Val and Vanessa’s live discussion – Part 1: Jack & Jill’s

The idea of this video is to talk about dance in a general way, based on the themes that people comment on my facebook. The proposal here is not to talk about the truth of dance, but rather to share my ideas and opinions around the themes.

First of all, many people ask my opinion about Jack and Jill. And I think Jack and Jill are very important in every dance style. Nowadays, even Samba events have done them as well. In Zouk, this competition is organized by the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council and has different categories: “Newcomer”, “Novice”, “Intermediate”, “Advanced”, “All Stars” and “Invitation” (which are the teachers and can be “All Star” guests and “Champions”). I think this is really cool because the competition gave people a sense of how their learning really is.

Many people don’t understand or don’t belong to this scene, but 15 years ago people learned a lot from regular classes, it was a more supervised way. So to speak, teachers used to see students every week and they were able to give students the feedback on their progressions. And gradually, this has been changing. Today we can say that the scene is a bit more divided; there are people who learn from regular classes and there are people who, besides regular classes, also seek to attend events, some of them go to events every week.

Then the question arises of which method to learn is the best one, but the ideal would be that each student had self-awareness. One disadvantage the person has in just going to events is that if they have no real sense of their level, they begin to sabotage themselves.  For example, imagine a newcomer who likes me and Vanessa and decided to go to one of our events that is for advanced students. The person will get lost because they will believe that they have learned everything but, in fact, they do not have the maturity to absorb the lesson yet. Sometimes the person even feels a great absorption and begins to believe that they are advanced, but it is how the problem begins because the person starts to create a hole in their learning. It is necessary to be honest with yourself to ask “what is my real level?” You may even venture out in a more difficult lesson as a challenge.

Jack and Jill is a direct way for you to be aware of what is your level compared to others. Some people complain that they are beginners for too long but this competition is an opportunity for you to be aware of what you know and what you do not know. I recommend joining Jack and Jill because you have the opportunity to be evaluated by qualified professionals, even in a more superficial way than a regular class.

(the original live discussion below, it is in Portuguese)