What do you think is the best way to handle the rotation of class partners when, as there often is, there is an imbalance of leader & follower numbers. I'm particularly thinking of people who have attended as couples, and who don't really want to rotate at all, and how best to get someone sitting out back into the rotation as quickly as possible.
Handling Class Rotation
- Thread starter UKDancer
- Start date
I would say 2 - 4 songs. 1 is definitely not enough.
My idea is to change every 4 songs i.e. tanda, and that exercises should be that length.
If the group generally imbalanced some people could change the group.
The free person can perform some exercises regarding the class.
I practiced my technique regarding the class while being off.
My idea is to change every 4 songs i.e. tanda, and that exercises should be that length.
If the group generally imbalanced some people could change the group.
The free person can perform some exercises regarding the class.
I practiced my technique regarding the class while being off.
opendoor
Forum Master
- my 2 cent:
-imbalance? In Tango everyone has to learn either role!
Once you have made this clear, no one will run out of your classses
LadyLeader
Forum Master
Our community usually organizes the clases on Wednesdays when there is a popular practica on the other side of the corridoor. At my time we booked only even number of follows/leads. If someone was not present that evening we could go out to the practica and ask someone to participate for free.
I usually asked couples to change partners after every dance, maybe more often. It's a class and they are supposed to be working on a specific movement identified by the teacher. Three minutes is plenty of time to work on a specific thing, if they are working on it. Often they aren't, but that's their problem, not mine.
I never insisted that couples break apart. They are adults. I did make it clear to them that I had never seen a couple successfully learn tango that did not separate, because they compensate for each others faults. Also, in tango culture, dancers usually change partners, anyway.
People without a partner could swap roles, though few ever wanted to. I did tell singles to never stand next to another single in the circle. By swapping partners more often, singles rotate back in sooner, too.
The best system I know is called bus stop. Suppose you have 10 leaders and 13 followers. All couples move in a circle (as they should, in preparation for milongas) and three followers stand in the corner of the room. When a couple approaches the bus stop, the leader says goodbye to his follower and starts dancing with one in the bus stop. This means that extra followers don't have to wait more than a few seconds or couple of minutes for their partners.
There are couples who want to stay together, and that's their choice. They should be encouraged to change but no point pushing them.
There are couples who want to stay together, and that's their choice. They should be encouraged to change but no point pushing them.
What a good idea.
Subliminal
Well-Known Member
Bus stop sounds cool, never seen it done.
Another solution that doesn't require much monitoring on the teacher's part is just to say before every switch, if a person stood out the last round they get to pick someone to dance with first, and then everyone else rotates. This works in more chaotic settings.
I frankly prefer the ultra-structured... teacher picks either leaders or followers, then assigns them a spot on the floor. (Spacing out the extra people too.) After every dance, everyone goes back to their spot and their partner rotates. That way everyone dances with everyone else, and there is no one left out.
Another solution that doesn't require much monitoring on the teacher's part is just to say before every switch, if a person stood out the last round they get to pick someone to dance with first, and then everyone else rotates. This works in more chaotic settings.
I frankly prefer the ultra-structured... teacher picks either leaders or followers, then assigns them a spot on the floor. (Spacing out the extra people too.) After every dance, everyone goes back to their spot and their partner rotates. That way everyone dances with everyone else, and there is no one left out.
Subliminal
Well-Known Member
I've also seen teachers make everyone use the cabaceo to pick their next partner. This can screw over the shy and inexperienced people though.
Mad Tango Scientist
Member
Is there any way to prevent people from going back in behind someone that they want to rotate to or moving in front of someone who they want to rotate to them?
Not in a large class. The teacher would have to know everyone well enough to remember where they were standing. The last large class I attended was a guest artist class and with so many people, I doubt they figured it was their responsibility to make everyone play fair. There were leaders that followers didn't want to dance with, so several followers kept repositioning themselves so that they could skip those leaders. It was fairly obvious, and also rather obnoxious I thought. (I danced with all 3 of those leaders and 2 of them were no worse than the majority and the 3rd wasn't THAT much worse)
It was especially problematic because there were extra followers, so when you had both leaders and followers standing around, and followers simply wandering away and skipping a rotation if they happened to land on a certain leader, well... it was a real slap in the face to that leader, as well as being noticeable by everyone there (except apparently the teachers)
People are paying for the class, so you can't really make them do something they don't want to, but I also think that sort of snubbing needs to be addressed.
I have found that in the case of these couples, it is often only ONE of the people in the couple that doesn't want to rotate. Sometimes the other person would welcome teacher intervention to "force" the matter so they can dance with someone else.
I've had couples where I had to actually PREVENT them from dancing together because one of them would badger the other one excessively. When one partner insists on correcting and blaming the other for everything going wrong, I try to separate them and put the beleaguered one with someone really nice and encouraging, while assigning the most advanced dancer in the room to the self-proclaimed teacher! Or I dance with that person myself. Since I never had large classes, I could assign rather than randomly rotate people.
If some people refuse to rotate and I have an imbalance, I remind the non-rotaters that I will have to be dancing with someone to make sure everyone gets a chance, and will therefore have less time to help them. It is to their benefit to help their fellow students by rotating so that I can be free to work with everyone in turn rather than having to partner the one person who showed up alone.
It seems that people are mostly reluctant to rotate when they are either first starting out, and after they've reached a more advanced level where they don't want to waste class time dancing with someone far below their level. In between, at an advanced beginner/early intermediate stage, they are open to whatever they can do to learn. They have lost the initial fear but haven't yet replaced it with arrogance.
It was also potentially unfair to me because in a class with at least a dozen leaders that went through only about 6 rotations, I not only danced with all 3 of them, but I danced with two of them twice! It seemed every time I went back to where I had been, other couples were in different spots and the leaders I'd already danced with were in front of me again. (and it wasn't the leaders "cheating") The followers were returning leaders to different spots so they could rotate past certain other leaders themselves.
pascal
Active Member
When we have say 9 followers and 6 leaders we shout first "Ladies who did not dance, enter the circle, and three ladies out" and only then we shout "leaders, move forward to trade partners". This makes it too difficult for a follower to figure her next leader. But anyway we trade partners very often, each follower/leader will dance with each leader/follower three or four times.