[Tango-L] male experts on women's technique

Wed Jul 18 17:45:13 EDT 2007

Piffle.

There is no "women's technique" per se.  There isn't a women's ocho and
a man's ocho, there isn't a man's cross distinct from a woman's cross,
there isn't a special man's molinete.  There isn't a different way of
walking forward for the man that doesn't also exist for the woman.  

Intuition does not exist in a vacuum.  It always builds on what you
already know.  No one starts tango with such "natural skill of movement"
they can start the dance right off without learning anything ... we all
learn everything from scratch.  If someone understands tango, then they
can communicate that understanding.  If the communication is successful,
then the recipient comes away with something they didn't have before. 
Sure, there are many teachers that have a poor intellectual framework
for communicating tango, even if they dance well.  But tango instruction
follows the 90/10 rule just like every other field, so it follows some
people care really good at teaching.

And what you learn, has to be practiced, over and over, tens of
thousands of times until it becomes part of your being, until it can
merge with the music coming through your heart.  "Just dancing" is not
practice, it's just dancing.  Practice involves doing the same thing
repeatedly with focused attention to train the body.  In other words, it
requires the discipline of foregoing the joy of "just dancing" right
now, so there can be more joy in "just dancing" later, because better
dancing *is* better fun.

Only the individual dancer can decide how much discipline they apply to
their dance.  But there is no tango without discipline, because there
*is* somewhere a line you cross between not tango and tango, and to be
dancing tango, you need to be on the tango side of that line.  And no
one knows all by their lonesome, if they are on the tango side of the
line.

I've danced with hundreds of women.  The ones that dance well, take
classes and private lessons and practice.  The ones that can't hold up
their end of the dance, with bad habits, no skills, no posture, no
balance and needing constant care, attention and management just walking
down the line of dance, too often are the ones who only show up at
milongas and expect guys to teach them what they need to know there. 
This isn't to say that there aren't many dancers beyond hope no matter
how much instruction they get; but they are fewer than most people
think.

Christopher

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:03:07 +0200, "Anna Zelenina"
<desdelasnubes at web.de> said:
> 
> Dear male experts,
> 
> I'm  happy to read your valuable comments on women's technique that you
> so generously share with us. 
> What would women do without male experts sharing their advanced level of
> technical knowledge? 
> We would be left without technical instructions, 
> without 135, 225, 270, 270 and 135 degrees.
> We would never know the hidden benefits of the wall. 
> We would humbly sit for years without moving. 
> Or, what might be even worse, we would have to start quilting if we would
> live in US or in the UK.
> We would be desperate. 
> We would have no other choice than to relie on our intuition,  
> trust the embrace and our sensitivity to feel the music , 
> use our natural skill of movement and humbly 
> enjoy 
> to g
> dancing ;)
> 
> Anna
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: keith at tangohk.com
> > Gesendet: 18.07.07 17:14:29
> > An: Tango-L at mit.edu
> > Betreff: Re: [Tango-L] Women's technique
> 
> 
> > 
> > IL,
> > 
> > Maybe you missed Chris' post last year. Chris has actualy attended classes with more than 60 [yes, 60] different teachers. But he's never explained why he eventually decided they were worse-than-useless or why it took him so long to come to that conclusion. 
> > 
> > Since his dislike of teachers has no logic, I tend to think it's envy - after all, teachers are actually getting paid for what Chris would obviously be happy to do for free.
> > 
> > Keith, HK
> > 
> > 
> >  On Wed Jul 18  8:13 , Iron Logic  sent:
> > 
> > >  dear Chris UK, I think people don’t understand you when you say
.no technique, classes are bad
no group
.lessons
... May be you should I walk the talk and *show us* what is possible.. by *just dancing*.
> > >   
> > >  All we know is you:
> > >  Learnt tango by 'just dancing' [without going to classes, without learning 'technique's etc..]
> > >  Have had very bad experience with teachers
> > >  Sincerely think that followers don’t have to go to classes, they learn by dancing with 'good' dancers [like yourself?..perhaps]
> > >   
> > >  Just to get an idea of what you are talking about, will you be kind enough to post a video of yourself dancing, so the viewers can decide whether :
> > >  1) Continue to learn the way they do because they aren't impressed by your 'dancing'
> > >  OR ..2) Stop going classes because they like your dancing and want follow your example
> > >   
> > >  Ofcourse you may pick a partner who has never been tango classes, technique classes etc. so you can demonstrate your now legendary leading skills.
> > >   
> > >  
.show them the way by dancing[ instead of talking about dancing
apologies for borrowing your lines:)].
> > >   
> > >IL
> > >
> > >"Chris, UK" tl2 at chrisjj.com> wrote:  > I'd be out of business, if people learnt only this in half a year
> > >
> > >What refreshing honesty. Thanks, Aron.
> > >
> > >Trini wrote:
> > >
> > >> ...erector spinae, deep posterior muscles and semispinalis ...
> > >> When instructors from Argentina visit, we discuss things
> > >> like this all the time. And they get excited and pleased
> > >
> > >I'll bet they do.
> > >
> > >> Which is why they like coming back here to teach. 
> > >
> > >And why they go home laughing all the way to the bank.
> > >
> > >--
> > >Chris
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >Tango-L mailing list
> > >Tango-L at mit.edu
> > >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >Tango-L mailing list
> > >Tango-L at mit.edu
> > >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> 
> 
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