2489  More on good manners and milonga styles

Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 03:29:34 +0000
From: Oleh Kovalchuke <oleh_k@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: More on good manners and milonga styles

Hyla wrote about good manners and different styles of dancing milonga (see
post below)

Hello Hyla,

I am also sorry I have missed you in Denver. I appreciate your sincere post.
Do I feel chastised? Not really.

I think Alex is good instructor in general (intelligent too - see his
website with tango travel diaries). I left his milonga class because I
realized that I would not learn much precisely because Alex and I have
different milonga styles. My style (energetic?, was that particular milonga
tanda energizing? I personally prefer word dynamic) allows me to lead all
kind of followers in the shuffle step. Since I can do it I conclude it is
not followers' fault that Alex experiences difficulties leading North
American followers into it. Hence my disagreement with his blanket statement
and another reason to leave the class.

As to should I have written about it. Of course I should have. It would be
rude to interrupt his class but I believe we are free to discuss all things
tango on this list. I had strong feeling about his public statement and I
expressed it in different public place. And now we are discussing it. And
maybe, we'll find out as a result that there are many ways to dance milonga
and perhaps all of them are right. After all, your friend enjoyed dancing
with both Alex and me. And I am sure she followed those shuffle steps to the
left with ease since at this particular festival I have not encountered a
single follower who wouldn't be able to do so.


Cheers, Oleh K.
https://TangoSpring.com

>
>Thank you Frank, for a defense of Alex Krebs!
>
>I had a fabulous time in Denver, and lots of great
>dances with some great dancers. I also took some
>classes. I decided to sleep late on Sunday, so I only
>got to Alex's milonga class for the second half. I
>must have missed the comment that upset Oleh so very
>much, but I sat through the second half of the class
>(saving my feet for 10 plus hours of dancing later
>that day). Just listening, I got some great
>information that I can use.
>
>I have always found Alex's teaching to be very clear
>and thoughtful; he has thought deeply about mechanincs
>and technique and found ways to address those issues
>that many teachers avoid--for instance, he discusses
>the fact that different leaders and followers have
>different styles, different feels, and he talks about
>simple, practical ways to deal with this. At the
>milonga class, he spent time talking about, and
>demonstrating, how leaders need to listen to the
>follow, so that for instance if your follow is heavy
>to move and can't feel your lead for traspie, then you
>don't do it. I remember how uncomfortable it was for
>me as a beginner/intermediate dancer, to have leads
>insisting on leading things that I did not have the
>axis or balance for yet, and how uncomfortable it was
>to have them jerk me through traspie that I couldn't
>feel the lead for yet, or manhandle me through fast
>steps that I did not yet have the speed to make
>myself. So I was very pleased to have him address
>this issue. I have seldom heard him make a statement
>that was absolute, such as "ALL follows in N America
>are hardwired to..." or "NEVER do such and such", so I
>have a difficult time believing that he made such an
>absolute statement in the class that Oleh attended.
>But hey, we all loose our grip on diplomacy for a
>second or two once in a while.
>
>Speaking of diplomacy, I am a little disappointed that
>Oleh chose such a public forum as this list to express
>his dissatisfaction with a small slip by an excellent
>teacher. Oleh, I understand that your style of
>dancing milonga is not the same as Alex's; I have
>talked to a friend who did dance milonga with you
>later that night and she enjoyed it. She
>characterized it as very energetic! We have both
>danced milonga with Alex in the past and enjoyed that
>too. He is extremely easy to follow in even the most
>complex and tiny of movements, and can lead a very
>fast milonga while making it feel very smooth and
>easy. I have taken a number of classes with Alex and
>found them inspiring and well taught, practical and
>very useful. If you choose to take exception to one
>instruction/statement from the beginning of the class,
>along with the realization that his style is different
>from one that works for you, and decide that Alex is
>not a teacher who suits you, that is your business.
>It was probably a good decision for you. But to
>announce to the thousand plus readers of this list
>that he is wrong and imply that he is a bad teacher,
>feels a bit inappropriate to me!
>
>As a follow trained in N. America, I do tend to prefer
>less upper body movement in my lead during milonga, it
>makes the quick movements seem less frantic. I had
>some mindblowing, quick quick quick milongas with lots
>of traspie and very little upper body movement during
>the weekend that were very easy to follow. Many of
>these were from leads who have danced a lot in BsAs,
>but some were with leads who have not yet been there.
>And yes, I can usually (as far as I know) pick up a
>lead to go in various less-used directions, but this
>is a skill that I picked up several years after I
>started dancing, and I had to unlearn quite a lot of
>"hard-wired" teaching in order to be able to do that.
>(Frank, thanks for the joke about grounding, it was
>very cute; I know that when I started, it applied to
>me perfectly). So if Alex was giving a warning that
>leads should be alert to whether their follow is
>actually able to pick up certain leads, I do think it
>was appropriate.
>
>Oleh, I have enjoyed your posts a lot, and I am sorry
>that I missed dancing with you in Denver; I do hope
>that one of these days I get a a chance to do so. In
>fact, the same goes for Frank, and lots of other
>posters. No guarantee ever that the dances will be
>divine, but it's always fun to put a face and body to
>the words.
>
>Hyla