[Tango-L] 2? worth from a beginner

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

Hi Robert,

Sean here. Welcome to the tango community. About 7
months ago, I posted a report about the growing tango
scene in Columbus. At the time I was very excited
about your community. Columbus has a vibrant and
growing tango community, and could easily become one
of the tango jewels of the Midwest. I was at another
milonga there April 22nd, and I had a wonderful time.
A friendly crowd (maybe 40 people?), a high level of
dancing and ice cream! It was organized by CATS, the
Columbus Argentine Tango Society (meow) in conjunction
with workshops taught by Ney Melo and Jennifer Brat.
They taught one of the most practical lessons in
musicality that I have ever seen. And I take a lot of
musicality workshops, since I am told that it is not
my strong suit.

I haven't sat in on any classes with the CATS
teachers, but I have danced with their beginning
students, and I can tell you that they are doing
something right! What a rare pleasure. I've danced
with the teachers too, an even rarer pleasure.

In addition to CATS, http://www.tangocats.com/ check
out Tango Bello in Columbus http://www.tangobello.com.
I think they are in Italy at the moment, but they will
be back in Columbus soon enough. Their teaching
philosophy on the welcome page of their website is
great. It should be required reading for all dance
teachers. I've had wonderful dances with Pamela and
Francesco is a pleasure to watch.

I would beware of judging teachers by comparison to
videos of famous dancers. As Sergio has pointed out,
in addition to many styles of social dancing, there is
also a distinction between social and performance
dancing. When these famous stars finish their
exhibition and head to the milonga, their dancing
looks very different. But some local teachers who
emulate the stars don't seem to get the difference. At
least check out videos of as many dancers as you can.
The Tango Video Project www.tangovideoproject.com has
some great examples. By the way, the author of that
website was also at the April 22nd milonga in
Columbus. If you want to meet him in person, head for
the May Madness festival in Ann Arbor
http://www.umich.edu/~umtango/events/madness-may06/.
Not exactly Buenos Aries, but a good low budget
alternative for a beginner. There is always a group
from Columbus there, so you might even get to car
pool. The Denver and Portland Festivals are also great
places to experience good social tango in the US. I
would also recommend you go to these after you have a
bit more confidence, and before you go to BA.

Our goal at PATangoS is to get our students to a level
where they can dance comfortably at a milonga in 6-8
weeks (assuming they show up twice a week and practice
on their own). Obviously, we don’t spend a lot of time
on vocabulary during those first 6 weeks. We mainly
stress the music and communication between partners.
If you have been taking classes 2-3 times a week for 3
months, and you are not comfortable going to a
milonga, then I think there is not a very good fit
between you and your teachers. Part of the problem is
having so many different teachers so quickly. I highly
recommend that everyone study with as many teachers as
they can. But everyone dances and teaches differently.
The conflicting information that you must get from
different teachers can be hard to resolve until you
have a solid foundation. So I recommend that beginners
stick with one teacher for the first month or two,
unless they are clearly not progressing. Then shop
around a bit to find the best fit.

Sean

P.S. If you really can't find what you need in
Columbus, the communities in Pittsburgh, Kent, and
Cleveland are each less than 2 hours from you.
Cincinatti can't be much further. I was at a wonderful
milonga in Cleveland Saturday, with live music from
Eternal Tango.


--- Robert Wallace <rwal102086 at ameritech.net> wrote:

I would greatly appreciate any advice or tips you may
pass along. The tango community is so small in
Columbus, Ohio that we can't even get enough dancers
together to go for coffee after the lessons. 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com