[Tango-L] 6 months

[WHITE 95 R]

IMHO, if a guy can competently walk with ease and elegance, perform turns to 
both sides and navigate the dance floor and lead his partner to dance as he 
does all this, he is already and accomplished dancer and is probably already 
teaching his own classes. I don't know who these 6 month wonders are. I'd 
like to see them and I'd love to see the methodology their teachers use.

While it is true that there are phenomenal dancers who can achieve greatness 
in short order (think Chicho Frumboli), I think they are a minuscule 
minority. I don't agree with teaching raw beginners to do ganchos, barridas, 
colgadas, volcadas or flashy boleos and sacadas. It's a very bad idea, this 
kind of teaching philosophy produces the worst dancers that one sees in the 
social dance floor. These are the people about whom the biggest rants 
against "show tango" are directed.

I don't know about the proficient dancers that some people in this forum are 
talking about. I have not seen them so I cannot talk about them. However, I 
do know that there are teachers out there who have very nice personalities 
and are very complementary of their students progress and ability. These are 
very nice people and very supportive of their charges. They are doing what 
they think is right and in some ways they are correct. It's very important 
to be supportive and encouraging. The only problem is that in their efforts, 
they convince their students (and themselves I guess..) that they are indeed 
good dancers and quite proficient. Alas, to the knowledgeable observer this 
is simply not so. This is equally bad for those teaching choreographed back 
sacadas, and flying boleos as it is for those who teach plodding under the 
guise of "close embrace".

In my years of dancing and teaching since the early '90s, I've come to the 
conclusion that the tango is not easy to learn or to teach. It is simple, 
but not easy. People can take lessons for years from good teachers, and 
still struggle to dance simply, elegantly and with the music. Yes, there are 
exceptions, but that is all they are. And yes, when these people go to BsAs, 
they find out just how woefully inadequate their dancing really is and how 
judgmental and picky the Portenos/as can be... A rude awakening indeed. 
OTOH, there is good dancing in the US and anyone who says different is just 
talking from limited experience or just lying. In any of the larger 
festivals around the US, one can find many very good dancers. Actually, you 
don't even need to do go to those festivals. Just come to Atlanta during a 
week when we have several milongas and come to dance. You'll see for 
yourself that there is an excellent level of dancing right here in the USA.

Cheers,

Manuel


visit our webpage
www.tango-rio.com





>From: Keith <keith at tangohk.com>
>Reply-To: keith at tangohk.com
>To: Tango-L <TANGO-L at mit.edu>
>Subject: Re: [Tango-L] 6 months
>Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:08:31 -0400
>
>  Hi Aron,
>
>  Sorry if you find my writing style aggressive. Probably due to 25 years 
>working on constuction sites around the world and
>  dealing with some very tough contractors. Finally gave up that life, 
>settled in Hong Kong and became a full-time Tango
>  instructor - with some Ballroom and Latin thrown in. I make a pretty good 
>living but I agree with you - if I only taught my
>  students walking, rock steps and various ochos for 6-months, I'd also be 
>out of business and, in my case, back to construction
>  work.
>
>  People will never learn Tango unless they keep coming to the classes 
>[despite what Chris, UK says] so you have to keep them
>  interested until they become hooked. If that means teaching beginners 
>Barridas, Ganchos and Boleos after about 3-months  -
>  fair enough. And, if I don't do it, even in a small place like HK there 
>are 5 or 6 other couples who will. But it's still the visiting
>  Show Tango instructors who teach the really wild stuff - and those 
>classes are always packed!
>
>  Keith, HK
>
>
>
>  On Mon Jul 16 17:38 , Ecsedy Áron  sent:
>
> >My 2 cents here...
> >
> >Illinois> Each year we get 1 or 2 young men (in their 20s) who become 
>competent social
> >Illinois> tango dancers (close embrace) within 6 months. I believe it is 
>possible for
> >
> >It depends quite a bit on the motivation of the students. In Hungary, 
>learning dancing is at the same level as going to the movies or eating out, 
>which means that many people simply doesn't have any motivation to actually 
>_learn_ tango well or even to use it at a milonga. I have to work very hard 
>to create an environment on my classes that makes people at least curious 
>about a milonga, so they continue dancing after the first few months and 
>practice outside my 90-minutes-per-week tango classes.
> >
> >Illinois> months. Their repertoire is mosly walking, rock steps (some 
>turning),
> >Illinois> several variations on the ocho cortado and basic back ochos.
> >
> >I'd be out of business, if people learnt only this in half a year (even 
>though wouldn't ever teach colgadas in the first year - counting the 
>average 3-5 hours per week tango involvement). The tango scene in Hungary 
>was dominated by stage dancers during its initial expansion, so people 
>rarely dance simple at the milongas (you can't even try: some women don't 
>even understand if you lead steps less than half a meter...). This makes 
>dancers of beginner-level knowledge feel completely incompetent and drives 
>them towards fancy stuff. A great number of beginners choose to take 
>lessons with stage dancers because they are teaching "more than walks and 
>ochos".
> >
> >Illinois> you can have dancers with 2-3 years tango experience who still 
>can't walk
> >Illinois> with grace and balance to the music.
> >
> >I wish that would be the case. But my experience shows that you can teach 
>a lot of stuff early and still have a good - apparent - level of dancing. 
>These people usually use quite a lot of muscle strength to do what they do, 
>so they aren't too comfortable to dance with, however, from the outside 
>they are quite adept dancers. Since most locals don't know what they are 
>missing, they didn't develop the need for better connection and more 
>subtleness. :(
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Aron
> >
>
>


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