In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.
-Shunryu Suzuki
So many times I meet people who are daunted by the sheer infinity of possibilities in tango. (Hurray! for improvised dance.) Leaders bewildered by what step they should take next, racking their brains for steps they shouldn’t remember. Followers stuffed so full of combinations that they can’t distinguish a pause for being just that, a pause. Fear, frustration, anger.
Pour quoi?
Because the prevalent method of teaching is through the demonstration and repetition of steps, sequences, phrases… Throwing as many combinations as humanly possible at the dancers in the hope that something will stick and some will stay.
The beginner comes to believe that to be expert is to know many. The beginner is annoyed that they cannot remember all the sequences. Perhaps the expert does know many, but their skill comes in seeing few, to dismissing the unselected to the periphery of their vision, silencing their chatter and concentrating on the task in hand. Of being able to see the trees for the wood.
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ADDENDUM
Don’t think yourself expert, but that you may become so.
-Monsieur L’Abbat
The Art of Fencing
1734
I know that I have many miles to go before being expert is even on the horizon. But in my position I am expected to be able to see both the wood and the trees it is composed of. To know that north is the side of the tree that moss grows on when the tree has moss on all sides. To know that even the shortest journey begins with a single step…