Of course, Keith (HK) is right that many Argentines teach the 8CB or use it in their teaching. That doesn't make it the best approach to teaching.
To repeat an old story (that is at least partially true), the history of modern tango pedagogy came from the renewed interest in tango that resulted from the success of the show Tango Argentino. As the result of this revival much of the initial instruction came from stage dancers, some of whom had been heavily influenced by Antonio Todaro. Others also reemerged to teach tango, but to be perfectly honest, most of these older tango dancers had no pedagogy other than demonstrating their favorite step patterns. Seeing the success of the stage dancers and other older dancers, waves of young Argentines with backgrounds in ballet and modern dance began learning tango with the idea of taking to the stage and teaching. Many of these people continue to dance and teach with varying degrees of success using the 8CB. (Some instructors, Argentine and otherwise, even claim that learning performance choreographies will help facilitate the development and refinement of social dance skills.) In the United States, many of the dancers receiving such instruction, seem to end up dancing a combination of stage and salon tango in memorized figures. Of course, it is possible for dancers to develop beyond the limits of the teaching they received, and many do so. So even a limited approach to teaching can generate successes. Two newer approaches to teaching have emerged (from Argentina). One of these approaches--most often associated with Gustavo Naveira--is to examine and teach the underlying structure of tango. (Mingo Pugliese also has a structural approach to tango.) Internalized, these complex systems facilitate the development of improvisational skills. Perhaps inadvertently, the structural approach led to the development of nuevo-style dancing because the strucutral approach revealed possible step combinations that were not previously used very extensively. Another approach--often associated with Susana Miller--is to teach tango as small step combinations. Learning through small step combinations facilitates improvisation, connection to one's partner and connection to the music. These are the characteristics most absent from dance of those who locked into the use of 8CB and other memorized figures. Interestingly enough, Tete--whose style is often credited as one of the inspirations for Susana Miller's pedagogy--sometimes uses an 8CB in his dancing but with a different rhythmic approach than is characteristic of the smoother salon approach. So, I don't think the problem is in dancers using the 8CB, except for the dbs. The problem is in dancers getting locked into the 8CB and other memorized figures as Mash was expressing concern about. The use of other instructional approaches is one way to avoid getting locked into these patterns. With best regards, Steve _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
