[Tango-L] Tango Teaching

['Mash]

I thought I would chip into this thread in a general sense since I am new to Tango. 
You may be interested in hearing from someone who is being taught the "paso basico"
without any previous Tango experience whatsoever. 

Now I have been dancing all my life in a loose sense by frequenting house music clubs.
I am not talking about glow stick brandishing arm flailing, I am talking "housedance."
Example of housedance -  http://www.vimeo.com/clip:17601

Okay my point is that I come from a background where the dance is driven purely though 
expression of what the music does to one. Through time you increase your repitour of 
skills by watching and learning from other people. Recently there are now "housedance" 
classes and amusingly the same teaching discussions are happening there.

Now in regards to Tango, I entered the world knowing I could dance, I did not however  
quite have the head in till recently to learn Tango patterns. Everything I read in terms of 
learning Tango is about the emotion, about thinking with your chest/heart not your feet. 
This makes perfect sense to me and I already immerse myself in Tango music every 
chance I get. Thank God I have already fallen in love with the bandoneon and 
there are times I have to force myself to open my eyes when I dance. 
Leading unfortunately does not allow for such abandonment.

I have had the complete privilege of beginning my Tango journey in I believe the very 
capable instruction of Leandro Palou and Romina Godoy. I also substitute my learning 
by attending another class taught by a Tango teacher who from what I know is also a learned 
ballroom teacher. Though the subject matter of both classes are the same the teaching couldn't
be further from each other.

I don't believe you could teach beginners anything other then "los ocho pasos basicos" 
(okay I trying here) as there has to be a foundation in place. But the difference with 
Leandro and Rominas' teaching is how it is approached. Continually we are told to stop 
trying so hard, stop trying to Tango walk and just walk. To relax and just dance like you have
just walked up to your partner and said "Hi, lets dance." They then watch everyone ALOT. It was 
just yesterday that Leandro asked me to start thinking about turning my feet out more. It is that gentle
approach of letting someone dance with the small skills they know and then polishing them by 
instruction about form. 

My other class though technical strong annoys me as within the first two weeks we were talking 
numbers and fractions. I have two months worth of Tango experience but that the dance is 
broken down into a maths lesson screams it's missing the point entirely.

If the essence of Tango is expression then the steps should be taught in a fashion of providing opportunities for that expression. "This is the step that allows you to do these steps. These are the 
steps that give the two of you freedom to do this combination of steps and this step allows you to 
reset and achieve neutral again." 

I could write about this for ages but I will spare your eyes. All I can say is that I can imagine this
"method of teaching" argument will last as long as Tango does.

'Mash