[Tango-L] Leading with arm and hands & teaching

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

Since I can only post 1 more time today, I'll have to kill 2 birds with 1 stone:

On Teaching:

My experience mirrors that of Lois and my preferred teaching style starts beginners off in close-embrace, even though I used to teach in open-embrace.  However, there are too many factors in the teaching process to make generalizations about what is the best way to teach, which varies by student, anyway.  I mean, if your close-embrace sucks, then you're not going to teach well in close-embrace, right?  There's another couple in our community that have taught close for years, but they've yet to produced a single successful student by themselves.  So let's not confuse dance style with teaching skills.  

Jack might be misattributing the student's comfort level with dance style.  It could very well be that the teacher is not effectively analyzing the needs of the students or presenting concepts in such a way that students are comfortable dancing close.  We can't tell without seeing the actual class.  My own theory is that those of us who prefer to teach in close might spend more time learning how to teach than those who teach in open because we know that close-embrace does present additional challenges.  But I could simply be biased.


--- On Fri, 8/1/08, Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Milonguero style uses "only" the torso to lead.
> Those that only know that style created the misconception
> that any other form of leading is "a bad habit".

Actually, Sergio, it's not the milonguero style that has promoted that concept.  I recall that concept of not using the hands as an instruction when I started in salon many moons ago.  It's certainly not Susana Miller.  She once made a big point about using the hands in a workshop and used the analogy of picking up a water bottle and placing it elsewhere.  

So, I say that it is salon teachers that propogated that belief and it's a useful belief to have and practice until one is ready for a more sophisticated way of leading.

Trini de Pittsburgh