Re: [TANGO-L] Community growth...Teacher Challenge

[Ramu Pyreddy <rpyreddy @EECS.UMICH.EDU>]

Tom Stermitz made some very good points - even if obvious.
I wrote my thoughts on some of them - in a different order though.

> Tom Stermitz wrote:
> than 20-30. The economic consequence is that very few local teachers
> are making much money, yet it is primarily due to their efforts and
> ongoing weekly classes that people learn tango. Master teachers can
> inspire, but the local teachers do the week-to-week that results in
> community growth.

Master teachers are good - once in a while - to inspire and to break
the monotony. They usually stay for an extended weekend anyway. In the
end, the bulk of community building rests with the local teachers.
Bring master teachers too often - you can stretch the budget of the
local dancers to the point of making it economically infeasible.
This is epspecially true for small and fledgling communities.
Bigger communities have enough volume to afford monthly or even
more frequent master classes.

More often than not, the weekends are packed with 8-10 workshops!
I would really like to see a change in this. If you take more than
2 classes per day -  how much can you learn and more importantly
how much can you retain? It does not do anybody any good. The
students spend a lot of money and their brains get roasted for
the weekend and there is an incremental change in the dancing.

Instead, what if the master teacher(s) stayed at a place for
2 weeks or maybe even a month? Take a class a day - or 3 classes
a week; In the end, you take the same number of classes or a
few more, but I think it will be far more effective. At the end
of the teacher's stay, you can see if the master teacher has really
changed the quality of dancing in your community. Or it was just
a big name going through the town to be seen againa a few years
later. I know that this is a much more difficult proposition
economically, but it might be good in the long run, especially for
the smaller and struggling communities. Maybe the local organizer
will not make much profit (or any profit), but the community
is stronger and the next time .....

While on this point, I would even go to the extent of saying that
travelling to other tango communities is money better spent than
taking expensive workshops. It negates "in-breeding" and it is more
fun. It provides an opportunity to watch/lead/follow other styles
of dancing. You learn because it is fun, not because
"you-are-in-a-workshop-and-you-HAVE-to-learn"
Traveling together can go a long way in building communities,
especially the many small and struggling ones.

> The FIRST is highly dependent on teaching methodology, teaching
> skill, personality, and somewhat on the style of tango you teach. It
> is critical whether the methodology and style are such that the guys
> succeed...This is probably the most important point, a community
> grows ONLY as fast as the guys "get it". (I don't want to neglect the
> ladies, but this dance is a challenge at first for the guys, and if
> the teachers fail with the guys, who ya gonna dance with?)

I would say that the number of intermediate guys in a tango
community is a measure of the health of the community. Once guys get
to the advanced stage, they tend to be choosy with who they dance
and they probably don't frequent the milongas/practicas/lessons as
much as they used to. It is the intermediate and the advanced beginners
who have the drive to learn and dance with many partners.


Ramu Pyreddy
Ann Arbor, MI
Tango in Ann Arbor check http://www.umich.edu/~umtango

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