A few notes from email discussions with my teacher: > Instructor: > > - Emphasizes the need to harmonize the geometric components of > movement for the duration of the dance and within the available space. > - Understands that social and artistic tango have different > objectives, with the popular genre being the basis for the artistic one. > - Focuses on the music and the need to sensibly interpret melody and > rhythm. > - Extensively prepares each class. > - Addresses a specific dance problem or leitmotif in each class. > - Insists that Argentine tango is hard regardless of your level of skill. > - Frames the dance within its cultural context and history. > > > Non-instructor (Please, feel free to use these as red flags): > > - Uses the usual terminology of "tango for export": > - Teaches "Paso basico" > - Numbers steps 1, 2,...,8 > - Offers Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels of > instruction. > - etc, etc. > - Improvises each class, or regurgitates the content of videos. > - Teaches steps and sequences. > - Does not use specific music as the main focus of the dance, or uses > it as the background sound of the day (sometimes, you can barely hear it). > - Imposes rigid regulation on the way things are done. > - Insists that once the "technique" is clear, Argentine Tango is easy. > - Never clarifies what exactly is meant by "The technique". Most > students assume that this is some set of movement rules that will > reveal themselves in time. Some will spend years trying to figure it out. > - Argentine Tango can be easily changed with a result that is at least > as beautiful. The transformation would be called "Natural," > "Eclectic," "Hyper realistic," or something like that.
> I asked an American friend who has a MA degree in dance and who had > received a fellowship to study tango in Buenos Aires, why she did not > help us by teaching the dance. She responded along these lines: "I > know almost anybody who has real interest would be able to learn the > dance. However, to be able to teach it, effectively, you have to come > from a long tango tradition. I can teach the technique but not the > intuition behind it. But this is just a necessary condition; it is not > sufficient. You also have to understand music and dance, technically. > After all, Argentine Tango, in any of its incarnations, is still a > dance form. If as an instructor you don't meet the necessary and > sufficient conditions, your teaching approach is bound to be > simplistic and you won't be able to retain the typical tango students, > who tend to be intellectually motivated people." _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
