[Tango-L] 6 months

[Jake Spatz (TangoDC.com)]

Manuel (et al),

WHITE 95 R wrote:
> 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.
I've seen a handful of guys get well on their way _toward_ this point in 
6 months (@ 3+ long nights per week). Usually dudes who end up dating 
someone in the community (of whatever level) figure things out more 
quickly-- not always, but often enough for it to have emerged as a 
subtle pattern. One I can observe, anyway.

With women, I notice similar progress among those who befriend other 
_growing_ dancers (again, of whatever level... and whether the friends 
are fellow chicks or guys who are making active progress.)

At bottom, I'd say that learning is contagious-- which is why group 
classes can indeed be very productive, and why privates sometimes 
flounder if the student is too isolated in their growth. Group classes 
of course have their liabilities as well, if you approach them 
stupidly-- but so does a loaf of bread, in that case.
> I don't agree with teaching raw beginners to do ganchos, barridas, 
> colgadas, volcadas or flashy boleos and sacadas.
This past April, I taught a workshop on sacadas for men & women, in your 
community, with a mix of students including a "raw beginner" or three. 
To me it's just walking... and I strove to convey that understanding of 
the dance (e.g., by repeating it ad nauseam, starting with the walk, 
showing variations based on the walk). If there have been any adverse 
effects, I trust you'll let me know.

To me, the elegance & simplicity of the tango is a matter of 
distillation. I don't teach moves because I want to see my students 
doing such moves predominantly. I want to see them doing moves well, and 
without bogus ideas, whenever and if ever they choose to do them.

Nor will I tell them they don't have to walk through any fires in their 
learning & growth. I could only do that by selling them false shortcuts, 
being a kiss-ass, and in short, purveying bullshit.
> 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.
Well, it's simple, and yet not easy, only because you can't practice for 
your students. Most dancers just need to dance more, and forget about 
the packaging of growth, in order to grow. Then classes and lessons 
start to have far more value: they have to be supplements, not the center.

My favorite comic book artist once made the familiar observation that 
you have to throw away your first 1,000 pages before you can find 
yourself and start doing it for real. Some dancers, in tango terms, 
cover that process of initial discovery in 6 months or a year, and then 
begin to mature just fine; some take 5 years, and feel so choked by then 
that they lose all heart.

When a student comes to me and I don't see them at enough milongas, I 
pester them about it. I suggest partners and encourage them to hit a 
group class to meet people & see someone else's teaching. Or whatever. 
My very first night of tango, I danced for 3 hours after 60 minutes of 
instruction from another guy. The ratio I ask of my students is about 
twice that-- 2 or 3 nights per week, for every weekly lesson. Many 
exceed that standard (with or without my badgering), and have a great 
time because of it.

We also discuss the music a lot, and sometimes the food in different 
venues. Occasionally we laugh at how bad Argentine painting is, as 
opposed to the graphic design (e.g., sheet music covers), but that's off 
the clock.
> People can take lessons for years from good teachers, and still 
> struggle to dance simply, elegantly and with the music.
I'd surmise this is the case when you've got a person who doesn't 
already know simplicity or elegance in life, or who doesn't enjoy 
listening to Any music. (I.e., as a sole activity, not as background 
while something else is occupying their attention. That's not 
listening.) For that, one needs not a tango teacher but probably a 
friend or jazz bar, or some good poetry from several centuries ago, or 
cognac.

But under normal circumstances, I'd say the struggle with 
teaching/learning only arises when someone isn't getting out for enough 
social dancing. You can't expect any kind of supervised training to take 
the place of practice & experience. Plenty of folks do that 
unthinkingly, sure; but double their number and they're all still wrong. 
If you imposed a quota of social dancing on your students, so that they 
had to hit 2 milongas (or whatever) between lessons, I think you'd see 
that it ain't so hard after all, for either of you.

Most people who don't already know this just need it pointed out. It's 
too easy to forget these things, and end up preoccupied with some 
charlatanism out of a dance PhD program, or yoga, or some other 
distraction which has less to do with tango than a Hollywood rose in 
American teeth.

Jake Spatz
DC

=POSTSCRIPT=
Damn near every good dancer I know has been a tango dropout at some 
point. We never much talk about that... and yet, sometimes I think the 
only thing anyone really needs is to quit. The ones who succeed at that 
move on with their lives, and the rest of us are just miserable failures 
who couldn't stay quit-- puppets who lace on special shoes and shuffle 
around at the behest of Troilo's fingers every night-- rank lowlifes who 
talk about the little muscles that stitch our spines together.