Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Contra dance in Kyoto, and other news
It has been a long time since I have posted here, mostly because my computer was down and because I didn't have the time. Diving right in, I have great news: Yukie and my dream of starting a contra dance here in Kyoto seems to be on the verge of really happening. We are going to be teaching a mini contradance workshop at a festival here in kyoto. I even have started a website devoted to the project...but it is just a working model, and the link may change.
Last week we held a trial workshop for the festival staff, and it went great. Unlike all our fears about how it would go, they were all over it, laughing and giggling so hard I had to calm them down so they could follow the directions. The language barrier was not a big problem with Yukie helping. This group was quite proficient in English, so I was lucky in that regard. I got to practice giving clear directions and noticing what kinds of misunderstandings ensued, and it was much as I expected from many years dancing. But I did learn some new things. I really owe Yukie a great deal for insisting that I pick the music out beforehand, and knowing how many potatoes to give.
For one, I observed how a mistake can become ingrained after only one instance, and how hard it is to undo it from that point on. "Walk backwards", and they walk forward. Repeat, speaking slowly. Same result. Touch them lightly on the shoulder, and guide them backwards while saying "walk backwards". Let go and say "walk backwards" and watch them walk forwards. Repeat. On the fifth try, he got it. This is not a criticism or put down of that person. It is human nature, and happens to everyone at some point. This is a cousin of the "other right" problem. (Of course, usually at a dance a caller would not have devoted so much time to correcting one person, but since there were only a few people, and we were training them to help teach others, there was a particular impetus to leaving that person well taught.)
But, too, sometimes there is another kind of lesson to be learned from this "persistence of error". I reminded one dancer a few times about ending a swing (a.k.a. two hand turn) with the lady on his right, when later after the dance he asked me isn't this just when you are swinging your partner. I realized he had misconstrued from a particular situation in a certain dance to a general rule. I mean I had attempted to explain it generally, but he had, perhaps naturally, perhaps because of language differences, applied it to just one dance.
As much as it would be nice if our human bodies and senses and brains communicated as smoothly and responsively as they were supposed to all the time, sometimes the inner gaps show through.
I also learned, or was given feedback that a circle 3/4 seems to be more difficult for beginners than a ladies chain, against my own personal intuition.
One thing that was very satisfying was the ooh of appreciation when I showed them how to smoothly go from a right hand star to a right left through. You could see the scales lifting from their eyes. Ah, how beautifully this all fits together!
The acutal gig may be different though, cause there will be a lot of children attending. I will have to do much simpler dances, but we have many to work from but it was a very good beginning, especially coming as it did two days before Yukie's birthday. Our first seedlings seem to be sprouting!!!
Speaking of which, our deaf friends Fumiko and Yasuo, are teaching us farming at the plot, and we have planted some spinach and carrots. We planted them a few weeks ago, and this weekend we went to see our sprouts for the first time and to do some weeding. They are doing really well, and it was very exciting, as was helping cut some branches off a cinnamon tree and harvesting some bark for our own fresh cinnamon sticks.
Yukie just came home and I must give the birthday girl my full attentions...
Last week we held a trial workshop for the festival staff, and it went great. Unlike all our fears about how it would go, they were all over it, laughing and giggling so hard I had to calm them down so they could follow the directions. The language barrier was not a big problem with Yukie helping. This group was quite proficient in English, so I was lucky in that regard. I got to practice giving clear directions and noticing what kinds of misunderstandings ensued, and it was much as I expected from many years dancing. But I did learn some new things. I really owe Yukie a great deal for insisting that I pick the music out beforehand, and knowing how many potatoes to give.
For one, I observed how a mistake can become ingrained after only one instance, and how hard it is to undo it from that point on. "Walk backwards", and they walk forward. Repeat, speaking slowly. Same result. Touch them lightly on the shoulder, and guide them backwards while saying "walk backwards". Let go and say "walk backwards" and watch them walk forwards. Repeat. On the fifth try, he got it. This is not a criticism or put down of that person. It is human nature, and happens to everyone at some point. This is a cousin of the "other right" problem. (Of course, usually at a dance a caller would not have devoted so much time to correcting one person, but since there were only a few people, and we were training them to help teach others, there was a particular impetus to leaving that person well taught.)
But, too, sometimes there is another kind of lesson to be learned from this "persistence of error". I reminded one dancer a few times about ending a swing (a.k.a. two hand turn) with the lady on his right, when later after the dance he asked me isn't this just when you are swinging your partner. I realized he had misconstrued from a particular situation in a certain dance to a general rule. I mean I had attempted to explain it generally, but he had, perhaps naturally, perhaps because of language differences, applied it to just one dance.
As much as it would be nice if our human bodies and senses and brains communicated as smoothly and responsively as they were supposed to all the time, sometimes the inner gaps show through.
I also learned, or was given feedback that a circle 3/4 seems to be more difficult for beginners than a ladies chain, against my own personal intuition.
One thing that was very satisfying was the ooh of appreciation when I showed them how to smoothly go from a right hand star to a right left through. You could see the scales lifting from their eyes. Ah, how beautifully this all fits together!
The acutal gig may be different though, cause there will be a lot of children attending. I will have to do much simpler dances, but we have many to work from but it was a very good beginning, especially coming as it did two days before Yukie's birthday. Our first seedlings seem to be sprouting!!!
Speaking of which, our deaf friends Fumiko and Yasuo, are teaching us farming at the plot, and we have planted some spinach and carrots. We planted them a few weeks ago, and this weekend we went to see our sprouts for the first time and to do some weeding. They are doing really well, and it was very exciting, as was helping cut some branches off a cinnamon tree and harvesting some bark for our own fresh cinnamon sticks.
Yukie just came home and I must give the birthday girl my full attentions...
Labels: contra, garden, life in japan
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