[Tango-L] Women's technique

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

--- Caroline Weynerowski <cweynerowski at sympatico.ca> wrote:

"The only thing practicing ochos with a wall (or barre)
would improve is the women's
hang-on-to-the-guy-instead-of-use-her-own-balance
technique. "

Bingo. that's why I stopped using the wall a long time ago.
It really did make me start leaning on the guy. Now I do
giros and ochos on my own, touching nothing.

Caroline Weynerowski
cweynerowski at sympatico.ca
---

Thank you Caroline. It's nice to know that someone else
figured this out. Would you have learned faster if your
early teachers had told you this right from the start,
instead of waiting for you to figure it out on your own?

>From the other responses to my plain, common sense comment,
I am beginning to think that there is some merit to Chris's
opinion about tango teachers. At least some seem to prefer
to create perpetual students, rather than competent
dancers.

I hope we all can see the problem with the wall method, and
hopefully, the more imaginative people can see that it can
be solved by having the student do the same exercise
standing 3 feet away from the wall. Would one of the
teachers still using it please explain the hidden benefits
of the wall that outweigh the obvious problems?

When I started learning tango, I was told that it would
take 5 years to become competent in the dance. That was a
commonly held belief in this area in 1995. I dutifully took
classes and attended practicas for 5 years, and even
struggled through some milongas. At around 5 years of
experience, I was asked to teach by the same group that
taught me.

If your goal is to produce world class dancers Keith, I
wish you luck, but don't quit your day job. My goal is to
put as many people as possible onto a social dance floor
with the tools they need to enjoy themselves, give their
partners an enjoyable dance, and not interfere with anyone
else's enjoyment of the dance. Today, it takes me 6 months
or less to raise most students to the level I was at after
5 years. If it ever takes a whole year, I'll tell that
student to find another teacher.

When I took the 5 year tango track, it included lots of
steps, the D8CB, ochos against the wall, and a whole bunch
of other counter-productive exercises. But at that time, it
was the state of the art for teaching tango. Today, any
teacher who tells their students that it will take 5 years
to become competent in the dance might be hopelessly
incompetent themselves, or could be con artist out to scam
as much money as possible from their students. (I just put
that last part in for Chris ;)

Teachers, if you haven't changed the way you teach in the
last 5 years, you aren't doing your job. Examine everything
you do, and figure out a way to do each thing a little
better. Repeat this exercise a few times a year for the
rest of your career.

Students, try as many different teachers as you can find,
right from the start. In Pittsburgh, Trini and I host a
free weekly milonga with a free beginner’s class. We have
invited every teacher in the city to take turns teaching
the class, so that all of the students and teachers can get
to know each other. In addition, we hope that the various
teachers will attend each other's classes, and learn more
about teaching.

Sean





       
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