Re: [TANGO-L] Teaching as a couple - teaching alone

[Lois Donnay <donnay @DONNAY.NET>]

The great thing about a person teaching alone is that you are certain that
they can both lead and follow - it amazes me that people teach who cannot do
the opposite role. (Male teachers seem to be most guilty of this) Also, I
like it when the teacher can dance with anyone - not just the person that
they taught the pattern to earlier in the day. I think it gives people
confidence that they, too, could be successful at leading or following the
move.

I have a soft spot for female teachers, because the first time I had a
female teacher it was so enlightening! She could hardly speak English, but
she really made it clear what I was doing wrong. Also, female teachers have
the advantage of being able to dance with so many different people. They
have a tremendous vocabulary, along with the sensitivity to know what it is
supposed to feel like.


Lois Donnay
Minneapolis, MN 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: seth [mailto:s1redh  @GMAIL.COM] 
> Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 11:25 AM
> To: TANGO-L  @MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [TANGO-L] Teaching as a couple - teaching alone
> 
> 
> Hi Aron,
> 
> In my opinion a single teacher provides an incomplete tango 
> teaching experience.
> 
> In my book the male teacher teaches the basic techniques.
> He SHOULD also dance a LOT with the male student in order to 
> make him feel what a led woman feels. This is quintessential, 
> and is maybe the one most important experience of the better 
> Argentine dancers. Later on, while the female teacher dances 
> with the student, he wiil provide cues based on his 
> "external" visuals. These include mostly elements of style 
> like posture, feet placement, adherence to rhythm, etc.
> 
> The woman teacher, dancing with the student will be providing 
> the "internal" feedback, regarding marcas (indications to the 
> follower), holds, pressures, etc - all the barely visible 
> subtleties of tango.
> 
> Male and female teachers are different, not only because of 
> "La Difference", or because of high heel shoes, (a big thing 
> in dance). A good female teacher assumes naturally the role 
> of a follower, characterized by sensitivity, maleability and 
> intuition. This is a hard act for men to follow, IMO 
> impossible for male teachers used to command. The same 
> applies to single female teachers, somewhat reversed.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Seth
> 
> PS Apologize ladies, men need all the help they can get, you 
> have it much easier when learning Tango ;->