[Tango-L] Shocked

[Jay Rabe]

Seems like there's a confusion between two separate issues. 

The first issue is the supposed prohibition
against teaching at milongas. I thought I made my point clear, that avoiding disturbing other dancers is the primary responsibility, and
any teaching/coaching you can do that doesn't disturb others is OK IMO.
That said, it's obvious that it's a thin line, and you can't do very much,
maybe 5-10 seconds of explanation, without risking violation of the primary rule, but as
always, it's very situational, depending mostly on how crowded the
floor is, i.e. how close other dancers are to you that might be bothered
by talking. What I'm saying is that teaching at milongas is not a bad thing per se, but it's very difficult to do very much without violating the Primary rule, that being not disturbing other dancers.


Trini I applaud your being a champion to the timid beginners who are uncomfortably set upon by self-proclaimed experts. I assure you I'm as concerned as you are about building the community and retaining new dancers. This however is a completley separate issue from the first one, and I think you can risk over-generalizing. Lots of new followers are anxious to learn whatever they can from whoever they can. It's not too different from a common festival phenomenon, during which you take classes with lots of different teachers and often get flatly contradictory advice from them. It's up to the student to sort out what works for them, what's really foundational technique and what are merely stylistic differences. 

I completely agree that making a new dancer uncomfortable with criticism is abhorrent. And that's certainly not what I was doing, and frankly, since you weren't there, you're hardly in a position to say otherwise. In the case in point, I assure you I enjoyed my dance with her, and I let her know it, and her enthusiasm to dance with me at subsequent events tells me that she enjoyed it too. Isn't that the bottom line?

       J
  



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