[Tango-L] How to Tango

[WHITE 95 R]

Hi Floyd,

I went to your website and started to read your "how to tango" section. I've 
learned over the years to keep my opinions to myself, but since you asked 
for feedback, I'll give you mine about some parts of your treatise.

The first thing I noticed is that you said that most tango teachers don't 
know what they are doing. While it's possible that you might be right, it's 
an unnecessarily insulting comment about all the other teachers out there. 
Secondly, I read a lot of criticism and disparaging remarks about ballroom 
dancing teachers and their methods. Again, I find that gratuitously 
offensive. I don't know about other communities, but here in Atlanta there 
are no ballroom teachers teaching Argentine tango. At times some teachers 
might have tried, but there are so many Argentine Tango teachers around that 
it would be a huge waste of time for the ballroomers to get involved. In 
other words, at least in Atlanta the threat to the purity of Argentine Tango 
by ballroom teachers is a non issue. Besides, I've gotten to know many 
ballroom dancers and teachers over the years, and I found many of them to be 
nice people, gracious, generous and respectful of the Argentine Tango.

While your comments about tango are mostly true and accurate, they come 
accross as judgemental and presumptuous. Also, there is no need to put down 
Salsa either. I don't understand why you find it necessary to slam Salsa. I 
personally love to dance Salsa and I find it to be as challenging and 
rewarding as tango when done to the right music with the right partner.

As you say, tango is all about the lead and follow. However, there are many 
ways to impart this knowledge to people. Teaching them certain movements and 
techniques is perfectly fine and should not be criticized. We've been 
teaching and dancing for over 13 years and have had great success turning 
out very good dancers by using many different teaching tools, including the 
D8CB. Also, your analogy of tango and tennis might be a good one, but tango 
could also be compared to downhill skiing, basketball, racketball or any 
other number of sport activities. Sure they are done without much thinking 
and rather fluidly and naturally. However, these activities are like tango 
in that they must be learned and require a lot of skill and practice before 
they can be done effortlessly. Anyway, leading and following are skills that 
must be learned and developed. The natural born tango dancer is a rare 
thing. There is no miracle "one lesson" system to teach it and it's a rare 
follower who can actually follow even the simplest lead if they are totally 
inexperienced.

I appreciate the effort you've put into this page and the obvious love you 
have for tango. I can also simpathize with your desire to break through and 
find a sure fire, simple way to teach people to really dance tango. Still, 
you might want to go back and look over your writings. Perhaps it would help 
if you try to put yourself into the place of your reader. Please consider 
who this reader might be... Perhaps another teacher, maybe a ballroom dancer 
or teacher... How about a Salsa dancer or swing dancer who's heard about 
Argentineinte tango.... Maybe just some person who knows nothing about tango 
and precious little about dance in any form. To some of these people your 
words might be off-putting if not downright offensive. Maybe it's good to 
remember the old adage about attracting more flies with honey than with 
vinegar......

Cheers,

Manuel



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www.tango-rio.com

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