[Tango-L] Getting students to dances (one exemple in detail)

[astrid]

> Great ideas.
> I have my beginning class first, then advanced, and of course the
> beginners don't stay, especially since my classes are an hour and a half
> rather than just an hour. I'm wondering whether I should reverse that! I
> let the advanced people come to the beginning classes for free.
>
> You are right about not knowing what to expect. That's why I try to have
> events at cafes and bars, rather than renting studios. Everyone knows
> how to sit at a bar.

In Tokyo, we have a few studios that specialise in tango only, and they are
open all week.. Luna de Tango, e.g., which is owned by Argentines, uses
daytime and late night (after 10pm) for privadas. The evenings of the
weekdays are mostly for classes: Monday milonga, then beginners. Tuesdays a
practica. Wednesdays intermediate. Thursdays tango fantasia. Fridays and
Saturdays a milonga and Sundays a practica. Fri, Sat, and Sun have a class
each before the milonga/practica starts, and these are different from the
other classes: no fixed regular clientele, anybody who wants to show up, can
participate (you can for the others too,but you'll meet a lot of the same
people whenever you do). The teachers look who is there in those weekend
classes, and then decide on what to teach, ad hoc. If there are very
different levels, and enough people, they make two groups taught by two
teachers each. Once I brought a friend who had never tangoed before, and she
got taken aside by one of the assistents who showed her the very basics. If
there are not enough men, the assistents join in the class to dance with the
extra women. If there is a huge imbalance, they make people change roles.
The advanced women have to lead other women. If some teachers are out for a
performance somewhere, whoever is there, teaches: two male teachers
together one doing the woman's role, or two female teachers together, one
doing the man's role. Or a couple. Or one teacher alone who does the demos
with one of the students.
They adjust to the situation of the day.
For a while they even had a folklore class on Saturday afternoons, and I
learned to dance a bit of the Gato and the Chacarera. Great fun, by the way.
Laura came out in an adorable pink folklore skirt , rather than in one of
her usual drop dead tango outfits.
Once in a while, they have a performance in the middle of the milonga. Every
Saturday there is a little tombola, where you can win a t-shirt, a free
milonga, a bottle of wine or a cd or whatever with your entrance ticket..
One of these is often won by a new man who has come for the first time to
the milonga, I noticed...
They have been fairly successful with their studio. Up from the teaching
couple who started 6 years ago or so, to their own studio, to two, then
four, now five assistents brought over from BA who get trained to be
teachers and performers, and now also a cute tango tenor who is learning in
his free time to double as a passionate but untrained taxi dancer who sings
into your ear and occasionally, as a bar keeper.
This year again, two of the assistant teachers are participating in the
mundial de tango and are in BA right now with their Japanese partners
(recruited from among the students, often pro teachers themselves of another
dance). Cristian, who won 4th place last year in tango escenario stayed here
this time, so I get to dance with him for a tanda each week in the milongas
and sometimes the milonga class . ; )
>
----------------------
On 8/17/06, astrid  wrote:
>
> Most students sooner or later join the milongas, only the hopeless cases
> stay in the classes only forever, and maybe that's why they don't progress
> as much.
>

Ron:
Perhaps this is true in some communities, but I have seen something
different in my own tango community:

The best dancers indeed are those who both attend classes and milongas
(Group 3), as well as a select few have taken classes for several
years and are no longer taking classes with local instructors but are
taking private lessons with traveling instructors at home or in other
communities, dance at festivals, have danced at Buenos Aires milongas,
etc.

Ron, you misread me, I wrote: classes only forever.
We have the group 3 here too.

Astrid