[Tango-L] Language

[Evan Wallace]

On May 10, Ming Mar wrote:

When used by tango teachers from Argentina, "energy"
means tensing the muscles.

On May 10 Michael Figart II wrote:

"Energy" is not tensing the muscles. The way I look at
it, the term "energy" is generally used in reference
to a highly focused connection.


The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many
different things. When words like energy, or axis, or whatever, are used
vaguely and incorrectly, then their definitions may be taken to be whatever
the speaker chooses them to be, and they cease to have any meaning whatever,
and we end up in arguments that never converge ("Energy is tensing the
muscles. No it isn't! Yes it is! ...")

Terms like energy already have EXACT meanings. Teachers should take the time
to learn them, and learn them correctly. Neither definition above is even
remotely correct enough to have unambiguous meaning, and hence they have
limited value as teaching tools. If experienced dancers can't get within 180
degrees of the same answer, what is a beginner to do?



Evan Wallace
Tangoing.com 
evan at tangoing.com 
www.tangoing.com