Media Luna (Half Moon)
- Thread starter Clive
- Start date
Jo Biam (darn can't remember her name or the title of the book, whcih I had from the library for quite some time, but that was montsh ago) is a musician. She gives very detailed information about some little discussed ascpets of tango. Being a musician helps with many things. (Like for instance, how alike or unlike was rockabilly from rhythm and blues, western swing, etc?)
And yes, she shows a few measures of Andalusian tango, and compares the with Argentine "tango" at a similar moment in time.
Now, if only I can remember the name of the book...
Baim, Jo. TitleTango : creation of a cultural icon / Jo Baim.Publication info.Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2007.
oooff. been a long day.
And yes, she shows a few measures of Andalusian tango, and compares the with Argentine "tango" at a similar moment in time.
Now, if only I can remember the name of the book...
Baim, Jo. TitleTango : creation of a cultural icon / Jo Baim.Publication info.Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2007.
oooff. been a long day.
Dave Bailey
Active Member
Re: IDTA syllabus for AT:
So how can they be publishing a syllabus for it?
I don't get it - the IDTA doesn't have teaching examinations in AT:
See? No mention of AT...
So how can they be publishing a syllabus for it?
Well they can publish what they like, it's just missing from their home webpage.
Leaving aside the whole subject of the red tape and the commercialism
of medals for dancers and diplomas for teaching, the syllabus could be here:
http://www.idta.co.uk/xcart/product.php?productid=40&cat=11&page=1
And AT is definitely here:
http://www.idta.co.uk/xcart/product.php?productid=223
described as:
Commissioned as a technique for IDTA's Argentine Tango Teaching Diploma
and suitable syllabus figures for IDTA Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal Examinations.
So is the secretive Clive (see the exchange about his location) really an
IDTA teacher "qualified" in other dances? And perhaps now trying to grasp
whatever pastiche the IDTA have made of it.
DB there is
http://www.idta.co.uk/Site2/Styles.html
Here is the list of dance styles
The description given for AT is a bit confusing with the reference to Ballroom Tango, I am assuming that because Ballroom Tango is listed in its own right they are considered to be two different dances by the IDTA.
I'm bowing out of this forum. There is a minority (I hope it's a minority) of Tango dancers who are so up themselves, that they perhaps don't realise, or (more likely, just don't care) how rude they are being towards complete strangers.
No one has asked me where I'm from: I'm not being secretive. Someone made an assumption that because I mentioned a dance organisation called 'INTERNATIONAL Dance Teachers Association', that meant I had given away my location. Given that they have offices in Brighton, that presumably means, using the same flawed logic, that there is a probability that JohnEm (who comes from 'UK South Coast') is actually the qualified IDTA teacher from Brighton, sniffing round 'real' dancers, hoping to pick up tips.
If you saw the book & DVD (both of which I have on my shelves, along with a whole load of other learning resources), you would very probably conclude that their take on the dance is in the character of pastiche. Is that my fault? I asked a simple question about the Media Luna, that's all.
I can assure the curious that the IDTA (like several other teaching societies) has an AT Teaching Diploma and accompanying syllabus. The technique booklet (book is too grand a title) is illustrated in the above link, as is the new 2010 Professional & Amateur Dance Syllabus, which incorporates it for the first time. I don't have one, but saw a copy in the hands of my own teacher earlier this week, and we were comparing whether the syllabus (first published in 2009 - I have the first edition) had been amended in any way for the 2010 version. (It hasn't).
Would it matter (it seems to be bothering JohnEm) whether or not I am a dance teacher 'qualified' in other dances? Would it be any different if I was a dance teacher who was not 'qualified' (like most AT teachers)? Might I just be an amateur dancer who has trained with IDTA teachers, and have shelf full of medals and shields in all sorts of styles, with a date in my diary for a forthcoming AT 'Silver Medal' (must be Silver, because the Media Luna isn't in Bronze, so must have done that already....).
Is it any of your business: particularly as no one asked?
What I have said of myself was that:
Why are you having a go at me: what did I do?
No one has asked me where I'm from: I'm not being secretive. Someone made an assumption that because I mentioned a dance organisation called 'INTERNATIONAL Dance Teachers Association', that meant I had given away my location. Given that they have offices in Brighton, that presumably means, using the same flawed logic, that there is a probability that JohnEm (who comes from 'UK South Coast') is actually the qualified IDTA teacher from Brighton, sniffing round 'real' dancers, hoping to pick up tips.
If you saw the book & DVD (both of which I have on my shelves, along with a whole load of other learning resources), you would very probably conclude that their take on the dance is in the character of pastiche. Is that my fault? I asked a simple question about the Media Luna, that's all.
I can assure the curious that the IDTA (like several other teaching societies) has an AT Teaching Diploma and accompanying syllabus. The technique booklet (book is too grand a title) is illustrated in the above link, as is the new 2010 Professional & Amateur Dance Syllabus, which incorporates it for the first time. I don't have one, but saw a copy in the hands of my own teacher earlier this week, and we were comparing whether the syllabus (first published in 2009 - I have the first edition) had been amended in any way for the 2010 version. (It hasn't).
Would it matter (it seems to be bothering JohnEm) whether or not I am a dance teacher 'qualified' in other dances? Would it be any different if I was a dance teacher who was not 'qualified' (like most AT teachers)? Might I just be an amateur dancer who has trained with IDTA teachers, and have shelf full of medals and shields in all sorts of styles, with a date in my diary for a forthcoming AT 'Silver Medal' (must be Silver, because the Media Luna isn't in Bronze, so must have done that already....).
Is it any of your business: particularly as no one asked?
What I have said of myself was that:
and it really is quite likely that I'm telling the truth. I'm not a complete beginner - I've been dancing for 25 years+, but AT for less than a year. I attend regualar AT classes with more than one teacher (none with any connection with the IDTA to the best of my knowledge), and I have several books, and a handful of DVDs (the other being the well known ones by the London teacher 'Federico'), and have watched lots of YouTube stuff (just like everyone else). I even go to weekend workshops with visiting teachers who have Buenos Aries stamps in their passports. So what?
Why are you having a go at me: what did I do?
Wow, that question touched a raw nerve!
That's nothing, you should have read how rude some were to me!
As you say it's International so it's no more likely just because I live somewhere
along the South Coast. And I asked a question which never said anything about
probabilities! Pot, kettle and black come to mind here.
"Sniffing around real dancers" - LoL!!!! As for IDTA or any other form of TA,
not likely, ever. And I don't intend to mix up pleasure with business so will not
be teaching classes either.
Never said it was your fault. Touchy aren't you?
It isn't about medals and diplomas and all that paraphernalia.
Does what you do bother me? Absolutely not. Do you think it should?
???? Something of an oxymoron.
Oh I do hate it when someone starts talking about telling the truth!
Why am I left with the impression that it's not what you say but what you don't?
It's best if I leave it there . . .
I think there's some truth in what you said, although I've found that it seems to apply to most internet forums (and not just this one). You have to be a bit thick skinned to post on internet forums, along with figuring out who to reply to and who to simply ignore. This forum is one of the tamer ones though.
Another observation I made a while back is that some tango people get rather weird when discussing things like teaching organizations that do anything other than tango, or for that matter, what "real" tango is. There are lots of different opinions on this stuff, and a lot of people have very strong opinions (to the point of being rude and/or fanatical about them).
My last thought is that there are an awful lot of opinions and preferences that get passed off as rules (and this applies to tango teachers as well as the forums).
Dave Bailey
Active Member
There's a description of the dance, there's no description of any teaching qualifications / examinations in the dance. But, they sell a syllabus.
So how can you offer a syllabus, without having anyone who's "qualified" to actually teach it? I mean, presumably you'd need to train the teachers before those teachers can, well, teach students?
Or am I missing something?
Dave Bailey
Active Member
Pah, you should see some of the forums I hang out in - this one's full of *****cats in comparison. Also, if you want some real vitriol, hang around Tango-L...
Where are you from?
Fair enough - is it simply an omission on their website then?
I'm genuinely interested in seeing if there are any decent teacher-training courses available for AT. So far, I've not found any - at least not locally - that I can respect.
Clive: I, for one, hope that you don't mooch off in disappointment - I enjoyed reading your posts....
TA has a lot of depth and emotion (and vulnerability), so it's easy for folks to be a bit prickly about it sometimes... I know I can be... especially when its entire terminolgy seems to have been set up for maximal divisiveness - someone says 'antelope', meaning 'giraffe', and the other person thinks 'elephant'... and folks are so protective of their definitions (since they are part of their own, very personal, precious Tango experience)....
Whatever you decide, good luck!
PS: Though yeah, it does seem to be getting very Brighton (and Hove, actually) in here at the moment
....
TA has a lot of depth and emotion (and vulnerability), so it's easy for folks to be a bit prickly about it sometimes... I know I can be... especially when its entire terminolgy seems to have been set up for maximal divisiveness - someone says 'antelope', meaning 'giraffe', and the other person thinks 'elephant'... and folks are so protective of their definitions (since they are part of their own, very personal, precious Tango experience)....
Whatever you decide, good luck!
PS: Though yeah, it does seem to be getting very Brighton (and Hove, actually) in here at the moment
....
bordertangoman
Well-Known Member
Clive: I, for one, hope that you don't mooch off in disappointment - I enjoyed reading your posts....
TA has a lot of depth and emotion (and vulnerability), so it's easy for folks to be a bit prickly about it sometimes... I know I can be... especially when its entire terminolgy seems to have been set up for maximal divisiveness - someone says 'antelope', meaning 'giraffe', and the other person thinks 'elephant'... and folks are so protective of their definitions (since they are part of their own, very personal, precious Tango experience)....
Whatever you decide, good luck!
PS: Though yeah, it does seem to be getting very Brighton (and Hove, actually) in here at the moment
hah do i detect South coast rivalry? Brighton toffs vs Solent Bellbottoms vs Totness hippies?
No toffs in Brighton, surely: they're way too right-on and egalitarian for that sort of thing!:roll:
Maybe it's got worse since I left (Up North... where, by god, it is grim), though that would obviously be totally against the trajectory that most things are currently following... they keep telling me....
Seriously though, though I pretty much hated Brighton, I've not had a life even remotely as good since I left... so if any of you guys 'down there' are ever over that way, I'd appreciate it if you could give the sea a little wave for me... (obviously, whilst waving off the seagulls trying to eat your face, with the other hand).
Another topic, I suppose, but I'd also love to know how a Tango scene functions there, given the incredible amount of gender/sexual politics in the place.... But I'm interested in that kind of thing... and am certainly a way better follower than I am a 'leader'.... Maybe someone could pm me?...
Maybe it's got worse since I left (Up North... where, by god, it is grim), though that would obviously be totally against the trajectory that most things are currently following... they keep telling me....
Seriously though, though I pretty much hated Brighton, I've not had a life even remotely as good since I left... so if any of you guys 'down there' are ever over that way, I'd appreciate it if you could give the sea a little wave for me... (obviously, whilst waving off the seagulls trying to eat your face, with the other hand).
Another topic, I suppose, but I'd also love to know how a Tango scene functions there, given the incredible amount of gender/sexual politics in the place.... But I'm interested in that kind of thing... and am certainly a way better follower than I am a 'leader'.... Maybe someone could pm me?...
David the IDTA is primarily a Ballroom/Latin organisation and so their AT thinking is based on this. They do however offer a separate diploma for AT. This allows you to teach AT under the IDTA umbrella for AT only and you do not have to go through the hoops that the Ballroom/Latin teachers have to go through. One advantage of this means you can go directly for the Diploma without having to go through the various medal stages for instance.
To do this you will need to find a IDTA qualified teacher in AT that can teach AT based upon the IDTA syllabus and who can organise periodic IDTA assessors to award the Diploma. It will not be easy to find a IDTA AT teacher as there are not to many of them around (maybe 2-3 within an hours drive of where you live and that includes the whole of London).
But the real rub is that the AT that you will be trained to teach will not be what you want to teach. (thats probabally why there are not to many IDTA AT teachers around).
We have touched upon this topic in previous threads and IMO the most practical qualification is the UKA (if you can find someone to shadow) or do what you are already doing and learn as you go along and not obtain a qualification. It was unforunate that this year's teachers week at El Corte was the follow up year for people that went the previous year but that means in 2011 the cycle will start again and I suggest that you go on that course (it is normally scheduled for the last week in August), I will let you know once it has been timetabled.
David, details of Teachers Week at El Corte for 2011.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130801213149/http://www.elcorte.com/learn/teacherweek.htm
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