About learning and teaching

I have been teaching tango for about 25 years. If I estimate my activities in the various cities, I have probably taught more than 20,000 tango classes. So please don’t think I’m arrogant when I say that I could fill entire books on the subject of learning and teaching tango. Nevertheless, I will try to keep it reasonably short. In the following text, the masculine form (e.g. student, teacher, dancer) is used for reasons of simplification. Of course, the female form is also always meant.

Teaching in groups has its pitfalls, especially in tango: Some people understand a combination the first time they watch it, others need it three steps slower and absorb less by watching because they are used to being told the steps. Others understand the sequence but cannot use their body flexibly, etc. Not to mention the couples who first have to agree among themselves who is actually the leader. So it’s no wonder that there are always very different opinions about tango teachers: He explains too little, too fast, too slow, too much, etc…. These opinions are justified for the individual, but they only say something about how the individual gets on with a particular teacher. These opinions say nothing about the quality of a teacher.

I once heard that Intango students are the figure dancers. Or they don’t dance the Ronda. Of course, among our students, there are also a few rowdies who don’t always stick to the dance direction, even though we preach that in all Intango courses. Our students include figure dancers, but there are just as many dedicated Milonguero-style enthusiasts. There are classical salon lovers as well as neo- and non-freaks. In addition, we have many beginners whom we want to inspire for the Milonga early on. Not a few of my former students are now also tango teachers, teaching in many cities in both domestic and foreign locations.

The diversity is so great also because I don’t want to pigeonhole my students into a specific style and advocate for a holistic approach. This arises from my biography as a tango teacher: In the 90s, Todaro and Pepito were the great role models in tango. Many oriented themselves to their style, which was characterized, among other things, by strong combinations. I myself benefited a lot from Todaro and Pepito. Todaro was a great source of inspiration. But soon I became an opponent of his style and cursed it. Because the Europeans who oriented themselves to Todaro just danced his figures without soul. I soon couldn’t stand to see any Argentinians either. Once you had seen one, you had seen them all. They came in their fine suits, buttoned their jackets, started their dance with a long side step. And then came lifeless sequences and turns – often much too harsh… That’s when I reoriented myself. I became a hater of any figures. I wanted my students to dance softly, in the music; to improvise and dance authentically. I eliminated the basic step, prohibited the backward step, and enforced the closed embrace. That’s how I came to Tete. I brought him to Germany for the first time, to Heidelberg and Stuttgart, and promoted his workshops with the words: ‘Tango, as God intended!'” So, I introduced Milonguero and danced only in close embrace for five years. A good friend and former student later thanked me for that. He said, after coming back from Argentina, ‘If I hadn’t learned Milonguero from you, I would have been hopelessly overwhelmed in Buenos Aires!'”

During this time, the scene calmed down. Suddenly, the same people who had previously danced their figures stiffly began to speak of “feeling” and refined dancing in the salon. Figure dancing was suddenly frowned upon. And so, I started to open up the embrace again. Because I never really wanted to restrict my students only to Milonguero. I wanted them to engage with tango holistically. Now I teach everything, including the basic step that I had cursed for five years, also Enrosques, Sacadas, and Ganchos, even the backward step that I had forbidden my students. The price of this is that there will always be people who cannot use these elements adequately in the salon and thus disturb the Milonga.

Nevertheless, we must not limit tango because of this. It would be like saying that only cars with very few horsepower should be built so that we don’t have speeders on the highways. In principle, (almost) everything that tango has to offer can be danced in the Milonga. However, one must be attentive and sensitive: to space, time, dance partner, and fellow dancers! In this context, I was pleased with a compliment I recently received from a very sympathetic dancer in our scene. He told me, “You do the craziest things in the Milonga, but I’ve never seen you bump into people!”

As I mentioned before, it can always happen that a student doesn’t get along well with a teacher’s teaching style. However, that alone doesn’t say anything about the quality of this teacher. So, how can one recognize a good teacher? I think one can distinguish between “soft” and “hard” criteria. For me, the “soft” criteria include aspects like: Does the teacher convey the joy of tango? Can he inspire the students? Does he choose the level according to the group? Does he systematically build up the content? Does he convey social dancing in the Milonga to the students? Etc. These “soft” criteria are crucial, especially for beginners, so they don’t get frustrated and don’t give tango a second chance. However, these “soft” criteria should not be confused with dancing quality. They are no longer sufficient at a certain level.

To truly speak of a good teacher, a maestro, the following “hard” criteria are more decisive for me, as they can be answered more objectively:

The teacher must be a very good dancer because you still primarily learn tango by imitation.
The teacher must be a complete dancer, i.e., he must master both roles (leading and following) as well as all styles.
The teacher does not always have to explain everything (this can overwhelm or lead very intellectually oriented individuals to lose their natural body feeling), but he must be able to explain everything.
The teacher has already produced very good students who can dance at a top level nationally or internationally.

In this sense: Teach your students the longing for the vast, endless tango. (Freely adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)