Tonight was the third tango class in Portland that I taught with M. (note: how great that we can still teach together! With no post-relationship weirdness! Yay!) Afterwards, T. was remarking on how different my teaching style is from most tango teachers in the way that I concentrate on posture and being comfortable, and mentioned that maybe one of these days I could teach at one of the bigger workshops like Tango de los Muertos. My immediate reaction was something like "oh no, I couldn't do that, because I'm not glamorous and I don't pretend that I have all of the answers." T. said, "yeah, but that kind of thing gets old."
Does it get old? Then why does the tango community continue to support it? I can think of only a few fantastic tango teachers who are completely pedestal-free. Tango is so weird--there's the tango caste system: the top level of dancers/performers dance with each other and with a select few of the next level down. And so on down the line, until you get to the absolute beginners. Add to that the worshiping of tango teachers. Add to that teachers who need to improve their teaching mindset and skills before they can really call themselves teachers. T. said, "it was such a relief to hear you say, 'if I'm going to lose my balance there, I just put my foot down.' Like sometimes you're off balance--it's not just me." Wow. With all of that worship and self-flagellation going on, it's kind of a miracle that anyone can become a better tango dancer. Yikes.
Well, whatever, I hope I always just say no to pedestals. I hope I am always able to say, "yeah, that's a good exercise to do in the bathroom at a milonga when I'm having a bad night" without feeling self-conscious that I should ever have bad nights because I am a teacher sometimes. Yeesh. I hope I'm always able to reassure students and peers that I am always learning along with them. Because I learn as much from my students as they learn from me (maybe more). It should always be like that.