171  Teaching one's self Argentine Tango-The Dance Done to Argentine Tango

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 15:58:36 EDT
From: Arthur Greenberg <AHGberg@AOL.COM>
Subject: Teaching one's self Argentine Tango-The Dance Done to Argentine Tango
Music

Hi Listeros:

The idea that one can observe and teach one's self the Art Form called
Argentine Tango, would be laughable if it were not a recurrently serious
aspiration and pursuit. The idea is not at all a new one. If you desire to
take the academic approach you can start by reading almost everything you can
get your hands on that relates to Tango. The Dinzels book (in Spanish or in
English) Study the History of Tango as it developed and grew in Buenos
Aires. A "Relatively recent) book by Polly McBride of Portland, Oregon
entitled "All Things Argentine Tango" is well worth reading several times
and then using it to refer to for certain "sound and authentic" Argentine
Tango *ideas* It is well worth the money invested in your Tango
foundation/basic education. Get yourself ten or fifteen CD's of
"Authentic Argentine Tango Music" and just immerse yourself in the music for
as long as you are awake each day for at least 365 days. Wake up to it! Go to
sleep to it! Shower to it. Eat your breakfast to it. Forget Television and
other forms of entertainment. Get a few good Tango Video Tutorials. (Be
sure to include Osvaldo Zotto dancing with Mora Godoy) Now the next step is
to find a partner who is similarly inclined (in harmony with your obsession
for Tango music and dance, (preferably one of the opposite sex.) Remember
that, "The man leads and the lady follows!" This is definitely not a
"Master-Slave" relationship. Successful Tango couples engage in dancing this
dance as a "cooperative effort". While you are still in the realm of "self
instruction" keep in mind that there is certainly a list of "skills that are
prerequisites". If you do not master this list of "elements" and the
techniques with which to engage one's self with a partner you will be
frustrated in your attempts to "successfully execute" these elelments in good
order and in harmony with your partner and the music. There are/is such
an abundance of "elements" that you will be faced with learning that comprise
the various choreographies of the Argentine Tango. There is an excellent list
of "nomenclature/definitions/terminology" that was compiled by Ed Loomis (one
of our more astute listeros in Sacramento, California) about two or three
years ago. I have a copy if you want one.
There are only a few "really excellent video tutorials" that could be relied
upon to convey the flavor of the dance, that demonstrate the skills as
well as the intensity of the mental & physical state that you must adopt and
adapt to.

Sooner or later you must come out of your self imposed "learning vacuum" and
onto the dance floor, IN PUBLIC. Perhaps you might want to "attend" a Tango
Stage Show to observe some "Tango Fantasia". You must understand and digest
the beauty of the "stage or show tango" as well the idea that you are not
anywhere near qualified to dance "Tango Fantasia". You must observe first
hand the Dancing of Gavito and Duran. You will be fortunate if you can
observe the dancing of Fernanda & Guillermo, as well. A must learning event
is to see, analyze and emulate Miguel Zotto & Milena Plebs. If you can
observe absorb the diverse moves of Osvaldo Zotto & his latest sensational
partner Lorena it would help you get a good picture of the "perfection
possibility" in ones social Tango mission . There is a seven hour tutorial by
Osvaldo Zotto dancing with Mora Godoy that would be very helpful to
intermediate and advanced Tango learners. Get a hold of some of the
promotional videos of Armando & Daniela. (There are about 10 to 20 more world
class Argentine Tango Dancers.) If you believe (or suspect that the time you
have spent is close to 24 months you are probably on schedule (?) for your
learning curiculum. )

Now get thee to a milonga where there are at least 15 to 20 good social
dancing
Argentine Tango Couples who (willingly and freely intermix their dancing).
Dance with as many different partners as you are able to convince to dance
with you. Do not get discouraged by these encounters.....you have about 100
milongas to go before you can claim that your learning process has paid off.
Beware of the score of people who are willing to not only dance with you but
who are also willing to teach you out on the dance floor. It seemed to me
while in a developmental stage that the people who were not so good at this
dance were the most willing to teach me. I am certain they all had good
intentions but they didn't know how to teach nor what to teach. The quality
dancers Knew better than to get involved with teaching at Milongas. They
just danced the night away.

Now after twenty fouor months of the above efforts............... book some
private lessons with Daniel Lapadula (of Hallandale, FL.) Book ten hours with
Jorge Nel (, in Miami Beach. ) You would be surprised how much you have
taught yourself. The real problem in "self teaching" is that there is no one
around when you really need their expert assessment and ability to pull all
the diverse ideas you have gathered into one cohesive effort on the dance
floor. You will also discover (as I did) that there is such a "wealth of
material" to learn you could take private lessons for 100's of weeks and
still not exhaust what could be learned further............ Be sure you
understand that you should probably dance socially at least 5 hours for every
one hour of private instruction. Take 5 hours of privates per
month.....practice dancing 25 hours. You should adjust the number of lessons
you take to achieve the ratio of 4 or 5 to one.

Sorry Charlie! There is no easy way! It would be great if they could sell
"OCHO PILLS" to improve one's Ochos or "MUSIC PILLS' to enable one to hear
and interpret the music better. It is doubtful that this is will happen in
the near future!

Sincerely,
Arturo