Sometimes the qualities that make someone a good dance student are exactly the qualities that may make him/her not a great dancer. Following the structure provided by the teacher, even a very good teacher with an excellent curriculum and structure, can get the student into a mode of only learning what is imparted by the teacher. What seems like a contradiction in the success rate of dance teachers may provide insight into the frame of mind a student can keep in order to achieve the best results.

So often teachers who only instill confidence in their own skills while offering poor teaching techniques and/or structure, can manage to produce a significant number of good dancers. Perhaps what plays a part is that the student is forced to work at sorting out, understanding and incorporating the information presented without help, (since help is scarce of ineffective). This environment forces a somewhat protagonistic student attitude. It seems this quality is consistent in successful social dancers. There is also the possibility that only those students with a predisposition or some kind of 'head-start' will flourish in this type of environment. Nonetheless, it is curious and worth noting.

Perhaps the student's best approach to any teacher's instruction is to combine an acceptance of the structure provided with a curiosity to discover more information than what is presented. Of course, this must occur while still maintaining a confidence in the teacher's skills and knowledge. When this confidence no longer exists, the instruction is no longer effective.

This leads to the issue of the importance of combining practice with learning. When the student's 'dance time' is solely undertaken under the teacher's supervision, it does not give the student adequate time to incorporate the knowledge imparted. Many dance classes always present new material in order to keep the students stimulated and interested in coming back. When the student does not give themselves time to incorporate the knowledge before moving on to new information, they eventually quit instruction from that teacher before acquiring all of the knowledge the teacher has to impart.

Perhaps, but I don't think of dancers in that way. When people hear music that has a strong percussive element, the most natural response in most is to move some part of the body, be it if for nothing else but to tap their feet or to smile. Having a physical response to music is one of the most base human behaviours. So I don't believe that becoming a dancer is privy to those who may fit the traditional archetypal requisites.

As a teacher of adult dance classes I see many people who begin having never danced before or who come back to dance after many years of not dancing. I believe many of them come in part because they have had the perfect and simple experience of being completely in a moment in dance, where there was no fear of the future, no remorse of the past. This is what I think people want to experience through dance whether they realise it or not, whether they have felt this in the past through their own experience or by being a witness to someone else's such experience. To truly dance the only requisite is to truly be in the moment.

• A feeling of freedom
  
• Total absorption in the activity at hand
  
• Lack of focus on self
  
• Enhanced perception of objects and events
  
• Little awareness of the passage of time
  
• Increased sensitivity to body sensations
  
• Increased sensitivity to emotions

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~ Plateaus in Progress for Beginners~
Most students experience plateaus in their progress, usually once they have been exposed to most of the common concepts in tango. A plateau that lasts several weeks can happen when the student knows what to do, but the body hasn't caught up to mind. It can at times be quite frustrating- not fun at all! But as playwright Vaclav Havel said "Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties?". When you are most frustrated, you are probably on the verge of a breakthrough. It is important at that stage to tolerate the learning process and to trust that the clouds will clear
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~ Plateaus in Progress for Advanced~
Plateaus in progress for advanced students can endure for much longer than beginners - months, years. At this level progress appears to happen in increments. With the major concepts tackled, it is details that provide the breakthroughs. These breakthroughs appear decptively small and perhaps are not as motivating because they involve returning to ground that's already been covered: the basics.

Every time a dancer redisocvers a basic detail in their dance that needs improvement, s/he must go back and find all the places where this detail can be applied. It means reinventing your dance through this small detail, so it's really not a small thing at all. It's quite exciting. Classes can still provide the structure in which to do this because In tango - as in ballet- the very same steps or exercises can teach us at various levels. It's as if each step has deeper levels where concepts reside. The beginner floats at the top, approximating only the superficial aspects of the steps. The more advanced dancer attaches to one detail at a time in order to delve into deeper concepts that apply here and perhaps in other effects.
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~ The Fastest Road to Learning Tango ~
You probably guessed right: Practice. Practice. Practice. However, there are several ways to err for even the most enthusiastic student.

1) When a student dedicates a sufficient amount of time to the fundamentals, s/he progresses more quickly at the higher levels. Students who progress too quickly to the intermediate level frequently experience a longer than usual plateau in their progress at that level.

2) It takes time for students to finally decipher whether various teachers are expressing the same ideas using different methods, or teaching different principles altogether. The tendency is for beginners to assume that any confusion is simply a result of their limited knowledge. Not always the case. Progress is slower when receiving contradictory messages from various teachers about the tango fundamentals. Many smaller Tango communities cannot offer an abundance of instructors for each set of principles. In that case, it is advisable for beginners to stick to one regular teacher and perhaps attend occasional workshops bearing the aforementioned in mind. For students who are very enthusiastic to take classes from more that one teacher, here is logical guideline. For every teacher you take classes from, add another separate day of unsupervised practice time. If you cannot afford the extra practice time in your schedule, adding new teachers to your regular roster will get beginner and intermediate leads in a muddle and can delay follower's progress as well.

3) When the student's 'dance time' is solely undertaken under the teacher's supervision, it does not give the student adequate time to incorporate the knowledge imparted. Learning new moves before unsupervised practice time is given to the previous, does not provide optimal progress.

What others say: It is said that for martial arts masters, because the secrets of their art could hold a man’s life in the balance, the master considered with great seriousness the dispensing of such secrets. A martial arts master was said to have said “if you want a student to learn nothing, show him everything”. Miguel Angel Pla puts it like this: he asks students to compare between the response of a kitten and the response of a puppy, to a flock of birds on a lawn. The kitten instinctually sets its sights on one bird and attempts to capture it, while the puppy will run at will towards the entire flock, scattering all and capturing none. His example can be taken as a metaphor for the student who learns countless moves but masters none.
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~ Musical Interpretation ~
I am currently of the opinion that it is impossible to teach anyone to interpret music. In fact it is a contradiction in terms.

A teacher of Tango attempts to teach a synopsis of a history, through patterns which define "Tango". The term Tango Dance also represents an esthetic, movements and positions consistent in these patterns. A Tango teacher can only hope that students will practice and explore these patterns until they can serve personal expression. I think of Tango as a language. A school teacher wouldn't expect poetry from students who lack a good knowledge of grammar. I liken trying to teach one to interpret music, to attempting to teach a person to be free. I cannot teach anyone to have this experience. I can only open doors and encourage students to listen to the music while dancing and perhaps give examples of what I or others might do at a particular point in a Tango piece. I'll go further to say that teaching interpretation is false because of the inadequacy of words in such endeavors.

Isadora Duncan was quoted saying, "If I could tell you what I meant, there would be no point in dancing it". Did she mean, why should she dance something that she could have told you quicker? According to Gregory Bateson in his 1967 essay, "Style, Grace and Information in Primitive Art", it is probable that "if this were the sort of message that could be communicated in words, there would be no point in dancing it. But it is not that sort of message. It is, in fact, precisely the sort of message which would be falsified if communicated in words, because the use of words (other than poetry) would imply that this is a fully conscious and voluntary message, and this would be simply untrue." If you would like to more fully understand the premise of Mr. Bateson's statements you can find the essay "Style, Grace and Information in Primitive Art" in his book "Steps to An Ecology of Mind",
Ballantine Books, 1972.
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~ Machismo ~
Any dance orginated from one region, runs the risk of turning into a dated folk dance rather than remaining a part of popular culture, unless it reflects it's current society. As a woman in tango dance, I believe that if we maintain that tango is a dance where "Machismo" can still be exercised, we drive tango into becoming a folkish muse.

Our society is changing, and this effects everything including dance. That is not to say that the man does not lead. Definitely the roles remain the same. Man leads, Woman follows. However, there are two wills dancing. Two wills that collaborate in a non-verbal dialogue. It is to say that as a follower, the woman's role is just as vital as the man's. She does not dance by force of submission. This would turn what should be a dialogue, into a one way 'conversation'. Ideally she collaborates through her role. This places a greater responsibility on the woman in executing the technical aspects of her role in the dance. Only in truly embracing - and improving her skill in - her role as a follower, can she discover her powers as a dancer and then this nonverbal dialogue can occur.
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~ How Strict is 'Man leads, Woman follows' ~
It is very strict, and yet at times, it is not. This basic rule is fundamental to Tango but there are degrees of rigidity. In the beginning a leader will only have the skill to lead in the strictest sense. The woman must also follow in the strictest sense otherwise it creates confusion and inhibits the learning of good technique in either role. With time, a leader will be able to respond to the way in which his partner moves her body and how she follows his lead. When a woman can follow well, she can through her role, affect the character and the timing of steps that an experienced dancer will lead. An experienced lead can allow this to influence what steps he chooses next. A dialogue can begin. At times the music will inspire the leader in a way that no amount of suggestion will affect him - he must follow through with his own inspiration. At other times, the follower will feel this just as strongly and will insist on the length of her pause at a given moment or perhaps 'suggest' through movement what she feels compelled to do. However, she must not switch roles. She does this while remaining in the follower's role. This interplay doesn't always exist and isn't necessarily what every dancer - lead or follow, desires.
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~ Tone ~
Much of a string player or a horn player's concern when mastering their instrument is tone production. When listening to several players, a listener might note the lovely differences in tone between players of the same instrument.

For the woman, much of her work and her search in her dance is about the tone of her movement. There is an aspect to tone which is all your own. No one can duplicate it and not everyone will appreciate yours.
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~ Avoiding Collision on the Dance Floor ~
Everything covered in my beginner course keeps leads travelling with the line of dance and can be executed on the social dance floor without fear of clogging traffic or interfering with other dancer's ability to get past. With such patterns, there is no reason a more advanced dancer would bump into you. In fact the advanced dancer's skills enable them to see beginners before beginners see them, and ample time to move around them if necessary. On the social dance floor, beginners are somewhat dependent on the gracious attitudes of more advanced dancers in not unduly assigning them blame, especially since beginners lack the faculties to know which minor collisions are unavoidable - where no one is at fault.
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~ Abandoning Patterns ~
Appearing on the Tango horizon is a philosophical debate over the teaching of the 8 count basic and other patterns, and the seemingly opposing view that teachers must strongly emphasize the walk as the starting point to learning. The subsequent teaching theory is to take the 3 possible walking directions for each leg (former ballet students will visualize the battement tendu exercise: right foot forward, side, back, and left foot forward, side, back), and explore all subsequent possibilities from each, rather than limit students to set patterns. They wish couples to explore the logistics of the dance, the vast range of walking and turning possibilities available to them. They hope this will more quickly result in moment to moment improvisation for the man, his never knowing what moves he will be inspired to lead several beats later. Advocates of this idea frequently abhor naming patterns, much less teaching them.

I accept and encourage this approach when applied to practicing alone, without a partner. But partner dancing has some common and inarguable student concerns. Male beginners usually feel the urgent need to keep their partners interested in dancing with them, even though their walking technique and their theoretical comprehension will need several years to be proficient. They have the added responsibility of ensuring they do not collide with constantly moving traffic on the dance floor.

Let's compare the 6 possible Tango movements to the 7 digits of a phone number. How many 'digit combinations' are possible? An alarming number, especially to beginner leaders. An antipathy towards patterns is better utilized by more advanced dancers who, after achieving a certain level of proficiency, seek to understand how to improvise with a fuller range of possibilities. But why ask beginners to explore all possible 'digit combinations' when they are still preoccupied with basic concerns such as navigation and balance. Think of Tango as a language. When we first learn a new language, we are taught short useful sentences before we fully understand grammar.

Both sides agree that the Tango walk is of ultimate importance, but it takes much time to learn well. Why not have students really learn and enjoy a few commonly used patterns which work with the flow of traffic on the dance floor and can provide at least a few moments of joy in the meantime, in the here and now. Beginner males need to do this before mastering the walk or they'll quit in frustration as many do. Through these set patterns they will still improve their walk and learn the logistics of Tango which will later allow moment to moment improvising.

Scientists such as Gregory Bateson who study human learning processes indicate that only through moving to higher level patterns will students understand the logic of the previous level of information. Dr. Richard Moss described this effect with an analogy of the cartoon with two fish who have just jumped out of the water and one fish is saying to the other, "That stuff, Stupid! That stuff!" as he points down to the water. Advocates of "only the walk" are 'preaching to the choir' and the 8 count basic and/or other set patterns were probably part of what helped them early on, to get where they are now: sitting in the pretty position of being able to theorize.

I say leave beginner males to their set patterns and let them gradually deconstruct them. They will abandon patterns in their own due time.
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~ Tampering with the Tango Hold ~
There are certain steps in tango that, to be executed, involve lowering the man's left arm and distancing from the partner. The resulting hold reminds me very much of the open hold in salsa dancing. I have been dancing both Tango Rioplatense and Colombian Salsa for over 20 years and love how different they are from each other. The last thing I want is to make them similar (I admit, I don't much care for the practice of applying tango embellishments to salsa dance either). Tangos hold is one of its exquisite distinctions. The reason why for 130 years, male Tango dancers did not do Right Foot Back Sacadas is probably not that they hadn't thought of it. More likely they did not like the appearance of it, they realised that to do it comfortably it was necessary to lower the man's left arm, and they did not wish to tamper with the tango hold.
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~ Habits That Hinder Learning ~
1) The incessant need to intellectualise and "figure things out" before attempting them.

2) Intolerance of confusion and escape to intellectualisation: This point and subsequent quotes I've taken from Frederick Perls and while I have taken his statements completely out of their context, I feel they apply well to dance students' experiences while learning, particularly the inability to stay in the moment when that moment happens to involve confusion. If the dance student can tolerate the confusion, it will clear and a deeper grasp results. "The most difficult part ... is to abstain from an intellectualizing and verbalizing of the on-going process. ... The intellectualizer is in the position of being split between an explaining onlooker and the experiencing performer". Frederick Perls also said, "If your attention is divided between two objects of interest, you cannot concentrate properly on either". I find these statements very relevant. Many students flee the process of learning-by-doing, which is so necessary in dance, towards intellectualisation. That tendency towards intellectualisation may perhaps be a habit they seek to tame through dance. The frequency with which I encounter the "incessant intellectualiser" in my classes leads me to put special emphasis on this point.

3) Unwillingness to set one's own methods aside until a new concept is learned. Once understood, one's own processes for incorporating concepts into the dance can return.

4) Replacing practice time with more classes. It is important to release from interaction with the teacher(s) in order to practice. Forfeiting practice in favour of more classes can lead to needless confusion and frustration.
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~ Quotes on Learning Processes ~
The following 3 quotes from Gregory Bateson, Anthropologist, Social Scientist and Cyberneticist (1904-1980) can clearly be applied to students learning dance:

• It is a commonplace of learning Psychology that while the subject will learn (Learning 1) more rapidly if he is reinforced every time he responds correctly, such learning will disappear rather rapidly if reinforcement ceases. If, on the other hand, reinforcement is only occasional, the subject will learn more slowly but the resulting learning will not easily be extinguished when reinforcement ceases altogether.
  
  
• Educators have strong opinions about the value (positive or negative) of training in rote learning. "Progressive" educators insist on training in "insight" while the more conservative insist on rote and drilled recall.
  
  
• No amount of discourse of a given logical type can "explain" phenomena of a higher type. [I find this quote very relevant to points 1-3 of the Habits That Hinder Learning section above]
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~ Tango's Tragedy and Irony ~
Why the attraction to it? I've described my own attraction to Tango by explaining that I've found a joy which underlies that sadness we hear and that dancing tango is sort of like the performing of an exorcism of the sadness of life's hardships. I've often wondered what attracts others to Tango's music. I think Dr. Philip Gold of the US National Institute of Mental Health may have said it best while addressing colleagues in Japan regarding loss of a cherished dream or loved one: "The tragic and ironic visions facilitate the process of grieving in a way that the comic an romantic cannot. Neither espouses a perfectionist ideal where triumph over adversity and attainment of a relatively unambiguous, pain-free existence is seen as the ultimate and perhaps only appropriate aim of living. An aesthetic of the tragic and ironic visions is that individuals can continue to celebrate the beauty of existence and the wonders of an interior life and external connections despite being surrounded by unanswerable questions, ambiguous dilemmas, and the certainly of loss and death. Viewed in this way, each life is infinitely valuable despite and perhaps even because of its immense vulnerability"
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~ Rose In Teeth ~
Dr. Eric Lindborg: "My wife and I dance tango and she is Argentine. We recently were wondering aloud about the origin of the image of the tango dancer with rose in teeth. It is not part of her cultural memory. Any suggestions or leads on where to get more information on this?"

Susana Domingues: "Hello Eric, the rose in teeth is a Hollywood idea of Tango. Perhaps one of the Valentino movies will display a rose in teeth. I know that in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" Valentino dances a "torrid" tango with a whip. In Tango Rioplatense, all that passion is encrypted in the codes of the dance movement and not displayed on the face or in such gestures. If in fact the rose in teeth did not start in Hollywood with Valentino, perhaps it can be attributed to North America's tendency to confuse Latin American culture with Spanish culture. Perhaps Flamenco dancers have been known to do this, however, I believe some would say that even they have too much grit for the rose in teeth. If you do manage to find the origins of the rose in teeth image, please share it with me."

Dr. Eric Lindborg: "Susana-- Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my inquiry. I thought I would update you regarding my final conclusions on this: All sources I've found seem to confirm that the popular image of the rose in teeth of the tango dancer was a Hollywood creation. Uniformly Rudy Valentino's tango in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" is attributed as the origin. As you already noted this was not a tango tradition then or now. I've found no additional background on the story of how the rose came to be included in the movie scene. It does seem that the rose in the teeth may be more traditionally a part of flamenco dancing and that the movie folks unfairly melded spanish flamenco lore with the tango. A secondary question then was why the rose in the teeth for flamenco dancers. Once again popular culture provides a clue with Bizet's Carmen dancing the flamenco in the cigarette factory. Seems that this version began at or shortly after the opera's premiere in 1875. Bizet's inspiration for the opera was a novella by Prosper Merimee published in 1845. A first description of Carmen portrays her as seductively strolling with a bouquet of acacias while holding an acacia flower in her mouth. And of course for both Bizet and Merimee the real sources are the wild gypsy women. So the final conclusion is that we can blame it all on the gypsies."
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~ Style ~
When we speak of a Style, it's implied that we also speak of a history. The dance style called "Tango Rioplatense" refers to what dancers have done in the Rio Plata region for over 135 years. "Tango Rioplatense" is a historical collection of movement patterns and positions that share a particular esthetic and are set to a particular style of music, also called Tango. The future Tango Rioplatense may or may not include all of what is being danced to tango music today.

There is no doubt that this collection of patterns, has developed over the years. There is also no doubt that it has been the influence of individual dancers and musicians of Tango which has evolved the character, quality, esthetic, etc. of tango. However, those individuals have passed through Tango's history, perhaps not first hand, as few Tangueros are over 100 years old. But they are able to pass through a history - to pass through an experience not entirely their own, through the patterns. These patterns, they have observed or been taught either by dancers who have experienced part of the historical progression of Tango's movements, positions and esthetic first hand or by dancers who in turn experienced it through another dancer. Understanding this, then role models become of great importance. Role models have done exactly this and as a result, provide a living example of the style.
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~ Personal Style ~
If we continue on the issue of style to the question of personal style in Tango dance, the answer again involves, history. This time a personal history. After having passed through this history of patterns we call Tango, there will surface personal tendencies, preferences for one step or another, preferences for one character of movement or another, and mannerisms which can often result from physical aspects such as body type. These become what we consider personal style. These cannot be taught, they are a result of a personal history with Tango Rioplatense.
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~ Styles of Tango ~
With so much new activity in the Tango scenes in the Rio Plata region and worldwide, various styles of Tango Rioplatense are evolving quickly. Some dancers are being labeled with style names that they themselves do not wish to adopt. Other dancers openly advocate one style or another. Here are a few names of styles: Tango Fantasia, Tango Ballet, Stage Tango, Canjengue style, Salon style, Milonguero style, Close Embrace style, Club style, Tango Nuevo, Cosmotango, Liquid Tango. There is also no denying the effect that the recent influx of Tango tourism to Buenos Aires will have on future styles of Tango Rioplatense... and so the evolution continues.

In local Tango dance scenes outside of the Rio Plata region, it seems that those who dance ONLY one style want to gather more to join their style. Each group seems to call out to beginners "pick us! pick us!". Yet how can a beginner make such a choice when they haven't even learned the basics of moving forward and back. Each individual style has a philosophy with it's own logic. Newcomers can agree with one philosophy today, then find another along the way they like better and adopt it instead. And so goes each individual's Tango odyssey.

If we asked Tangueros around the world, who are the world's current role models in Tango Rioplatense dance, we would probably come up with names such as Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ermocida, Miguel Zotto and Milena Plebes, Gustavo Naveira and perhaps some of us will still remember Juan Carlos Copes and Maria Nieves.

These dancers are technically capable of dancing many styles of Tango and incorporating steps from various of them into their social dancing. Most probably, they do not "live" in only one of the above mentioned styles at all times.
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~ The Genuineness of Performing Choreography ~
I do not know why I love to perform. Blaise Pascal said "the heart has its reasons which the reason does not at all perceive". I also enjoy performing an improvisation just as much as a choreography but have struggled with the idea of whether Tango choreography is really a genuine expression of one's self or if rather, just a more effective way of entertaining an audience in certain settings, through a subtle kind of story telling.

Tango dance performances that are completely improvised do have a powerful impact. One of the loveliest qualities of tango is the immense weight of its many possible patterns and the fruit they inspire from moment to moment, something like blossoms that rest on the surface of a complex system of tree branches and roots below. Despite the many merits of improvised Tango dance, I still enjoy a well choreographed piece. It has been said that choreographing robs Tango of important aspects of its true nature. Perhaps it does, but I believe it also presents to an audience, other aspects of Tango that might not be seen otherwise.

I hope you'll enjoy these few excerpts of a wonderful metalogue called "Why a Swan", by Gregory Bateson (Anthropologist, Social Scientist and Cyberneticist), published in Impulse: Annual of Contemporary Dance, Impulse Publications, San Francisco, 1954. In it the writer uses the image of the swan in the ballet Swan Lake, to describe the relationship between dancer and the image the dancer depicts. These excerpts also touch on the experience between performer and audience and the ritual aspect of performing, which the entire metalogue itself describes more carefully. While I've tried to show only the most relevant excerpts, reading only excerpts is an injustice to the metalogue's beauty as a whole, and I highly recommend reading the entire metalogue in the book "Steps to an Ecology of Mind".

Father: .....the whole of fantasy, poetry, ballet, and art in general owes its meaning and importance to the relationship which I refer when I say that the swan figure is a "sort of" swan-or a "pretend" swan.

36 lines down:
Father: Let us suppose I ask the dancer, "Miss X, tell me, that dance which you performed--is it for you a sacrament or a mere metaphor?" And let us imagine that I can make this question intelligible. She will perhaps put me off by saying "You saw it--it is for you to decide, if you want to, whether or not it is sacramental for you." Or she might say, "Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't." Or "How was I, last night?" But in any case she can have no direct control over the matter.

4 lines down:
Father: ... I'll start again. The swan figure is not a real swan but a pretend swan. It is also a pretend-not human being. It is also "really" a young lady wearing a white dress. And a real swan would resemble a young lady in certain ways.

Daughter: But which of these is sacramental?

Father: .. I can only say this: that it is not one of these statements but their combination which constitutes a sacrament. The "pretend" and the "pretend-not" and the "really" somehow get fused together into a single meaning.

Daughter: But we ought to keep them separate.

Father: Yes. That is what the logicians and the scientist try to do. But they do not create ballets that way--nor sacraments.

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