[Tango-L] 10,000 instructors or 1 you choose

[Huck Kennedy]

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 10:36 AM,  <HBBOOGIE1 at aol.com> wrote:
> I like your comparison of learning a second  language to tango but think about this...If you take lessons in Spanish for a few months and then switch to German and a few months later try French you end up not speaking any of them very well.

      I don't agree with this analogy, other than the "few months"
part (it's hard to do anything at all well in just a few months).
There are plenty of people who manage to learn multiple languages
quite well, often taking instruction in them at the same time.  And
multiple dances.

> I see taking endless tango lessons from  different instructors the same way. Everyone is going to teach differently so your poor brain is going to explode trying to figure out whose instruction to follow.

        I've seen that happen to some people, but it doesn't have to.
The secret, especially in a dance with as much individual style as
tango, is to never take any instructor's opinion as gospel.,  Take
what each has to offer and filter it through the prism of your own
body and your own experience.

> Find someone local to your area that you would like to emulate and stick with them.

        That probably *is* a good strategy for somebody just starting
out, because when you are new, conflicting instructions can indeed be
overwhelming.  But later on, I think it's essential to get a variety
of instructors' viewpoints, and you will never progress very far
unless you do.

Huck