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TOCA STUDENT · Lesson 21 · Connection

How to practise with a dance partner and actually improve

Agree the goal before the music starts. Test it at reduced speed before full tempo. Switch roles, because you learn as much leading as following.

Dawou Tarraxo, pioneer of Tarraxo. How to practise with a dance partner and actually improve

When you give feedback, give the result and not the order. Your weight stopped halfway is useful. Do it again is not. One correction at a time, integrated, then the next.

Finish on a free dance so the work meets a real situation.

Ten focused minutes before you dance freely will do more than two hours of repeating what you already know.

Partner practice in kizomba works when both roles have a clear job.

Send this to your practice partner.

How to practise with a partner, step by step

  1. PARTNER PRACTICE IS NOT A TWO HOUR SOCIAL DANCE.
  2. Agree the goal before the music starts.
  3. Test it at reduced speed before full tempo.
  4. Switch roles. You learn as much leading as following.
  5. Give the result, not the order. Say what the movement produced.
  6. One correction at a time, integrated, then the next.
  7. Finish on a free dance, so the work meets a real situation.

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This lesson comes from the book

Page 64 of The student's book by Dawou Tarraxo, the TOCA Method page this lesson comes from
The student's book · page 64

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.