[Tango-L] Four Layers of Tango Learning

[Gary Barnes]

One of the most successful tango intro sessions I have seen was at a  
'men's dance festival'.  Most of the participants at the festival  
were kids, but there was also a bunch of adults, mostly their parents.

This class was all men, maybe about one third gay, the kids were all  
busy doing hiphop and ballet --  I'm not sure which of these made the  
difference.  The whole atmosphere in the workshop was enormously less  
fraught than the typical mixed tango intro class, even though many of  
the men were not dance-interested -- they were mostly 'just' dads of  
boys who were into dance, looking for something to do while their  
kids were doing classes.

In 90 minutes, we got further than many mixed classes do after 3 or 4  
sessions.

But, I find it enormously difficult to convince men of the value of  
practising with other men - let alone attending men-only classes or  
practices, or the extreme of attending a men-only intro session.  The  
closest most will come is them dancing with a woman, and me next to  
them, body to body, and leading them to lead the woman -- with this,  
they at least get some sense of what the woman might feel like when  
he leads her, and the quality of movement this needs from him.

So, anyone with ideas as to how to get this to happen - for new men,  
not those already dancing?

Having women learn tango, at a beginner level, is relatively easy  
once you have enough good leaders who are willing to help (or 'dance  
with bad dancers' as some would put it).   But with men, its a  
different kettle of fish.

Gary