Re: [TANGO-L] Where do we start teaching of dance?

[Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>]

Randy Pittman wrote:
>[W]hat would you teach if you were starting with swing, cha cha, rumba
>or any other dance besides tango, where or how would you start?

I am not a swing dancer, but I have been to a few swing dance classes. One
of the most memorable classes was a beginning Lindy Hop class that Steven
Mitchell taught to several hundred people -- many of whom had no
experience whatsover with swing dancing.  He began with rhythmic movement
and gradually transformed the movement into swing dancing.

I might also add that Randy's question is a bit misleading because
although many people use the 8-count basic to teach Argentine tango, it is
not accepted by everyone as the one and only basic step of tango from
which all tango dancing springs.  See Daniel Trenner's essay on the
"basic" step in Argentine tango.
http://www.danieltrenner.com/daniel/ar_basic.html

Among other things, Daniel writes:
"It would be inaccurate to translate "Salida" as Basic Step. ... [S]alida
seems to have been used by the milongueros more to signify the way out
onto the dance floor. ... The amount of variation on such a 'basic' theme
[the salida] is remarkable. ...

The eight step tango basic in parallel feet, as danced almost universally
in the world outside Buenos Aires was never taught as a salida among the
milongueros and is more recently derided by them as 'el basico academico'
(the academic basic).  This basic step seems to have been created by the
"tango for export" community ... The skeleton of the dance is a walk of
the follower that is designed by the leader. ... "

All this said, I must confess to have first learned the 8-count basic, and
I have survived as a tango dancer.

--Steve (de Tejas)