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Tango Beginner's Questionnaire

Ms. Hedgehog's Beginner's Questionnaire bears repeating. Limerick should add it to his "Blog Posts to Read Before You Die".

It's a much better approach (to determine if you're being taught 'properly') than the negatively tuned prior post from Tango-L.

http://mshedgehog.blogspot.com/2008/10/beginners-questionnaire.html

The point is, there are some really crappy tango teachers out there in the world trying to separate you from your money, and leave you with, well, some foul smelling tango.

Hopefully, this flurry of posts, and my newly shut down brand new blog "Tango Teacher and DJ Reviews", will give you some thinking points when evaluating your teacher and workshop options.

Caveat emptor. (Let the buyer beware.)

Detecting Sham or Incompetent Tango Teachers

While on the subject...a little birdie pointed out this old thread from Tango-L...

Let's face it, tango is not cheap. During the first three years for me, I would guess (I'm afraid to actually run the numbers) I spent $15,000 to $20,000 on workshops, festivals, travel, hotels. It probably cost me more in indirect cost impacts - focusing on my tango addiction more than other areas of my life.

So, tango newbies (and others who still take workshops) should be able to get the most bang for their buck. I always approached workshops a little differently. I always said to myself, "Self, if you end up with only one item, one piece of vocabulary, one tango product, then it was worth the $100 or so you paid..." Now, I can't afford that mindset. A full festival pass, hotel, travel, meals, vino tinto, could easily run $600-800 even if you are bare-bonesing it.

So, bang for the buck - maximizing your tango learning (and retention) for your dollars expended. Learning "proper" technique. Learning fundamentals, the subtle nuances of lead and follow. Being taught (but perhaps never learning) codigos and floorcraft. In my experience, it's surprising (no, not really) that there are so many leaders with really piss-poor technique and no desire to improve. Many are dancing the Basic-8 over and over. I would rather learn less "stuff" and gain more fundamental truth from a nice, friendly couple, than have tons of elaborate figures thrown at me by arrogant, self-aggrandizing teachers who think they are hot shit tango demi-gods.

Anyway, this all came up out of the blue. The recent thread on Tango-L made me start thinking about it - and you all know how I think too much. Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut and leave well enough alone. After all, it's not like people are being harmed or somehow damaged by bad teachers teaching bad tango. Or are they?

IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Luckily, there aren't that many of these tango carpetbaggers out there...the vast majority of tango teachers are careful, conscious, diligent, knowledgeable, curious, genuine, all-around good people. Also, the vast majority of festival and workshop organizers are only going to bring in the tried and true teachers for their events - they have done the due diligence for us end users.

Here's the thread...from 2003...from someone named "TangoGuy"


Sham or incompetent teachers
One needs to be suspicious of any teacher who exhibits any of the following. However, one needs to look at and think deeply about the overall picture and not rush to judgment. After all, it isn't fair to incorrectly evaluate a legitimate, good and dedicated teacher. And one may be passing up a very fine learning opportunity.

This list won't help the poor hapless vulnerable and total beginner because in all likelihood, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to have read it. But one can warn and guide any beginners one may encounter. Also, one can give the beginner a copy of this list.

Teachers can view this list as a way of checking themselves. They shouldn't construe any part of what I say as meaning they are necessarily sham or incompetent teachers. However, if any part applies to them, they need to take it as a helpful hint. It's the responsibility of every teacher to improve both their dancing and their teaching skills. Doing so improves ones service to their students and to the wider Tango community.

Obviously, most truly sham teachers are going to continue shamming. I just hope some will have a pang of conscience that will lead them to change their ways.

I have attempted to create an exhaustive list but if I have left anything out, please let me know. All helpful comments and critiques are welcome and requests for clarifications will be honored.

1)Money seems to be a teacher's paramount concern. It's certainly ok for a teacher to make money but it shouldn't be his chief concern. Their chief concern needs to be the welfare of their students and the wider Tango community. It becomes a concern to other Tango dancers when they end-up dancing with a poorly trained person. Beginners are one thing; poorly trained dancers are another.

Alex here...I disagree with this...for full-time professional teachers, this is how they put bread on the table...not being concerned about paying your bills from month to month would be difficult/impossible for any of us to do.


2)A teacher doesn't concentrate on basics with a beginner. As a student advances, he will often need to be reminded or helped from time to time with relevant basics. A teacher needs to be willing to do this regardless of the class level. I have already mentioned elsewhere in this posting a type of class structure that will accommodate this.

3)A teacher is unwilling to correct a student. The teacher may be afraid to lose a student due to too many needed corrections.

4)A teacher teaches a beginner figures other than Salidas, Crosses and Ochos. These figures are used as a way to convey basics to a student so it may be possible to use additional figures to convey needed basics.

5)A teacher who teaches a lot of flashy, fancy and/or sexy figures is probably attempting to hook or keep students. Latter on as a dancer becomes more advanced, such figures are a lot of fun.

6)The teacher doesn't dance well or is not smooth or doesn't dance elegantly or doesn't give a lady time to complete a figure or doesn't insert strategic pauses to give a lady time to do adornments.

7)A teacher doesn't seem to have sufficient dedication to Tango. A truly dedicated teacher has enough interest in Tango to go beyond the actual dance itself. Almost everything about Tango needs to be of interest to the teacher. Things such as the music, Tango personalities, Tango history, etc. A teacher can convey such info to the student in bits and snippets.

8)A teacher needs to tell students (even beginners) about Tango-L, Tango-A and other Tango related websites. He should have bibliographies of books, videos and CD's (or at least he can refer students to sources or others who have)

9)A teacher doesn't name techniques, figures and steps that are being taught. (Terms and names are best given in Spanish because a foreign language is freer of the non-tango related connotations and associations then ones own native language has.)

If a teacher doesn't know the names of what he is teaching, one needs to wonder how much the teacher actually knows.

If a teacher knows but won't give names of what he is teaching, the teacher is probably attempting to control how rapidly a student is learning with the intent of keeping the student in the teacher's classes as long as possible.

If a student doesn't have a name for something, it is difficult for him to think about. One needs a language and its words to think about anything. Not being able to think about something is a severe handicap to learning. This is called illiteracy.

Words gives a student the ability to discuss a technique, figure or step in as few words a possible. A word conveys a complex sets of ideas efficiently. Discussions with others helps a student to understand and learn a new technique, figure or step better.

A student can use the words to record efficient notes.

10)A teacher doesn't convey any sort of mental structure to the student. A structure is a way a student can think about Tango and its techniques, movements, steps and figures. A good structure aids the student in his quest toward tango. A teacher needs to structure the class and what he teaches along the lines of the mental structure he is attempting to convey.

Because Tango is essentially an improvisational dance, it doesn't have structure in the same way as Ballroom. The mental structure is only mental and is not applied to the actual dance itself. The intent of a structure is to help a student to think and learn in as clear and efficient manner as possible.

A beginner often depends on the mental structure as a sort of a crutch. As the beginner progresses, the need for the crutch gradually drops away. Later on, the mental structure can be used as a way a student can analyze and choreograph their own figures.

An integral part of any mental structure are words and names of things. Much of what I have already said in regards to words and names also applies to mental structures.

A mental structure relates techniques, movements, steps and figures according to their similarities, differences and according to ease of learning. Easy simple things, that may be found as part of more complex and harder figures, are taught early. When the more complex and harder figures are taught, the student will find them easier to learn because much of it has already been learned.

Any structure a teacher develops can be conveyed in a gradual fashion and not all at once.

11)A teacher doesn't encourage note taking.

12)A student remains in the class without much improvement while the teacher attempts to convince him he is improving. A student can measure their own progress at practicas and milongas and the response of other dancers with whom they dance. A dancer can test their lead/follow abilities by dancing with people less advanced then himself such as beginners.

13)A lot of what is being taught is not being retained by a student.

Exception: In the case of a student being in a class over their head, it would be the responsibility of the teacher to direct the student to a class and teacher that can better help the student.

Another thing the teacher can do is to structure the class so that each student is learning at their own particular level. Students at about the same level can be taught as a subgroup within the class. With this method, a single class can accommodate students of several different levels at the same time. The class can be on-going without beginning or end. Teachers can accept new students at any time without regard to the student's dance ability. To make such a structure work, the teacher needs to be willing to give each student more one-on-one attention. Sort of like giving private lessons in a group setting.

14)A teacher seems to make a lot of mistakes either in what he is teaching or how he is teaching.

15)A teacher seems make a lot of excuses for shortcomings.

16)A teacher seems to have more explanation than results.

17)A teacher seems to be defensive with questions whose answers may reveal the incompetence or fraud.

18)A teacher deliberately teaches incorrectly with the intent of handicapping the student. A sham teacher wants to keep the student dependent on the teacher so he continues with the teacher. I think this is the worst kind of teacher and I hope it is rare even among sham teachers.

19)A teacher deliberately withholds information from the student with the intent of either handicapping the student or in an attempt to keep the student from finding out the teachers fraudulence.

20)Any uncivility or discourtesy on the part of the teacher. This includes snapping at a student or any impatience. A teacher needs to be a paragon of patience.

21)A teacher who is unwilling to repeat or review prior material as often as is needed. I have already mentioned elsewhere in this posting a type of class structure that will accommodate this.

The chalice of my walk

I've been environmentally ranting and raving of late, with not much to say about tango. I'm not dancing socially much anymore, influenced somewhat by choice, somewhat by higher priorities, somewhat by a chock-full social calendar. It's all good. I do miss it, and I don't. I know it will return in good and proper time.

I was sitting here in the morning darkness, CNN muted on the television, determined to find something to write about on the subject of tango. My mind scanned the dancers (leaders) who inspire me, and I remembered Gavito. I pointed out to my self that no one seems to write about him, or hold him up as a model. (I say, I say, self, no one seems to....) I found one of my favorite YouTube videos of him dancing a show with Maria Plazaola and posted it below.

Then I started surfing and searching and googling for a good quote by Gavito to include in this post. I found the quote below on the website/blog 'Tango-E-Vita', an extensive Dutch (but multi-lingual) site, whose proprietor I know nothing about.



"The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence. This is essential to learn in tango, the real dance, that of the silence, of following the melody." [Carlos Gavito]



Continuing to read below the quote on the Tango-E-Vita site I ran across this:

In Argentine tango, walking is philosophy.

The way of walking can emphasize femininity, or masculinity, showing power by military marching, so constructing an identity image, or a dance choreography. Thus, between boots and high heels, the way of walking goes through a whole life spectrum. Meditation is important in the correct understanding of the act. Movement is living motion and immobility is not the absence of movement, it is a knot, a tight cluster of movements. Dancers will realize that both the movement and the awareness, arise and disappear in a moment. They realize that an intention precedes every movement. Intention is the condition for the movement to occur. Mind and body are unsatisfactory because they are always oppressed by new uprisings and disappearings. There is no soul that can control it. Things appear and disappear according to natural law. It is as if organic chemistry cannot be otherwise.

Motion as a form of touch, assumes a line of communication, a haptic listening and responsiveness to the other’s body, and being touched by the music.
Dancers develop this sensitivity in maturity. Mature ballet dancers acquire an attunement to the other that increases their enjoyment of performing. Performing no longer becomes a matter of ‘being seen’, no longer performing an optical illusion in front of the mirror, it also invokes the reciprocity of ‘seeing’, ‘touching’ the other, the audience. An experimental question can be whether the audience also reads through the literal body movements to the underlying desire of the act of dancing. It is the body and its corporeally inscribed memories of movement that offers the embodied self the possibility of rescue from fragmentation. Discovering the inner self through dancing relates directly to body memory, the lived-body. Dancing can be a way of incorporating past into present and maintaining continuity and inner growth. [From Tango-E-Vita]

Motion as a form of touch, walking as a philosophy, walking as a seduction, the art of the walk. Deep stuff. "It is the body and its corporeally inscribed memories of movement that offers the embodied self the possibility of rescue from fragmentation." Really deep stuff.

This all got me thinking about walking. Then, I remembered a thought I had as I DJ'd the final milonga of the Austin Spring Tango Festival a couple of Sundays ago. I noticed that no one was walking. Granted, on the crowded pista, it can be next to impossible, but openings do present themselves to simply walk. Openings on the pista, and openings in the music. I hear the walk in the music, and I must walk. I MUST walk.

In these places in the music where the rhythm says "walk", where the rhythm SHOUTS "WALK ASSHOLE!, I walk, even if it's only two steps. Everyone does not hear the music the same. Everyone does not interpret the music the same. Everyone does not feel the music the same, at the same time. Everyone does not hear "WALK" when I hear and feel it. I suppose it would look pretty silly if everyone broke into a walk at the same time, but I always wonder why I am the only one walking.

As the DJ, I sat and watched at that milonga more than I usually do. I danced maybe two or three tandas, waiting for my favorite songs with my favorite followers. As I watched, I remember thinking that no one was really walking. Again, crowded pista, less opportunity for walking, but those opportunities are still there. Unscientifically, with no quantitative research to back it up, it seems that not many people "just" walk. Am I dreaming this, or is it real? Is it a trend, or an evolution that the tango walk is disappearing?

We almost never see the walk in "performances" at milongas and festivals any more. It's probably too boring for people to watch two dancers getting into the music, getting into their connection, getting into each other, simply walking. Detlef y Melina walk. Ney y Jennifer walk. Javier Rodriguez walks. Gustavo Naveira most definitely walks. Osvaldo Zotto walks. The milongueros walk. The young bucks aren't walking much it seems.

As we all know, the tango walk is the most difficult aspect of tango to learn, and to teach. It is both the most difficult to learn, and takes the most time to learn. I think it took me three years, maybe two-and-a-half, to "get my walk". But it's important to note, that while I "got it", I still don't "have it". It's like a silver chalice compared to the fucked-up, paper Dixie Cup walk I walked with for those many months. The chalice of my walk is tarnished, and it still has a long way to go. I don't drink from the chalice much, and it needs to be used and polished on a regular basis. Someday, in many more years, the chalice of my walk will hopefully become a gilded, bejeweled chalice. Worn and dented, tarnished in the deep grooves of the detail, missing a jewel or two, but polished from use in other areas, and with an unmistakable patina of age and experience and beauty. Some day. Perhaps. In my dreams.

Methinks it is the difficulty of the walk that few dance it. They give up too soon. Methinks this may be, quite possibly, the reason the new, young dancers (and a few old farts) are sliding into nuevo, abandoning Argentine tango in whole or in part. Who knows? I don't want to start that debate again, but those who know me know how I feel about the subject. Last night I responded to a discussion thread on the new 'ning' dealy-bopper 'Tango Connections' about "the most important things" to teach beginners. One respondent talked of the importance of teaching the basic 8. I responded that I purposely avoid and never mention, and definitely do not teach the basic 8. There are too many leaders dancing the basic 8 socially, back step and all. Plus, the basic 8 is totally unnecessary as a teaching tool, or as dancing vocabulary. In my classes, I focus on the walk, the walk, the walk. I drill it in each week (both lead and follow technique) before presenting new material. So far, they keep coming back for more.

With a solid walk, the other "stuff" comes easier. With a solid walk, you can connect and enjoy and feel good about your tango progress. With a solid walk, you can walk an entire dance. Some songs lend themselves to walking - "walking songs" I call them - how original. I'll never forget the first time I got the balls to walk an entire song. It was at a practica, and DiSarli's Verdemar came on (of course, it was me dj'ing). After walking the dance, she said, "it's so nice to dance with someone who has the balls to 'just' walk...". I've been complimented on long walks in other dances at other milongas. The dance becomes more about the connection, the "stuff" is inconsequential to the point of not noticing that it isn't there. The follower can relax, even rest for a time, in my embrace. She really doesn't have to think and can lose herself in the chalice of my walk.

The best of luck to all of you in 'finding' your walk.

Lastly, the Tango-E-Vita site has a great page devoted to the walk. I'm going to go back and read it myself.




Carlos Gavito y Maria Plazaola :: Milonga a Gavito




Gustavo Naveira y Giselle Anne :: Solo Caminadas en clase
(to Di Sarli's Verdemar, in an Atlanta workshop I attended a couple of summers ago...still one of my inspirations)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgnjOZxVsCw



Osvaldo Zotto y Lorena Ermocida :: Confiteria Ideal :: Indio Manso


My apologies for posting these same videos (posted many times before), but they remain my "walking" inspiration...