Re: [TANGO-L] narrow-minded religiosity? - Susana Miller

[Rick Jones <rwjones52 @YAHOO.COM>]

--- Someone wrote:
>
> Sometimes they sink to direct lies as in the case
> with Susana Miller and her Milonguero Style.
>

OK, think I'll add my two cents worth...

For starters, I don't get involved in discussions
about tango styles.  I barely know what it is you
people are talking about when you say "milonguero" or
"apilado" or "salon".  Not a clue.  Mainly because it
doesn't even remotely interest me.  I think it's
totaly crap.  All I really care about is that a woman
enjoys her dance with me.

But here's what I have to say about Susana Miller...

My wife and I went to BsAs on two separate trips last
year and spent a considerable amount of time taking
tango lessons with an old milonguero Roberto Pujol.
He's not a big name milonguero like Gavito or Tete,
but just an old guy in his sixties who's been dancing
in milongas since he was 14 or so.

Roberto never taught me a step.  Not one.  He focused
relentlessly on my posture...my walking...my
embrace...my weight shifting...my
breathing...relaxing...etc.  We went to milongas
together on several occasions, and he would point out
the things he had been trying to teach me as they were
being exhibited in other older dancers.  And the guys
he pointed out to me **seemed** to be the better
dancers on the floor.  Certainly they had styles that
I'd want to try emulating in my own dancing.  So to
me, Roberto was a milonguero who had something valid
and valuable to teach me.

Cut to...

This past April Susana Miller came to Washington DC,
and I took a few private lessons with her.  And guess
what?  She focused totally on my walking...my weight
shifting...etc.  And guess what else?  What she had to
say was pretty much exactly what Roberto Pujol had had
to say, the only difference being that she speaks much
better English and could communicate cause-and-effect
better.  It was almost identical, and certainly just
as valuable.

But wait, I'm not done yet.

I also took some group lessons from her in April that
were advertised as showing the latest from Buenos
Aires.  And I learned a few interesting things.  I
learned a couple of nice variations on molinettes and
sacadas and a few other things.

Cut to...

Then in May my wife and I went to BsAs again, and
while we were there we took some lessons from an old
milonguero named (I think) Nestor LaVitola.  Nestor
mainly taught steps.  And guess what?  The steps he
taught were pretty much the same steps Susana Miller
had taught as the latest from Buenos Aires.  There was
very much overlap.

So, you guys can say whatever you will about whether
Susana Miller teaches some particular style that you
all seem to feel you have the last word on. But in my
experience, she is teaching exactly on par with the
milongueros of Buenos Aires -- at least the ones I've
studied with -- only she's able to communicate and
teach better, and it costs a hell of a lot less to
take a lesson with her up here than fly down to Buenos
Aires to take a lesson with a milonguero down there.

OK, go back to your squabbles and name calling.

Cheers,

Rick Jones
Washngton DC



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