Contradictions in teaching “caminar”

I also think age has very little to do with the tango learning curve. What accounts for the very large variance in learning speed for different people is what transferrable skills they start with, how serious they are about practicing, and access to good teaching and feedback.

Agree wholeheartedly. Started AT in our 60's - but with some transferable dance skills. There are always some dancers who have basic problems irrespective of age, but as you get older some things are more difficult to learn. It's also more difficult if the whole dance thing is a foreign country. Fortunately we were also accustomed to apparent contradictions.

Old enough to know better; young enough to do it again.
 
When i was mentioning age of the community i was thinking less of abilities or the learning curve, more about mentality. When i look at myself i would say that i have become slower and more mindful - not just in tango. A early golden age milonga when it was all the "cool" teens doing the thing that is trendy at the moment would have had a completely different atmosphere and preferences by the people going there than a "lost years" tango party in somebodies garden where we have middle aged people who have not moved on doing the thing that was trendy 20 years ago.
 
When i was mentioning age of the community i was thinking less of abilities or the learning curve, more about mentality. When i look at myself i would say that i have become slower and more mindful - not just in tango.

I guess even that is individual - the ladies around my area who are into very high kicks, quebradas and other performance type moves tend to be relatively older dancers with a background in ballet - they don't seem to have slowed down :)
 
..the ladies.. with.. other performance type moves tend to be relatively older dancers with a background in ballet..
Every decade got its own type of dancers. I find it reputable not to bow to the every current spirit/zeitgeist.
 
I guess even that is individual - the ladies around my area who are into very high kicks, quebradas and other performance type moves tend to be relatively older dancers with a background in ballet - they don't seem to have slowed down :)
The older women dancers in this neck of the woods are a bit more reserved. Some of the younger dancers will do the wild stuff but certainly not all. There's a strong milonguero influence here and that's what many people learn.
 
Question from a newbie:
When you speak about Tango nuevo, do you mean this show-dance oriented virtuous dance style like they dance in the streets of San Telmo or in front of Recoleta for tourists?
Or if not, could somebody post an exemplary video of the style?
Does this qualify as tango nuevo? I guess so.
 
This happens a lot in Salsaforums, too...
But I don't mind. Usually interesting discussions come up.
And my experience is that if one opens a new thread to discuss the new matter, suddenly no one writes in it.
So I for my side, don't mind.
It might be a general discussion (on a new thread :rofl:) how much we should strictly stick to the thread subject or how much freedom there is to just follow resulting ideas from an existing thread?
 
Lots of really old school things here - we don't use the vertical plane as much anymore, or leg catches - it is neat to see where the (imo) exceedingly stupid bicicleta move came from. Taking your partner off axis in an enganche is interesting - I'll have to try that.

And he is probably more classic tango dancer than most - he started.dancing in the 30s, and was considered a good enough dancer in the 40s/50s to regularly perform.
"En el fondo sigo siendo amateur, no me ajusto a una coreografía, eso lo hacen los bailarines y yo soy milonguero, uno de los pocos que bailan tango-tango, por eso me llaman de todas partes"

In the end I am an amateur, I don't do choreography, that is for performers, and I am a milonguero, one of the few who dance the real tango, and that's why I get invited.
 
In my eyes, there is exactly zero difference in terms of dance technique between Chicho and Lucia vs. Virulazo and Elvira. That doesn’t mean that they dance in exactly the same way: they have their own styles and musical interpretations. But in terms of dance technique, it is exactly the same foundations.
 

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