Tango Teacher & DJ Reviews

Share your stories of great teachers who went "above and beyond the call of duty". Great cupcakes, a ride to the airport, dogsitting your dog, whatever. Tell us who you like the best and why.

Oh, and really great teaching/dancing ability, too.

Blog Notes

I've created this blog after reading a thread on Tango-L about public constructive feedback and critiques on Tango Teachers.

And, by all means, please leave detailed accounts of positive experiences - we want to know who the best teachers are, and the best of the best.

Please keep your comments brief, Blogger only allows 4000 characters. Leave two comments in a row if you need to, I suppose.

Please keep your comments positive, constructive, and healthy. If you're pissed off about something, sleep on it and come back tomorrow. Any vitriol or otherwise really nasty negative comments will be deleted. Try your best to use positive, constructive language even for negative feedback.

Give me some time to get this thing up and running, with all the teacher's (worldwide) names. I'll need to figure out how to alphabetize and provide links in the margin so you can quickly find your teachers and leave a comment.

I'll include Traditional, Nuevo, Fantasia - anything Argentine Tango - but no ballroom teachers.

Starting out with International/Festival level teachers...will gradually add local/city teachers around the world...or should that be a different blog...?

The next post will be for people to leave the names of teachers they would like to see included in the blog. Just leave a comment and I'll get them in there.

The post after that will be for your "worst teacher stories ever".

I have disabled Anonymous commenting and invoked comment moderation, to avoid any abuse.

Comments/Feedback on this blog? Leave 'em here.

Gracias!

P.S. I could use some help with this...let me know and I'll make you and admin...

P.P.S. Same guidelines here as on Tango-L...

For the record, negative reviews (including naming of the persons or
events in question) are explicitly permitted on Tango-L, subject to
requirements to prevent abuse (which requirements seem to have been
followed in this case).

See this rule at
http://tango-l.com/tango-L-rules.htm#RELEVANCE-NegativeReviews

A paraphrased excerpt is:

Negative reviews of a particular teacher or event are permitted as a
potential service to the Tango community, even if individuals are named.
However, to prevent abuse of this exception as a way for people to
campaign negatively against people they don't like, or their
competitors, these reviews must meet ALL the following criteria:

- Name and tango community of poster must be identified to prevent
anonymous postings (e.g., someone hiding behind a pseudonym);

- Must have had direct and personal experience with the teacher/event in
question (i.e., not hearsay or second-hand opinions);

- Specific and objective details should be included (just saying
"terrible teachers," for example, is not enough).

When these are followed, as was the case here, it is indeed a service to
the community. This does not preclude others from putting forth
counter-examples or differences of opinions, nor does it *require* that
the persons in question be named if the poster wishes to avoid doing so
out of a sense of delicacy (though it does permit naming as well).

Tango-L and Tango-A administrator
tango-l-owner@mit.edu

Important Notes on Teachers

This is directly primarily to those of you who may be new to tango - just starting to take classes or workshops or attend your first festival.

One person may think a teacher is the best teacher in the world, and the person standing next to them may think the teacher is the worst.

Some people respond better to a very structured, organized, repetitive teaching style with a lot of explanation and talking about the material being covered.

Some people may respond (learn) better to a more relaxed teaching style involving more actual dancing, with individual/couple correction, and less talk.

Some people like a very stern demeanor (cracking the whip) in their teachers, some may like the friendly, easy-go-lucky approach.

My partner may see the lead/teacher as very confident and direct, whereas he may come across as an arrogant prick to me.

I know a follower who can only "learn" from a teacher who is basically mean and critical to her.

Teaching and learning are two different things. I learned a great deal in high school, but with little or no help from my teachers.

So, you have to try out different teachers, ask questions of others in class, do some research on the internet, and then trust your gut as to whether or not a teacher is "good" for you. If you are learning and retaining information from class to class and you feel like you are slowly but steadily improving, you've probably found a good one. If not, you might want to try a class series with a different teacher, or three or four. You will find the right teacher for you.

Also, class sizes will make a huge difference. When it's a festival class, attendance can be 80-100 plus folks. You won't get much, if any, personal attention. Class sizes over 15-20 begin to suffer on individual teacher attention. It's good to raise your hand and ask questions or ask for help. Dance close to the teachers as best you can, so they're right there if you're having trouble.

Don't forget about private lessons. They are $50-80 bucks an hour (more for Tango Gods, and usually one teacher to two dancers) but well worth the individual attention. Don't fret if you ask them to teach you a counterclockwise reverse volcada and they choose to focus on your walk or other fundamentals. They know best. Trust me.

Best of luck to you...

Tango Teacher & DJ Reviews

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