517  Phenomena's of dance

Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 02:18:12 -0400
From: Randy Pittman <tango22@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: Phenomena's of dance

Maria Lemus wrote:

>I know I am new but I've gotta say, a few fellas just go way too fast and
>get me into way too much contact with other people's ankles & elbows on the
>floor.

Phenomena's of dance;

Phenomena # 1; New girl shows up at a milonga. The worst dancers that nobody will dance with, asks you to dance. After he cannot lead you or =
anybody else in the steps that he thinks he knows, he tells you that you are new. He gives you his card proudly proclaiming that he is an =
Argentine Tango Professor. (this is usually their pick up line). He then takes you over to a corner and tries to teach you how to dance =
Argentine Tango at a milonga. Rule # 1 YOU DO NOT TEACH AT THE MILONGA. If you can't lead it, don't teach it. Before he takes you to the side =
to teach you his BS, he has run you into at least 5 different dancers.

Phenomena # 2; New client goes to dance. He or she is embarrassed that they do not know how to dance. Instead of asking the instructors at the =
party where they saw good dancing, and would like to participate in the program, they are embarrassed that they don't know how to dance. Then =
they decide to go somewhere else, learn to dance and come back and show everyone that they can dance. After learning to dance somewhere else, =
they come back show that they learned nothing of value. Unfortunately, in 99.9% of most cases, they found bad instruction and usually are the =
worst dancers on the floor.

After thirty years of running dances and instructing of dance classes, from California to Colorado to Florida, teaching of Ballroom, Disco, =
Country Western and Argentine Tango this is a phenomena that boggles the mind. I have learned to accept this fact.

The most recent case was two men in their late thirties came to a ballroom dance. All the girls did their best to help these men thru =
their first fumbling steps at the dance. 1 1/2 years later they came back to show that they could dance. They took dance lessons from one of =
the local colleges. Their instructor was 70 years old and she weighed in at 275 pounds. There is no way that woman could teach them or any =
one else to dance the way that they wished to learn.

After they came back to show that they could dance, they failed miserably and have never returned again. They could not dance. They =
were terrible. They will never dance socially. They can only dance at the classes where others that have been taught to dance as poorly as =
they.

Most of the new girls or women that come to dancing, they see right thru these idiots. Especially those that have a dance background. Most of =
you are entirely too polite to these jerks.

This was the most recent occurrence that I have encountered in the ballroom world. If I racked my brains, I could come up with many =
examples in all the different worlds of dance.

Unfortunately these are the facts of dancing.

Tango Forever

Randy