[Tango-L] No need to take sides

[Lois Donnay]

What Jack says is a little mean, and certainly divisive, considering I was trying to make 
peace by defending the much-maligned "close embrace people" who supposedly are the only 
ones who criticize other dance styles. So I'm going to try to defend myself.

I dance, and teach, many styles regularly - Canyengue, milonguero, salon, open, nuevo. I 
don't mind people dancing the style they and their partner prefer and are able to execute 
successfully with others on the floor. But they must be good at it, so they don't risk 
ruining another's dance experience. I think we all agree on that.

Even good dancers can be seduced by the allure of that cool move they just learned, even 
though it doesn't fit on the floor and their lead is a little tenuous. And good teachers 
can be seduced by the demands of their students, asking for colgadas when they can't walk 
yet. (Would you like to know how much trouble I got in when I stood in for another teacher, 
and instead of furthering the student's education on single axis turns, I said "let's learn 
to walk first"?) And we can all be tempted to blame the other guy on the floor, who is 
always using too much space. And we can all be tempted to lump them into a particular 
style. We have a guy here in town who constantly uses too much space and bumps into others. 
Surprisingly, he always blames the other guy. Then there's the imitators who never take 
lessons but do the move they saw anyway. Ewwww!

So, if that is true that only Close Embrace people criticize, why is it that Traditional 
tango, Nuevo, canyengue people don't criticize people who dance in close? Are they just so 
much more tolerant? Is there nothing to complain about? (BTW, I've heard some of my 
favorite dancers derisively called "floor walkers" because they prefer close.)

Yes, I defend my teaching style, which I did not come up with on my own. I studied the 
techniques of the most successful teachers I knew - those who put the most good dancers on 
the floor in a short amount of time. It's working here, too.

Lois

Sergio states: Now the most interesting thing is : Those that dance Traditional tango, 
Nuevo, canyengue, never criticize anyone else.
Those that dance all the styles never criticize anyone but...
The ones that dance close embrace all the time, milonguero, have multiple problems 
expressed in many forms."


>I now realise that Lois' post was just another veiled attempt to criticise those
>who do not dance tango in the style that she prefers.
>Jack