Sunday, February 08, 2004
Learning
A couple of weeks ago, after spending half an hour hounding me to stop over-turning and just actually follow his lead, Dance Partner mentioned, "you might have noticed I'm a bit of an asshole when we're dancing." And he is. As we were leaving the YMCA I told him I’d rather be needled into improvement than affirmed into mediocrity. (Actually, I was too tired to express myself that clearly. What I really said was, "I'd rather be good than half-assed," he leered and said that wasn't a problem, I accused him of insulting the size of my ass. No no, he said, he's a scientist, he means what he says, and even someone with half an ass could in fact have a large ass, while someone could have a whole tiny ass. Whatever, I said, for I had no decent comeback. This is how we interact when we're not nitpicking each other's form/missteps.)
Anyway, Dance Partner's more of a perfectionist and a control freak than I am. It's the reason I think we'll do well at SUDA and IVDA, or at least not totally make fools of ourselves. We're not going to Sheffield this weekend because he's been called in to work Saturday. I'm relieved both to be able to get started on some essays instead, and to have our routines more cemented before we compete.
Today Gillian was working on my "outward projection", which basically involves stretching my left side, and rolling my pelvis forward. I used to think waltz and other ballroom dances were all chaste, but no. It's all very dirrrty, with three rs, it just looks elegant. After an hour or so, I was getting better but she'd still make us stop every few steps and fix my alignment. She said, "you're going to start to hate me," but really, quite the contrary. I'm very grateful she's fixing my form. Apparently dancing with me now approaches driving a sports car. An MG, not a Ferrari, so there's still room for improvement. I had no reply at all to that.
Two things struck me in the past week or so about how I learn, not just while dancing. First, regardless of subject matter I learn better from people who teach well and who really care about what they're teaching -- to quote City Comforts Blog, "I [have] seized like a dog on the convenient bone that it is better to take the teacher, not the subject." Second, I much prefer teachers who are exacting and expect those being taught to learn quickly, and it doesn't matter if that also means they seem to others to be patronising assholes. Someone with as high expectations for me as those I have for myself is more likely to push me beyond any stupid limits of laziness or inertia.
