Case Studies
Personal Cases of My Own
All Names have been Changed to Protect the Privacy of the Families.
All Individuals and their Families were Under the Care of their Physicians and Other Health Care Providers.
Stuart
Autistic Aged 15. Now age 18 and working full-time for 12 months without missing a day of work .
A Trusted Family Person (meaning trusted totally by Stuart) was trained to work with Stuart using the Fundamental Argentine Tango Non-Verbal/ Non-Touching human communication present in this dance; taught in Beginning Argentine Tango I.
Fortunately, Stuart's family had already grasped the fact that "music is of huge benefit to Autistics" so his family and Stuart himself already knew the "root benchmark music/sound frequencies" that were specific to Stuart. His favorite music was David Bowie.
He had learned a lot since his birth but Stuart was very angry. He would lock himself in his room and throw himself against the walls with his music playing for hours at a time. He would "rip out riffs" on his guitar, but never come out of his room. He wanted to "be more a part of things" than he was. He had a strong sense of personal identity and didn't want to "be within the system and live with all the others".
The Trusted Family Person essentially taught Stuart Beginning Argentine Tango I — always to the music of David Bowie. Stuart had twice a week Argentine Tango lessons. The important "heel to heel connection " fundamental of the Argentine Tango was never neglected in the teaching. Nor was the "dropping of the hip" ever neglected.
One of the fundamentals Stuart had fun learning was feeling the proper "setting of the hips over the feet" — the "walking backward and opening the swing door while you are carrying a chair in your arms in front of you" technique that Andrew McCollough teaches was the one used for Stuart. Within 3 months Stuart's movements were showing good "honey pouring out of a jar" skill, as opposed to "water crashing down the river with no way to control it" movement. After that breakthrough, he was able to remain consistently calmer and make consistent progress on all fronts. He was able to maintain non-touching communication with his dance partner (trusted family person), and was able to lead his partner dancing the Argentine Tango in a relaxed and happy manner to David Bowie music. He gets lots of fulfillment now from his Human Connections and his Social Awareness. Stuart lives in his own really cool apartment about 2 miles from his parents and younger sister. He's teaching his sister the Argentine Tango. It may not be the way any current Argentine Tango teacher would teach it — but it works for Stuart and his sister!
Donnie
Tourette's Syndrome. Aged 8 . Now age 11, Donnie is doing fine in school music classes.
Donnie was in Public School. In the Music Class and Choir, the teacher had all the students stand in place on raised platforms — like bleachers at a soccer field. No student could stand down on the floor. Donnie climbed trees — he wasn't afraid of heights — but he couldn't stand on the bleachers for music programs. This made his Tourette's vocalizations sometimes explode even if he had taken his medicine for it.
The previous year, in piano lessons/music work/sound frequency work/calming work, Donnie and I had devised tricks that worked most of the time for most situations in his life. The techniques helped him to be aware of himself and use his own quiet singing or humming frequencies to maintain himself. But getting up on those bleachers and staying there was a different gig.
He loved to sing and was really good at it. He wanted to be a part of it all. His parents had already negotiated so many things in order to keep Donnie in public school. They were seeking ways to help him be able to stay on those platforms and be totally okay there so he could continue in the Music program.
Together Donnie and I worked out a plan. He chose Elvis Presley music, so we worked the fundamentals of Beginning Argentine Tango I with Elvis. We worked first on his following me as I led him without speaking nor touching.
Ref: the pictures of Andrew McCollough and Anne Guthrie working with students during the Grants Pass Argentine Tango Clinic November 8, 2008; on this site.
We worked together with his eyes closed. We worked on shifting our weight very gently from one leg to the other standing leg — with control, awareness, and relaxation. We worked on his spinal/body line/center of dance/posture — with his shoulders over his hips. We worked on "recycling" the free foot around the "standing leg" easily and closely — not swinging the free leg out. We worked on his feeling the "heel to heel" connection always — we practiced this up on our own platforms. We worked on the "pauses" in Argentine Tango — we did the "heel taps" exercises to help us feel where the pauses were; and then he taught himself how to "pause" at each step up onto a platform; how to wait until he "felt that pause through his heel to heel connection" and across the roll of his hips, before he stepped on up to the next platform. Then he taught himself to do everything and to "feel everything" up on a platform that he did on the floor! We danced Argentine Tango on the platforms. Donnie and I worked together twice a week with Argentine Tango. My diagnostic teaching notes show that in Donnie's 3rd month, he maintained all of his music classes , remaining up on whichever platform his music teacher needed him to be on , as she placed her students according to their voices and the programs they were doing. In his 4th month of working with the fundamentals of Argentine Tango, he never once felt like his Tourette Disorder would overpower him during his music classes. He had totally reached his goal! He will always use his Argentine Tango fundamentals to maintain his achievement. Donnie is age 11 now; singing in Public School! His teachers can place him anywhere they need his voice . And what a voice!
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