[Tango-L] marketing survey

[Ming Mar]

meaning of life wrote:
>here were the responses, in no particular order:
>
>1) icky music
>2) boring
>3) don't like to dance with people i don't know or don't 
>like
>4) stinky old men

I thought that the same criticisms could be laid against 
ballroom, but meaning of life emailed me to say that his 
youngsters like ballroom.  He emphasized that the problem 
was the people in tango.

>the majority reflected the above answers, but also 
>commented on feeling "berated" by people trying to "teach 
>them" during a practica environment

Locally, practicas are structured as drop-in lessons for 
people who already dance tango.  You wouldn't take 
beginners there.  The schools here have unsupervised 
practices for their own students wherein (as far as I know) 
they simply play music and let their students practice 
dancing.  We do have a couple of bad dancers (men) who 
teach at milongas.  I would be stunned to find out that 
these guys go to practicas.  Practicas are for people who 
want to improve their dancing or learn something.

In my experience, the tango teachers didn't evaluate their 
students.  I suspect this practice was also the case in 
meaning of life's area.  Bad dancers didn't know that they 
sucked.  They thought they knew how to dance and weren't 
shy about spreading their knowledge.  The teacher at the 
practica in meaning of life's area should have told the 
berating dancers that their knowledge was wrong and their 
skills were in serious need of improvement.

I have a question for people who also do other dances:  Are 
the non-tango people nicer than tango people?