[Tango-L] The Content of Tango Instructors and those who instruct

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

Tango Society of Central Illinois said previously:

"Each year we get 1 or 2 young men (in their 20s) who become competent
social tango dancers (close embrace) within 6 months. I believe it is
possible for some men to achieve basic skills of partner connection,
connection with the music, and navigation, all while having a good
balanced walk, within 6 months. Their repertoire is mosly walking,
rock steps (some turning), several variations on the ocho cortado and
basic back ochos. Their dance is simple but with good basic tango
skills. On the other hand if instruction focuses on teaching giros,
ganchos, boleos, volcadas, colgadas and the like, you can have dancers
with 2-3 years tango experience who still can't walk with grace and
balance to the music."


On 7/16/07, Ecsedy Áron <aron at milonga.hu> wrote:

    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".


On 7/16/07, Keith <keith at tangohk.com> wrote:

    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!

_____________________________________


OK, so local tango instructors should teach exhibition tango for
social dancing because of economics. I've always suspected this, but
now we have 2 instructors admitting it. There are probably dozens more
who believe the same, and perhaps hundreds more who don't know any
better because they have never been to Buenos Aires and seen social
tango as it is danced in the city of its origin (and they believe that
what the Argentine stage dancers teach them is tango for the social
dance floor). And so worldwide we have this epidemic of
psuedo-dramatic space-eating tango that is typically devoid of
connection to the music and at war with the line of dance, a real
caricature of the tango danced in the milongas of Buenos Aires. And
good Argentine social tango dancers have tears in their eyes when they
see what has been done to their tango.

One could argue that this is OK. After all, in the early part of the
20th century North Americans and Europeans were exposed to tango as it
was danced socially then by Argentines and then quickly adapted it for
local cultural tastes. This over time produced a dance called 'tango'
with a marching walk with the spine arched backwards and 'head
flicks', danced to music with strong drumming. Any culture can call
whatever people dance socially 'tango' as long as it was connected
historically to something called 'tango' in Argentina. Context is
unimportant as local customs shape the cultural eveolution of tango as
it diffuses around the globe. You can even dance this 'tango' to disco
music or gypsy music or Sting. How cool! And you can still call it
"tango"!!

However, then you're missing what Argentine tango has to offer - a
close connection to partner and music, improvised at the movement to
adapt to music and space. There's no other dance like it. But you
don't have to dance it that way. The rest of the world isn't.

Ron