Some years ago, I signed up for a bunch of tango classes at a respected school in my area. They had a program where you could pay one price and take as many classes as you'd like. It seemed like a good deal. I was eager to work hard and learn as much as I could.
I knew some of the teachers from previous classes, but some were unfamiliar to me. It turns out that one of them was very well known in the tango world. I didn't realize this when I signed up. I had been dancing for two or three years, but there was still a lot that I didn't know about the scene.
This particular teacher - we'll call her Miss Big Deal - attracted a lot of students to her classes. Space in the room was tight but not unmanageable.
The classes followed the standard "one sequence per week" format, where the students spend an hour learning a single, moderately intricate series of movements that are meant to be performed together. The teacher explains the sequence in chunks starting at the beginning. The unspoken objective is to get through the entire sequence by the end of the class and hopefully pick up some technical tips along the way.
This isn't my favorite format for learning - for a whole host of reason that I'll save for another blog post - but it's very common. In my experience, most classes by most teachers follow this format. As a student, you deal with it and try to learn and remember as much as you can.
A Non-Learning Experience
After years of classes, I find it fairly easy to learn a new step sequence. The teacher instructs the class to do A-B-C, so I do A-B-C. They ask us to add D-E-F, so I do. Unless one of the steps in the sequence presents a technical challenge, or unless it goes poorly with multiple partners, I tend not to ask many questions. I figure that the teacher needs to spend their time with the students who are struggling.
That said, I do appreciate when a teacher passes on an occasional tip or insight. Technique can always be improved. Ideally, the teacher will notice something that I'm doing incorrectly or ineffectively and mention or demonstrate how I might go about improving it. Even in a fairly large class, it's possible to pass on a bit of feedback to each student.
Miss Big Deal didn't offer much advice. She made no attempt to wander through the class offering suggestions to individual students.
Miss Big did spend time with couples who asked her for help directly - typically those who were having a hard time learning the sequence. I applauded her for spending time with them, but she didn't share any information from those discussions. There was no follow up announcement to clarify for the entire class a point that one or two students had raised.
On two occasions, I was able to get Miss Deal's attention. I asked her to help me understand why something wasn't working. She would motion for us to execute the sequence, watch silently for a few seconds, and then walk away without making a comment. The expression on her face was one of utter disinterest.
Seeking Answers
I probably shouldn't have wasted my time in that class, but since it was part of a package deal, I kept at it for five months. During that time I received no feedback from this teacher, none whatsoever. No feedback was offered spontaneously. No feedback was given when I asked for it.
I might have tried to ask a few more times, but there was a constant frenzy for her attention in class, particularly from a handful of people who seemed to require explanations for everything. I wondered how they managed to arrive at the school on time without her explicit direction.
Undeterred, I went to the front desk one day and asked whether I could schedule a private lesson with Miss Biggie. They informed me that Miss Deal's private lessons were booked solid for months in advance and that cancellations were rare. I couldn't even BUY feedback from this highly-regarded expert.
For The Record
The class was effectively a complete waste of my time. I forgot the sequences nearly as quickly as I learned them. There wasn't much discussion of technique as we memorized those soon to be forgotten steps. Occasionally, she would mention a mistake to avoid. Corrective feedback was of course, non-existent. I didn't even see her offering words of encouragement.
In all fairness to Miss Big Deal, however, I would like to mention a more positive experience. I took a weekend seminar with her a few months later. The information presented was well organized and helped me increase my understanding of tango significantly. I didn't receive any feedback, of course, but it was still a valuable educational experience.
The Importance Of Giving Feedback
I give feedback to every one of my students in every single class.
Why? Because I care about their progress. Because I want them to become better dancers quickly and directly, not haphazardly. Because I want them to get some value for the time and money and effort that they have invested into their time with me.
I let each student know, in a gentle and supportive way, where their weaknesses are and where they'll need to focus their efforts in order to improve.
I try to catch students in the act of making a mistake, even if I have to ask them to repeat a movement a few times. I want them to understand the problem as it occurs in real time.
I'll demonstrate the proper technique side by side with the way that they were doing it. I want the difference to be absolutely clear in their minds so they know WHAT they'll need to practice and WHY it's important.
Feedback is absolutely critical to the learning process. Why do people take classes for years and not make much progress? It's probably due to a lack of feedback. If you don't know what you're doing wrong, you're not going to fix it.
If you want to be happily mediocre for the rest of your life, don't bother to look at the details. Just keep doing what you've always done. But if you really want to improve, the quickest and most effective way is to address your weaknesses.
Feedback is a big deal. I'm not a big deal. I don't have private lessons booked solid for months in advance. But I know that I have helped every student who has walked into one of my classes with even a modest desire to improve to do so. I coached them, I encouraged them, and I helped them to become a better dancer than they were when they walked in the door that day. That might not be a big deal, but it's good enough for me.
¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!
Daniel
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