The Different Schools of Tango Teaching

" It may not be apparent to those beginning to learn to tango, but there are quite a wide variety of teaching styles and philosophies used. This should not surprise us when we consider the origins of tango and the influences of the dancing on the teachers, the teachers on the dancing and the music on the entire thing. We think of tango as a single entity but, even now, it is not. The perceptions of what tango is vary from place to place and from time to time.

In the beginning, Buenos Aires was small and quite distant in real terms from all those areas we now merely consider to be its suburbs. In each of these locations tango had its own style. The dancers moved little from place to place but the bands certainly travelled to make a living and brought back different things from their gigs. Those bands were like bees, pollinating as they collect nectar. As those smaller satellite townships were subsumed into the sprawling city over the first 30 years of the 20th century, what resulted was a cocktail of styles, all perfectly ‘legitimate’ within the remit of tango. The differences were immense. Just think about it. Different dance floors – both floor surface and dimensions – led to different needs. Different dance floor traffic led to different embraces, as did individuals’ desires for closeness and intimacy of embrace or, on the other hand, for more genteel distancing. None of these styles was weak and easily subservient to any other and they all survived because they were legitimate and valuable. Who could criticise the orillero style of the docklands areas of San Telmo or La Boca because it differed from the styles of those dancers from Mataderos or Villa Urquiza? The same must be true for the teaching that both led the styles and, at the same time, was formed by them. I think it is reasonable, however, for us all to judge for ourselves which style of dancing we like and which style of teaching is most likely to allow us to dance as we want. I propose to nail my colours to the mast here and now on this issue in the hope that it will help "