[Tango-L] Everyone's "one of the most respected and well-knowndancers in Bue

[WHITE 95 R]

Caroline,

Your question is quite good, and very difficult to answer. You've touched on 
a pretty good subject here. What I've found out is that some people have 
idolized certain teachers (who are extremely good at self promotion and know 
how to manipulate peoples weaknesses). These people will always promote 
their idol as "the best", "the real thing", etc. Other people have limited 
knowledge of the tango itself and merely parrot (or outright copy) the 
promotional material given to them by their "maestro/a" du jour. Obviously, 
the aforementioned  bona fides are not necessarily true or accurate.

There are other people who take time to travel and take lessons with many 
teachers and observe their methods, the material they teach, their skill on 
the dance floor, etc. It takes a pretty long time to learn who's truly the 
best or among the best. First, the judge himself or herself must have a 
pretty good command of the subject and they must be fairly immune to 
insincere flattery or emotional manipulation. Some traveling teachers are 
quite charismatic and will seduce you to their particular brand of snake oil 
very easily. Particularly if you are susceptible to the "shine" of stars.

The tango business is very much a cutthroat business, it's very difficult to 
get the "most respected" and "the best" of Buenos Aires to bestow the crown 
upon one of them. They have very strong likes and dislikes and almost all of 
them thinks that they are the best and the rest are nothing. There is no 
accrediting body to certify who's among the best. In this atmosphere, hype 
becomes the best selling tool (next to mudslinging the other teacher's 
style).

Personally, I think that traveling to Buenos Aires is a good thing for tango 
students and teachers. However, frequent trips to BAires do not necessarily 
translate into any sort of tango teaching credentials. I've seen many people 
who have gone to BAires and returned without apparently learning anything 
about the tango music, the dance or the culture of the Argentineans. As far 
as I could tell, they might just as well spent a week in Disneyland...

I'm afraid that there is no way to separate the wheat from the chaff, unless 
one can trust the organizer or one knows first hand the teacher(s) involved. 
Bottom line is: Caveat Emptor....

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www.tango-rio.com




>From: "Caroline Polack" <runcarolinerun at hotmail.com>
>To: tango-l at mit.edu
>Subject: [Tango-L] Everyone's "one of the most respected and 
>well-knowndancers in Buenos Aires"
>Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:19:09 -0400
>
>I've been doing a lot of browsing on the internet, of various tango schools
>and teachers, in North America, and of course Argentina. Is it just me or 
>is
>every single teacher "one of the most respected and well-known tango 
>dancers
>in Buenos Aires"?
>
>Says who? It's not possible for every single one of them to be "one of  the
>best" or there wouldn't any "best" at all. I would like to know who sets 
>the
>standards and who exactly is considering those teachers to be "one of the
>best" or is there alot of self-proclamation going on?
>
>I see it here too, braggadacio. I was at a Milonga hosted by my tango 
>school
>where I was approached by an older man who tried to persuade me to stop
>taking lessons at that school and instead learn with him because he is one
>of the "best" and had been traveling to Buenos Aires every year for the
>last 20 years. Well, so did my tango teachers. I find that to be very bad
>manners, to be approached by someone who is trying to convince others not 
>to
>take lessons from the teachers hosting the milonga. Competiton can 
>sometimes
>be a little too backstabbing for my liking.
>
>So, I am thinking, how does making annual pilgrimages to Argentina
>automatically make you the best?
>
>What makes me laugh is when I come across a website that features just one
>teacher and they write about themselves in the third person, with all those
>effusive reviews of how they are one of the "best in Buenos Aires".
>
>One thing I can say for sure is that generally speaking, most tango 
>teachers
>have no lack of self-confidence.
>
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