A lot of people are teaching tango
November 16th, 2011
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I’m going to play devils advocate* and ask “How so?”
* Because I’m also guilty of sweeping short statements, because I think you are right but would like to see how so, and because as someone who had to teach out of necessity I am eager to be aware of the pitfalls.
disassociation, leading with chest, organic movement, how to follow, how to dance “light”… to say just a few.
The problem with a lot of dancers who teach is that they start teaching before they have fully understood the dance itself. The worst part is that once they start teaching, they stop learning. Granted there are different approaches to teach tango and there are many different styles or ways to dance tango. But that is not an excuse to teach something that ones make up from limited dancing experiences.
In martial arts, of any established style, one must study many years, go through many levels of tests before obtaining the right to teach, to open his or in very few case her own school.
In tango, so many pick up a few workshops, privates, dance a couple of years, then all of sudden, they are teachers. I ranted about this a few years ago. Clearly, that hasn’t changed much.
I couldn’t agree more! In addition, these amateur teachers are charging large sums of money for their classes. Enrollees don’t know any better and think they’re signing up with a professional.
TP, Here in Seattle there are listed about 40 “teachers”. Some have only been dancing a very short time! People sign up! They don’t seem to know the difference. One can only hope that over time they see the light…
It is very hard for a student to excel the teacher. While the teacher is mediocre at best, how good the student can get? Most of time, mediocre teacher stays mediocre because they think they are good enough in the first place. In the end, you get an mediocre tango community that is going no where but self entertained.
A teacher who still should stay a student is dangerous because he/she lacks experience, of course. But IME, a lot more damage comes from “very experienced” teachers who refuse to stay students for the rest of their life*. Primarily because their students don’t feel the need to explore beyond what the teacher told them. So they stay in their niche, torturing a potentially… decent tango community. They even feel no need to travel around and see what tango looks like elsewhere.
*I strongly believe it is the right path through tango. And I am happy to have such teachers.
It takes 2 to tango. “Mediocre” students choose “mediocre” teachers. So it is not entirely the fault of the teachers.
The objective of those who want to teach is to make some money, or at least break even while to have some fun. Their primary concern is to find students continuously, and give what they want. That’s all.
Statistically speaking, majority of everything is mediocre. That is the fact of life.
Osker, Don’t blame the students. Medoicre teachers are chosen by good students too. It is not easy for newcomers to ID the teachers that are just consuming students for money.
It is not easy for newcomers to ID the teachers …. this is so true…
The bad teaching I had at the beginning had followed me and my partner for many years…