While I’m not an authority on Tango, I feel the need to write about something that I consider very important to address.
What’s bothering me right now is people who don’t want to take the full, long journey to discovering Tango. People who “proudly” claim that because they’ve been to X amount of festivals and taken X amount of hours of class and practice, that they can teach, and that they know Tango. It makes feel a little worried about what’s happening to Tango.
The thing I have heard a lot of from these people is that “time matters not”. And you all know how I feel about that. Yes, some people just “get” it after a short period of time, while others can dance for 10 years and still not have a clue. But this is no reason to start teaching too soon. When someone feels that they are ready to teach early in their Tango life, they might think they get it – but those who truly do “get” it, aren’t teaching as beginners – they’re too busy dancing.
I can be understanding on one level, because when you’ve only been dancing a year or so, you have absolutely no idea how much more you are about to discover in Tango. But for this precise reason I do not feel it is right to start teaching prematurely, and I do not feel it is right to state with arrogance that you know what you’re talking about, when really you’re still a baby by Argentine standards. It kind of reminds me of how when I was a teenager I thought I knew everything. Then I entered my 20’s and really thought I knew everything. Now that I’m 30, I see that I have a lot to learn and that I can just slow down and enjoy it.
Understanding Tango is so much more than how many hours you’ve been putting into your dance or how many festivals you’ve been to. Tango is a personal journey that takes a long time. It is so rewarding to be patient and allow it to happen on its own. Immediately assuming that since you once helped someone in practica or know how to explain an ocho means that you’re ready to teach, can be dangerous. It shows little respect for the true professionals out there who have earned their positions with a lot of effort and time. If you ask me, I’ll say that it’s not good Tango.
One reason I believe that Tango takes time, is that Tango is also about life experience. Tango is life experience. As I get a few months closer to my 5-year Tango anniversary, I reflect on all that I’ve been through in life during my Tango journey. As I matured, had my heart broken, lost my father, moved to a different country – all of these things went hand-in-hand with Tango. Experiencing these things while learning and dancing Tango at the same time, was instrumental in my development as a dancer. My previous life experiences were also instrumental, but allowing Tango to unfold in your life as you go through various milestones is priceless.
To teach prematurely, in my opinion, is to treat Tango like an empty dance. An empty, purely physical… thing, with no history or spirit. Anyone who reads this blog regularly has read this post about what I think Tango is. And I stand by it. Tango is a wonderful dance, it is a wonderful challenge for mind, body and soul. It’s great to do it well, it’s great to learn new steps, and it’s great to help others discover it. But it is not great to forget that Tango has roots. I feel it is arrogant to claim authority about something without respecting the core of it.
I was fortunate enough to study with a fabulous couple from Buenos Aires for the first four years of my Tango development. We became friends and they took me under their wing. They didn’t just teach me to dance – they taught me how to prepare a good mate, make empanadas (yummm), open my heart to love, speak a little bit of Spanish…they taught me their culture. Because of them, I got a geography lesson, a history lesson, a love lesson, and thanks to their inspiring me to explore Argentine culture more in depth, I can dance an okay chacarera. Not great, but not bad. Because my learning experience was so full and rich and intense, I just can’t imagine having actually been a teacher myself during all of that. I can’t imagine even wanting to teach when I was in the midst of absorbing so much myself.
As I’ve matured in Tango and in life, my feelings about Tango have evolved. What’s important to me has changed. I’ve finally discovered myself in the dance and I dance like me. I’ve developed incredibly strong bonds with people through Tango. But most importantly, I’ve realized why it is that I dance Tango. I’m no longer looking for interesting, tricky steps. I’m no longer worrying about looking the best when I dance. You know what I look for in Tango, and why I dance it? I look for my soul and yours. I dance because I want our souls to meet and have a conversation while our bodies move in time to the music.
And ever since my month in Buenos Aires, the #1 reason I dance Tango at all is because I feel like it is my one connection to my new favorite city. I feel like it’s my way of checking in with Buenos Aires and saying “hola – I still love you”.
Slow down, Tangueros. Slow down. Don’t disregard your learning process. And whatever you do - do it from your heart, do it out of love.
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16 users responded in this post
Dear Tina,
You better than nobody knows how whole-heartedly I agree with all you are saying here. I take my (imaginary) hat to salute you… You know what you are talking about, you understand what this is all about –much better than so many of us, including myself.
Thank you for this post,
Tanguera
I could not agree more. I have to say, I wonder would we have the beautiful works of art, science and architecture if DaVinci decided he was a master before he studied the arts that he went on to achieve mind blowing advancements in. Maybe an extreme example, but an apt one I think.
I am also of the mindset that people are not stupid. And they catch on pretty quickly when the person who is teaching them doesn’t actually know the material. So I am hoping and trusting those who want to learn and grow in tango to recognize what is real and what is forced. Rather like the preference for a home made, slow cook meal to McDonalds for sustenance and substance.
I’m on the very cusp of tango, the outermost brink and I know it’s going to take a long time, most likely the rest of my life before I can come close to getting a grasp of what this tango is. And that’s is the most fun part of tango! Is knowing that I could tango for decades and never be bored because there is always always always some new facet of it to discover.
It’s too complex and multi-layered to simply condense it to …”How to Gancho in 10 Different Ways ” or “How to Lead a Cross like a Pro in only 2 Hours!!” or “Tango for Dummies.”
Amen Tina!
OH HELL YES.
an absolutely brilliant post. i wholeheartedly agree with you!
can you imagine the sheer amount of arrogance and ego it would take to claim to teach an art/culture/heart/soul/blood/tears/joy/civilization after studying it for anything less than a lifetime?
1-2 years!! i can’t believe it. i really can’t believe it…
Yes. They teach simply because they can! It is hard to believe, but there are people who employ and pay those “teachers”.
And it just goes from bad to worse. There are individuals who give “AT lessons” in a local ballroom studio. Of all places, here, we have a blossoming tango community, tons of amazing dancers and great teachers, and yet… People keep bringing their money to those who don’t have a clue about Argentine Tango!
It looks horrible. None of these instructors have ever set a foot to a real milonga. But some of their students might…
So sad.
sigh- I agree Tina.. I totally agree…
Brava!
I whole-heartedly agree that tango is much more than a dance and that it takes years of experience on and off the floor, and eposure to Porteño language, culture and people to glean its many facets. But I disagree that to teach tango one must necessarily have done all the above. Not everybody is as lucky as Tina in being taught and befriended by teachers from Buenos Aires. Not every town is as rich in Tango resources as San Francisco, New York, Portland or Denver. Even in these cities, Argentine Tango is still very small niche. Having new, young, energetic, engaging, earnest teachers might just be what we need to attract more people to the dance. My journey in Tango was started by two such young teachers.
Once upon a time I came across a poster advertising introductory lessons in Argentine Tango. I knew what ballroom tango looked like, but the adjective “Argentine” piqued my interest since I did not know what that meant. I certainly did not know enough to ask whether the instructors were qualified, whether they were devotees of milonguero or nuevo tango, or whether they had even been to Buenos Aires. Heck, at that time I would be lucky not to confuse Argentina with Chile
All I could see at our first group lesson was a young couple obviously in love with each other and with the dance. They managed to get a ragtag bunch of beginners excited about learning to walk in each other arms, and many of us continued on with them. With each new lesson, they introduced new elements to keep us interested, but the emphasis was always on the connection and the walk. I never got around to learning saccadas, boleos, ganchos or any such fancy steps from them. I soon moved on from that city, and continued to learn Tango from many other teachers, some well-known, others not, some Argentines, other not. I still credit my first teachers with instilling in me a love of the dance and sound fundamentals. Nowadays, it is always fun to watch them dance from time to time at festivals. With passing years they have grown as people, dancers, and teachers. No doubt they now have much more to offer their current students, but what they taught me was certainly enough to start a journey of a lifetime.
In Tango as in many other human endeavors, a teacher might show the path, but it is the student who must complete the journey. The initial path might be in the right direction, or it might not. Ultimately, it is the student who has to correct course as he goes, seeking help along the way. And the journey is going to take time. Ladies, do not worry too much about who teach your dance partners their lessons. Just see whether they are figuring out the right path. Dance with the ones who show promise. Ignore the ones who obviously don’t get it. Collectively, it is you who hold dominion over the future of Tango.
Everybody - Wow! Thanks for the support!
Gentimiento - thanks for such a well thought-out response! Though I want to clarify myself a bit…
- I do not at all think that one *has* to have done all of the above to teach. I was providing my life experience in order to show an example of why I do not feel it’s right to teach so soon, and an example of the good things that await if we just take our time.
The point I’m trying to make is that to teach, you have to have RESPECT for the core of Tango - for its origins.
To teach, you have to come from a place of humility and pure desire to share something you love with others.
This involves patience, and savoring the learning process.
The specific people I’m talking about in this post sadly do not seem to be doing either. Not that they are bad people, but they just don’t “get it”.
I basically feel it’s unnecessary for someone with so little experience to be in such a rush - sometimes that can come off as arrogant, in certain cases anyway.
I think it’s wonderful that your first experience with a Tango class was with a couple who was so in love with each other and with the dance. That’s an important quality in a teacher - when they radiate that sort of thing, it gets people excited to learn.
In fact, that Argentine couple I studied with? That was the first thing that drew me to them - their pure love for Tango and for each other.
As I said in my last sentence - whatever you do, do it from your heart. Do it out of love.
Tina,
Imagine my pleasure, after a week of travel (for work) and dance, (for me!) to read your articulate explanation of why we need to slow down on this tango journey. I danced with an Argentine gentleman while I was out of town. I realized something in that experience. The man was so involved with the music, and danced as though he was another instrument or line of melody within the dance, and including me as a partner in this creation of the dance for that moment in time. We did NO boleos, NO gaunchos, (thank you very much), just turns, and walking, and it was all there for me. I know this much…to understand the music on that level takes years. To be able to interpret, and then to share it will take more years. I think we are very lucky to be a part of the long journey.
I know now how much I don’t know! That is always the beginning of learning. Thanks Tina.
Oh Elizabeth, I love the way you described him as “as though he was another instrument or line of melody within the dance, and including me as a partner in this creation of the dance for that moment in time.” That is so beautiful and poetic!
Welcome home!
[…] The post a few days ago about Premature Teaching caught quite a bit of attention, and I received an e-mail asking if it was about a specific school […]
Tina : I write from Buenos Aires (sorry for my english).
Thank you for your words about our culture.
For me the tango is not a dance.It´s almost a religión.I need dance 4 o 5 night at week.Is like the air, the food…
Nobody can teach that.It´s a “personal trip”.
Cooming soon to “milonguear”.
Buenos Aires comienza a florecer…
“whatever you do, do it from your heart. Do it out of love.” Enough said. For me, tango is a way of life, one kind of Tao, and a journey of lifetime. I just couldn’t understand how a person who has danced a few years and gone a few trips to BsAs teaches tango.
There are so many workshops and “advanced” classes about “super easy secada”, “Volcada y colgada”, “the mechanics of perfect gauchoes” , but none about “the embrace”, “the elegant walks” or “how to interpret Danato or Di Sarli”? It is sad to see stage moves everywhere in the milongas and not that many people dance to the music and with their partners.
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