Re: [Tango-L] teachers aren't so important‏

[WILL MORROW]

In my brief tango experience, I have already seen the obvious difference betweeen an 'instructor' and a 'teacher.' Most of us begin with instructors and, when we determine that we have a deep enough level of commitment, we seek out a true teacher.
Instructors serve a useful and necessary function for tango. It takes a very large number of people entering into the subculture of tango in order to provide the small percentage  of people who move up the skill and proficiency scale. Instructors are extremely important for helping to bring in the large numbers required at that entry level and to help those people determine their own sense of committment and seek out the level of participation that is attractive to them. 
Instructors are important TO the dance, but are not teachers OF the dance. They are two distinctly separate skill sets.  

Will