How do you judge the success of a tango dance class? By how much fun the people say they've had right afterwards? By how much money the teachers take? Or by how many new dancers transition into social dancers? Of the numbers who start trying to learn to dance in a class, precious few become social dancers, fewer still good social dancers. Contrarily, those who start new in the milongas and who have a good time tend to come back to the real thing. Why wouldn't they? I have found they become good social dancers and fast.
There's something to be learned here:
From the swing crowd:
“We learned two moves,” says Greg, another of the group, “and then the teacher said, ‘OK, you’re ready for a night of dancing.’”
And were they? “It’s easy to feel anxious at first,” says Dave, “but as soon as you’re dancing that really fades.” That rings true. Out on the dancefloor, some dancers are clearly experts and others just as clearly newbies, but there’s an upbeat, open ambience that makes room for them all."
I've danced swing a little and I found all that to be true. Just as in dancing tango when you dance with experienced social dancers with whom you really want to dance everything becomes so much easier.
> How do you judge the success of a tango dance class?
ReplyDeleteDepends.
If you is the teacher, then a successful tango dance class is (unfortunately) normally one that gets a large proportion of students to buy the next class.
If you is a learner, then one might think it is: one that turns many people into into tango dancers.
I believe it is in fact the one that turns the fewest people off the idea of tango dancing. This because the typical beginners' tango class is the source of most of the problems people have in learning to dance tango, and its primary effect is to cause people to quit after few attempts. Hence, the best class is simply the one that does least harm.