[Tango-L] Milonga 101 -- conversation between dances

[Keith]

Chris,

It's called learning to dance. And, yes, Gustavo's classes are serious and often difficult.

But we've been through all this before - if a teacher's classes are too difficult for some 
students, they should find an easier class. And, if all students can immediately do what 
the teacher is teaching, well he isn't teaching very much. And if any teacher tells his 
students that learning Tango is easy, they should find another teacher. It's a teacher's 
job to push and challenge his students, not pander to them. Well, that's my opinion.
Personally, when I attend classes, I don't go for fun - I go to work and I go to learn.

Keith, HK


 On Tue Jan 15 10:42 , "Chris, UK"  sent:

>> Gustavo ... "What comes from only the head alone is worth nothing...
>> only things that come from the heart have any value."
>
>He gave an excellent exhibition of that at our milonga the other week. His 
>lesson consisted of prescribed sequences - the same giro, sacada, change 
>of direction type stuff we've seen countless times before - which the 
>students were to repeat these over and over, whether the music called for 
>it or not. This Gustavo interspersed with demos and lecturettes explaining 
>exactly why the guy's torso turned through this angle while the girl took 
>that number of steps etc.
>
>I watched with dismay as the standard of dancing steadily deteriorated. 
>The struggle to get bodies at the required angles and feet in "the right 
>place" left no hope at all for anything that really mattered. In the hands 
>of even normally good leaders, the girls were suffering torture. Feeling 
>for partner? Feeling for the music? Feeling for the ronda? Not a chance in 
>hell. By the end of the lesson there wasn't a single couple left doing 
>anything one could remotely call dancing.
>
>Where in all of that were the "things that come from the heart"?
>
>I started the music with Malerba's Remembranzas. An hour later the ordeal 
>was largely forgotten and almost everyone was back to dancing.
>
>--
>Chris
>
>PS Alfredo De Angelis "La Cumparsita":
>  http://youtube.com/watch\?v=jjPp6CZ2vVo (video 3m07s)
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