2439  Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:01:58 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

From time to time, I have seen and heard about teachers who attend
milongas and dance with beginners who have just begun taking classes from
another teacher. After dancing for a song or so, the instructor steps
back from the beginner and says, you know I could help you dance better,
and then continues to tell the beginner about the classes or private
lessons that they teach. I tend to find such behavior overly aggressive,
and more self-serving than community building.

--Steve (de Tejas)

Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 20:07:01 GMT
From: michael <tangomaniac@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

I'll take it one better. I've heard of an instructor who deliberately throws women off balance, then offers to teach them.

Michael
Washington, DC


I'd rather be dancing argentine tango

-- Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG> wrote:
After dancing for a song or so, the instructor steps back from the beginner and says, you know I could help you dance better, and then continues to tell the beginner about the classes or private
lessons that they teach.

Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 13:29:11 -0700
From: Ed Loomis <TangoBear@OSBTOWN.COM>
Subject: Re: Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

Thank you, Steve. And might we add the notion of such behavior being
ethically challenged? Letting the public know about whatever services one
has to offer is one thing but actively trying to pirate another's students
away from them is genuine jerk behavior. A teacher's own dancing and their
reputation as an instructor should be sufficient to attract new students,
and truly discerning students will want to watch how other students of a
new instructor dance before making any choice. Oilcan Harry marketing
efforts probably can't be eliminated but they belong in the gutter, not at
a milonga.

Ed (de Sacramento)

On Mon, 10 May 2004 15:01:58 -0500, Stephen Brown
<Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG> wrote:

>From time to time, I have seen and heard about teachers who attend
>milongas and dance with beginners who have just begun taking classes from
>another teacher. After dancing for a song or so, the instructor steps
>back from the beginner and says, you know I could help you dance better,
>and then continues to tell the beginner about the classes or private
>lessons that they teach. I tend to find such behavior overly aggressive,
>and more self-serving than community building.
>
>--Steve (de Tejas)

Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 14:32:42 -0700
From: Bernhard Michaelis <bernhard@NATIVECHILD.COM>
Subject: Re: Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

On Monday, May 10, 2004, at 01:01 PM, Stephen Brown wrote:

> From time to time, I have seen and heard about teachers who attend
> milongas and dance with beginners who have just begun taking classes
> from
> another teacher

a most despicable behaviour, no doubt.

A related question to the list: can one expect one's teacher
(especially if you are a beginner) to ask his/her students to dance at
a milonga? I'd say yes, it's a courtesy to the student, and will get
him/her on the dance floor. Yet I have observed teachers who refuse to
do so... Any comments?
Bernhard

Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 14:09:59 -0500
From: Leonard Kunkel <image10@SWBELL.NET>
Subject: Re: Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

And any teacher that professes to be the supreme or only authority over
other teachers, This is the usual approach to stealing students. I would
not just walk away from this guy/gal I would run. As in most anything in
life, the more a person learns about a subject the more they realize and
admit how much more they can learn. So a clear thinking student of tango
should surmise that probably this teacher has less to offer, not more,
and may even be detrimental to a students growth in tango.

Unfortunately in my early stages of dance I came under the influence of
one such person. It took me a couple of years to realize it was a lot of
B.S. And I actually had to remove myself from this influence before I
started to really progress. This person taught only in such a way, some
incorrect techniques even, as to keep students subordinate to him. I
came to feel that his teaching was purposeful in maintaining that
advantage, but if I was to give him the benefit of doubt it may be that
he was just not a very good teacher.

I like dancing with beginners who are sponges to learn and the advanced,
smart enough to know they can possibly learn more.
It is the middle ground of experience where a small sector of the
community emanates unethical and crass behavior. Thankfully this is not
many but it only takes one such person in a tango community to sour the
atmosphere.
Perhaps Tango Police could be beneficial, verdad?. :-)

If I ever had the audacity to say that I do not have anything more to
learn in tango. Just shoot me, stuff me in a hole in the ground and
shovel dirt in my face. Worse yet take away my tango shoes.

Tango is much bigger than any one person, performer or teacher.

Blessings,
leonardo k, Branson, Missouri

Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 12:10:46 -0500
From: Frank Williams <frankw@MAIL.AHC.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Teachers Who Recruit Students at Milongas

Heyo Friends,

Leonardo writes:

>>It is the middle ground of experience where a small

sector of the community emanates unethical and crass
behavior. Thankfully this is not many but it only takes
one such person in a tango community to sour the atmosphere.
Perhaps Tango Police could be beneficial, verdad?. :-) <<


I dunno, Leonardo... My guess is that Tango police would
be no more effective than fashion police - never there when
YOU need them! ;-)

Three thoughts.

Remember that the 'social structure' of a dance community
is strikingly similar to... Junior High! People who need
to attract attention to themselves can do so in any number
of ways - some laudable but many less-than-flattering.
Bottom line is: If we want to choose for ourselves what
is beautiful and whom to emulate, then we simply have no
fair choice but to abide the clowns! I'm afraid so! ;-)
With good examples and some positive reinforcement, some of
the clowns will become community assets.

One of the most poignant lessons of tango (at many levels)
is that people have strength AND weakness. You have to
accept that human failings will be exposed in the course
of searching for personal beauty. Being emotionally 'genuine'
is lovely spice for a musical dance. But the endless soap
opera of tango culture makes this point clear: to know a
person you have to look beyond their dancing even if they are
expressive and unguarded.

Leonardo seems to suggest that the experienced dancers are
somehow enlightened as mentors and people. Say what???
In our 'tango for export' market the teachers are all fairly
diplomatic. At 'home'? Part of their lives are in the
halls of Jr. High, with disagreements and rivalries in the
mix with respect for tango and admiration of true talent.
They all tie their shoes one at a time just like you and me.

At every level some bad goes with the good. Don't bother
calling the cops, nor let it spoil your day.

Abrazos,

Frank - Mpls.

Frank G. Williams, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota
frankw@umn.edu
612-625-6441

Department of Neuroscience
6-145 Jackson Hall
321 Church St. SE.
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
1971 Commonwealth Ave.
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108