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TOCA TEACHER · Lesson 06 · Teaching

Demonstration is not teaching

Showing is not showing off. Students need to know where to look before they can see anything at all.

Dawou Tarraxo, pioneer of Tarraxo. Demonstration is not teaching

Show the whole movement once. Repeat it from the useful angle. Highlight the one detail that matters right now. Then get them practising again quickly.

And demonstrate honestly. The goal is not to look like you, it is to apply the principle to their body, their proportions, their history. A copy of you is worth little. Their version is worth everything.

A dance teacher shows so the student can do, not so the room can admire.

Demonstration is not teaching, step by step

  1. A BEAUTIFUL DEMONSTRATION CAN STILL TEACH NOTHING.
  2. Students need to know where to look.
  3. Show the whole movement once.
  4. Repeat it from the useful angle.
  5. Highlight the one detail that matters now.
  6. Return quickly to student practice.
  7. Demonstration should clarify, not perform superiority.
What makes a demonstration useful?

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This lesson comes from the book

Page 17 of The teacher's guide by Dawou Tarraxo, the TOCA Method page this lesson comes from
The teacher's guide · page 17

The student’s book takes dancers from the first foundations to real feeling. The teacher’s guide gives instructors the structure to pass it on. Both in English, French and Spanish, on Amazon and Apple Books.

The student’s book The teacher’s guide

The method

T O C A

Two bodies. One connection.

TTouchThe connection with your partner. Feeling through contact, never through force.
OObservationListening to your partner’s body, energy and tempo.
CControlMastery of your own movement. Precision without tension.
AAwarenessFull presence: with yourself, your partner and the music.