[Tango-L] 8CB in BsAs

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

> At one point  the film shows the elementary school
> tango program in Buenos 
> Aires and how Tango  is being taught to thousands of
> children. The 
> interesting thing is they show the  children being
> taught the 8CB.
> I'm personally a firm believer in the 8CB for  a
> number of reasons and I’m 
> glad to see the real tango teachers of Buenos Aires 
> agree with me.  


I don't think one should read too much into that.  Patterns are quite often the easiest way to teach beginners to dance with each other.  A few years ago, I asked Maria Cieri (Rudolfo's Cieri's widow) about their experiences when they started teaching.  She told me that they used the 8CB because they were inexperienced in teaching and others were using it, so they did, too.  But she and Rudolfo didn't start with it themselves when they were first learning.

The traditional way of learning to dance tango was to pair an experienced dancer with a beginner.  You're not going to be able to do that with school children.  Hence, the usefulness of a pattern.  The 8CB is a commonly known pattern.  It also offers an educational method that's easy to standardize (i.e. same textbook), which is what educational professionals look for.

And I put Tete up there as being a real tango teacher.  He doesn't teach the 8CB.  I know a lot of people who learned tango without the 8CB.  They do well with the natives in BsAs.  That's what matters.  Not whether or not you know the 8CB.

Trini de Pittsburgh