blue
04-25-2006, 02:27 AM
Around here, it seems most classes and practicas expect you to bring a partner. They might not say so explicitly, but the structure is built for those who do. Partner application for classes etc, is one thing, that they do in the local lindy classes also to get a balance between leaders and followers. (I already whined a bit about that.) Another thing is, classes are often arranged so that you dance a large chunk of the class with "the person you came with". In some cases you arrive with your partner and do the practica or class with him/her, in others you do not do the whole class with the same partner but a fairly large chunk with "the person you came with". Sometimes the class rotates but some people prefer to stay with their partners and as the teachers find it OK, you can find yourself in the rotation where a fairly large portion of the people who participate in the rotation are the people who others choose not to dance with, for one reason or another.
In all the lindy classes I have ever taken, you change partners regularly - with shorter or longer intervals, but regularly, and you will dance with the whole crowd in each class. Not so in my local AT scene, and I have difficulties in understanding why since regular partner changes in class seems a lot more optional to me. One aspect of course is it makes things a whole lot more difficult for the tango single who does not have a partner. Another aspect is: do people really want to take classes primarily with their steady dance partner? If so, why? A third question: Is it good for them? Do a couple not not learn bad habits by adjusting to each other's bad habits, if they dance too much with each other and too little with others?
I suppose the good and established dancers are not in the danger of this third thing, since they have many people to dance with at milongas. I know I did it with my previous tango partner, who I had met in lindy and partnered up with when we both had a couple of months of tango experience. He had this habit of not walking with his feet dogether but "duck walking" a little. Since we only took classes and practicas led by someone - which in reality means, it is a cheap class in a big group - and went to milongas but never trained together, I never had a possibility to talk to him about it. (I find that kind of things very difficult to do, anyhow, and I am not at all sure he would take it well.) I am quite convinced I walked with my feet close together more consistenty before I started dancing with him. I got used to getting moved out of the line, having to move my foot out to the side in the end of the step to be able to land in good balance. I guess I should never have done that, in a way it was me who cemented his bad habit... hindsight is easy.
In all the lindy classes I have ever taken, you change partners regularly - with shorter or longer intervals, but regularly, and you will dance with the whole crowd in each class. Not so in my local AT scene, and I have difficulties in understanding why since regular partner changes in class seems a lot more optional to me. One aspect of course is it makes things a whole lot more difficult for the tango single who does not have a partner. Another aspect is: do people really want to take classes primarily with their steady dance partner? If so, why? A third question: Is it good for them? Do a couple not not learn bad habits by adjusting to each other's bad habits, if they dance too much with each other and too little with others?
I suppose the good and established dancers are not in the danger of this third thing, since they have many people to dance with at milongas. I know I did it with my previous tango partner, who I had met in lindy and partnered up with when we both had a couple of months of tango experience. He had this habit of not walking with his feet dogether but "duck walking" a little. Since we only took classes and practicas led by someone - which in reality means, it is a cheap class in a big group - and went to milongas but never trained together, I never had a possibility to talk to him about it. (I find that kind of things very difficult to do, anyhow, and I am not at all sure he would take it well.) I am quite convinced I walked with my feet close together more consistenty before I started dancing with him. I got used to getting moved out of the line, having to move my foot out to the side in the end of the step to be able to land in good balance. I guess I should never have done that, in a way it was me who cemented his bad habit... hindsight is easy.