Dance: Where do you find yourself in this "six steps of learning Tango"? (and dance and talent)

There are many ways people learn Tango and make progress toward being decent Tango dancers.

But Tango is also like riding a bicycle. You can ride a bicycle or you cannot. There is a point where you show you can dance Tango. Before you reach the point you cannot or do not, although you may not want to admit it.


Here I propose six steps of learning Tango toward decent social Tango dancers.


Everyone is a beginner at first. Nobody can dance Tango at the beginning.


Step (1): Learn six basics (standing on an axis [+pivot +embellishments +gaze], walking, front ocho, back ocho, cross, and giro) and axis-based step-by-step lead-follow 

  These are the basics of Argentine Tango that were covered in my "Beginning Argentine Tango" book. Although I do think they should be fine to get a beginner started, actually, there is still a long way to go. At this point it is like using third wheel for bicycle. Few can really dance Tango.


Step (2): Practice the basics in front of a mirror and make your moves smooth

  How they are done makes huge difference.


Step (3): Learn patterns.

  Tango has 100+ years of history and has many recognized patterns that make Tango dancing look like Tango. Each pattern is made of 6-12 count moves. These many patterns include; Sacada, back sacada, chain step, parada, barrida, same-axis spin, gancho, enganche, entanglement .... you can find plenty of patterns online and in workshops. Take your time. Your knowledge on Tango is important, too. 

  You'd know these patterns are mostly made of modules of basics. For example, a back sacada uses "a step-in, pivot, and step backward" motion, which is a part of basic giro. Once you can see these, you can catch on the patterns quicker.


Step (4): Learn to dance the patterns slow and precise, with good-looking posture.

  Use mirror or filming. This is a minimum requirement to be an instructor who needs to demonstrate moves while looking good. Teacher/provider and student/consumer see things very differently. Try to have the teacher's viewpoint.


Step (5): Learn to dance the patterns fast, also with precision and good-looking posture.

  Use mirror or filming. Once step (5) is learned, you should be able to use "energy" lead/follow. You are cultivating your muscle memory/subconscious dance response.

  However, muscle memory alone is notorious among professional musicians. Pros know that muscle memory alone is unreliable and can crumble under pressure, as in a solo concert situation. Musical interpretation, a brain work, needs to be combined to grow good and usable muscle memory. This slow/fast learning exercise is to get your brain involved and get you prepared for step (6).


Step (6): Learn to break down the patterns to smaller segments, and combine fast and slow, not only doing all slow or all fast as in steps (4) and (5).

 With this, you'll improve phrasing of your movements, and practice musical interpretation. You'll know the switching requires adequate deceleration and acceleration (brake and gas). Parada(stop) is the brake move used to change energy flow.




By this time you should look to be a decent social Tango dancer. Carry on.



Your innate talent can be defined by the (shorter) time to go through these steps. The shorter the time, the more talented you are. It is like speed of downloading Tango is much faster for some people. "Talented" people show results fast. They have good "hunch". 

I do like political correctness, but some harsh reality do exist in athletic events that include Tango dancing.

Around step (2) or (3), some of "talented" people start showing their promise. That is also the time they start demonstrating that they "can" dance Tango.

To be honest, not everyone is cut out for Tango dancing. However, learning something new is a part of knowing yourself. If Tango is not cut out for you, ... you can still stick around if you like it, or you can try something else. It's your call.


Steps (1)-(6) can be done by yourself (and it is a lot....there is a lot of things you can do by yourself for Tango). If you are aiming at stage tango dancing, this much should serve well as your basis. But if you want to go further, it is a good idea to get some help from established Tango coach/instructor from this point on.


So, where do you find yourself in this "steps of learning Tango, from step (1) to (6)"?

Dance: John Lindo West Coast Swing workshops and party (9/14/2019)

John Lindo is a "big guy" in West Coast Swing dance world. He has many contributions to the WCS community.

He showed up in Oklahoma City last Saturday (9/14/2019) and gave workshops. His workshops were popular. A participant told me that "he was a fun guy and I really liked it". In following social dance party, he was a solid lead and seemed to bring good dance out of his partners, which is an essential character of great social dancers.


I did a little research with YouTube on popular West Coast Swing video, and surprised. 

It was not Jordan & Tatiana's 2009 Moscow performance (1.3M views). Not Benji & Heidi's 2005 US open (3.8M views). Not my favorite, Kyle & Sarah's Jonny B Goode (141k views).

I can tell you, these WCS routine performances are by most respected champion dancers. I doubt any knowledgeable WCS dancers would say otherwise. No doubt they got over millions or hundred thousand views.

However,...

The most viewed video was none other than John Lindo's 2008 Jack and Jill (8.9M views as of today). Second most viewed video was also John's (6M).

[Phoenix 2008 Champions! John Lindo and Stephanie Batista]

Now, you can watch his dance yourself, and you know that he is a champion.

When we talk about dance champions, we may think of ballet company dancers, circus performers (Cirque du soleil), professional ballroom dancers (like the ones in Blackpool), or Broadway style shows. Television shows do bring amazing dancers (e.g., the world of dance) as well.

These dancers are amazing. But at the same time, it is glaringly clear. They are elites and for 99.9999% of people, their levels of dances are unattainable.

Here I'd have to say something obvious. John's body does not look like that of these elite dancers. Instead of radiating sense of awe, he gives us hope.

Somewhat like early Argentine Tango shows surprised us with "old" masters, not only by young up-and-coming dancers, there is a niche in people's viewing pleasure; a Hope.

In this era of all kind of videos and view counts metrics, John emerged as a champion of the niche.

People don't really care how WCS dance world is organized or run or who is respected or the history. Much like I personally don't care about these things in Ballet or competitive ballroom dance. (Certainly I do like great dancers and their videos, and see nothing wrong about them for getting high view counts, though.)

In such an era, hitting people's fancies is a right way for entertainer professionals.

There was an advice by a famous Tango teacher to her students; "think how you would stand out".

John stands out, in his way. That is admirable.

Science: Your diet affect your stem cells in intestine

During Summer, we have been skipping our journal club in the lab. We are going to resume it, and I was searching for a suitable paper.


One of my candidate picks is this.

"Ketone Body Signaling Mediates Intestinal Stem Cell Homeostasis and Adaptation to Diet"

Published recently (8/22/2019) in a prestigious journal Cell by a group in MIT.

Link to the Summary:  https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30848-7

For the background, ...

(a) In the past 10-20 years, cancer stem cell hypothesis emerged, which states that cancer is developed from stem-like tumor-initiating cells. Consistently, cancer itself carries cell population that are like stem cells.

(b) Also in the past 10-20 years, our knowledge on stem cell-based tissue/organ homeostasis has advanced much. Normal organs, like brain, liver, lung, skin, intestine, etc, all use organ-specific stem cells to replenish the organ.

It has become important for us cancer researchers to understand the mechanism of stem cell-based organ replenishment, in order to understand mechanism of cancer development.

That is the reason of my picking up this paper.


Another background is that diet impacts metabolic pattern of cells. Especially, the differences between ketogenic diet and glucose-rich diet on the cellular metabolism have come to our attention.

That said, the paper reports that ketogenic diet can instruct intestinal stem cells toward self renewal, while glucose-rich diet can induce more differentiation.

In other words, stem cell-based tissue/organ homeostasis can be impacted by diet in intestine.

They identified a key enzyme, a major effector, and its target pathway, which add to the paper's novelty.

They are discussing whether this has an impact on cancer, as future research issue. In fact, diet is a major environmental factor for intestinal cells (in addition to microorganisms). It has been known that omega-6 fatty acid-rich western style diet increases colon cancer risk. Wonder how this new paper would merge with existing knowledge.


A little industry trivia. Scientific journals form a hierarchy for each field. Currently, impact factor (a metric indicating how many times the paper is cited by other researchers) is a determinant of a journal's position in the hierarchy. Like it or not, it is how this contemporary academic medical research industry has become.

And on top of the hierarchy, there are three commercial scientific journals; "Cell", "Nature", and "Science". They boast 30-40 impact factor. To put it in a perspective, top-ranked field-specific journals carry up to 10-12 impact factor (e.g., "Cancer Research" from American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Impact factor=9.13). Impact factor over 5 is usually considered decent.


This is a Cell paper. For us professionals, that means that we should read it at least to keep up with what is going on.  

For us, that also means, there are many figures (6 big panels plus 6 supplementary panels that are also big). Cell papers usually are longer than Nature or Science papers. The text is written in rather straightforward manner, but it also includes segments apparently added to respond to reviewers' comments.

In some cases, a long paper with many figures is easier to talk about, because it has covered all the basis (supposedly) and is more convincing. I am hoping it is the case here.

I'll read it more critically to prepare for journal club, tomorrow.

[Graphic Abstract]

I made this Labor day weekend a nice and quiet weekend. Eyeglasses shopping, reading, stretching, washing cat, etc.