Docteur Gradus ad Parnassum/ Richard Sagala/ Inspiratum

Mount Parnassus Nicolas Visscher XVIIth century

Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum*

Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum wishes to give you some advice on how to navigate properly through the maze that one may be caught in when trying to learn argentine tango.

Gradus ad Parnassum refers to those books from the classical period that were purported to be a correct method for learning poetry, Latin or music.

Gradus in latin means step, and Parnassum the Parnassus is the sacred mountain where Apollo and the Muses reside, a symbolic heaven that worthy artists may wish to enter.

To get there though, you have to elevate your art, climbing this stairway of learning one step at the time. This could be done only if you are following a sound learning method, otherwise you might be stuck forever on the first step.

Facing the plethora of schools and teachers in Montreal that a student might draw instruction from, I wish to help you in finding the proper teacher(s) that you will choose to accompany you in your quest.

Although I have studied tango in Argentina, Europe and in the United States, I have predominantly received my training here in Montreal.

To that end, I have been to all the schools and thave taken private instruction with virtually everybody in the city. I am talking specifically from the year 2000 to the present day.

I will not name schools or persons but will share with you what I have learnt from experience.

If your approach to the dance is casual, you are not aiming too high and would be happy with making a few friends and enjoying the social scene, then almost anything will do. Please read no more.

But, if you see it as an art form worth investing in, and would like to proceed to the next step, and the step after, in order to enjoy the magic that we call "tango moments" and the incredibly powerful way of expressing oneself through this fabulous dance, then this is another story. Please continue reading.

What I am about to tell you is aimed more at the serious student.

FIRST: There is some measure of seduction involved in this dance and competing dance schools may use that as a powerful tool to draw you.

SECOND: In tango you need a guide, a real guide. Call him a mentor a teacher etc, you need to find somebody you can trust with whom you can interact on a one to one basis. Forget group classes as a means of getting your primary instruction. At the CTC, we call our group class "introduction to argentine tango" with that in mind.

Under the guidance of a good private teacher, yes, you can revel in group classes or in workshops and validate the content with your teacher. If you look hard enough, you will probably hear everything and its contrary in tango. This could be rather confusing (to put it mildly).

Everybody has something to sell, shoes, lessons - both. And some schools offer more entertainment than education.

For people who want to make their tango business lucrative, pleasing the client in the sense of -making you feel good about yourself while you are not learning much- is a proven winning combination. No pain, just gain... but in this imperfect world of ours, it simply does not work.

Why?

Because the tango is difficult.

If you want to dance it at a good level with quality and musicality, it is difficult.

It is difficult for the follower and even more difficult for the leader.

Simply said, to become a good dancer you will have to spend the time, money and energy that such a goal requires. It could be substantial.

Because of this reality, you had better find quality from the beginning or all this might be rather frustrating.

Is it possible to do away from private lessons and just take group classes, go dancing, and do the occasional workshop and milonga?

Again, simply said: NO

Why?

Because the tango is a dance for a couple. You cannot be two solitudes dancing tango together. You have to dance for the other half of your couple. To achieve this, leaders must learn to project their dancing into the body of their followers and followers must reciprocate and give back to their leaders the proper movements and correct sensations that a good technique will allow. The dance then will become magical.

There are no phrase books, no push buttons and no "fly by wire" in the tango. It's total freedom accompanied by its corollary: total responsability.

When you dance you feel exposed and you must be totally honest and true to the moment. One must not forget that... it is an improvised dance and it is not set. Forget the so-called steps that you may learn in a practica or a workshop. Those sequences are shown for pedagogical purposes, and are usually not to be re-enacted as such in the dynamic of the dance without being adapted to the level of the partner, the music, the traffic, the navigation on the dance floor, so on and so forth.

The degree of success in a proper tango education is measured by how many hours you can capture the rapt undivided personal attention of a competent and ethical individual (good teacher or a higher level partner). With a lot of that, a student will almost inevitably become good.

If you do things by yourself, you must bear in mind that practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent!

This simply means that if you build into your technique all kind of bad habits compounded by repetition, trying to change all that the day you will be totally blocked and feel that nothing makes sense any more, might be a rather daunting if not impossible task .

That is why a good mentor is indispensable.

The mentor I am talking about here will be of the opposite sex, although it is good to complement your training and to seek advice from same sex teachers for specific issues.

Why the opposite sex?

Usually the couple in the tango is composed of a man and a woman.

As a man, it makes no sense at all to think that your lead is good from merely being able to survive at a milonga. You must remember that, in a milonga, the other person will try to help you, and it would be bad form to brutally expose one of the two to their own shortcomings.

There is no deception in this, just civility and courtesy.

A good teacher will exact honesty from you when you dance and will offer solutions to overcome problems.

The good teacher will monitor his student and what is happening when he does do such and such a move, and will raise the student's level of consciousness while demonstrating the same-self effect on the student. He will then proceed to offer practical solutions to the problem.

There is a key concept in tango that must never be overlooked:

Tango calls for generosity and caring for the other person.

A good leader, for example, will make sure that his follower blooms in his arms and dances to her full potential. If he thinks otherwise, he might discover bitter solitude sooner than later and will notice how the competent dancers will shy away from him.

Forget the macho clichés of the man submitting a gorgeous woman...

If you think like that, you've been watching too many Rudolph Valentino movies, especially the one where he cracks his whip...

Seriously, tango is built around a quest for harmony and you cannot impose harmony. If you think otherwise, please think twice before investing in this dance. There might be other outlets for you.

So, how to find this proper tango teacher?

Shop around.

Talk with others, but be cool in front of the teachers-dancers with a big name or reputation.

They might be good or bad for you.

For instance, if such a name is famous or is a fully-fledged virtuoso, you may want to ask yourself a few questions like:

-Does he or she have that reputation merely because they have performed in a show, a film etc., or because of his (her) talent and capabilities?

If so,

-Do their achievements that landed them this reputation includes training a dedicated tango student that shows excellence in his (her) dancing?

And,

-Who is that person? Maybe it is worth contacting her.

And watch him dancing; possibly have a chat with that person.

-Does that teacher takes pride in his (her) students?

A good teacher will show how it should be done.

A better teacher will make you do it.

The best teacher will make you do it, feel it and feel it in your partner.

The best teacher will make you commit to a series of lessons, with a well-defined program and a plan to reach that goal.

If he cannot define that said program and works on a: “happy go lucky, we go on a nowhere and see what comes along”
kind of attitude, beware!

A good teacher calls a spade "a spade" and is not there to cajole or pamper you.... but will be nice and will throw in a dose of humour for good measure.

Pedagogy is an art. Some people are good dancers, some are good performers, some have a prestigious name and some are good pedagogues.

Any given individual might have some, a lot, or all of the above.

To have it all is almost impossible but not totally impossible.

Make sure that if you do find such a gem, that his (her) first and foremost quality IS pedagogy!

Ready to start searching?

Here is a link to all the available teachers in Montreal:

http://www.milonga.ca

Please visit it and start from there.

If you want to study with me, click here.