478  Tango Styles and Retaining Beginning Men

Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:03:17 -0600
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Tango Styles and Retaining Beginning Men

A few weeks ago, we had a discussion about attracting and keeping men in
the tango community.

From my own observations and discussions I have had with teachers around
the United States, I think the way that tango is taught may have a
considerable impact on attracting and retaining men in the dance community.
In particular, it would appear that teaching tango as a series of memorized
figures based on the eight-count basic discourages men.

The typical male dancer walks into his first tango lesson able to navigate
around the dance floor without collisions by simply walking. An approach
to teaching that builds upon walking and adds small rhythmic elements such
as ochos, pauses and variations in walks allows the male dancer to retain
the navigational skills he had when he walked into the room. In contrast,
teaching the male the eight-count basic immediately gets him into
navigational difficulty. Adding memorized figures worsens the problem for
him. In the communities where both approaches are used, those teachers who
base their teaching on walking with small elements seem to have a much
higher ratio of male dancers to female dancers than those teachers who base
their teaching on variations of the eight count basic.

Interestingly enough, I recently heard a tango dancer and teacher whose is
quite famous for his stage dancing talk about his own teaching. He said
that he does not teach tango, that he teaches choreographies, and he
considers that is up to the students to find their own way into tango...
Is this man ignorant of the differences between dancing in milongas and
dancing on the stage? No. He also talks about how he started his dancing
in milongas... He simply chooses to teach memorized patterns.

I am not sure that the same can be said about all stage dancers who teach.
Some friends told me about a class they recently took from a couple who are
justifiably well-known stage dancers. The class was billed as teaching the
students the difference between stage dancing and dancing in milongas.
From the descriptions of my friends, it would seem the couple taught
scaled-down stage movements for use in milongas. (I know that is dangerous
to report facts such as these second hand, but it is also my experience
that many stage dancers teach scaled-down stage movements as "salon"
tango.)

As Larry Carroll reported Eduardo Arquimbau stating recently, the original
definition of salon tango was a smooth walking style. The style evolved to
include more elements, but less than 10 years ago, scaled-down stage
movements would not have been considered salon-style tango.

Yes, the dramatic beauty of tango stage dancing and a scaled-down version
of it can be quite exciting to watch and do. Yet, it is substantially
different than the inner beauty of a shared connection in a walking tango
at a crowded milonga. It may be the stage dancing that attracts people to
tango, but to retain the beginning men, teaching must enable them to dance
successfully at milongas. I find the approach of teaching relatively
simple elements basic on rhythmic movements and walking does that best.

My comments are not meant to exclude those who wish to pursue a scaled-down
version of stage dancing for use at milongas--provided those dancers are
able to observe the ronda--rather my comments are directed at the idea of
building a relatively large community by retaining more men.

With best regards,
Steve

Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas.

Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 19:46:23 -0800
From: Trini or Sean - PATangoS <patangos@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Tango Styles and Retaining Beginning Men

I think it's useful to remember also that people learn
differently. I'm a sequential thinker (patterns help
me retain the lesson) whereas my husband is an
abstract thinker (he likes to come up with his own
thing), which used to make for some frustrating
practice sessions. It took us awhile to figure this
out and adapt.

One solution is to introduce a pattern for the
sequentials but break it down to individual elements
for the abstracts. Both types of learners are then
served.


--- Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG> wrote:

>
> From my own observations and discussions I have had
> with teachers around
> the United States, I think the way that tango is
> taught may have a
> considerable impact on attracting and retaining men
> in the dance community.
> In particular, it would appear that teaching tango
> as a series of memorized
> figures based on the eight-count basic discourages
> men.
>

Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 17:01:14 +1000
From: John Lowry <john@LOWRYHART.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Tango Styles and Retaining Beginning Men

How and when does the sequential learner convert from figures to feeling and
following the marks? How do the different learning types reach the point of
real body (non-verbal) communication?
El Abrazo

I think it's useful to remember also that people learn
differently. I'm a sequential thinker (patterns help
me retain the lesson) whereas my husband is an
abstract thinker
One solution is to introduce a pattern for the
sequentials but break it down to individual elements
for the abstracts. Both types of learners are then
served.