Excuse me if I slip back into the style thing. But all the Argentinian teachers I had advocated that you should only dance to a certain orchestra in a certain way. All Argentinian milonguero teachers honored d'Arienzo as their pillar saint, to whom one could only move appropriately in an apilado hold. All Villa-Urquiza teachers claimed Pugliese for their house musician, to whom one was only allowed to dance in Salón hold.
I still wistfully remember the times when guests at our milongas were asked about the longest journey. Usually there were four to eight English guys who regularly came with Ryanair for 5 €.
Maybe your teachers had accumulated too much knowledge?
Ricardo Vidort once told me that he taught everything he knew in eight classes. Then he told his students he had no more to teach them. They had to go practice on their own and develop their own style. They didn’t need more classes. He was right. Those who stay in classes for years want approval from the teacher and won’t practice on their own.
Back to basics
There are some misconceptions about learning to dance tango: You will never completely learn it and could spend years on one step. It is a difficult dance and requires years of study to dance well.…jantango.wordpress.com
Sometime in the mid 1990's when Ryanair took advantage of deregulation of air fares within the EU and set up competing with the established airlines with flights from Manchester. Also a time when climate change wasn't even a consideration. Ryanair probably did more to cultivate movement and cultural exchange across and within the EU than anything else.
There's no universal solution because it's partly cultural. The teacher has to have the teaching skills to make the 'lesson' accessible by their students. It's not about AT, or waltz, or rumba, or samba; it's about explaining in a way that students are receptive. Of course, you're going to get some who can't make that cultural change; others will find it natural. Some will still like AT, but not want to do CE. That's up to them and their reasons. Some will choose not to dance with them; others may be more flexible.
I think he said he returned to the same venue on the following night (or later in the week) and things were much better.
All the traditional milonguero teachers begin from the abrazo and work their way up from there. You don't need to be experienced to understand it; you do need to be experienced to make it work smoothly and efficiently though. And that can take years.
Yes, but I wouldn't boil it down to that. I was also impressed when in Copenhagen the staff at the entrance registered that we were from Germany and passed this on to the host for his announcement.
We are not, however, restricted to their canons. You can dance any and all Golden Age tango in a very close abrazo--from D'Arienzo to Canaro to Troilo to Pugliese. That's the way it's been done for decades. Of course, if you're into escenario, one does whatever one does on stage.
To be honest, for me "traditional milonguero teacher" is a contradiction in itself. Either "traditional milonguero" or "teacher".
Depends where you were travelling from. At least on mainland Europe you could travel by rail (memories of those massive rail depots and sidings in the middle of the night). From the UK the basic problem was getting off this island on to the mainland without selling your body and soul to pay for an air fare.
By 'traditional' I'd presume you meant Argentinian, so coming from the cultural melting pot of BsAs. So, initially picked out as something 'exotic' and 'forbidden' by those around the world who wished to learn AT. Let's not forget that these teachers would primarily have been good dancers but not necessarily good teachers.
Ronda of that type are buzz kills. More than followers it is other leaders that I kill my joy of dancing. I refuse to go to milongas where there are enough leaders that others want to evade, those who take more than two steps against line of dance when there is couple right behind, those who will take up space and not move along causing traffic jam behind them, and especially those that dance with sweeping movement hurling their follower around taking up space when the ronda needs to keep moving. The last types generally are open embrace dancers, don't particularly follow the music or display musicality, and will usually dance in place rather than keep moving. I had one such leader ahead of me last night. Everyone else was dancing in close embrace. He was the only one in open embrace, not moving with the ronda and using elaborate movement. He was taking place of two close embrace couples by himself alone. I simply decided to close up his space by which forced him to move ahead.
I largely haven't had that problem. Either locally or when traveling. It is rare that a follower will choose not to dance in close embrace. That as been my experience. At last week's milonga, there was a follower that I wasn't familiar with. She was dancing in the couple right ahead of me in the ronda and in close embrace. When I was dancing the next tanda she was seated and eying me. After a couple of tandas, I cabeceo her and she enthusiastically accepted. She started in open embrace right away. There are some followers who might start in open embrace or slightly open one and then quickly get into close embrace after a few bars. Not this one. So we danced entire tanda in open embrace and she didn't feel responsive or fluent enough to the leading. Then later in the evening I saw her dancing with yet another lead and sure enough it was in close embrace. No idea why she decided I was the one to be open with
Him being a leader, I find that a bit strange in a big city like London. I am assuming the milongas must have at least 50 or more people. Something similar to me happen in Barcelona once. There were only 15 or 20 dancers in total. I think I danced only two tandas. Decided to leave early after hour and half. I had previously danced at other milongas in Barcelona and never had an issue.