Good and bad tango teaching

When learning tango I had my fill of good and bad tango teachers. Some tango teachers are good at tango but bad at teaching, others though not great dancers are great teachers. Though not a great tango dancer, beginners to tango say I am a good tango teacher. The man above may be a great dancer but may make a bad teacher. So what makes a good tango teacher, and a bad one?

Bad tango teachers teach by imitation. They say for example 'Do this, do that, then do this...' when teaching a sequence of steps, or 'Copy this: step 1, step 2, step 3...' They think tango teaching is all about showing sequences of steps for students to copy.  Some bad tango teachers do not spend time checking and helping individual students in their class. So bad habits go unchecked, and students struggle to remember what they have learnt in the last lesson. What they learn by simply imitating the teacher goes into short-term memory and is soon forgotten. Each lesson the teacher will ignore what has been taught and go on to something new. What students learn from these teachers is shallow and their progress slow.

What good teachers do is teach tango for understanding. They demonstrate a whole sequence before teaching it through breaking it down into small parts. They emphasise posture and technique rather than simply repeating steps. They introduce students to the vocabulary of tango by giving each move its proper Spanish name. They spend time assisting individuals to improve their style. Once a step is mastered they teach variation, showing related moves and how different entrances and exits can be danced. They encourage musicality by moving and pausing to the music. They encourage students to improvise once they have internalized the moves. They show how practice can be continued at home, and revise taught moves in future sessions. This encourages deep learning.

The following summarizes the basic principles of good tango teaching:

1 Teach for understanding
2 Model good posture and technique
3 Teach the vocabulary of tango, naming each move
4 Offer students individual help to improve their style
5 Show how moves can be varied, extended and improvised