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

[Chris, UK]

"Lois Donnay" <donnay at donnay.net>

> I feel it is very unfair of you to be so angry at teachers for this

Please do not mistake being critical for being angry.

> teachers are the ones who have to deal with students who come to them
> with these problems.

Why not leave that to the teachers responsible for creating the problems 
in the first place? 

You choose whether each student is worth the money he/she pays for 
lessons. If you don't want to teach a particular student, just don't.

> think about my level of frustration when students come to me to
> advance their tango ... they know front ochos, molinetes, giros,
> secadas - all executed badly. ... When I tell them they have to start
> over with the walk, and they storm out 

Sometimes one has to just accept that some problems are beyond one's 
ability to fix. Or would take up time, effort and energy better spend on 
other students.

Quite a few teachers I know see each loss of an impossible student to 
the competition as a good thing - it benefits the rest of the class and 
raises the effectiveness of teaching.

> I sympathize with the teacher who just gives students what they
> want - it's so much easier!

Thing is Lois, what goes around comes around.

Chris






-------- Original Message --------

*Subject:* [Tango-L] Social vs. Stage Classes
*From:* "tangosmith at cox.net" <tangosmith at cox.net>
*To:* tango-l at mit.edu
*Date:* Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:07:19 -0400

Several instructors here have expressed understandable frustration with
students whose expectations are to be taught more flamboyant steps.

Has anyone considered restructuring the format of the classes they offer? 
Instead of the usual beginner, intermediate, and advanced, perhaps a more
useful and appropriate divide would be between social and
stage/performance.  The performance class could be told that the steps 
they
would learn were not danced in social settings and that they would not see
them nor would they be appropriate in milongas.  If that was what the
student was interested in, then so be it.  Instructors could teach them
steps until their money ran out.

Social classes could be directly focused on producing dancers for 
milongas,
with topics such as walking, connection, floorcraft, and musicality. 
Turnover might be higher (hopefully) among these students but if the
instructor was being successful at producing good milonga dancers, word of
mouth would insure a ready supply of new students.

Has anyone tried this type of approach?   (With perhaps a very basic 101
class directed at all students new to dancing could also be offered prior
to taking either track.)  I also suspect some students might end up taking
both tracks.  

There is some precedence for this approach.  In my experience, in Lindy
swing, aerial classes (jumps, drops, twirls, etc.) are always taught
completely separate from social dancing.  In every aerial class I have
attended, the instructors have emphasized that the steps are not for 
social
dances, only for jams or performances.  Most have a requirement for a
certain level of proficiency at social dancing before attending. 

WBSmith    


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