Together we win

At UMass, it was the Thursday before MIT Open 2006 comp - the last day of practicing for the last comp of the year. I had spent almost the whole day in Totman, little for my own practices and mostly for working with others. Throughout the day people were walking in and out for practices. We all knew this was the last chance and we wanted to give it our best shot.

Toward the end of the day I was exhausted and so were the remaining dancers there: Paul, Lindsay, Big Jackie, Aliki, Clayton, and Dana. They were working on latin/rhythm dances and I was trying my best to give them some last minute pointers, though I knew that we can't change a lot now so close to the comp. I was out of ideas and wasn't sure what more I could do for them. At that moment something magical happened, or rather, started happening. Paul and Aliki were dancing and others were resting. Suddenly they started cheering for Paul and Aliki, and not just any "normal" cheering, but really pushing them to go full energy (including some explicitness, which I won't describe here!). They encouraged Aliki to look up and realize how hot she was and it worked like a miracle. I had been trying hard to make Aliki do the same, but was never successful and now without any of my "pep talks", she was doing what I would have loved her to do all along!

They got exhausted and as they rested another couple got on the "floor" and the rest of the two couples cheered them the same way. As I also participated in this elevating cheering, the trend continued couple after couple. Suddenly at the end of the day in that foyer, there was a high rise in the energy. Suddenly they all forgot their pains and exhaustion and really danced like they meant it! I watched everyone in awe - in a way they are competing against each other, but here they were - supporting each other, realizing that more than anything, they are fellow dancers and there is no better way of being a better dancer than to help and inspire other dancers. And may be they didn't realize this, but I could see the result of that wonderful practice at MIT comp. They all did awesome dancing.

I had hardly any role to play in this, but as a leader and a teacher, there's nothing better I can expect to do to others than to make them independent, make them aware of their abilities and talents. This incident taught me a lot and I hope others also learn something from this. Ballroom dancing is not just about being individually good; it's about working together with fellow dancers and getting better together. Nobody loses in this, it's a win-win situation.

Now I'm away from this amazing team where such miracles used to happen, but from such an experience (and many other), I feel very confident that my beloved team would keep having such magical moments.

Teaching vs. training/Teacher vs. coach

I can identify two streams in ballroom dancing; one can actually argue that they are true in most of the sports. These two streams are teaching and coaching. While many times they are connected and difficult to distinguish from each other, we often find a very strong evidence for either of them and absent of the other.

Teaching is what is found most of the venues and times. I won't try to define teaching, but hopefully as I talk more about training and coaching, the difference and definitions should become clearer. I believe most of the studios and schools mainly focus on teaching for the most part and do very little on the training aspect. Teaching ususally involves introducing new material - steps, dances, or techniques - or revising and practicing already learned material. Training, on the other hand, shapes a dancer for that material. Training may not even involve any kind of dancing. Doing Yoga and Pilate could be part of training that would help a dancer shape his body, but doesn't teach anything about the dances that he would eventually be performing.

A coach differs from a teacher in the similar way. He would focus more on the training of the athlete than simply teaching him stuff or helping with the practices. Now we can all look to our own classes and practices and evaluate for ourselves if we are being taught or trained; if we have teachers or coaches. Once again, these things may be interconnected, but to the least, we could find out what are the proportions of these different parts. I believe for a serious competitive dancer, training on top of teaching and coaching in addition to teaching, is absolutely necessary.

Ballerina and Ballroom

There are two clear groups that I can identify among ballerinas: those who love doing ballroom and those who want to stay away from it. The former group is easy to understand. Those who have done ballet for a reasonable amount of time in their lives, would naturally be able to understand some of the basic concepts of ballroom such as how to be balanced, how to look graceful, how to do pretty arms, etc. The other group consists of those who got sick of doing "too much ballet". They now want to break out of it and do the booty-shaking dances, viz., latin.

Ballerinas also face different issues while training for ballroom. You don't have to worry about teaching them the beauty, grace, and balance parts of ballroom, which are very difficult for others. However, ballerinas don't easily accept the idea of depending on someone for the movements. Their training has taught them to be independent and thus, the whole partnership idea and being led by somebody would make them uncomfortable. Once they get over these issues, there is no holding back for them!