Re: [TANGO-L] Teaching technique

[Dan Boccia <redfox @ALASKA.NET>]

Luda (in her post on martial arts, skiing, etc.):


"He's also the only one [in SF]who
teaches technique around here. Exclusively."


Very interesting.  I have a handful of friends (2 teaching couples in
particular) in the SF area who are fabulous social dancers and excellent
instructors, and who MOST definitely teach technique very effectively in
my experience.  I'm certain there are others, it's a big scene there.


Luda (teaching technique post):


"Show biz tango at
> milongas is frowned upon in that culture [Bs As], and aptly
> so. Why can't we do the same thing in this country [US]?"


This is so strange to me.  At the milongas I've been to around the US
(normal local milongas and festivals), I mostly see very nice dancing,
very little of the huge show tango movements I hear about so much, and
often lately, I'm seeing very experienced dancers from Europe and Bs As
have some excellent evenings of dancing (men and women), and they tell
me that "it's a good milonga tonight".  I've also been to a few milongas
where the line of dance was horrible, people were bouncing off the
walls, etc.  I simple don't return to these milongas.  Once is enough.
There are plenty of good ones.


Manuel talked about an experience of an instructor teaching "technique"
by using a bunch of drills, etc.  I think there are instructors with
some exercises that are very valuable, but I agree with Manuel that good
technique can be taught concurrently with a movement, especially if it
has to do with giros as he mentioned.  But to me a giro isn't a "step"
or "pattern", it's a fundamental element of the dance.  Using simple
elements like walking, ochos, and giros, the good instructors can teach
a lot of technique to students with impressive results.  This way,
you're learning fundamental, very useful movements along with technique.
This is what I speak of when I mention teaching technique.

Finally, I just can't keep silent about the references to skiing,
especially since I had such an amazing day of skiing today.  I've been
skiing for 28 years, sometimes over 100 days per year, in just about
every situation imaginable, and I don't see a lot in common with tango
other than balance and torsion (hello Yvonne!).  I really don't feel
like going into the details, but most of what I'm reading about skiing
isn't making much sense to me so I hope we just stick with tango - the
tango discussions have been excellent lately.


Dan