How not to Tango
Just saw this funny clip mentioned on La Nuit Blanche (translated to be “the sleepless night” using Babel Fish). Kind of reminded me of a skit that was done recently at a Tango friend’s birthday party. These guys look like pros, however.
Lecturing on the dance floor
Recently read a thread in a Tango forum which prompted the following thoughts.
From time to time, I have noticed that certain leaders have a tendency to lecture/teach their partner on the dance floor, or immediately after the finish of a tanda, during a milonga. To me, this really should not be tolerated during a milonga!
Well, if a leader can’t lead the follower to do something – no matter how simple the movements may be – most likely you are simply not as good as you thought. Secondly, even if the technical fault genuinely lies with the follower, e.g. she is a fresh beginner, there is no point in making her feel even worse by informing her what she is supposed to be doing, is there? The take-home message is that if you can’t lead, then you have lost the plot, so just move on and lead something suitable to your level. Leave the (your own) practice and advice-giving to pracaticas.
For the followers, and especially for the beginners who are easily intimidated, it’s time to walk away knowing full well who is a capable dancer, and who is not… 😉
New online Tango radio
Here is a new online radio station for Tango: Tango-Liquido.Gradio.They are planning to have separate playlists for different categories of music. Now, being relatively new, the selection is currently not big but hopefully this will improve in time. By the way, I guess this may deserve a NSFW tag… 😀
Update 01/08/2009: Seems the link is dead.
Professional teaching
During a recent discussion on Tango-L discussion list, someone offered a very beautiful definition of “absolutely professional teaching“. Here are two points which I personally found very important; full text here
- … prepare their lessons in advance, studying deeply what what they are going to teach and how to transfer their knownledge to the students.
- … treat the students with respect and kindness… As students, we’re all vulnerable… some teachers act as if they were born knowing how to dance, forgetting the fact that to come to a class means to forget our ego by telling other people “I don’t know, please, teach me what you do know, help me”.
Something that all anyone currently teaching Tango or planning to do so should try to aim for, in my opinion.