[Tango-L] re self proclaimed teachers. If we can't lick them teach them (long)

[Vince Bagušauskas]

Though I can see the merits in the proposals I have fears too as I will expand upon.
 
Ten years ago, for some two years while I was still living in Canberra I did ballroom.  The teacher was one of the most accredited teachers in Australia and judged at many events; had her own renowned national yearly competition; and was on the committee of the national association of ballroom dancers. I remember her every so often bringing out in some fanfare a syllabus that showed through pretty diagrams  on how to dance on the beat.  She also every so often taught "Argentine Tango" using the 8CB.  She also said of my first teachers of authentic Argentine Tango: "They don't know how to dance".  Excuse me?; I thought to myself how would she know.  I also began a bit of salsa around that time that was very different to Latin ballroom dancing. Obviously she was feeling the bleeding of dancers to this new thing called  Argentine Tango, because she employed for some time a person who had a few months of  lessons in BsAs, to teach it but was otherwise had no accreditation.
 
But I digress.  The progressive stages in the exam process are designed to give those students desperate to "learn how to dance" and to be acknowledged by their peers, a steady income stream to the teachers. Then if the teacher is lucky enough, their student will want to compete and thus ask for more lessons from the teacher.  That is my belief. If you are a ballroom dancer, I do not apologise.
 
Why is ballroom to laughable to look at and looks so unsocial like?  Because, if ballroom was simple, the teachers would soon have nothing to teach.  By stressing the fake tans, exaggerated expressions, overbent profiles and dancing to the audience, the teachers are tapping into the students natural desire to ***win***.  If a competitor won, then they would have to do something even more extraordinary next time to win.  Thus the teacher would force the student to learn some other new variation.
 
Later, with all of the effort that students have to put into winning competitions, it becomes a full-time obsession for many.  For the elite, it becomes a sport as it has around the world.  The men to compete at the top level are all slim and long legged, the women size 0.  With ballroom then branding itself as a sport, there is a push to see it become a part of the Olympics.  Laughable?  Well the ballroom federations say not more laughable than seeing ice dancing as part of the winter Olympics.
 
Could this happen in Tango?  Well first following the UNESCO declaration on not calling it “Argentine Tango”, you would have to get the Uruguayans and Argentineans to agree on who dictates the syllabus :).  Then, with it becoming a sport, what the world audience would see is an extreme form of Stage Tango.  This would be sold to the world by accredited teachers as real tango.  Maybe not in 10 years but 50 years from now.
 
If you have not seen that great comical Australian movie “Strictly Ballroom” then I suggest you get it out on DVD.  It’s send-up of ballroom is still relevant today and has a few parts within it on how the teachers have to "control" the dance. 

Vince
In Melbourne
 
 
 
 
 
From: joanneprochaska at aol.com 
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 2:17 AM
To: vytis at hotmail.com ; tango-l at mit.edu 
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] re self proclaimed teachers. If we can't lick them teach them (long)
 

IMHO, use that credential in their portfolio.  At first, many instructors (good and bad as well) pooh-poohed the idea, saying that 
some certificate would not make them a better instructor.  But the system has stood the test of time.


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