[Tango-L] dull, dull, dull (Mario)

[Jack Dylan]

Caroline,
 
I can certainly sympathise - a year of nothing but classes and practicas 
must have been terrible and would be enough to destroy almost anyone's 
love of tango. I'm just surprised that your teacher and others in your class 
didn't encourage you to attend milongas. Hereabouts, most people start 
to attend milongs after completing an 8-week beginner course, and some 
even earlier. 

But, IMHO, it sounds like you've made 2 serious errors in your learning 
of tango. 

The first was to attend only classes and practicas but not milongas. 
Milongas, especially for ladies and as you've now discovered, are an 
absolutely essential and indispensable element in learning tango. 

But now you've compounded that mistake by attending milongas only 
but not classes or practicas. No doubt in the milongas you're dancing 
with men of a higher standard than you would in the classes and I'm 
sure this has had a positive effect on your dancing. But, by attending 
milongas only, IMO, very soon you'll reach a plateau and your 
improvement will slow, stop or even regress.

I've seen it so many times when lady classmates stop attending 
classes, When I dance with them in the milongas I can feel no 
improvement, whereas their former lady classmates continue to 
improve. And, as time goes by, the difference becomes more and 
more noticable.

Classes, practice and milongas - all 3 are necessary - and all at the 
same time.. But, yes, in the long run, milongas are the most 
important element.

Jack



----- Original Message ----
> From: caroline <runcarolinerun at hotmail.com>
> 
> 
> It was only
> when I stopped classes and practicas and went to milongas only that I
> finally learned to ditch all the bad habits picked up from classes and
> rather overly opined beginner leaders in practicas that I discovered
> what Real Tango is.
>