[Tango-L] Learning vs. Practicing at Milongas

[larrynla@juno.com]

Shahrukh Merchant writes ------> One learns elements, figures and techniques at 
classes, but one learns _how to dance_ at the Milongas.

Exactly.

Every time you do a movement, whether in a class, practica, or milonga, you are 
practicing.  But the focus is different depending on the context.  In a class 
you often are working on individual steps - preparing to do one, doing it with 
poise and precision, and following up.  Or you are working on short combinations 
of steps.  Or (now less often than when tango was new to non-Argentines) longer 
figures.

In a practica you are dancing to a piece of music, but the focus of you and your 
partner is in putting together what you learned in (often the immediately 
preceding) class.  The focus is still on technique.

In a milonga you are practicing the emotional and esthetic side of dancing.  
Practicing enjoying the physical and emotional closeness with your partner, 
feeling emotionally (not just hearing physically) the music, and perhaps most of 
all having fun.

It might seem as if people should not need to practice having fun.  But I 
imagine everyone has seen plenty of people who obviously need it.  They are the 
ones with grim faces, the ones who insist on their partner's being perfect.  Who 
do not realize that mistakes are opportunities to practice recovering from 
errors, and sometimes the doorway to discovering a new way to do something.


Larry de Los Angeles
http://shapechangers.wordpress.com/



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