One or many teachers

Some days ago a borderline heated exchange of opinions took place: should a beginning tango student take lessons from just one or from many teachers. My opinion:

It is my deep belief that for a person who wants to learn how to dance tango socially (not for a show or just with a single partner) and is new to tango, the best solution is to attend a substantial seminar for beginners lead by a reputable organization and taught by a single teacher or a group of teachers subscribing to the same philosophy of dancing and teaching and following the same program.

Substantial seminar means to me a seminar over perhaps 30 to 40 hours that focuses on understanding the structure of the dance, understanding and sufficiently commanding the basic technical skills (walk, turn, balance, communication), understanding and appreciating the music, and understanding and participating in and contributing to the culture of a milonga.

When a tango student acquires those fundamental skills, studying with other teachers can be useful and even recommended in order to discover new ideas and perhaps even altogether new approach to learning and dancing tango. But, before the basic set of skills is acquired, one is not yet qualified to study with a different teacher and to be able to pick and choose what works for them or not and why.

Figures or no figures, that is the question

 

Let's face it, the great majority of those who want to learn to dance tango are inspired by what they see on their TVs or computer screens. They see a spectacular performance by a beautiful, often young, couple oozing with passion. They are attracted by a visual and they project emotions onto it. Yet, they know nothing of the true emotions felt by tango dancers because they are seeing a performance, a show.

Then they sign up for tango classes and demand to learn what they saw. Too many tango instructors are eager to offer that to their clientele by teaching them the figures for which they know, or should know, that the students are not capable of executing. The students get frustrated and often leave unsatisfied, mostly with themselves, for not being able to learn to dance tango, they think.

But did they study tango or sequences some would call "tango figures"?

 

I lead a praktika (argentine practice sessions) here in Dubrovnik last evening. I was asked to help dancers practice certain material (figures) taught at a workshop not too long ago by another teacher. I did that with some, as the time permitted, additional technical details needed to execute the said figures. Everyone wanted to dance the figures taught at the workshop since that was what the praktika was supposed to be about and, to my knowledge, few understood why they had hard time with them.

One person, though, stated quite strongly that I should, rather than reviewing another teacher's material, lead or teach my own stuff. If I had done that, I would have, among other things, insisted on practicing walking, keeping balance, pivoting, communicating, listening to the music and dancing it, learning and applying the basic structure of a giro, etc. Maybe out of ignorance, the group wanted to practice the figures and not the technical stuff. Perhaps I should have not acquiesced.

Next time I teach the beginning classes I will not succumb to teaching the figures but will teach elements, techniques, concepts, and ideas that express the feelings, letting the "figures" just happen--or not, but the feelings will be expressed, shared and will persist, which is what tango is about. We dance the Argentine tango not for the spectators but for ourselves.