Session 6 and half-time

I've entered this session with confidence - after all I managed to practice some of the moves back home using some Salsa tunes. Surely all I need to do is basic recall combined with sense of rhythm.

However this session turned out to be quite different. Tis time the tutor put up some fast and furious Salsa rhythms which we've never danced to before. It daunted to me that this is the real speed in which Salsa is actully practised and a demo at the end did confirm my suspicion.
During the class this created a serious problem in that I (and others) had extreme difficultes in squeezing our moves within the beats of the music; getting out of the rhythm and trying to get back into repeatedly wasn't my sense of fun. Because everything needed to be rushed there was also the odd untidyness of the moves creeping into the dancing.
Progress was slow and at times frustrating but towards the end I managed to get a glimps of some aspects of higher level Salsa dancing:

• that the man is in control and must lead the partner into the variations
• getting the moves into the rhythm pattern for more than a few seconds does create a sense of 'flow', an experience not too dissimilar to the one a surfer has when he gathers speed (provided there is enough wind) and skim 'on top of' the waves.

It is this sensation of 'flow' which hopefully will keep me going during the second half - I want more of it and I want it longer ...

Unlearning for learning - sessions 4 and 5

The first three sessions had instilled a degree of self confidence which comes when you are in love with something new and exciting and you manage reasonably well.
Session 4 brought me down to earth. Although I thought that I had understood the basic pattern of the movements and their relation to the beat of the music I became badly unstuck by a particular horrid move involving what looked like a straightforward spin underneath the dancing partners arm.
Despite attempting it many time over it somehow did not feel right somehow. Over and over I failed to recognise that it wasn't the move itself which I was doing wrong but the timing of the turn itself (which I was doing two beats too early). Unfortunately this did not become apparent to me during the entire fourth session leading me to practice at home what was essentially incorrect.

At the beginning of session 5 I asked the techer for clarification on this particular move and then it daunted to me how it worked, realising that I had to quickly unlearn what I had practised for a few days and relearn the correct version..
This 'EUREKA' moment was quite special but it did take me quite some time after the class to get the correct move into my long-term memory (LTM) after which I felt a particular sense of relieve.
Which demonstrates another aspect of learning:
Be prepared to take a step back, reflect on and question what you've learnt, ask for clarification from the expert(s) and be prepared to unlearn what you have done wrong and relearn. It may take extra effort but it is normal part of learning, enabling you to gain a richer experience in the process, which will then feed into the next level of learning experience.

Moving Forward - Sessions two and three

The sense of novelty has subsided when I showed up for the second session. The practising of the basic moves back home has paid off in the sense that movements with music and partner where nicely in tune and performed in what could approximate a confident manner.
A variation of the initial basic steps was demonstrated by the tutor and, via copying its execution worked reasonably well - the entire evening felt rather enjoyable.
In session three another variation of the basic 4 step move was introduced which when applied in my own moves felt rather ackward. It was near impossible to synchronise the movments with the music which became very frustrating.
The teacher tried to explain what happened but by sheer copying it still did not make sense - I just failed to get back into the rhythm properly.
Until I noticed that one of the four steps has actually disappeared - becoming only a rudimentary (aborted) relic (just like the pelvic bones in a whale). After reflecting on this and making some adjustments everything fell in place - and the moves sychronised with the beat - didn't it feel great.
The outcome of this was that for the first time the learning process moved up a level from pure copying to reflection and problem-solving.
For the first time I realised that there was a fundamental principle in this dance and the accompnying music a discovery which I hope will be applicable to all subsequent moves we're going to learn.
Let's find out whether this holds true.

Learning process - step 1: Copying or rote learning

The first session has begun - the intial warm up and then the first task (no theory, nothing) - just One-two-three-four...
Only four simple but unnatural steps. Full concentration is required to follow the teacher in her agile movements. Every one of my moves looks clumsy and the steps taken are far too big. Confidence - no.
Then some Salsa music is played and off we go - not really. Things are not getting any easier - matching steps with the pace of the rhythms appears a huge hurdle to jump.
But after a few minutes I find that the music (if played slowly) actually helps to synchronise the steps and somehow there is a bit more flow in the movements, although without guidance from the tutor it would not work.
Final task: grab a partner and try to string the four steps together with the added pressure of 'leading' the moves. Now this is a completely different situation - the element of group work (if only two) brings in a new level of complexity if not anxiety, not eased by the fact that the partners change every few minutes.
The stress makes one loose one's concentration of what has been learned only 10 minutes ago. Obviously what has been learnt has not yet been transmitted to the long-term memory. Is this caused by some sort of examination/performance stress?
This is the first big hurdle of the session and some participants do not cope and will not return for the next class.
I'm not sure what makes me persevere - I do enjoy the music and the moves separatly but putting it together with a partner is quite stressful. However towards the end of the class things do improve and a sense of confidence if not a quaint sense of achievement sets in. The outcome is still not brilliant but the foundations have been laid - the rest will come.
Clearly this little plant needs nurturing in the form of practising back home - peer pressure from the dancing partners is too great to leave it at this level.
On the same evening YouTube will be searched for good 'Salsa' tunes and a couple of clips will emerge and played back over and over again - let's dance ... one, two, three, four ...

Learning Challenge - The choice

Initially numerous activities went through my head: what can it be: kite flying, cooking course, pottery, ....
After some reflection it occured to me that the Learning Challenge had to be rooted in one's life interests, in order to remain within a reasonable comfort zone of learning, and to ensure that there is a reasonable chance of attainment, and as an added bonus an element of fun.

Searching and reflecting on my existing skills one aspect clearly stood out - my existing sense of rhythm. I have been playing the African Djembe drum for about three years now and found it both relaxing and refreshing. Maybe something around that theme may be fit the bill.
Reflecting further I remembered that during my recent stay at a 5 day World Music festival where participatory workshops were offered I attended (in addition to the usual Djembe drumming classes) a Samba music workshop where we were able to explore a number of different instruments. The rhythms felt good but I noticed that I was not really able to move my body i tune with the beat something which annoyed me as it held me back to completely 'loosen up' during the sessions.
That clearly needed some attention but then I remembered that it was more than 30 years ago that I had my last formal dance lessons and my memories of that were not entirely positive.
So there was my comfort zone barrier which would in another circumstace most likely have prohibited me from engaging in this learning activity. But this is different and after all it is meant to be a Challenge so let's rise to it.
And the idea was borne: why not attempting to have a go at some Latin dancing, Samba or anything related.
The rest was easy - exploring the local Yellow Pages on the Web identified a suitably local venue offering 'Salsa for Beginners'. That sure had to be it - and isn't the music just fantastic (see below).

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Learning about Learning

As someone who has been working in Higher Education for many years as a lecturer one is usually concerned about the quality of one's own teaching often focussing on the feedback obtained by the learners.
Consequently one often forgets to pay attention of the process of learning itself. Due to their professional qualifications and scholarly practice teachers and lecturers tend to learn 'informally' without paying attention to what works and what does not, for them or others. They also tend to take learning for granted - after all it is an integral part of their job.
As part of my studies for an MSc in e-Learning at Edinburgh University on a module called 'Understanding Learning in the Online Environment' participants have been asked to undertake what has been termed a 'Learning Challenge'.
This challenge consisted of a learning task over which we did not have an entirely free choice though; the Course Tutor imposed that the Challenge should not be of an academic nature but rather involve a 'motor skill' like juggling , playing an instrument or learning a new sport - not an easy task if you are an 'intellectual'.
The reason for this constraint imposed by the tutor was for us to explore learing opportunities and processes outsise out immediate comfort zone in order to find out how far we were prepared to 'venture out'.
How big is my 'confort zone', what are my constraints in trying out skills outside my normal life routine.
After some initial panicking calm set in allowing some reflection on the way forward. Where is the base from which I will venture out.?
Could my background in African drumming open up new learning opportunities?