[Tango-L] Sergio Natario and Alejandra

[Lois Donnay]

Oh, my stars - this is so refreshing to hear!!!

I see so much hero worship of some dancer who comes up with a new move, or
does some showy stuff. To my mind, it doesn't count unless you can lead
it!!!

I can't tell you how many teachers come to me and ask me to sponsor
workshops, or invite them to teach here. Yet they don't think to dance with
me or my students. How can I tell if they dance well? Male teachers who
don't know how to follow, teachers who won't dance with their students even
in a private class, or teachers who run to find their partner to demonstrate
everything - they are definitely out there, and they still have students.

The problem is that so many people sponsor workshops with teachers whom they
have only seen dance and thought it was "cool'. Then more people sponsor
them because they taught somewhere else. Please! This would be my short list
of things to do before you endorse a teacher:

Dance with them.
Dance with their students.
Take a private lesson with them.
Take a group lesson with them, and watch the results!
Talk to the people who take the group lesson and see if they learned
anything.

Any others?

Lois Donnay

-----Original Message-----
From: astrid [mailto:astrid at ruby.plala.or.jp] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 6:27 PM
To: Lois Donnay; tango-l at mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Sergio Natario and Alejandra


 Sergio passes my criteria of a great dancer
> and teacher because he dances with people other than his partner, not only
> in class but at milongas.

You seem very easy to please, Lois. In my opinion in a good lesson it is
often a necessity "to dance with people other than his partner" if a man is
trying to teach. And the people other than his partner usually include the
men as well. Dancing with other people in milongas may mean that he is
friendly, but in my observation usually the main motive is fishing for
(private) lessons. It has nothing to do with whether someone is a great
dancer. It does facilitate teaching, though, but should be regarded as a
fairly basic requirement, not as something outstanding.

Astrid