Re: [TANGO-L] Ballroom and Argentine Tango

[Nicole Dowell <bailadora2000 @excite.com>]

Barbara Garvey wrote:

(The obvious difficulty in dancing both Ballroom and Argentine Tango is that the posture and lead of the two dances are totally different.
Anyone who attempts to do both ballroom tango and AT needs to be very clear about the distinctions in posture and lead. IMHO ballroom and Argentine tango are completely incompatible in style as well as philosophy. I find it hard to imagine many people being able to switch from one to the other on a frequent basis and am naturally suspicious of ballroom dance instructors claiming to teach AT, unless they have renounced their old ways and been born again. )

I understand what you are saying Barbara.  I am a ballroom teacher, an Argentine Tango teacher and a salsa teacher, and well respected in all of these styles in both the ways that I dance them and in the way I teach them.  It is very often that someone makes a poor choice in teachers.  Unfortunately many communities don't have the variety and availability of dance studios to be able to find a studio that specializes in certain dances.  Many cities ONLY have ballroom studios or the franchise ballroom studios (i.e. Arthur Murrays and Fred Astaires) that are the most well-known and marketed studios, so students choose the studios not realizing that there are just certain dances that you don't want to learn at them.  I worked before at an Arthur Murray's studio, and as much as I respect that franchise for what it can produce, most of them you will not find anyone in there that teaches a decent Argentine Tango or Salsa.  The problem is, many of these franchise studios have their o
 wn syllabus that they create for AT and Salsa (as well as Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, etc) that are formed from ballroom dances.  It's not correct, I know.  I've seen these syllabi and have cracked up laughing.  Barbara, your friend is likely learning from one of these such types of teachers.  Someone who really doesn't know the dance, but has learned the wrong way.

However, I ask that this list does not generalize every ballroom instructor as not knowing how to differientiate from good Argentine Tango and good Ballroom tango.  There are good and bad teachers in every dance style.  It isn't hard to learn the difference and to dance both styles if you have the right teacher explaining the difference.  And actually many benefits come from learning one into the other.  Here in Miami alone, we just had one of our best tango dancers demonstrate this in the IDO US Tango Championship.  Richard Council is a very talented Argentine Tango dancer who was able to accomplish wonderful style, technique, balance, and musicality in a very short amount of time mainly because of his background in ballroom.  And I don't think many people will dispute his elegance as an Argentine Tango dancer.

Nicole
Miami

_______________________________________________
Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com
The most personalized portal on the Web!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
REMINDER: Announcements of Tango events or products should be sent to
Tango-A and not to TANGO-L. To subscribe to Tango-A, send the
command "subscribe Tango-A Firstname Lastname" to LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------