> At one point the film shows the elementary school
> tango program in Buenos
> Aires and how Tango is being taught to thousands of
> children. The
> interesting thing is they show the children being
> taught the 8CB.
> I'm personally a firm believer in the 8CB for a
> number of reasons and I’m
> glad to see the real tango teachers of Buenos Aires
> agree with me.
I don't think one should read too much into that. Patterns are quite often the
easiest way to teach beginners to dance with each other. A few years ago, I
asked Maria Cieri (Rudolfo's Cieri's widow) about their experiences when they
started teaching. She told me that they used the 8CB because they were
inexperienced in teaching and others were using it, so they did, too. But she
and Rudolfo didn't start with it themselves when they were first learning.
The traditional way of learning to dance tango was to pair an experienced
dancer with a beginner. You're not going to be able to do that with school
children. Hence, the usefulness of a pattern. The 8CB is a commonly known
pattern. It also offers an educational method that's easy to standardize (i.e.
same textbook), which is what educational professionals look for.
And I put Tete up there as being a real tango teacher. He doesn't teach the
8CB. I know a lot of people who learned tango without the 8CB. They do well
with the natives in BsAs. That's what matters. Not whether or not you know
the 8CB.
Trini de Pittsburgh
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