[Tango-L] 6 months

[WHITE 95 R]

Dear Steve,

In your very nice post you say "After the students have mastered some basic 
rhythmic and movement skills, learning something about the underlying 
structure of the tango would be
helpful.". You also said that back when you were teaching with Susan (give 
her my cordial greeting), you were producing "passable dancers" in about six 
to eight weeks of 1 hour weekly lessons.

By definition in some dictionaries, "mastery" means:
1. Possession of consummate skill
2. Full command of a subject of study
3. Status of master or ruler

"passable" is defined as:
1. of moderate quality but less than excellent
2. satisfactory but not outstanding; adequate

Please do not think I'm passing judgment on your teaching skills. But in all 
honesty, it's extremely rare for a six~eight week trained dancer to have 
mastered anything. In my humble opinion, a great number of dancers who've 
been dancing for years fall in the passable category. Even after many 
classes and workshops with excellent teachers, few people attain "mastery" 
of the basic tango dance.

I agree with Jake. He said something about the students lack of mastery is 
due to his not being able to practice for them. I firmly believe that lots 
of practice can help attain mastery. A dose of natural talent does not hurt 
either. But lets be honest, how many beginning students will take lessons 
and practice enough in six to eight weeks to actually learn to lead or 
follow and dance rhythmically?

Tom Stermitz is right in that people walk into a tango class but promptly 
forget how to do it by the end of the class.... However, this is only 
partially correct. It does not give the true picture of what happens. They 
might walk into the class, but generally, they are totally unaware of their 
body. Most folks have a hard time shifting their weight from one foot to the 
other when asked to do it... Ever notice how they always end up with their 
weight over both feet whenever they stop moving? Have you ever had to teach 
a woman to be aware of the lead so she moves her legs instead of falling 
backwards when you try to lead her to walk? Ever see a man start by stepping 
on their partner's feet before even moving their bodies or giving a lead? 
Ever notice how you can easily spend on hour trying to teach control of 
simple movements to one person?

I've seen those scenarios literally thousands of times. Teaching people to 
move consciously and deliberately by themselves in a non-familiar way (think 
tango) is not easy. When you try to teach 2 inexperienced people to do that 
*together* you will have an exponentially more difficult task. I challenge 
the notion that such people can become "passable" dancers after six or eight 
lessons of one hour, given once a week....

You talk about teaching how to "assemble these elements". I say good luck in 
teaching them the element of leading and following in six weeks, let alone 
assembling elements of rhythm, timing and body control. Like I said, if one 
has "mastery" of even the most basic tango skills, one is a "Master", well 
past the passable level. BTW, if you want to see passable, just go to any 
large milonga and watch the people dance. You'll be amazed at the number of 
passable dancers you'll see, and they will not be all students with six 
weeks of one hour/week lessons under their belts.

Sincerely,

Manuel



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www.tango-rio.com





>From: Stephen.P.Brown at dal.frb.org
>To: Tango-L at mit.edu, "WHITE 95 R" <white95r at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Tango-L] 6 months
>Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:49:12 -0500
>
>Manuel and all:
>
>I have to say that Tete's own skills as an instructor nothing to do with
>the validity of his comments.  I didn't find his instructional videos to
>be much different than the classes Manuel describes.  It's his power of
>observation that is worth considering.
>
>Previously I wrote:
> >>beginning students can assemble these small movements to dance.
>
>Manuel responded:
> >Not necessarily. Actually it's highly unlikely that the beginning
> >student can do any such thing.
>
>Maybe it's a question of teaching how to assemble those elements.
>
>It might also be a case of my defining passably differently than you
>define mastery.  I'm not suggesting that such dancers have reached the top
>level in 6-8 weeks.  I am saying that they would show some competence in
>basic movement, rhythm and navigation, and have fun without getting in
>anyone else's way.
>
>I'm still struck by a comment that Tom Stermitz made a few years ago that
>people show up at their first tango lesson with navigational skills and
>maybe some basic knowledge of rhythm,.  (They are able to walk down a
>crowded street or through a crowded mall without colliding with anyone.)
>After their first tango lesson--which typically consists of learning a
>memorized step pattern--many would be tango dancers have no connection to
>the music and have no ability to navigate.  That description doesn't
>recommend instruction very much does it?
>
>With best regards,
>Steve
>

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