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

[astrid]

> My question all along has been - What are we doing, what can we do, that
> results in social tango dancers that can confidently go out to milongas
> with reasonably basic skills to enjoy the evening?

What are "reasonably basic skills" for them, people can only find out by
trying them out at a milonga. How the others react to them depends on who
else is at the milonga. Rule of thumb: beginners should probably go early in
the evening. Confidence comes with practise and experience. For a woman it
is much easier to go to a ,milongas as a beginner. There will always be
someone who is ready to show her a thing or two and give her a good time. A
man should really wait until he knows how to eat least walk around the dance
floor with salidas with some sort of basic connection to their partner. I
have seen too many men who spend almost the entire evening sitting shyly on
the bench because they don't dare to venture out there to this song (which
they don't know either, probably, because they are not listening to CDs
privately, doing their homework). And they sit there staring at people's
feet (!) wondering how they do this. That is how I can tell. Because the
professional dancers, the visiting organisers of other milongas who just
want to meet friends or distribute flyers for their next event don't stare-
they just sit, talk to people, enjoy their drink when they don't feel like
dancing.
>