You've never seen me hog the teachers' attention at classes...you get personal feedback if you ask for it. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for the others) often no one volunteers to ask any feedback; you'd almost think pupils see it as a sign of weakness to ask 'something's wrong when THIS happens and I can't understand why, could you have a look?' Of course the really bad thing about group classes is not that you can't get feedback, but (as tangomonkey rightly pointed out) that it's impossible for the classes to focus on exactly what _you_ currently need to improve to progress.
My experience is that despite all attendees of a class are equal there are some among them being more equal than others (i.e. get what they need). We usually call these students poussin or cordero lechal.
The newbies that you refer to above usually say "passion" but what they mean is "Overtly sexual" I think what the porteno's mean (certainly what I personally feel tango "passion" means) is dancing with your whole being... your mind, heart, and soul completely immersed in the dance in the moment. That is to say... exactly what it means to do almost anything with "passion". The concept of what passion and being passionate about something means only gets twisted when we talk about tango (and maybe some other dances). Then for many newbies and beginners, passion takes on a more sexual context. Ironically, even when talking about passion in sex, the definition above (immersing your heart, mind and soul in the moment) is still what actually happens to make sex passionate.
Everybody brings their OWN style to the dance floor. Sometimes styles coincide and sometimes they clash. Everybody ISN'T compatible with everybody else. You didn't mention if the woman is your height. Women aren't interchangeable like light bulbs.
Yes... Things (like a dance) don't have passion. PEOPLE have passion. Things are infused with passion by passionate people.
I was in a beginners class yesterday because I love beginners classes, and the new student criticized me before I even touched her. Then during the milonga some dancer ladies who have been doing this a while were nice enough to dance with me and they didn't say anything.
If you ask me, everything you need to know comes from beginners classes. It's take lots of experience to figure that out.
Yeah, it's amazing how many intermediate and advanced classes one has to take to find out that they need to take beginner classes. And then take them again. And again. Tango classes should really be titled (and structured): Beginner Class for 1st timers Beginner Class for those who have had an intro Beginner Class for those who have had a little more than an intro Beginner Class for intermediate dancers Beginner Workshop for dancers who want a whole day of Beginner class Beginner Class for Advanced dancers Beginner Festival for dancers who just can't get enough. Beginner Private for dancers who need personal attention to master beginner level dancing. I think I've actually taken all these classes.. they just weren't called that.
Good one. We should have: Newbie Beginners Freshman Beginners Sophomore Beginners Junior Beginners Senior Beginners Masters Beginners PhD Beginners By the time you got to be a PhD, you'd really know your beginner stuff.
