[Tango-L] Getting educated (restated and expanded)

[Jake Spatz]

Stephen.P.Brown at dal.frb.org wrote:
> At some point, most tango dancers choose not to improve because the effort required isn't paid back with a sufficient improvement in the quality of the dance experience.
Excuses, excuses. Selfish excuses.
    * Keep your feet on the floor
    * Collect
    * Know the music
    * Dance with your partner, not with your moves
There is almost zero effort required.
> Improving one's own skills doesn't do much good if one's potential dance partners have mediocre skills.  
Why not?
> The required complementarity of skills in dance partners can lead to a situation in which an entire community remains mired in mediocrity, even though many individual dancers may want to improve their skills.
Wanting to improve and not doing it is the only mire.
> individuals [in such a mire] have little incentive to improve their skills. The quality of their own dance experience won't increase appreciably
Why not?
> and may reduce the number of potential partners with whom it is enjoyable to dance.
Why?

These are the flimsiest of excuses. These amount the same old silly trap 
we've all seen a hundred times. Wanting to HAVE a better partner vs. 
wanting to BE a better partner.
> Moreover, the better-skilled dancers may also find it difficult to keep their skills honed while dancing in a community dominated by mediocre dancers.
Not for long, Steve, if the skill be solid.
> In such a community, a strong personal drive to excel is necessary to launch the person well beyond where their own community stands.
I've read this paragraph four times now. So let me get this straight...

Escaping the mire = Drive to excel...
> But tango is a partner dance, and it is better to find at least one partner who is willing to work together toward the same goals of excellent dancing--by taking some private lessons and practicing a lot.
Escaping the mire = Drive to excel + Partner + Lessons & Practice...
> But even if the couple succeeds in developing their skills dramatically, they find themselves mired in a community of mediocre dancers.
Escaping the mire = Drive to excel + Partner + Lessons & Practice = The 
mire.
> Perhaps a better idea is to form a small practice group of both men and women
Perhaps a better idea is to call oneself a pig if one calls one's 
hometown a sty. That's my medicine when I want to blame others for my 
own lack of light.

I agree that Jeff posed some interesting questions. But he spoke in the 
first person. This hypothetical community you describe, with its 
slapstick logic, doesn't have the answers.

The desire to HAVE a better partner will always be vain, needy, and 
self-defeating. It is probably the opposite of growth. And everything in 
your description, Steve, walks right into this tarpit. If one desires to 
BE a better partner, then /of course/ improving one's own dance (one's 
"skills") will result in better experiences on the floor. /Of course/ it 
will make it more enjoyable to dance with a variety of partners-- 
namely, because when you ARE a good partner, it's less about NEEDING a 
good partner to "dance well."

Now, to talk some plain sense: What, in the first place, does the 
drive-to-excel have to do with /pleasure/? The pursuit of excellence 
_begins_ with throwing that small idea of pleasure (one's own, fleeting, 
vulnerable little pleasure) quite overboard, so it's not a distraction. 
Pursuing one's own excellence is demanding, not comfortable. You start, 
and continue, by declaring yourself (to yourself) NOT satisfied.

The more I re-read your post, the more I see that you're describing the 
pursuit of /attention/. Similar plumes; different bird. Excellence 
doesn't pass the buck to its surroundings: it passes a torch.

Jake