Poor me, no one wants to dance with me. Still, I think it has some merit.
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Thanks for running the workshop with Ney and Jennifer.
I enjoyed them as teachers and learned a lot.
Thought you did a good job in organizing the workshop.
The only issue was the rotation, which I thought was bad,
though better than prior workshops. At least we are improving.
You rotated and are a good community participant.
There is no fault with you. Others messed us up.
I just got back from taking 11 workshop sessions at the Tampa Bay
Classic in West Coast Swing. Each session had 50 to 200 people.
Every session started with the teachers organizing a rotation,
which everyone stuck to strictly. Only one time did I come across
a couple that was not rotating. At this event, everyone was treated
the same and had the same opportunity to learn.
In contrast, at our Tango workshop, those people that stuck to the
rotation were screwed. Since this is an ongoing problem with our
Tango workshops, we should seek a solution. Here are some of the
problems that I experienced.
1. Many of the more experienced dancers partnered up and did not rotate.
It would be one thing if they only ever danced with their spouse,
which would be sweet, and I would have no objection. However, all
these people regularly dance with different partners. Maybe they wanted
to learn with someone they could practice with later. Not an objectionable
motivation.
However, the result is they do not take their turn without a partner,
they do not take their turn with the less experienced dancers, and
they make it difficult for the rest of us to have an orderly rotation.
2. There were more men than women, still some women wanted to dance lead.
This took two women out of the rotation for the men.
The women that did dance lead, did not do it in the context of the rotation,
but grabbed an experienced woman to follow. So not only did they take two women
out of the rotation, but two experienced women.
Imagine there being more women than men and some men wanting to dance follow,
and those men following dancing only with the experienced men leaders. The
women would be upset if that happened.
It is fine if women want to dance lead. They should do it in the context
of the rotation and take their turn dancing with novices and sitting out.
Or they can find themselves a partner and dance outside of the rotation.
What they should not do at the workshop is grab their favorite partner
when they want to try something out.
3. Even though Ney and Jennifer told people to stay in the circle in order,
a number of people ignored that, passed people during dancing and grabbed
their favorite partners during rotation. This make rotating orderly a
problem for the rest of us.
4. Because of 1, 2 and 3 the rotation was a mess. Some of the experienced people
that would normally be happy to rotate, left the rotation, formed little cliques
and only changed partners among themselves, going backward or across the circle.
They took themselves out of the rotation and made things even more difficult for
those trying to rotate orderly.
5. Consequently, those of us that behaved according to the teachers instructions,
spent much of the time without a partner, dancing with inexperienced people who
could not do the things being taught or dancing with other men. All of those things
are fine, but it would be nice to dance with an experienced female partner too,
since that is what we are going to the workshop to learn how to do.
I do not know the exact numbers, but here is an estimate.
Say there were 12 men and 11 women and say 3 men and 3
women were inexperienced. Say that half the experienced
people did not rotate and either paired up or formed cliques,
and one woman danced lead and grabbed a partner.
Here is how it breaks down.
Leads Follows
======= ========
6 men - 6 women : paired up, formed cliques
1 woman - 1 woman : woman dancing lead with preferred partner
What is left in the rotation is 6 men and 3 women, composed of
3 men experienced - 1 woman experienced
3 men inexperienced - 2 women inexperienced
That means these 6 men have no partner or are dancing with other
men half the time. Most of the rest of the time they are dancing
with women that do not have the skill to dance what is being taught.
Only 1 time in six do they have an experienced female partner.
This feels pretty accurate according to my experience, especially in the
later workshops when a couple of the nice out-of-town women had left.
Proposed Solution:
A. When you plan a workshop, decide if the workshop is going to
have a rotation or not and let us know. This way, if there is
not a rotation, we can arrange for partners beforehand. If there is
a rotation, then be clear about and enforce the rules of the rotation.
Following are the rules I propose.
B. Everyone who wants to rotate dances in the circle of rotation.
C. Those who do not want to rotate, dance on the far side of the floor,
outside the rotation.
D. Those in the rotation, stay in order and do not pass anyone else.
If they happen to get out of order during dancing, the man returns
the couple to the correct position as soon as the dancing stops.
E. Those without a partner, stay in order in the rotation and do
not change their position. The person can practice by themselves
in position. Or, if the person stepped out of the rotation during
the dancing, they return to the same position in the rotation after
the dancing.
F. Everyone rotates one partner in the rotation when the instructor
calls for the rotation. If there are people the person does not
want to dance with, they need to find a partner and not dance in
the rotation.
G. If you are concerned about different experience levels, the class
itself should have an experience level associated with it. If people
do not have the prerequiste level, they can arrange for a partner
and dance outside the rotation. Everyone in the rotation should have
the prerequiste level. For me, there is no problem mixing levels.
Thanks,
Andy
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