http://www.tangoandchaos.org/chapt_1tangochaos/13celia.htm
Няма да превеждам, който не знае английски, има курсове - в днешно време този език е задължителен на практика,
My first instructor knew absolutely nothing about music or tango dancing, but he knew the eight-count basic, and he used it as the first step in a long, endless series of classes that consisted of memorizing patterns. He was a nice fellow, though, and he seemed to be able to keep students coming back, with a mix of good humor and lots of flattery. And he had a subtle way of discouraging people from attending any other type of tango related activities—which tended to keep everyone clueless and isolated in his personal tango world. But you really didn't have to go anywhere else, because he and his wife ran a full service operation. They entertained the students with a lot of performances, and he held his own unusual versions of practicas and “milongas”, often held in spacious, empty rooms. I guess his students enjoyed it, because many stayed with him for quite some time. You left each class with a sense of real progress, because after each one you had learned a couple of new and complex ways of dancing tango. Sadly, there was no instruction on posture, musical connection, or walking. And you weren't really leading anything, because all of the followers had memorized their parts as well. He would teach the men on one side of the room, and his wife would teach the mirror image to the women on the other. The only technical detail that was ever taught in the class was an absolute rule enforced by his wife: she hated any type of bodily contact, and the leader's right hand must be positioned exactly on the woman's left shoulder blade, with the tip of the middle finger one inch from the middle of the back. Exactly one inch. Violate this rule, and you would hear about it fast. It took me a while to figure out that this was not far and away the most important rule in Argentine tango.
I remember once when I got a little more advanced, trying to change direction in the course of one of the patterns they were teaching. I was doing the steps with his wife, when someone got in the way and I tried to lead her in another, unexpected direction. She made a big show of stumbling, and falling backwards, and lectured me very loudly for making a big mistake. I wasn't a complete fool though, and after that incident I began to suspect that something wasn't right. After about four months I ended up throwing everything out, and I began to try to learn tango from videos. Those early classes I took were marketed aggressively as “genuine Argentine tango”, and this fellow’s students are probably still marching around in those big rooms with tango music playing softly in the background like the soothing elevator music played in the day rooms of mental hospitals. Actually, they are both nice people, and all of his students love the praise he lavishes on them, but today I approach every tango class and everyone who says they are a tango “instructor” with healthy skepticism. It was the road to tango hell, and to this day I am still a little angry about it (Does it show?).
