focusing the bulk of my energy on memorizing steps, I wasn't giving enough attention to navigation, musical interpretation, and the all-important technical fundamentals. I would need to devote hard work to these areas later.
Deconstruction
It's useful to have some sequences ready to go. Even the world's top performers work out sequences in advance and practice them to repeatedly in order to work out all of the technical ideas. But I found that I learned much more when I began to deconstruct sequences into smaller components of movement.
For example, visualize a moderately long sequence that comprises twelve steps for both the leader and follower. (For simplicity, imagine that the step remains in parallel system and for every step that the leader takes, the follower takes a step at the same time.)
We might be able to break this sequence up into smaller chunks of movement. Perhaps each chunk has three steps each (3 steps - 3 steps - 3 steps - 3 steps). Or some other subdivision might make more sense (3 steps - 4 steps - 2 steps - 3 steps).
Each chunk can be performed on its own. This opens up several interesting possibilities.
Going for the Slam Chunk
Here are some advantages of visualizing long sequences as a series of shorter, independent chunks.
Firstly, we can create new sequences by re-sequencing the chunks in different ways. If our original sequence was chunks 1 through 4, we might be able to rearrange them in a different order (Chunk 1, Chunk 4, Chunk 3, Chunk 2, for instance). Or we can blend in chunks from other sequences that we have learned.
Secondly, floor navigation becomes much more flexible when we thing in terms of small chunks. We no longer feel compelled to execute the entire sequence as we learned it. We can start with Chunk 1 and stop when we run into traffic. Later, we might try Chunk 2 followed by Chunk 4 if space allows. Maybe we'll do Chunk 3 in the next song. The possibilities are limitless.
Finally, it won't be long before we notice that certain chunks show up again and again in sequence after sequence. For instance, the follower might step Back Cross - Open Side - Forward Cross while the leader steps Forward Cross - Pause - Sacada to the forward step. This chunk comes up frequently. When we recognize it, it makes it easier for us to remember sequences. We can group sequences into subset depending on their component chunks.
Creative Perception
The important idea here is not to think of the original sequence as immutable. Rather think of it as an organized collection of material that we can analyze and combine in creative ways.
¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!
Daniel
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