[Tango-L] Transition from Intermediate to Advanced

[Jonathan Thornton]

On 7/5/06, Tom Stermitz <stermitz at tango.org> wrote:
>
> On Jul 5, 2006, at 7:01 AM, astrid wrote:
>
> >> Tom wrote:
> I'm going to suggest that women would take a huge step upwards if
> they worked at leading.
>
> I would also suggest that men are greatly improved if they work on
> the follower's role.
>
> These are not new insights. Daniel Trenner has long advocated this
> training method. I have personally experienced it to be beneficial. I
> now feel that maybe it is highly useful, if not essential.


Tom,

As far as dancing goes this seems like one good approach. I want to suggest
something that is perhaps complementary to your concerns.

Because I am particularly unathletic and started dancing at the age of 50 as
far as I can tell I will never be an advanced dancer. This sometimes bothers
me but on the other hand I'm not really a dancer anyway, nor do I dance for
the dance. I am a music lover and I dance to express my appreciation of the
music and to find a way to explore and express the feelings  I experience
listening to the music.

I am not a complacent intermediate because I work  on improving my
fundamentals and I do challenge myself to learn some new material but most
advanced material is beyond my ability to assimilate to the point I can
dance it expressively. So I'm a close embrace 5 step dancer some folks on
this list are so critical of.

>From my perspective what I seek most in partners is feeling for the music.
What I find most lacking in US tango is feeling for the music. What I would
most want to see emphasized in classes is that dancers listen to the music,
listen to how they feel and listen to how their partner is feeling and to
share and communicate that moment to moment flow of feeling.

This can't be explicitly taught in the way that technique is but I think
first of all it needs to be brought to students' attention and although I
don't know of tango appreciation classes I do know that colleges offer
classes in classical music and jazz appreciation. I am thinking I should
take one of those classes partly to see if it's possible to help people to
learn to more deeply experience music.

>From my observation advanced dancers tend to be have started young, younger
than myself at least, with good dance ability and then were motivated to
spend a lot of time in classes and practising. I think in most communities
less than half the people will meet those qualifications.

So although I enjoy watching advanced dancers and wish I could join that
group I'm more concerned that intermediates develop sensitivity to the music
and partnering and keep refining their fundamentals. I think those two
things are enough for satisfying dances. I think an expectation that most
dancers can, should, or need to become advanced is unrealistic as many
people don't have the abilities, time, money, or inclinations to reach that
level.

I think advanced dancers are of value to a community in several ways but I
think the over all dance experience at a milonga may be more importantly
related to the music, how sensitive the dancers are to it, and to how well
they partner and relate to the other dancers on the floor. So, I'm thinking
intermediate fundamentals are more important to a community than are
advanced tango dancing skills.  To use a tired cliche the advanced dancers
provide the beautiful frosting but the quality of cake comes from sound
intermediate dancers.

Jonathan Thornton





-- 
"The tango can be debated, and we have debates over it,
but it still encloses, as does all that which is truthful, a secret."
Jorge Luis Borges