Monday, June 14, 2004

The right way to teach

Interesting post (click on the link above) about how to teach salsa, emphasising the importance of repetition. He's absolutely right: even teachers who basically have a good teaching technique hardly ever drill sequences enough. I think it's no surprise that some of the best salsa teachers have a sports background so they know something of the theory of how we learn physical routines.

One thing I'd disagree with is the suggestion that 'it doesn't matter how long the sequence is'. Maybe he means 'within reason' - I once saw an idiot 'teaching' a sequence that was over 20 eight-beat (two-bar) measures long. Some teachers seem to thing that long sequences are OK cos 'you can just pick up the moves you like out of the sequence', but I think this is a very inefficient and wasteful way of teaching. Saul suggested once on the salsacity forum that teachers should teach advanced lessons that just consist of _one_ move, taught in detail, and I'd have to agree with him.

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