[TANGO-L] Neuvo vs Traditional

[TimmyTango@AOL.COM]

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Stermitz <stermitz@TANGO.ORG>
To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Sent: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 17:43:48 -0600
Subject: Re: [TANGO-L] Tango Styles


People learn linear motions easiest, and circular motions much slower. This
makes sense if you consider how little we spiral and pivot in our normal,
walk-a-day world.

Nuevo Techniques (to me) involve a lot of pivoting and spiraling motions,
which are best introduced later on in the learning process. I prefer it to be
MUCH later on, after people have balance, lead-follow; after they already know
what tango looks and feels like; after they can pretty much ALREADY dance tango.

LINEAR BEFORE CIRCULAR

There are a lot of linear ideas for beginners: rhythms, lead-follow, musical
phrasing, connection, embrace, clean steps, heels down (straight legs). In
fact, a beginner guy can learn enough in one hour to walk a lovely beginner lady
around the room that same day. It is a whole lot easier to learn to TANGO (a
simple tango) than it is to learn the VOCABULARY OF TANGO.

NEGATIVE TECHNIQUE

I'm sure you have seen the poor beginner ladies being cranked off balance by
intermediates trying to thrash them through ochos. If they don't quit, they
are embodying bad habits which will take twice as long to remove. Some teachers
even show ochos in the first classes, before students can hear the beat,
before they can stand upright. And then those same bad Intermediates insist on
teaching the grapevine to every new lady that walks in the door.

A sensible learning methodology would ensure skills build in a logical
sequence:
 (1) Stepping on the beat (walking), concepts of the social dance floor, and
Balance
 (2) Hearing the musical phrase, initiating/receiving movement, lead-follow
and Balance
 (3) Spiraling, no-pivot ochos (close-embrace) and Balance
 (4) Spiraling while pivoting (turning ochos or open embrace ochos) and
Balance
 (5) Turns still take a lot of practice, but... at least there is a technical
foundation for turns.

SLOWING DOWN THE LEARNING PROCESS

I think many teachers are excited about teaching cool moves, and fail to
provide a good foundation for LATER learning cool moves.

Teaching out of order doesn't speed up the learning process. To the contrary,
it slows people down because they pick up bad habits which take twice as long
to correct. At the worst end, you create a conception of tango as "A BUNCH of
COOL MOVES", rather than cool moves are "SIMPLY THINGS TO DO WHILE DANCING
TANGO".

I see a lot of intermediates with tons of vocabulary but ZERO musicality and
NEGATIVE technique. The poor women who crouch while walking backwards, or on
the other extreme look like they have a stick stuck where the sun doesn't
shine; the poor guys walking around with a hunch, or cranking with their arms.
These bad habits sometimes infect whole communities.... or if we are a little more
lucky, only the segment of the community tied to certain teachers.

Timmy here:
I enjoyed reading every word you wrote Tom.
It's extremely difficult to teach tango and keep students when there are
teachers who will teach what the student wants to learn, verus what the student
needs to learn.
Joanne and I both feel a person should learn the basics of tango first. To
learn the social dance first before going on to other areas of tango. Learn to
navigate around the dance floor before you learn to through a lady up in the
air, or kick between their legs. And how many ladies I see don't, and are not
taught, the importance of collecting their feet. They just want to learn
colgatas and leg raps instead.

I lost count on how many instructors I have had lessons with who constantly
tell us the walk is the whole dance, and how they spent years perfecting their
walk.
It's taken years to where I'm finally seeing the people in Cleveland really
dancing social tango well. Now with Neuvo being introduced, I'm sure the social
dance will lower in quality. I have talked with other cities where they
started out dancing Milonguero and when Neuvo started, the floor craft went down.

What I do see positive about Neuvo is that it is bringing young people into
tango. And I hear in Buenos Aires especially. But soon the kids see the
traditional tango and then are hooked on what I feel is the most romantic style of
tango to dance. For Joanne and I it's the contact we have when we dance that we
love.
For those who favor Neuvo, or Alturnitive, I have no problem with this. But I
do feel if you're going to hold a milonga keep it one or the other, not a
combination of the two.
I don't want to sit at a table waiting for a traditional tango, and I'm sure
the people who prefer alturnitive don't want to wait for something they would
want to dance to either.