1375  teaching at a milona

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 22:14:26 EDT
From: Timothy Pogros <TimmyTango@AOL.COM>
Subject: teaching at a milona

As my opinion goes, there should be no teaching at a milonga.
First, in our area there are several practicas to go to, and very few real
milongas.
At my milonga the lights are low and usually everyone dresses up a little
better than for a practica. I cut the floor in size to accommodate the number of
couples attending my milonga. At Belinda's the floor is huge, and if there are
only a few couples attending it seems each couple gets lost out on the big
dance floor. Making the floor smaller in my cituation gives a line of dance to
follow and brings the people coming closer and makes things more social. With
less space on the dance floor each couple is now learning floor craft. If
someone is teaching they would surly stop the line of dance, and cause a
bottleneck. If someone wanted to stop and really go over a dance step, there is a space
in the corner of the room, away from the dance floor where they could do this.

Lets look at the person who usually teaches at a milonga. It's usually a man
who really shouldn't teach at all. And usually he is just feeding his ego,
showing a lady what he thinks he knows. So he isn't at an upper level of dance. I
feel the person who would come to a Milonga is at a higher level of dance,
and who comes because they really just want to dance and improve themselves. Not
teach. At a milonga your still learning. Your learning how to dance thru your
mistakes, if you make one, picking up where you left off. And last, your also
learning how to navigate around the dance floor.

Lets also look at, What is difference between teaching and just giving a
small tip or advise. During a milonga I'm sure someone, including myself, has
giving some advise to someone, and after the dance went to a different partner.
That only takes a second and doesn't cause much commotion. But teaching is when
someone is with a person for several dances going over and over on something.
And then we have teachers trying to win over a new client. Now that's
teaching, and that shouldn't be allowed at a milonga? Milongas are for dancing.