120 beginners at milongas
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 00:57:39 EDT
From: Shirley Kwan <SKisaichi@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: beginners at milongas
Sarah la Rocca wrote:
>I maintain that beginners aren't idiots. You may be a beginner at tango,
>but
>you are not a beginner at life. If someone or something makes you feel
>bad,
>uncomfortable or compromised than it IS wrong and you need to take the
>responsibility for yourself and get out of there.
Amen!
A couple of weeks ago, a stranger appeared out of the blue, said he just had
his first tango lessons, and would I care to dance. I did, we did, and boy
oh boy! I accused him of being a dance professional and he didn't
disagree--just smiled and said, I dance a lot of salsa! I don't salsa. I
swear, it didn't matter and I didn't care. I'm STILL reeling. Never saw him
again. Yes, I'd say life translated very well in his case!
shirley kwan
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 17:37:06 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: beginners at milongas
he just had
> his first tango lessons, and would I care to dance. I did, we did, and
boy
> oh boy! ..he said, I dance a lot of salsa Yes, I'd say life translated
very well in his case!
>
Shirley, the secret of this magic is: an experienced dancer already has
posture and balance.
The same basically goes for someone who does martial arts like karate,
kung-fu etc. I once, for lack of anyone else, asked a karate blue belt to
practise the walk with me. He had never danced tango, nor any other dance.
Still he felt better than most other beginners, who are not aware of their
axis yet.
Astrid
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 12:15:51 -0500
From: "Berger, Sherwin" <Sberger@RTICO.COM>
Subject: FW: beginners at milongas
My 2 cents worth! There are beginners at Tango, and then there are beginners
at dancing. If your partner is already a Salsa or Swing dancer who is
beginning to learn Tango, she will obviously be much more responsive to your
lead than someone who has never danced close with a partner before.
As an intermediate dancer and enjoying Tango whenever I can, I can have fun
dancing with most everyone (unless of course they have an attitude). By the
completion of one basic salida, it becomes obvious to me whether to or not
to dare lead anything fancy with my present partner. If I think I can't, I
keep it simple. What I'm saying is that the follower sets the limits.
Sherwin Berger
Chicago Argentine Tango Club
-----Original Message-----
From: Shirley Kwan [mailto:SKisaichi@AOL.COM]
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 4:58 AM
To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: beginners at milongas
Sarah la Rocca wrote:
>I maintain that beginners aren't idiots. You may be a beginner at tango,
>but
>you are not a beginner at life. If someone or something makes you feel
>bad,
>uncomfortable or compromised than it IS wrong and you need to take the
>responsibility for yourself and get out of there.
Amen!
A couple of weeks ago, a stranger appeared out of the blue, said he just had
his first tango lessons, and would I care to dance. I did, we did, and boy
oh boy! I accused him of being a dance professional and he didn't
disagree--just smiled and said, I dance a lot of salsa! I don't salsa. I
swear, it didn't matter and I didn't care. I'm STILL reeling. Never saw
him
again. Yes, I'd say life translated very well in his case!
shirley kwan
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 11:56:06 -0700
From: JC Dill <tango@VO.CNCHOST.COM>
Subject: Re: beginners at milongas
On 01:37 AM 7/27/01, astrid wrote:
>he just had
>> his first tango lessons, and would I care to dance. I did, we did, and
>boy
>> oh boy! ..he said, I dance a lot of salsa Yes, I'd say life translated
>very well in his case!
>>
>Shirley, the secret of this magic is: an experienced dancer already has
>posture and balance.
And knows what a "lead" is and how to give one (although he needs to learn
different *types* of leads, he doesn't need to learn "to lead"), and how to
move with the music and to lead the partner *before* the beat of the music
so that they arrive on the beat, on time and together.
When a leader already knows those things from another dance style, as long
as he's open to learning a new frame and new lead style (rather than wedded
to his former frame and lead style) he can become a very good AT leader in
next to no time at all. I had the pleasure of being the partner for a
friend who is a good leader in WCS who took an 8 week AT class and at the
end of the class session he was as good as most "intermediate" AT dancers
in our area (although he didn't know as many moves as those who have been
dancing far longer, obviously).
jc
