[Tango-L] Outside Influences

[Keith]

Hi Everybody,

First of all, an apology to those of you who, after reading this message, 
might consider me to be an out-dated, chauvinistic old fool. But I guess 
I'm just not sufficiently politically correct, and I'm certainly way to old, 
to accept that a woman can teach a man how to dance Argentine Tango as well 
as a man. A man learning Tango needs his teacher to be a role model - how 
can a woman be a role model for a man? BTW, exactly the same is true in 
Ballroom dancing.

Having said that, Igor is right that women and men have a lot of different 
things to tell to both men and women and I've known a lot of great Tango
teachers who were women.

So of course a woman can teach a man how to dance Tango; she can teach him 
the steps, the embrace, the music and she can even teach how to lead. And 
to many people that might be enough. But, personally, I don't think the poor 
guy's dance would end up looking anything like the Tango that I know and 
love - which is danced with the style, elegance, machismo and attitude of 
the Argentine man. I know a lot of you refuse to accept it, but the fact is 
that the Argentine man dances Tango in a completely different way to the 
American or anyone else who doesn't live, or at least has spent a lot of 
time learning Tango in Argentina. 

And why is that? Well, we recently had Tom Stermitz, a respected American 
Tango teacher, telling us that learning Tango steps is more important than 
learning how to walk correctly, that learning how to walk correctly is too 
difficult and too much of a distraction, so we should just use a 'sidewalk 
walk' to make the whole thing a lot easier. Some people agreed, but try 
telling it to a Argentine. Every single Argentine teacher I've had has 
stressed the same thing - the walk is the basis of good Tango and you can 
judge a man's dance by the standard of his walk.

So yes, a woman can teach a man a lot about Tango - but only after he's 
learned how to dance Tango, or at least is in the process of learning Tango, 
from a man. So women, please stick to teaching other women and leave the 
guys alone. Unless you want them dancing like sissy Americans, rather than 
the macho Argentine.

Since Trini's subject is 'outside influences' I'd say they can only be 
detrimental to Tango. Please, particularly you Americans, please stop 
thinking that you know better than the Argentines and that you can improve 
Tango. You can change it, but you can't improve it. Please just accept that. 

Keith, from Hong Kong [not the other one :-)]



On Sun Mar 25 13:28 , "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)"  sent:

>Igor, that is true.  However, the point in my post was that
>Argentine women teachers without a regular male partner
>seem to be treated with less respect in BsAs than elsewhere
>until recently.  One teacher credits Susana Miller for
>opening doors for Argentine women to teach the man's part. 
>Comments?
>
>Trini de Pittsburgh
>
>--- Igor Polk ipolk at virtuar.com> wrote:
>
>> I am sure a man have a lot to tell to student women.
>> And no women can tell them what a man can. Besides he can
>> lead them.
>> ( Obviously any embellishment does not make sense if a
>> man does not lead or
>> feel it ).
>> 
>> The same goes for men-students - woman teacher.
>> 
>> It seems to me both women and men have a lot of different
>> things to tell to
>> both men and women.
>> 
>> Igor Polk

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