To hop in, briefly: Jeff wrote: > Men don't show emotion because usually when confronted with a predator that > is a sign of vulnerability. 1. Man is a predator. 2. Courage is an emotion. > So lemma see, we have Shakespeares, Beethovens and at least a few other guys > who are anything but emotional cripples. > We also have the entire Mediterranean basin, for starters. :-) > So in tango -- and here I go trying to hop back on the topic -- I posit that > what the aim is, is for a male to be passionate at the same he is firmly and > coolly in control. I think this whole issue could be cleared up by allowing American men to have male (rather than female) emotions. > I suspect that the original comment from Igor was someone taking a dig at him > or possibly assuming that tango was just a subset of ballroom. > On the contrary, Igor was asking for counsel on behalf of his students and new male dancers in general.
In my opinion, if one (as a teacher) is going to broach the topic of what's masculine and what's feminine, one should be able to embody the one and inspire the other-- or mock both of them-- or etc. To raise the topic and remain incapable of illustrating it isn't fair to students. Teachers should stick to what they can successfully embody in their own person, because a major part of what a teacher does is serve as a role model. Igor in particular might want to avoid the topic verbally for a while, and just show the men what (and how) a man (a gentleman) IS, while addressing less thorny topics. Or else use satire. Jake DC _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
