25 Mar 2020

FLAVORS OF TANGO TEACHERS


It is obvious that they are all around us.
We won’t point anyone because that’s your job. Not to point actually, but to discover them so you can become more conscious about shapes and shades of teaching tango. Once the discovery is made, keep it for yourself. You don’t wanna be the gossip type, do you?


The new guru. A spark strikes them with confidence for the first time. Tango brought them their first encounter with what approval means. They sometimes act like they are the only ones who are about to find the Holy Grail. They argue and talk a lot and their goal is to win debates.
The psychoanalyst. Tango brought them a path of becoming those amazing therapists that they’ve always imagined that they can be. They will go very deep into the meanings of life and relationships based on how you raise your eyebrows when you embrace.
The fitness instructor. They will have a 30 min warm up before each lesson and you will have to work those abs if you want a nice posture (which is true by the way)
The artist that will improvise and gather all the information that he has from his painting, theater, and jazz classes and form a new model of teaching tango.
The entertainer/marketer who will do absolutely everything to make you come back next week. Like, really, EVERYTHING.
The gossip type that will tell you everything that happened in all tango partnerships and especially in the maestros private lives. They would rather be a paparazzi but…life brought them tango.
The spiritual guide that discovered through tango a channel of sharing his prophecies about the Universe. They are all love and peace.
The dancer which is there because he/she likes the attention on the stage but he/she can’t have it (anymore or never had) so it’s easier to call it teaching and show everyone how good he/she is ( they are actually good dancers ..but not teachers)
Ideally would be that everyone who starts teaching tango will have a little bit of everything mentioned above. But that’s rare. Reality goes ….extreme:)
And probably you can add some more. And that’s fine. Because tango found each one of them and helped them gather people around it. In the end, there’s no war to fight but a dance to share. And that makes them all beautiful.
Although, your discoveries come with a responsibility for you: to consciously choose what kind of teacher will make you a tango dancer or a tango teacher. Because you will become what you will see and hear.