[Tango-L] Women stop studying tango: EPIDEMIC

[astrid]

Tom wrote:
I've recently noticed in several different venues, that the women
have not been living up to the skill level of the men. There may be
many explanations, but I think fundamentally, women learn quickly at
first, but have a much more difficult path going from Intermediate to
Advanced. Men learn slowly and steadily from the very beginning.

> Whatever is the origin of this idea that girls should learn to dance by
> practising with guys who cannot?
>
> Chris

I do not agree with Tom, and maybe his community has a very different set up
from ours, too. But Chris is right to the point.

The truth is, there are lots of things a woman can learn in classes or
private lessons, but ultimately, her range of expression and chances to put
her ability to use depends on who she dances with. In our community we have
quite a number of women who are good dancers. Women flock to lessons, and
also often take series of (private) lessons with Rivarola, Oscar Mandagaran,
Jorge Torres, Balmaceda etcetc. whenever they come to town. The men, on the
other hand, are rarely found in expensive workshops, master classes, and
even less in privadas, and some not even in milongas. So, many men either
never really learn how to dance, some do and forever stagnate around the
intermediate level, a few take workshops in California, BA, Scandinavia etc.
during business trips, and a few master classes in Tokyo, besides studying
or not with some Japanese teacher they never talk about, and every time I
meet one of those, they have either improved a lot and are just back from
some trip or busy with some master classes, or their skill has dropped to
floppy and vague again, because they have not been dancing for a while, and
have once again forgotten most of what they knew for a while.

Classes here are mostly taught by male teachers (who needs yet another
woman!) or couples, and geared mainly to the men, yes. Women are often used
as practise dummies, not given any specific guidance geared to women, or
even occasionally, suppressed in their skill by the teacher who is focusing
on the beginners. Sort of like: "you stand aside because you know
everything, and this one here needs all the attention because she is going
to need and take lots of lessons", it seems to me.

On the other hand, some of the women have ballet and other dance training,
want something difficult, and visit fantasia classes, so, also many of the
visiting stars teach lots of complicated stuff, and the vast majority of
students are female. While the only teachers that in my experience attracted
a large number of men were El Chino and sometimes Torres, and they both
taught a lot about connection and how to lead.
If Tokyo schools would insist on only couples signing up together, like in
Germany, they would quickly go out of business.

So, what happens, is that many of the women get fixated on dancing with
teachers, mostly, because these are the only really satisfying dances they
get. And sometimes they are willing to pay for it by the hour....

So, Tom, in my experience, men do not at all learn slowly and steadily from
the beginning, women do learn more quickly, and may have some difficulty
reaching advanced stage, but that is mainly for lack of a partner suitable
to their own level, not because they would not have the skill or willingness
to get there. Some of our best women here simply go to dance overseas, in BA
or whereever, to get a better choice of partners and I have heard of US
women doing the same.
Another obstacle for upper intermediate women is that certain men eternally
prefer to drag around some cute new face beginner who may not know how to
dance but is easily impressed. How do you compete with that?
In Tokyo, tango is a men's world, even if there are not so many of them
around...

Astrid's 2 cents

P.S.
Tom, what do you define as "advanced level"?