[Tango-L] What Does It Take to Dance Tango?

[Keith Elshaw]

Hmmmm. This is going to be tricky.

I wish to state a particular viewpoint while not disputing anything
already said. This should be possible, I hope. I understand why people
have made the comments in this thread. I'm not disagreeing. But I would
like to propose a scenario to new women dancers.

As soon as we launch into a piece, we declare our bias (unintentionally or
not).

I shall state mine clearly.

I love to dance socially. I love to dance with advanced people for obvious
reasons. I love to follow sometimes and hope that the woman leader will be
patient with me (and know kind of what she is doing ... I'm not a beginner
at following). I love to take a newish person and give them, I hope, some
pleasure by not doing anything they can't do. Simple, simple tango is
tango tango, too. Is it not a sort of a quid-pro-quo for an experienced
person to attempt to impart the tango pleasure to initiates (if the
feeling is right)?

Another declaration: I am not just anywhere; I am in a city with perhaps
20 or 30 teachers (more?) who have good track records and many fans.

The topic is, women beginners and lessons.

I think each woman should decide for herself how to proceed. Period.

But from time to time, this subject comes up between myself and someone I
have just met on the dance floor. This is what I am writing about here.
Just my view based on a few years of going through all this repeatedly.



In the first years of getting to know people in my adoptive city, I was
struck by the numbers of good women dancers (with wonderful attitudes). I
was then struck by the number of them who had taken very few classes. It
seemed that most had started as a beginner in a class, and stopped.
Because they just went dancing. There seemed to be a predeliction to
learning this way:

take a very few classes;

dance a lot;

take an occasional workshop;

dance a lot;

forget learning from people wanting you to take classes;

dance a lot.

There were a lot of these women - and I enjoyed dancing with them
immensely. This informed my thinking.

Fast-forward through 6 years.

In this city which always has new people coming in (and of course largely
due to the good schools who recruit and teach), there have been numersous
times when I have danced with people who take classes all the time and
numerous times when I have danced with people who never take classes.

People who are taking classes all the time don't dance much. They are
living in their head.

People who don't take classes but dance a lot just dance. And I like to
just dance.

Many times, a new person will come along and we dance and I really enjoy
it and they say at the end, "I'm new and I really don't know what I'm
doing and I have to take more classes, don't you think?"

If we have a rapport, I will tell them that my favourite partners just
dance and because they do so, get all the good leaders and don't need to
learn what teachers show in public classes (as opposed to privates).
Public classes can really hold a natural dancer back. They make you think
you have so mucxh to learn that you aren't already just doing it. I tell
my new partner that I think she is way ahead of the game and that she
should just go to milongas because the good leaders will take great
pleasure in dancing with them.

Learning is not dancing.

Women are different than men.

A natural woman dancer who can follow instinctively should learn the
basics, then just dance. Classes are for the mind. And for the
contribution to the economic system of the world. Not necessarily for
moving your dancing forward if all you do is think and guess and memorise.

Dancing is for the body learning system and for enjoyment. When you want
to learn more, you take a private or a workshop and zero in on specifics
for you. You'll get far more in an hour than in 6 months of publics.

A soon as I encounter a teacher who teaches SOCIAL tango in as few lessons
as possible while giving everything they can and trying to get the student
to STOP coming for now because they know all they need to know to have a
fabulous evening dancing, I will change my opinion.

People in the business of teaching are in the business of teaching. If you
haven't thought about that ...

A woman with natural ability should learn simple basics and then just show
up at milongas. You can learn more in one night than you can in 6 months
of classes. Afer a month, you can be a year or more ahead of the women
just going to classes.

I can introduce you to dozens of women who prove my point.

I can also introduce you to women who are afraid to dance other than in
class and they can't dance after years of "learning."

This is a no-brainer.



Men have a more complex problem to deal with.