Hi Everybody,

Chris must have had a traumatic experience with Tango instuctors to be so cynical and to despise them so much.

With my partner I teach a beginner and improver tango class every Friday from 7.30 to 10.00pm. The class morphs from beginner to improver somewhere in the middle, depending on the students. It's very relaxed and beginners can stay on for the improver class for free and improvers can join the beginner class for free.

The class is followed by a milonga from 10.00pm to 1.00am and costs HK$50 or about US$6.50. However, anyone from the class can stay on for the milonga for just HK$10, that's about US$1.30 and includes as much red and white wine as you can drink. I think you'll agree it's a pretty good deal and the idea, obviously, is to get my students into a milonga as quickly as possible. Maybe they'll just watch or, with the help of the more advanced dancers, they'll have a go. We have a big school with lots of space so the beginners don't get in the way too much. We try to keep the whole thing as relaxed, informal and friendly as possible.

Every tango teacher I've ever met wants his students on the dance floor - Chris, why else do you think we teach tango? What gave you such a negative view of tango instructors?

Best Regards to All,
Keith McNab

Lois asked:

So how does a teacher get her students to a milonga if they don't 
think they're ready?

Chris replied:

You could find out by signing-up for Keith's beginners' lessons...

But he could probably tell you the answer for free: she doesn't. The 
issue is not how a teacher can get pupils to go, but what has the 
teacher done/not done in the first place such that they don't want to.

I credit teachers with very little influence over individual pupils.

But a lot over the group. It seems to me the average class-based course soon expels those that have an affinity for tango, when either they find they can dance and would rather do that than classes, or that they can't stand the frustration of the class teaching model's incompatibility with their natural respect for music, partner and self.

Those who are left - the ones continuing with classes - are often to 
teachers the successes, but to tango are actually the rejects. No 
surprise that teacher finds it hard to inject a class of rejects into the milongas. They'll be far happier remaining in the twilight world of the tango classroom, all the way up to "advanced". Or even to "teacher".

Chris