How much practice till we went to our first milonga?

[latinjazz]

Curious thing I just noticed:
When you watch this forum without being logged in, the percentage of the participants appears.
If you are logged in, I can't see the results so far.

From what I saw, I am too shy and should have gone to my first milonga a lot earlier.

 

[Brummbaer]

The objective of learning AT was to put the "dance moves" into practice in social dancing, and that would naturally have to be at a milonga. We had some limited experience at practicas, which were similar to a milonga but less formal.

We'd had previous experience using AT, and including other dances, at a ballroom 'tea dance' (and around 40 years experience in other dance form).

Was it too early to go to a milonga? In retrospect, with current knowledge, possibly, but you've got to start somewhere and sometime. Fortunately we'd chosen a friendly, welcoming, informal, milonga. We survived. We learned the limit of our tango vocabulary that we hadn't known, and set about improving. We did, at least, have each other to fall back on. I guess if it had been a more formal, very traditional, higher level, milonga then we might have been scared off. Some milongas we've attended since have had a clique of self-certified maestros who consider anyone outside their circle as inferior, and really are best avoided and consigned to the ashes of history, or made private until they die out.

I guess that was a failing, at the time, of our regular classes. With a change of teachers they have got better with regular weekly practicas for beginners and the less experienced, who were actually welcomed, leading on to a monthly milonga, to which the less experienced are welcomed, with the format explained.

Another interesting format we've come across has been a formal milonga with a separate practice area - and the option of calling on some teacher for help. I guess you could just call it a practica, but it satisfies both experienced and less experienced social dancers

To promote AT it does need to be more welcoming with a better transition to social dancing for the less experienced. Most people didn't start AT to spend 15 years learning to walk before they can go to a milonga. The objective of learning a dance is, well, to dance in some setting. The intro to social dancing has got to be a part of any formal AT instruction course. It's not a good policy to frighten people off.

I didn't give a time. About 3 months in. Started in September; took a concurrent ballroom AT course; first milonga in December and visited some more over Christmas/New Year.

 

[TTanguero]

Women at our local milongas are less tolerant of beginner leaders

In London, in my limited experience, there is no shortage of generous and encouraging followers when they know someone is a beginner who is putting in the work.

I've had quite a lot of experienced followers dance with me, and almost without exception they have been kind.

That may just be enlightened self-interest – there's a school of thought which says that if you're kind to leaders early on they will remember you later – but as far as I can see, it's mostly a genuine desire to encourage new leaders.

 

[itwillhappen]

My first time ‘dancing’ in a milonga was five lessons in - though that was a highly experienced follower taking me into the centre of the pista where we wouldn’t get in anyone’s way.

My first time leading strangers in a milonga was two months in. My dance was incredibly basic, but no-one died. However, it was six months in before I dropped below Defcon 1 as Latin Jazz aptly puts it.

Nearly the same with me.
But it went down to "DevCon 2" after three months, dancing than also at milongas of other tango locations. And I got some fragments of my 35 years ago ballroom classes into place. Rumba and slow walz for tango and vals; quickstep for milonga.

 

[TTanguero]

Yeah, I can see that. I went straight from four lessons of Ceroc directly into tango.

 

[Reuven Thetanguero]

Women at our local milongas are less tolerant of beginner leaders, maybe they expect more or have access to skilled leaders. Almost all of the beginners, leaders that is, bring a partner (or pay one).

Which Milonga in the city you are referring to?

 

[WhiskeyPapa]

Why no votes from followers?

 

[Bailango]

If you could dance relaxed in Milongas after 6 months only you must be very talented! As a leader?

These days many leaders start dancing in milongas at 3 to 6 months mark. No they are not talented. Dancing in other cities I have seen the same.

 

[Cabbit]

About a year as a follower. There is quite a shortage of leaders around here so beginner followers get to sit a lot. It wasn't much fun for the first 2-3 years.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Which Milonga in the city you are referring to?

All of them! At least when I was first starting out.

 

[Tango Student]

I first took a bunch of classes as just a fun activity without a clear intention of actually dancing. After I made the decision to get serious about it, it was nine months of four or five classes a week before I went to my first milonga.

 

[Numawan]

Seems that quite a lot of beginning tango leaders went to their first milonga quite early, but returned only much later. I notice with envy that some teachers made the effort to prepare their students. I also assume that it was less of a shock for those who had prior experience in partner dancing.

 

[Gssh]

I notice with envy that some teachers made the effort to prepare their students.

This is also a bit of a surprise to me. In some ways it feels like we are taught the wrong things as beginners. Now that i think about it in retrospect is it was somewhat weird that the preparation class for actually going to dance at a milonga was basically "don't do any of the things you learned, walk at the edge of the dancefloor, here are some things to make walking work, and here are some tools for waiting and turning corners".
In a way this is reflected in the (at least to me) surprisingly large number of people here that felt as a beginner safest in the middle of the dancefloor. I was taught that the safest place is the edge - nobody to watch out in the right, and usually the steadiest flow, so doing nothing besides walking is sufficient to be something like a dance. The middle seems to me even today to be tricky - there is no flow, so its about (stationary) vocabulary, and as a beginner the only thing to do is a giro and maybe a calesita? Thats not much to fill 12 minutes with.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

The middle seems to me even today to be tricky - there is no flow, so its about (stationary) vocabulary, and as a beginner the only thing to do is a giro and maybe a calesita? Thats not much to fill 12 minutes with.

There's often more traffic in the line of dance on the outer edge, so it's more congested and you need better floorcraft. Also, beginners have a tendency to STOP and practice stuff they learned, which is not a good thing for dance flow. Inside can be a bit chaotic but sometimes there's a quiet zone in the center that you can treat as your safe place. A lot of beginners don't even realize there's a line of dance and such a thing as dance flow.

 

[Numawan]

Also, beginners have a tendency to STOP and practice stuff they learned, which is not a good thing for dance flow.

Strange. I found it very difficult at the beginning not to advance too quickly. I still find dancing stationary more difficult than advancing.