Speed up your learning

I know! You want to learn without effort and you want to know right away.

Who doesn’t?

Unfortunately there is no magic formula that will help you speed up your learning process. But I have good news for you: there are some things you can do to learn faster.

These 6 recommendations can help speed up your learning: you may like them or hate them – it’s up to you. Years of teaching experience proved me that if you respect the process your path from beginners classes to milongas will be much shorter.

No-shortcuts approach

When he decided to take private class with me he’s been dancing for 2 years already. He knew a lot and yet, on the dance floor he could barely move. All he could do was walking, ochos – and some occasional volcada.

“I know I can do more, but when I’m dancing with someone for the first time I just freeze”, he said.

When I asked him to show me what he really knows, I was left speechless. Colgadas, volcadas, some crazy ganchos and sacadas… When I asked him to lead his partner in back cross, he was struggling. It was clear: he never done it before.

You can guess, he invested 2 years to practice steps that he could barely use in crowded milonga and with unfamiliar partner. I knew exactly what he needs. We worked for 3 hours on some very simple steps like back cross, cross and ocho cortado.

One has to pay attention to the usability of steps he learns, that can completely transform his dancing. He later told me that this saved him from quitting tango. And he was not the only one: I had several other similar experiences.

This is just a part of what beginners must know. It’s not the complex steps or technique that is challenge – it is the impatience. People want to advance well before they’re really ready.

1. Dance at least 8 hours a week

The popular belief is that in order to become a master in something one has to spend 10.000 hours of practicing it. Of course, you don’t have to become a master, but if you want to become a good dancer you have to spend hours and hours of doing… practicing and dancing.

There is just no way around that.

Why is that important? Our brains are able to adapt… it’s called neuroplasticity. As the scientist David Eagleman says the brain is basically like a potatoman, so you can attach to it whatever you like – just give it enough time and practice to adapt.

For example, he attached a camera signal to a vest and a blind man started to see, just feeling the impulses on his back. The brain needed a period of practice to start recognizing patterns.

Other example for this is the astronauts training to use the robotic arm on the International Space Station. They spend hours and hours in the simulator so the brain starts to recognize the robotic arm as part of their body. Check out how they train.

The same process apply for the tango dancers. One of the keys to good dancing is the communication. It’s basically the same thing to what astronauts do – we train our brains to feel the partner as a part of our own body. You practice for hours so the communication becomes natural – there is no conscious process to interrupt it, it goes directly from the center of communication with the partner to our body, without going trough our consciousness. This is how we achieve to dance with our heart and not with our mind – to feel, not to think.

I consider the improvement of communication the biggest benefit of the hours spent dancing, but it also helps with musicality, body-mind coordination etc.

Dancing is a complex task for the brain. In order for you to enjoy it has to become subconscious process. Learning to dance is like learning to ride a bicycle: your legs have to turn the pedals, your body to control the balance, your arms have to turn the wheel, you have to coordinate the wheel movement with the balance change, your eyes have to pay attention to what is in front of you, your brain have to navigate….

In the beginning it was a task that took a lot of effort, but as you become more experienced, the process become instinctive. Today you can ride a bicycle with one hand and chat with a friend on your mobile with the other. It feels as the vehicle is an extension of your own body.

Dancing 8 hours means visiting at least 2 milongas and 2 practicas or classes a week and being active, dancing at least 50% of the time.

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2. Know what your goal is

99% of us learn tango as a social dance. This means you have to focus to learn things which will be useful to you in social conditions, on the dance floor, not on stage.

Many of my students watch videos of show dancers and get instant urge to learn how to do that fancy movements they see.

If you want to learn fast you have to make calculation how much energy and time you want to invest in learning. Are you sure you want to invest a month practicing step that you’ll use only once or twice on every milonga? Don’t you think that it’s better to invest that time and energy to learn something that will have much more influence on your dancing? Something like improving the musicality or getting better with reading your partner?

Of course, steps are important, but working on something easy first is smarter. It’s like an investment – ask yourself what are you willing to invest and what is the benefit?

When you learn new steps you will see that some are more usable at the dance floor than others. Value and practice them more often, those are the bones and the muscles of your dance – the others are just the cosmetics.

It’s also important when you take classes and learn new steps to try to use them right away. There is no point in learning if you do not implement. Learning tango isn’t a process of gathering knowledge – it’s a process of enriching your dancing.

Think of it as a painting – it does not matter if you have all the colors of the world on your palette, if you do not put them on the canvas.

3. Watch and learn

Every child in the world knows how to play football or some other game – and they never took classes to learn it. How is that possible? Because we are creatures that learn just by watching.

In order to do that our brain uses something called mirror neurons. Children learn by mimicking, adults as well. Scientist call this ability visuomotor transformation, namely, the ability “to transform the observed visual information into internal motor commands that will allow them to perform the motor task”.

Yes, this means that if you give people enough time to watch and practice, they will learn tango even without a teacher.

You think that is impossible? That is how tango was learned in The Golden Age. That was partly my learning path as well.

On the other hand, there is a great confusion about should people learn from videos? It’s because people have wrong mindset about what they see. In order to be able to learn from watching you have to watch exactly what you want to learn.

This means that if you want to be able to dance well on milonga – you need to watch how people are dancing at milongas, and not admiring show dancers performing for the audience. Maybe it’s the same tango and the same music, but there is a different purpose and there is difference in what and how they do it.

I do not like when my students watch or post videos from tango celebrities dancing show. Of course, many of them tell me “but we are aware that it is just a show, we dance differently on milongas”. Maybe they are aware, but the mirror neurons are not. There is a truth in the saying “monkey see – monkey do” – you brain learns from what you watch, no matter do you like it or not.

4. Respect the process

You need to accept that no matter how hard you practice, how much energy you invest, how good your teacher is – it will take time to become a good dancer. Do not jump over steps in the process.

What does it means? That you have to focus on what and where you are in this moment. The better you learn what you do now, the better dancer you’ll be tomorrow.

You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say ‘I’m gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid,’ and you do that every single day, and soon you have a wall. – Will Smith

Lay your bricks with joy and attention. The most important thing in tango is not what you do, but how you do it. Do your simple steps the best you can, and soon you’ll become a great dancer, soon you will have your wall.

Yes, there will be set-backs. Yes, there will be disappointments. Yes, there will be moments when you’ll think on giving up. Please, be aware that those are normal part of the learning process. This applies especially if you are very passionate and impatient to learn.

Over the years I’ve seen many students going from glory to despair, from darkness to glowing. Tango is an emotional journey and you have to be able to manage your inner battles. I recommend you to talk to your teachers, to your partners, or write me a message explaining your disappointment. I am sure I can help you.

5. Dance with good dancers

Easier said than done?

Not always. Good dancers can’t be good if they’re not givers. These people are most of the time willing to help and guide beginners – if you approach them in a right way.

First, whatever you do, please be aware that they came to tango to enjoy and socialize. They do not have obligation to help you or dance with you. Be thankful! Show them your gratitude.

Or course, there is this unwritten rule that advanced dancers from time to time have to dance with beginners, as a sort of social responsibility, but usually there’re many beginners and few advanced dancers.

Second, be determined. Advanced dancers like to help people with ambition to learn and those who show that will not give up no matter what. There is nothing worse than helping someone who will give up.

Third, don’t expect them to dance with you when they have option to dance with better partners. This means you have to show up at milongas early on, when there is no competition. You can also invite them to come to practica to help you.

Fourth, if nothing else works, you can offer some of the advanced dancers some kind of payment. Private class or private practica is a great way to improve your dancing. Pay attention to practice with different partners and not to learn the same patterns.

In my own practica I try to dance with all of my students as much as I can. This helps them learn and motivates them to endure during the periods of frustrations and disappointments.

6. Be curious

I have to congratulate you. The fact that you read this article means that you’re curious. I can ensure you from my own experience, the fastest learners are those who are active.

The role of your teacher is not to get you to the destination: he/she just have to show you the right door, it is your job to enter.

Take responsibility for your learning process. Be loyal to your school and teacher, but don’t be scared to visit others as well. I always say to my students to check out every option they have, to act on their instincts about what might help them. Tango is a journey and you have to find your own path.

Curiosity also means that you have to read a lot. We are not Argentinians. We do not feel the beat of Buenos Aires from the Golden Age. There is a huge influence of the African dances in tango – but tango was not born in Africa. Most of the tango musicians have Italian ancestry, but tango was not first played in Italy. It was Argentina and Uruguay, it was Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

Try to understand that culture and to feel that spirit. Learn something about the history and the origins. If you don’t know Spanish, learn some – it will be valuable skill in your tango development.

If yo think that this post can help beginners in your community, please share it. If someone told me this when I first started, it would have saved me months and frustrations.