[Tango-L] Getting tango lessons to the needy

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

--- On Fri, 7/1/11, Sergey Kazachenko <syarzhuk at gmail.com> wrote:

How would you draw the distinction between intermediate and advanced?
What requirements do you put up?

Sergey



Defining “advanced” for the purposes of workshops or classes isn’t as difficult as it seems.  Few people become advanced dancers (maybe 10%).  Most are intermediate dancers (80%).  Yet, teachers label workshops or classes as if there’s an even distribution of dancers.  The bulk of classes should be labeled intermediate, which could further be broken down into low/solid/high intermediate classes.  As a result, people tend to think they can buy into whatever level they want regardless of actual skill level.

At a recent weekend when some newer dancers questioned me on my policy, I simply explained that the advanced dancers (10+ years) have been helping everyone else during the beginning & intermediate workshops and that the Advanced workshop was specifically for them so that they can work on themselves and not everyone else.  When put in those terms, everyone was fine with this policy.  I do allow exceptions for long-term dancers who could use more work but who I know won’t disturb the study of the better dancers.

I do have less stringent requirements for advanced milonguero workshops because there is less vocabulary to know.  Interestingly, I haven’t yet needed to specify the requirements for the advanced milonguero workshops, perhaps because most people instinctively know their limits when dancing close-embrace.

So what are the requirements to get into an “advanced” salon/nuevo workshop?  There are several different ways of looking at it.

1)  An advanced dancer can just be told to do a figure and can execute it.
2)  An advanced dancer can be shown a common combination once and execute it with no instruction.
3)  An advanced follower will understand the technique to complete a combination just as well as the leader and will be a partner to the leader in his studies.  She will also be just as familiar with the figures as the man.
4)  An advanced dancer should be fine with learning a 12+ count sequence.

There are other requirements as well, but I’m only sticking to points with which most people can judge themselves on their own.  The criteria I state in advanced workshops descriptions comes down to this, 

“Must already be familiar with continuous giros with sacadas/ganchos/barridas/boleos, enrosque with lapis, back sacadas, volcadas, and colgadas.”

A key word is “continuous”.  Sometimes I’ve added that they must be comfortable executing these movements at a milonga (key word being “milonga”).  What I’m really measuring is balance, knowledge level, and control because that’s what it takes to execute ornaments during giros.  “Familiarity” also means that they aren’t required to execute things perfectly but can be reasonably comfortable with these movements.  This definition has worked just fine for me for the past 10 years.  Since I can both lead and follow at an advanced level, I can try out people beforehand if I need to or give them pointers before letting them in.

Not all workshop weekends will have an advanced workshop, depending on the needs of my community.  Sometimes the highest level offered is only the “int/adv” level.  After the weekend I make a point of emailing out how great everyone did and how hard they worked, how pleased the teachers were, etc.  The end effect is that standards are set.  

If one is going to be serious about dancing, then I suggest setting standards.  If the goal is just having fun, then why bother to use levels at all?

Trini de Pittsburgh