I have been a member of the Latin Faculty for the IDTA for less than a year. I was trained by Walter Laird so sometimes fiercely defend what he told me was the right way to dance something. But is this the right thing to do? When Walter wrote the first technical book, he told me he analysed the finest dancers of the day. Latin American dancing as a creative art changes all the time and it should. The champions of today are much faster, more technically skilled and more creative than their predecessors. This provides great challenges to those who document the technique. The technique moves very quickly and world class dance champions have very different ideas on technique. Keeping up to date is an impossible task. Printing deadlines have to be set and the work gone through in almost impossible detail. Every year dancers take professional examinations and ask the why questions, often causing even the most experienced technical experts like us to say “That is a very interesting point”. For me this is really exciting news though. Professionals should always ask the difficult questions. I feel sure the Latin faculty would love to receive more comment from the IDTA members with any questions they have. Nobody knows everything. That’s why the Latin Faculty is not one person.
I thought you might enjoy the latest misprint picked up in a figure the Latin Faculty is working on. The Action Used column stated Bad Walk instead of Bwd walk. You never know it might catch on. It would be so much easier to execute than a Backward walk!
