* Tango is about Feeling, but by sorting out technique, we can put it away and get on with the dancing.
Below is what my laptop looks like. This upload is jumpy, and the audio out of sync, but both are smooth in real life.
I can have two different videos (and annotate them with lines), along with numerous pressure sensors that can be applied to feet, chest, hands, etc.
My summer project is to use these tools to enhance my classroom teaching of beginner, intermediate, and advanced dancers in addition to conducting general research into where and when pressure is applied in the dance.
My winter project is to sort out the data, as well as figure out inexpensive means for all tango learners to implement the research findings- at least those that don't think I'm crazy, or stupid, or both ;-)
My question for you is this:
If you could know where your/your partner's/your student's weight is located at any point in the dance- what would you want to know, why, and how would you use it?
For better quality click monitor 2x then "Watch in High Quality"
Results
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Tango is an Art ... duh :)
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What I've found is that the sensors are good at telling me what a particular person or couple is doing, but not relevant for what others Should be doing. Yes, they're good for training in that person or couple's style, but not for any generalized conclusions about tango. Descriptive, not Proscriptive.
Equipment Suppliers
Wireless Force Sensors: Tekscan
Dual Camera Motion Analysis Software: All Sport Systems
Friday, May 9, 2008
Tango Research Tools
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10 comments:
Bryan,
This is a lovely tool. Nice demo of what you were talking about on Tango-L.
I can easily see just how and where to use such a tool...but my obvious question would be what kinds of equipment are involved in this ?
Miles.
Hi Miles, glad you asked.
I would Love to have some collaboration.
However, I've been working on/with this stuff for over a year, and there are a lot of kinks that had to be worked out. If I just give you links to equipment manufacturers you'll still have a lot of trouble.
What I'm doing is putting together a DIY packet which should be ready in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know once it's ready.
b.
Do have a nose at Doug Fox's blogs, Dancing into the Future and The Kinetic Interface. There might be collaborators to be found. There's one about tango in a virtual landscape which might give you some ideas.
I can't quite see a use for it yet, but perhaps if the two lines were played simultaneously along with the music, especially if both dancers could be recorded at once. I was thinking more of the aesthetic potential, but it would also be very interesting to compare the track of a dancer you considered unusually musical to a dancer you considered less so, to see what differences really existed and what they were. I think there might be some surprises.
Thanks Ms Hedgehog,
His stuff looks cool !! I'll look into it.
Also, your idea is waaay prettier than mine :)
[ok, superfluous link back to you, but I just learned how to put links in comments- thanks for that too :) ]
I definitely have ideas regarding usage, its just that I've been stuck in my own brain for a few months now and thought it'd be nice to visit someone else's a while.
I developed this tool to address several learning/teaching problems that I couldn't get to the bottom of being out here in the tango boonies, mostly to do with axis management and augmentation of proprioception & aliaception.
It started because I have a preference for dancing/teaching close embrace- I just couldn't communicate where someone's "axis" was satisfactorily, which doesn't work too well when you're dancing chest to chest.
I could tell them where it should be, and what it felt like to me, but people either knew what I was talking about or not, and I found it a shame that I couldn't get tango across effectively to those without strong proprioceptive skills- hence a visual and unbiased feedback device.
Hi Miles, well, I've gotten behind on the DIY Packet, but I added the component sources to the end of the original blog posting.
I think I know what you're talking about, but I don't know how knowing more about the feet would help. It would be interesting to find out. I'd love to hear a bit more about the specific problems your students are encountering and how you try to deal with them.
Hi Ms Hedgehog,
Well, I like to start off my students in close embrace. Not apilado, but on your own axis.
The problem being of helping people to find that sweet spot where they have their weight over their metatarsals while maintaining contact with the partner.
I can see their posture easily enough, but it's hard to "see" where they're holding their weight- yes, if I embrace them, and I do, but it's much more efficient if they can also work on this without me.
With this tool, they can get to know for themselves what "correct" feels like. Hopefully, so they become better learners and not need me :)
It would be confusing to have the contact when you don't yet have the ability to stand still and balance, alone, with all your own weight on one foot only. It takes quite a while to master that skill, and if you have another person there I'd be impressed if it's possible to avoid leaning on them. So I can see the problem. Maybe this will help you deal with it.
Anyway, something occurred to me today that I would really like to know from your measurements. After a long night of dancing the ball of my right foot gets much more tired and painful than the left. I know there are *some* leaders who pivot the lady on her right foot almost constantly for an entire tanda, and if you dance with one of those your evening is soon over, but what I'd like to know is, is it true for a normal dance that the right foot gets more of this punishment than the left? How much, in percentage terms?
sorry, my gadgets can't answer that, it's gonna be different every time.
Best I could do is hook you up so I could say that You, on X night, were this much on your right foot, and N much on your left, but would be meaningless for someone else :(
Do agree that women spend more time on their right than their left, and can be worse the more acrobatic your dance style.
[WARNING: Techno-Jumbo jargon with Bad mechanical metaphor of woman as machine]
Since the embrace is unequal, the lady's right hand provides an efficient lever for her left free leg, given that her standing right leg is nicely in the center, in fulcrum position. Whereas if you play with the right free leg, you lose that fulcrum, since her right hand is much closer to the center of the embrace.
TA-DA ! Standard tango answer when you don't know what you're talking about, "It's because of the embrace" :)
But if you keep it sweet, no need for levers and fulcrums, so more likely to keep foot use even.
Results
Tango is an Art ... duh :)
What I've found is that the sensors are good at telling me what a particular person or couple is doing, but not relevant for what others Should be doing. Yes, they're good for training in that person or couple's style, but not for any generalized conclusions about tango.
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