[Tango-L] Milonguero style, style vs. technique

[Jacob Eggers]

Why is it that classes around subjects like subtleties, nuance, technique
are over attended by followers, and classes around colgadas or lifts are
usually over attended by leaders?

Has anyone here every tried to trick leaders into attending a workshop that
will focus on some of important basics? for example, a class on colgadas has
the first hour spent on exercises to strengthen the skills needed for
colgadas, and only the last 15-30 minutes gets spent on the colgada.

I've seen this sort of thing done with great success. It's also the type of
class I find more useful to all levels. Often times classes on moves like
colgadas are fairly useless to students who already know how to do them and
are looking to improve their feel. The problem is that the majority of the
class cannot do colgadas with any consitency, so the class is directed to
the big adjustments rather than the subtle hidden pieces that are need to
make a move like that feel perfect. It is almost impossible to avoid
catering the lowest common denominator because the people having the most
problems are the ones who ask for the most help from the instructor. When
many instructors see someone doing the move successfully, they say, "good"
and move on to the next person.

However, a class practicing the basics is useful to a wider range of levels.
Everyone could use more time practicing the basics, the top dancers in the
world are the ones who spend the most time practicing the basics. The
instructor then has more time to go from student to student helping to turn
a walk into heaven. Plus, it's much easier to do a difficult move after
having spent time warming up.

j

On 11/6/06, Alexis Cousein <al at sgi.com> wrote:
>
> Chris, UK wrote:
> > Tango classes are mostly
> > adapted to the needs of the eternal "intermediates" and step collectors.
>
> Not all. There are those that will teach "steps" or "sequences" only
> because
> they teach you something - appealing to both "step collectors" *and*
> people who want to learn how to dance alike.
>
> Of course, you'll usually still be able to pick out the step collectors
> from
> the others, even after they've followed exactly the same classes, because
> they'll just check off a box before they've really understood what a step
> was all about ;).
>
> Of course, the *really* rabid "step collectors" won't touch these classes
> with
> a ten foot pole, because the steps are usually "too simple", if only
> because
> it's impossible to grasp the essence of a sequence when too much is
> happening.
>
>
> --
> Alexis Cousein                                  al at sgi.com
> Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect     SGI/Silicon Graphics
> --
> <If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals>
>
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