[Tango-L] Tango Teaching and certification

[Paul Shrivastava]

As a life long academic also involved in building educational 
institutions let me throw in my 2-cents into this conversation.  I have 
reviewed all the formal "syllabuses" that I could find online (about 20) 
and outlines of about 50 workshops by all sorts of Tango teachers from 
US and BA.  The lack of uniformity and standards is apparent event to a 
casual observer.

Tango to me is simultaneously a dance, a music and a culture.  Just 
learning the steps without knowing the emotional and cultural and 
intellectual meanings behind the dance,  is like learning to bake cakes 
from a ready-made mix, instead of using basic ingredients.  You may 
still get a cake out of it, but it is not the same.

Most Tango teaching today focuses on steps, some teacher/workshops pay 
some attention musicality and emotionality.  But, there as no standards.

If you look at the evolution of professionalization in any field - 
medicine, legal, management, education, they all involve developing some 
standards, and establishing independent accrediting agencies that 
monitor and certify them.  There are standards and accreditations in 
music, dance, and theater.  So clearly standards can be created in Tango.

To build an infrastructure for certifying teachers or learners there is 
a lot of basic work to be done in codifying and documenting Tango and 
creating standards and norms.  Without that hard work, all this talk of 
certifying and qualifying is bull.  Are there institutions, individuals, 
practitioners willing to engage in this work? 

Paul

Paul Shrivastava, Ph.D.
Tel 610-737-7333 
www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/shrivast