[Tango-L] Workshop descriptions

[Michael]

Tine wrote:
I am an organizer of a festival. I have over the years seen 2500 
participants choose an average of 4 classes each. What goes fastest is 
whizzbang moves for intermediate to interm-adv. The basics classes fill up 
only when the whizzbang ones are sold out.
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I started thinking how festival workshops are advertised. Some festivals 
list classes for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Some festivals have 
workshops that begin at the intermediate level. There really isn't an 
objective method to define intermediate and advanced. I've seen festivals 
list number of years dancing as a guide where advanced is 3+ years. (Oh, if 
that was only true!)

The only dancers who are truly honest about their skills are BEGINNERS. It 
seems that just about everybody else is advanced. I've come across a lot of 
people who are very judgmental about ranking partners. When something 
doesn't work in a class and your partner asks "how long have you been 
dancing?", I guarantee a compliment is not in your future.

I've been in classes which were beyond the dancer's skill level but didn't 
stop them from attending. There seems to be a stigma about being 
intermediate, as if it's a curse.

Instead of listing classes by skill level, how about just listing the 
workshop name, what is to be covered, and the requirements, such as able to 
execute ochos, sacadas, etc. Another problem is that sometimes what is 
taught has no relationship to the workshop title. I remember one teacher 
saying "We're innocent," meaning "we're teaching this class and have no idea 
what the title means because we didn't come up with it."

Maybe if more emphasis was placed on the workshop subject and not 
intermediate or advanced, there would be less pressure to take classes 
beyond a person's skill level.

Michael
Washington, DC
Going Sunday to New York's Brooklyn Antic followed by tango