502  Retaining Tango Students

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 23:41:04 -0400
From: Russell Ranno <russellranno@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Retaining Tango Students

Hello,

Thanks to Stephen Brown for his posting replete with great insights about
teaching tango and retaining men. In our small community, new to tango, I
have made the following observation after teaching our second beginner class
(each in a different way):

The "rhythmic/walking" approach to teaching seems to favor the men, and
they stay around but the women get bored and quit. The "salida/figures"
approach appeals to the women, who (apparently) want to move gracefully and
intricately as soon as possible, but the beginning men can't perform quickly
enough and get frustrated so they quit. I am thinking that the next time we
have a class, my approach will depend upon gender ratios and whether we most
need to keep the men or the women around.

(I realize that good teaching incorporates many approaches, but you have to
start beginners somewhere).

Russell Ranno