[Maxi and Paloma]
Oklahoma City has a small AT community. They reached out to TangolifeOKC (David and Martha Wells), thus made this event possible.
Tango teachers occasionally act like missionaries. Bringing "good Tango" to faraway places (given that the trip financially makes sense or at least agreeable). Whether the dance roots and thrives in the city depends on many factors, but they do try. And good demos and strong dances certainly help. I was glad to have them here.
Their demos (three dances; two of which were improvised, they said) were quite impressive. I was entertained.
I had a tanda with Paloma. What impressed me was intensity of her gaze.
At the same milonga, three couples from Oklahoma State University (OSU) AT club showed their group AT performance. OSU locates in Stillwater, a college town 70 minutes drive away from OKC. I knew Irene (Art history professor in OSU) has been supervising AT club there, and David and Martha in OKC were helping choreography for their Stage tango performance. But I had not seen the performance yet. It was good to watch them dance.
Due to some other obligations, I did not attend their workshops. But I heard good words about them.
In fact, this past Friday I went to another milonga, and chatted with a follower whose posture and overall dance looked noticeably better. She told me that she is working on the things she got from private lesson from Maxi and Paloma.
Sometimes, dance improvement is made in that simple manner. Good advice can change appearance of dance quickly. Don't assume it takes years to fix something.
(Besides, for private lessons you are paying $100-120/hr. You better listen to the advice and reap rewards.)
