How the shortcut can be the longuest way

I'm going to tell you the story of Mr and Ms Innocent.
Mr and Ms Innocent were a young couple that started tango roughly at the same time. They had been dancing mainly within their community and, grapevine says, they were fairly good at it, good enough to be allowed to do advanced workshops.
The Innocents saw an international festival which starred one of the Innocent's favourite dancers, at the time. When considering the level, they thought "let's go for the advanced level, after all, we're allowed into advanced classes in our tango hometown".
The class finally came and the Innocent's were getting butterflies in their bellies. The maestro came in, put some music on and asked them to dance. By the end of the dance he seemed to be very pissed off, much more than he was when he came in (probably as a result of a very bad hangover). I am sure that most teachers would just lower the level so that students could get it but Mr tangomaster taught them a double lesson. He kept on with his level and did very complicated moves, difficult challenging and when made by him, very graceful. Mr and Mrs Innocent managed to skim the surface of what he taught but they felt they didn't get half as much as they should have got. When looking around, with the exception of a few couples, all the other couples were having the same or even more difficulties. The truth haunted their minds - they just weren't good enough for that level.
By the end of the festival, much of what had been taught in the workshop had gone. Not because Mr and Mrs Innocent were having amnesia or neurological problems but because there was so much information that they could only skim the surface that in the end it evaporated away before they could mull it over. This left the Innocents a few euro poorer but also with their confidence a bit dented, after all, they were not as advanced as they thought they were. Last but not least, they could have visited less hurriedly the limestone plazas and cafés of the sunny destination where the festival was being held, certainly, something that would have brought much more satisfaction.

A few years down the line, the Innocents learnt how to be more humble. They learnt that you are not an advanced taguero because you attend advanced workshops. They understood that they are advanced tangueros because they know what level they are within the "tango food chain".


This tango fable shows that if you want more out of your hard worked munny you should choose an appropriate level for you. This means looking into a mirror and trying to see what's in the other side, as opposed to see what you wished would be on the other side. If you can't see past your imagination ask your teacher for advise.
Doing workshops above your level will not only give you less than you're paying for but also by not doing appropriate level workshops you'll be missing important concepts that are needed in order to progress to the next level. And without those, you'll allways be a pseudo-advanced dancer (or maybe not even that).

Raising the bar

I have heard a lot about Steve Morrall. I've heard good things about his dancing, teaching methods and about his bandoneon playing skills. Unfortunately, I have never met him but given that he is not that far from me, I soon will.
I didn't write this post to talk about Steve but to praise him for the latest of his actions. His well known Tango Tangk events are aimed at intermediate/advanced dancers and once every often he invites a couple of professional teachers to share their tango knowledge. As it happens everywhere, there are always those people that think they are 10x times better than they really are. And those people ruin workshops because the minority of people that SHOULD be in that class end up by having yet another improver class, as the teachers soon realise that they have to lower the level in order to get anywhere.
So Steve announced that he will not accept inscriptions from people that are not up to the level. He did it in a very curious way, and I will transcribe the words from his site:

"A dear friend and music maestro once told me "people seem to have forgotten how to humble themselves to a learning process". I have been reminded of his comments as we implement a specific level of technique for dancers wanting to attend a Tango Tangk.
Most dancers accept and trust our decision about their ability, but some react as though we have insulted or humiliated them. Humility and effective learning go hand in hand, and sadly, dancers who have not yet made this connection compromise their ability to improve their dance."

So, Steve, if you read this, well done! I am sure Jenny and Ricardo will thank you endlessly!