Jack Dylan wrote: > Maybe ladies need to be prepared to accept a few 'not-so-good' tandas so that > they > can get a few 'good' tandas. But that's everyone's choice to make.
True...but the way I understood Joanne's comments is that there is a difference between a "bad" dancer and an inexperienced one. I'm quite happy to dance with a few inexperienced dancers to balance getting the chance to dance with some experienced ones. But a bad dancer is one who is forcefully pulling and pushing you out of balance, bumping you into the other dancers (perhaps without apologizing) and otherwise making the dance very unpleasant; these are the ones who seem oblivious to the idea of taking further lessons to improve because they think they are good enough. Imagine the message they might get when they notice the woman choosing a beginner dancer over them. I do think there are discreet ways of making suggestions to men who are truly trying to improve. Usually this is best done not during the tanda you are dancing, but in a neutral conversation another time where you might point out positive traits in leading that you like - in a general way, not like you are correcting them. Often bad dancing occurs when the leader is trying to do too many fancy steps that he is not capable of. I love to point out good dancers who use very simple steps but have great musicality...the inexperienced dancer is often surprised because they can't "see" what's so great about that dancer. But I have also been known to make gentle comments on the dance floor - I've sometimes used "Excuse me, but I'm having a problem in my shoulder, would you mind using very little pressure in your left arm"...or can you guys see right through that one? ;) Laura _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
