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ORIGINAL: Romanza
I am thinking of joining this flamenco dance class, and apparently the dance we will be learning is El Vito. To me it seems an odd one to dance to. I have no idea what Palos it falls into - if indeed it is in a palos.

Any clues?

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Andalusian folk song and dance in fast 3/8 time( not flamenco) "

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Federico Garcia Lorca composed some tunes based on popular songs and "flamenco" forms.

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Ignoring the last post, is it possible that they teach it in a Flamenco dance class because it's an interesting zapateo using similar/same techniques?

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Sorry the pedantry, but "begs the question must be dealt with". The true meaning here (wikipedia):

"In logic, begging the question is the term for a type of fallacy occurring in deductive reasoning in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in one of the premises. For an example of this, consider the following argument: "Politicians cannot be trusted. Only an untrustworthy person would run for office. The fact that politicians are untrustworthy is proof of this, therefore, politicians cannot be trusted." Such an argument is fallacious, because it relies upon its own proposition—in this case, "politicians are untrustworthy"—in order to support its central premise. Essentially, the argument assumes that its central point is already proven, and uses this in support of itself."

And on to the "exception that proves the rule", from phrases.org.uk:


exception that proves the rule
Meaning

Normally with these meanings and origins the meaning is well-understood or self-evident and the interesting aspect is how, where and when the phrase originated. This one is a little different - it's the meaning that is generally not understood.

To the untutored ear it might appear to mean 'if there's a rule and I can find a counter-example to it, then the rule must be true'. This is clearly nonsense. For example, if our rule were 'all birds can fly', the existence of a flightless bird like a penguin hardly proves that rule to be correct. In fact it proves just the opposite.

So, and here the maxim 'a little learning is a dangerous thing' comes into play, it has been suggested that it's an alternative meaning of the word prove that is the source of the confusion. Prove can mean several things, including 'to establish as true' and 'to put to trial or to test'. The second option is what is used in 'proving ground', 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating', etc. It could be argued then that the phrase means 'it is the exception that tests whether the rule is true or not'. In our example the existence of a bird that can't fly would put the 'all birds can fly' rule to the test (and find it wanting).

That's all very well and most people would be happy to stop there. Unfortunately, when we go back to the legal origin of the phrase we see that it doesn't mean that at all. It's the word exception rather than prove that is causing the confusion here. By exception we usually mean 'something unusual, not following a rule'. What it means here though is 'the act of leaving out or ignoring'.

If we have a statement like 'entry is free of charge on Sundays', we can reasonably assume that, as a general rule, entry is charged for.

So, from that statement, here's our rule:

You usually have to pay to get in.

The exception on Sunday is demonstrating that the rule exists. It isn't testing whether the incorrect rule 'you have to pay' is true or not, and it certainly isn't proving that incorrect rule to be true.

Origin

It's a legal maxim, established in English law in the early 17th century. Written, as law was in those days, in Latin:

Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis

and is interpreted to mean ‘exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted’

It has (slightly modified) examples in print going back to at least 1617:

Collins: Indefinites are equivalent to vniversalls especially where one exception being made, it is plaine that all others are thereby cut off, according to the rule Exceptio figit regulam in non exceptis.

While not the earliest citation, this, from Giovanni Torriano's, Piazza universale di proverbi italiani, or A Common Place of Italian Proverbs, 1666, expresses the idea clearly:

"The exception gives Authority to the Rule."

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Well "it" is not the music itself, rather some choreography that was learned from someone, or made up. Zapateado or not is incidental. It is not flamenco, the studenst are learning El Vito, very simple.

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If the music was not correct, was the dance technique still correct? Or should I have been learning with the correct music, from the beginning?

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What about Mambo? Every paso found in Salsa is also found in Mambo. If I learned Mambo, did I learn Salsa? Or is Salsa (despite not being Mambo) relevant enough to teach as a step towards Mambo?

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El Vito could possibly similar enough in technique/form that it would assist in their overall education in Flamenco.