What Teachers Put Up With

Hard Lessons

Have you ever dreamed of teaching your own classes, of sharing the knowledge that you've developed over the years as you help others to reach their goals of becoming better dancers? Teaching is a thrilling and rewarding pursuit, even under challenging conditions.

But those challenges are real, and as a teacher, you'll have to deal with them. It's part of the package. Here's a sample of some of the issues that you'll be facing.


Gender Imbalance

When people come to a dance class, they expect to be dancing. When the leader to follower ratio is significantly imbalanced, the students are disappointed. They might not express that disappointment, but they're feeling it.

Well, guess what - the teacher is disappointed, too. They spent time planning what to teach in that class. They tailor the plan to the students that they expected to show up. If the gender balance is way off, their plan is useless, and they time that they put into it is wasted.

Further, they now have to find something to occupy a roomful of disappointed students that will make the hour worth their while.

Let's say that five followers show up, but there are no leaders. The quick solution is to turn the class into a mini-workshop on follower's technique. It might be tempting to work on boleos - just keep in mind that repeating boleos is tiring, and it doesn't accomplish much if there's no one to lead them in the context of an improvised tango.

Other possibilities include also adornments (followers love these), walking and posture (again, not to the point of becoming painful), and everybody's least favorite topic, musical interpretation.

So, you begin you follower's workshop, and everything is going smoothly until a couple walks in fifteen minutes late. What are you going to do now? Are you going to ask the leader of the couple to dance with six followers (leaving his partner feeling slighted)? Are you going to ask the two of them to join in your followers' workshop and hope that they leader understands that it's in his best interest to learn this stuff?

Rest assured, whatever choice you make, someone is going to complain.


Bickering

Let's say that you have a perfect leader/follower balance one day, but it's a small class. One married couple prefers not to change partners. The remaining couples rotate, but they dance with the same partners over and over again, because there aren't that many students.

At one point during the class, Follower Number 3 whispers in your ear. "Please don't make me dance with Leader Number 2 any more. He's obnoxious. I can't stand his attitude!"

After class, Leader Number 2 approaches you. "Please don't make me dance with Follower Number 3 next time. She's horrible!" 

Good luck working that situation out to everyone's satisfaction!


Playing Catch Up

The demands of life are more important than the demands of a dance class. I support anyone who has to work late sometimes or go on business trips or take care of their kids. 

Sometimes, people miss a week or two of classes, or more. When they return to class, they'll want to catch up with the group. Unfortunately, the nature of classes is progressive. 

Students who come to class every week might become impatient if you repeat a topics that they have already worked on. This is unfortunate, because repetition is critical to the development and understanding of skills, but it's also human nature. 

You can take the student who is catching up off to the side for a few minutes, but that diverts attention away from the rest of the class. The Absolute Golden Rule Of Teaching Anything is that students do NOT like it when you're not paying attention to them. Write that one down.

You have a couple of options. Ask the student to do the best that they can, and offer to help them after class (or in a private lesson). Ask some of the students who are doing well to demonstrate the technique as you explain it. They will feel valued, and they won't mind that you're spending time with someone who needs extra help. Or you might be able to jump to a topic that's new for everyone (or with which everyone is struggling). 


Mixed-Level Classes

Oh, the humanity! My worst moments as a teacher came when I was asked to teach two levels simultaneously. For example, a beginner couple shows up on the night of the Intermediate class. Or they say that they can't come on the Beginners' night. You don't want to turn them away, so you try to teach two levels simultaneously.

Here's a subtle hint: It's a BAD idea!

The experienced students will hate it because you're not paying enough attention to them. (Remember the Absolute Golden Rule or Teaching Anything.)

The less experience students will feel overwhelmed. They'll want to try the things that the more experienced students are doing and, worse, they'll perceive the simpler exercises that you are asking them to do to be less important. It's not true. What you are teaching them is critically important. But they won't see it that way.

Prepare yourself, my friends with teaching aspirations. The mixed-level class is a no-win situation.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

Copyright © 2017 The Exploring Tango Blog

www.exploringtango.com

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Tango Friends

Have you ever felt anxious walking into an unfamiliar milonga or workshop? Here's a better question: have you ever NOT felt anxious under these conditions? No matter how experienced you are, walking into a room where no one knows you and hoping that someone there will dance with you, that is a scary situation. The relative openness of tango communities varies, but I have been to places where strangers are not warmly welcomed. University crowds can be particularly insular.

It's much more relaxed and comfortable to go to dance where people know you. Being greeted by friendly, welcoming faces is heartwarming. Having people there who enjoy your company and your dancing makes a big difference in the milonga experience.

Our tango communities afford us with the opportunity to build supportive, long-term relationships with like-minded connoisseurs of dance and music. I hope that you have developing and cultivating relationships like this in your own tango community. It's a blessing to have tango friends who welcome us back again and again into their space and their arms. Treasure those people, and appreciate them for the blessing of camaraderie and shared experience that they bring into your life.

It is important, however, to understand the limitations of such relationships. It is important to distinguish the convenient, context-related friendships of tango with the greater concept of friendship in real life. Our tango friends are warm and supportive and share with us an unspoken level of intimacy. Our dance connections can and will hold validity for years and years, even when we don't see people frequently, as when they live in a different city.

One might want to be mindful of certain level of dance hall distortion. Tango relationships rarely extend beyond the walls of the milonga. The segregation of real life and tango life can work in our favor in some cases, but it also has a downside.

The depth and quality of emotion that we experience on the dance floor gives the illusion of intimacy, of dedication, and abiding respect. But how deeply do those emotions run? Is the whole idea of dance connection a convenient mirage?

What would happen if you couldn't dance for some period of time? How would your tango friends react? You might not know if such separation has never occurred during your tango life. But that doesn't mean that it can't happen. Do you expect to interact with your tango friends if you are forced to step out of the tango world for a while? How long do you think that such an arrangement will last?


An Outsider's Perspective

Years ago, I found myself arguing this point with one of my non-tango friends. I had told her over dinner about my busy tango life. At the time, I was putting in a lot of tango hours each week, taking classes, going to milongas, practicing with dedicated partners, studying video, developing choreography, and working diligently on my own technique. I was dancing with hundreds of people every year, many of them people whom I had never met. I was making a lot of friends - or so I thought.

"They're not your friends," my friend said bluntly.

I was shocked. "What do you mean, they're not my friends? I see them all the time. We have a nice time together. They're good people; I know many of them quite well."

"They're not your friends," she repeated. "They act like your friends, because they get something from you," she argued. "The women get to dance with you, and the men hang out with you when they're out having fun."

"It's not like that," I explained.

"It is like that," she insisted. "You're not their friend. You're an enabler for their addiction."

"No! No! No!" I argued emphatically. "You're not part of the tango community. You don't understand how it really is."

My friend was unimpressed. We had to agree to disagree on this point.

Some years later, I scaled back my social dancing for a combination of personal and professional reasons. Guess what happened. I discovered that my friend's argument, the one that I tried to refute to her face, actually held merit. 

Once I stepped back from the tango scene, most of the "friendships" that I had developed over the years evaporated overnight. The only time I saw or heard from them was when I went out to an occasional dance. A handful of people did contact me in the early days of my social tango sabbatical, but most of the time, they were calling me to go out dancing. ("Are you coming to the milonga this weekend?" "Can you come out to watch me and my partner perform?" "Will you be my partner for this workshop?") Decline one or two of those invitations, and the phone stops ringing.

I had to face an uncomfortable truth. My tango friends were all nice people, but perhaps a bit less "friendly" than I had imagined. Where did they all go when my life faced challenges? 

Very few of them kept in touch to see how I was doing. They weren't around to cheer me up when I lost my job, for instance. They were blissfully unaware. I received no sympathy emails (or even texts) when I struggled with separate back, foot, and knee injuries. Everybody must have been out having fun at some milonga somewhere.

My non-tango friend was right, and I was wrong. I hate to be wrong.


Fluid Dynamics

Businessman and author Harvey Mackay once wrote: "Anyone who thinks he or she is indispensable should stick a finger in a bowl of water and notice the hole it leaves when the finger is pulled out."

The tango community has this kind of fluidity in its social dynamic. If you don't believe me, step away for a little while and watch what happens. Your friends will make new friends. Your favorite partners will hook up with new partners. (I had that happen to me once when I missed a single practica due to a bad cold.) 

That comfortable place where you feel appreciated and important, the whole scene that you know and love, it will move along quite nicely without you. No one there will spend more than the length of a song intro wondering what happened to you. If you aren't immediately available for next tanda, your friends are focusing on someone else.


Separation Anxiety

You don't have to take my word for it. At some point, life will probably force you to take a sabbatical from tango. You might need to deal with a health issue, a family matter, or a business or educational demand. Whatever it is, don't expect your tango friends to flock to your side. They have dancing to do.

One day, hopefully, you'll be able to return and enjoy some dancing again. The good news is that your old friends will still recognize you. They'll remember how nice it was to dance with you, and they'll enjoy having you back. That's the silver lining of the tango world: people never forget you as long as you're in the same room.

Your friends will almost certain ask you where you've been, but they'll do it in a very tango-centric way, as though you could not possibly have been doing something else. Here's the question that annoys me the most: "Where have you been dancing?"

"I haven't been dancing anywhere, you clueless nitwit! I have been taking care of myself, providing for my family, and tending of my responsibilities. I have been accomplishing things - important things - while you were wandering around in circles with strangers who pretend to actually care about you." - Yeah, I'd love to have the balls to say that one day.

Again, you don't have to take my word for it. But you might want to acknowledge that my semi-retirement from social dancing gives me a good vantage point on this issue. From where I'm standing, the tango scene does not seem as friendly as it did when I was a regular. If you have not yet spent some time outside of the elbow-to-elbow flux of weekly milongas, you have not yet seen the whole picture.

You may find that hard to believe - I would be surprised if you didn't - but I would encourage you to consider the possibility that what I am telling you is true. That way you won't be shocked one day when most of your tango friends vanish without a trace.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

Copyright © 2017 The Exploring Tango Blog

www.exploringtango.com

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Effective Tango - Synchronization

Let's Get Together

One of the elements that makes the Argentine tango so beautiful is the level of synchronization between partners. When the leader and follower's movements are well synchronized - in terms of timing, energy, quality - their dance projects an intimate and appealing quality. They look as though they are enjoying each other, and they probably are.

On the other hand, when the synchronization is off, the dance looks awkward and tentative. There may be some stumbling and bumping, some stopping and starting and apologizing. When you watch a couple struggle like this, you can be pretty sure that they're not having a whole lot of fun.

How can you make synchronization work for you? How can you make your dance look smoother and more polished while having more fun with your partners?

First of all, you have to think about it. You can't just assume that things will take care of themselves. You have to be aware of timing - including the timing of the music. And you have to focus on this actively while you are dancing or practicing.


Leader Tips

If you're a leader, you have to know when you want to step. You have to know when you want your follower to step. And you have to communicate that timing information effectively through your lead. 

Also, please make sure that you always give the follower enough "lead time" to execute the movement. No one can move instantly. Communicate your intention early enough so she'll have time to respond to your cues.

How do you know if you're leading effectively? Because your follower is in sync with you. She moving precisely when and how you want her to! - Don't get discouraged. Practice makes perfect.


Follower Tips

Focus on the lead. Is the leader encouraging you to move not just in a particular direction, but at a precise instant in time? If he is giving you timing information, please don't ignore it. Feel it, embrace it, and work with it.

Oh, and I hate to say this, but it has to be said. Some leaders will NOT give you adequate timing information. They may be unaware that they should be doing so. In that case, try to execute all movements in time with the music. Hopefully, the leader is aiming to do the same, although that's not always the case (sadly).

Finally, it's never a good idea to perform any step automatically. If you do, you run the risk of ignoring the leader's timing suggestions, which will only discourage him. As an example, many followers get used to crossing at one speed and the cross at that speed all the time regardless of what they lead is communicating.

It helps to be a little obstinate as a follower. Think: "I'm not going to move unless you move me." Make the leader work for his dances.


The Music Factor

All of this is going to go much more smoothly if both partners are actively listening to the music and trying to move in concert with its rhythms and phrases. That said, musical interpretation and awareness is a big topic, and it's challenging for many people. But you can improve. The most important thing is to pay attention to the music while you are dancing. 

Let the orchestra be your tour guide as you travel around the floor. Those guys are working very hard to create beautiful music for you. Please do them - and your partner - a favor. Listen to that music. Find its timing and move with it instead of against it. Everyone will be happier. Even the people sitting and watching will be happier when you and your partner and the orchestra are all in sync.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

Copyright © 2017 The Exploring Tango Blog

www.exploringtango.com

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Blind: Strength In Vulnerability - A Review

Not Your Father's Tango Show

Forget about the bordellos and bar fights of Buenos Aires. You won't find them here. Rather than relying on familiar techniques and sentimental nostalgia, 'Blind: Strength In Vulnerability' forges ahead with a fresh new vision for tango performance in the Twenty-first Century. Unlike more traditional productions, 'Blind' is not a show ABOUT tango, but rather a conceptual view of human interaction told THROUGH the techniques and emotions of this highly expressive dance.

Presented on a minimalist stage with no props, except for two small chairs and elements of the dancers' clothing, 'Blind' unfolds as a series of abstract, geometrically choreographed sequences that explore the dynamics of intimacy and partnership, the highs and the lows, the pain and the joy, expectation and frustration. 

Created by dancers Diego Blanco and Ana Padron and their musical collaborator, bassist and composer Pedro Giraudo, 'Blind' offers a bold and exhilarating examination of life and connection through the art of dance.

To understand what 'Blind' is, we first must acknowledge what it's not. As mentioned above, this production is not nostalgic. It is not a costume piece, nor is it a showcase for technical brilliance. Each of the eight principal dancers is a brilliant performer in his or her own right, but technique is not the focus of the show. You will not walk out of 'Blind' mesmerized by the number of boleos and ganchos that someone managed to do in some small quantum of time. What will impress you is how well the dancers connected with one another. 'Blind' is a study of emotion rather than a frenzy of motion.

The surprising and well-conceived choreography unfolds in layers. The show opens with the most fundamental elements of Argentine Tango performed in daring fashion with geometric precision. Basic elements are then modified slowly and deliberately until increasingly complex variations emerge. At the highest level, the dancers perform the dazzling tricks and lifts of tango fantasia. But again, it's not about the technique; it's about the emotional interaction of the performers.

Those emotions are expressed most clearly in the featured duets. Each couple performs beautifully choreographed tango sequences. - There are multiple partner changes, so the show is not limited to four duets. - But the really fascinating elements of choreography happen in between the dances. I don't want to give anything away, but it's the quiet moments, the moments when the music isn't playing, that make 'Blind' so special.

The original music for the show, composed by Mr. Giraudo, is tasteful and elegant and follows the dynamic changes of the performances brilliantly. Mr. Giraudo brings a bassist's sensitivity to his compositions and arrangements. The music supports the conceptual motives of the production without ever getting in the way or taking focus away from the dancers. A+

I have only two minor criticisms/suggestions to share. First, I would have liked the show to have been a bit longer. One way to achieve this would have been to extend the same-sex sequences. These interactions were fascinating; I would have liked to have seen them developed further. Secondly, the ending came as a bit of a surprise. Initially, I thought that it was an intermission. Again, I believe that a slightly longer running time with a clearer build up would have helped.

'Blind' is an adventurous and enjoyable production. It's definitely not your father's tango show. It's bold. It's daring. It takes chances and delivers a satisfying emotional payoff. Sadly, the initial run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music has closed, but I hope that it will come back. It's well worth seeing. Kudos to the creators for avoiding clichés and bringing a new, exciting, visionary production to life. It's clear that 'Blind' was a labor of love. Mission accomplished. I loved it.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

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Twas The Milonga Before Christmas

One Night In Tango

Last evening, I went to a milonga for the first time in quite a while. I wanted to relax and enjoy myself and forget about work and recent challenges. It was a Christmas milonga with special performers. I had looked forward to this evening for days.

The event didn't start off so well. The music selection was lackluster and a fight broke out. They separated the two guys and tried to get them to calm down, but a few minutes later, they went at it again. 

The mood was all but ruined at that point. We sat for a while without dancing. We considered leaving, but we'd gone to the effort to get dressed up and go out in the frigid weather, so we decided to dance a bit more and wait for the show.

I felt rusty at first - it had been a while since I'd last laced up my tango shoes - but after a few tandas, I was feeling like a dancer again. 

During one break, a well-dressed lady approached and asked whether we were from out of town. We said that we were local but that we didn't get out as much as we used to. She said, "Well, you dance beautifully together, and he's the best leader on the floor!"

We thanked the lady for her gracious compliments - I have to admit that that felt good after all that I've been through recently. We shared introductions and got back to dancing. A short while later, Junior and Guadalupe performed erasing all doubt as to whom the best leader on the floor really was. ;-)

Despite the rough start, it was an enjoyable evening. We danced well together, not just technically, but with passion and connection and synchronicity. The Significant Other was in such a good mood that she sent me off for a tanda with the lady who had complimented us earlier. Thank Santa, because that doesn't happen very often.


It wasn't a perfect night, but it was memorable and fun. Junior is always amazing; it was a thrill to watch him perform live again. It felt good to be back in the saddle, to move with the music and have my body respond to what my mind asked of it. I'm already looking forward to next time. I needed this.

Merry Christmas to All!

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

Copyright © 2016 The Exploring Tango Blog

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It's All About The Follower

Focus On The Shared Experience

Imagine a milonga where every leader is fully dedicated to serving the needs of the follower, keeping her comfortable, taking care of her balance, holding her in a safe, comfortable embrace, providing a clear, sensitive lead that never exceeds her abilities, giving her time to recover when she needs it, shielding her from danger on the dance floor, and being supportive of her one-hundred percent of the time, especially when she misses a cue and strays from what he intended for her to do. Every leader in the room is dedicated to giving any follower that he dances with an enjoyable, fulfilling, and pleasantly memorable experience. 

Imagine that for a moment.

Imagine a milonga where EVERY follower feels special and knows the value of her role in the dance, where EVERY follower feels valued, respected, and appreciated regardless of her level of experience, regardless of her technical abilities, regardless of her age, size, or general level of attractiveness, regardless of her social connections. The leaders express delight when they have the opportunity to dance with her and file their tanda together with joy, passion, and playfulness. The leader does everything in his power to make the follower feel like the focus of their shared experience - as she should.

Imagine that for a moment. 

Do you think that followers who received that level of experience might want to come back for more? Would they come back to your milonga? Would they want to dance with those leaders again? Or leaders who subscribed to the same philosophy?

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My first tango teacher drummed this lesson into the heads of the leaders in her classes, that the prime responsibility of the leader was to make the follower feel safe and comfortable and accepted. Give her an embrace that makes her feel safe and secure and respected. Give her a lead that's clear and patient so she never has to wonder about where she is going or where she has been. Be supportive and patient, so she never feels that she has let you down. Take responsibility for floor craft and watch the traffic on the dance floor, so she doesn't have to worry about having other dancers crashing into her. Get her out of danger when it arises, even if you have to put your own body between her and careless or rambunctious people. 

This philosophy has served me well over the years, but it took me a while to adopt it fully. 

Everyone understands the importance of protecting the follower from danger. That's a no-brainer. I wanted the ladies who danced with me to have a nice time. As I learned more about the embrace over time, I gave that more attention as I switched from follow to follower at the milonga.

But I have to admit, I wasn't fully ready to accept that my whole role was to make the follower feel good about the dance. I mean, what about me? When would I be able to express myself? Did I have to give up the advanced techniques that I had learned and practice? Did I have to hold back and slow things down when I really wanted to go crazy with a piece of expressive music.

The answer is, yes, I did have to scale back my ambitions at times. But I realized over time that this is not a sacrifice.

Think of it this way. I go to a milonga and dance fifteen tandas. I have a choice. I can focus on the needs of each follower and have fifteen awesome tandas where everyone had a great time - and they'll all want to dance with me again. Or, I can go in and try my most complex stuff and have mixed bag of tandas ranging from good to OK to barely tolerable to complete train wreck. Over time, I learned where my true preferences fell. I wanted to shoot for the highest success rate possible, every tanda, every follower, every night.

-

I had a great mentor when I started out in tango, a fellow student who was a few years ahead of me yet who always encouraged me. He set a great example. On occasions where there weren't enough followers in class, this guy and I would end up dancing together. (We're both pretty tall.) 

His lead was AMAZING! Even though I wasn't a follower, I knew exactly where he wanted me to do. Every instruction was clear and well-timed. The embrace was comfortable - no pushing, pulling, no twisting of wrists, no compensation with force. He never impeded my movements or knocked me off of my axis. And he was always super-supportive and encouraging in his comments. 

That's the kind of leader that I wanted to be. It took me a while. I had to practice, and I had to accept some things that I didn't want to accept in the beginning. But the rewards for making ladies comfortable and treating them well have been astronomical.

-

So, to any leader who has bothered to read this far, I would encourage you to re-read those first few paragraphs. I'm sure that you are doing lots of nice things for your followers already, but would you be able to do some things better? Can you shift your focus more toward enhancing the follower's experience of the dance? Can you derive your own sense of satisfaction from the satisfaction that you give to your partner?

Take this as an exercise. It's not something that you can accomplish without some trial and error. Your ego will argue with you at first, I can promise you that. But try setting the follower's experience as your standard and moving toward that objective. You may be surprised where it can take you in the long run.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

Copyright © 2016 The Exploring Tango Blog

www.exploringtango.com

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Take Care Of Yourself

Avoid Injury at Any Cost

I almost didn't take that workshop - it was getting late, and I had long drive ahead. 

Further, I generally avoid classes on volcadas. Teachers don't always explain the technique well, and even when the instruction is clear, many students have difficulty with the execution. Imagine a roomful of eager but under-prepared students hanging desperately from each other's shoulders while struggling to keep from tumbling to the floor. 

As an aside, on occasions when I have had a chance to teach volcadas, I stressed safety first and put the students through exercises to prepare them to execute the technique properly. With proper technique and clear advice on avoiding mistakes, most students can learn to perform a smooth and relatively struggle-free volcada in a short amount of time. And no one gets hurt, which is the most important factor.

Anyway, back to that fateful day. The instructors promised to show a new volcada technique that was (supposedly) gaining popularity in Buenos Aires.

Wow! That sounds interesting! Please tell us more!

Alarm bells went off in my head when they described what we were going to do. "That doesn't sound like a good idea!" I should have listened. Instead, I decided to keep an open mind and try it. 

The "new technique" was to execute the volcada with a momentary separation between leader and follower. The leader encourages the follower to lean forward, lets go of her for a split second so she is literally falling forward, and then catches her before she hits the floor.

Oh, that sounds so dramatic! So exciting! So lucrative for orthopedists and chiropractors!

One of the cardinal rules of partners dancing is that you NEVER, EVER, EVER put weight onto your partner's shoulders - not by leaning, not by hanging, and definitely not in the process of falling. Doing so puts your partner's spine in extreme danger. 

One of the dirty secrets of dance instruction is that many professional dancers are forced to cope with lower back injuries. They sustained these injuries when someone - often a student - grabbed onto them for balance. One moment, one slip, can easily turn into a lifetime of pain.

Your legs are there to support your weights; that's their job. Let them DO their job. If you walked into the building without hanging on to the walls, you can dance without hanging onto a partner.

During the fateful volcada workshop, one rather tall young lady followed the instructions and fell forward. But instead of waiting for me to catch and support her torso, she threw all of her weight down on my shoulders through her left arm. I felt a horrible "pop." 

Boom! Welcome to the back injury club! You're now a lifetime member!

The pain went away after two months, but it get aggravated from time to time. I have been struggling with it this week. I bent down to tie my shoes one morning, and as I stood I felt that old familiar pop. One moment can change your life.

If something seems risky, if you feel that a technique isn't being explained well, or if someone is making you physically uncomfortable with their embrace, please, for the sake of your health and your future in dance, get out of that situation. Even at the risk of seeming rude, just stop and walk away. I would rather be a person that no one likes than one who has to live with a spinal injury.

Be safe. And don't put up any nonsense, even from dancers and teachers that you otherwise respect and admire.

¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!

Daniel

Copyright © 2016 The Exploring Tango Blog

www.exploringtango.com

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