1537  Instruction in the US

Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 14:04:06 -0800
From: Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET>
Subject: Instruction in the US

> For the most part Americans are not only taught tango that is
> never danced
> there, meaning mostly stage moves instead of how to dance close
> and navigate
> crowded floors, but also they are taught by other Americans who
> leave out the
> cultural element and over-romanticize the dance.

Don't generalize too much. For myself and many of my tango friends around the country, the majority of the classes we take are taught by people who are NOT stage dancers. Of primary importance is how well we can get along in the milongas, whether it's crowded or not. We place a high value on musicality, connection, navigation, and the comeraderie that can be achieved when the whole floor is moving nicely. Our instructors are from Bs As, Europe, and yes, the US.

But we have chosen NOT to be brainwashed by stardom or fame, whether we are beginners or not. When organizers state that so and so danced on such-and-such show or production, it's invisible to us, because it has absolutely no bearing on whether they can actually teach us something useful for those dancing socially. Our teachers are fabulous social dancers who can dance anywhere, on any floor, whenever they want, including in the most crowded clubs of Buenos Aires or anywhere else. Some of them can also perform beautifully, but understand the difference between performance and social dancing and make the distinction very clear in their classes.

Our favorite teachers do not teach the same style, nor in the same way. Many people take some of our teachers' material completely out of context. We may work on more complex, space-consuming material, but we would NEVER embarass our teachers or ourselves by attempting the complex stuff that takes more space when the space is not available. We're smarter, and more courteous than that, and scorn those who take the material out of context (or make an attempt to make them aware of what they're doing if they're open to it). We study how to dance close embrace, and how to dance in a small space, and we enjoy it, although we don't go around saying it's the best or only way to dance. We may study other things, but we have an awareness and understanding of the context which any instruction is applicable.

So please be careful of generalizations - in many towns and for many people in the US, it doesn't apply.

As to the cultural element, those of us with our eyes open can see that when you put a room full of men and women in a nightclub in a city with 20 million people at 2am, everything isn't gonna be romantic and goody-goody.

Dan Boccia