2345  [tango-uk] Tango Teacher Training - Answers to Questions

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 06:32:49 EST
From: LGMoseley@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: [tango-uk] Tango Teacher Training - Answers to Questions

You have to know "some" sequences to dance Tango. The question is "How
many?". I'd rather have people who start with very simple things (even walking like
a tanguero) and do them well, rather than trying to do a sequence of 15 steps
(let alone 15 sequences) and doing them badly. By "doing them badly" I mean

1. Looking like a baby hippopotamus
2. Manhandling the lady to try to get her where he wants her
3. Not leading , and thus not being able to negotiate a possibly crowded
dance floor. In my view, a good leader should be able to change his mind on any
step (not on any figure, or on any sequence of figures, but on any step).
Similarly, a good follower should be sufficiently balanced to follow those changes
of mind. On a crowded floor, such changes of mind are very common.

Remember, the best compliment that a leader can receive is not that he looks
good, but that his partner looks good.

Incidentally, at my classes I regularly get ex-ballroom dancers who know many
figures which they have learned together. A very frequent comment from the
lady at the end of the first evening of Tango is something like "we have been
dancing together for the past 10 years and tonight is the first time that he has
led me". A lot of badly taught Tango dancers say much the same.

A good, and fair, test for both partners is for them to dance, not in the
conventional embrace, but with the lady's hands on the man's shoulders. If he can
still lead and she can still follow, they are dancing Tango.

Well, that's my two-pennyworth anyway

Laurie