During a recent interview, a journalist asked me, Who is a typical student of Ruben y Cherie Tango Milonguero? What is the profile of the people who take lessons from you and Ruben and/or use your services?
My immediate reaction was -- anyone who wants to learn or improve their tango. Especially tango estilo milonguero.
But then I got to thinking about the hundreds of private students we've had over the years, and they do have two things in common.
First, they speak either English or Spanish.
Our students are from Viet Nam, India, Norway, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Nepal, Australia, England, Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, New Zealand, Slovenia, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Panama, Mexico, Italy, Pakistan, South Africa, Switzerland, Finland, Iceland...well that's off the top of my head. And of course local Argentinians and muchos Norteamericanos.
Where do they come from? Or rather, how do they find us? Generally it's from referrals, the internet, and from watching us dance in the milongas or on YouTube.
We've had very young-- a 21 year old girl from Hong Kong on a break from university--and retired folks (from lots of places.)
We've had well-to-do young couples on honeymoons and couples on retirement.
We've had total beginners and dancers of tango for 20 years, many who teach in their home countries.
We've had gay couples and gay solos.
We've had whole families and singles.
We've had long-married and newly divorced.
We've had parents with teenaged children.
We've had complete graduating classes from West Point and elementary teachers from San Diego, CA.
We've had "hippies" and trust-funders.
We've had doctors and house cleaners.
Who we haven't had are "assholes," excuse the expression.
The second commonality is the niceness and eagerness to learn of our students/clients; they are the best people in the world. How lucky are we? We usually stay in contact when they leave Argentina and we consider them friends. I like to think that the assholes who want to learn tango are drawn to the asshole teachers. Anyway, they don't come to us for whatever reason. Thank goodness.
We are blessed.
2 comments:
I've often thought of taking classes with you for my future Buenos Aires trip (which is a goal of mine as I'm so close)... hopefully in a year?
I'd love to.
=D
That is such a nice thing to read, Cherie! It is wonderful that you and your students get along so well and think so highly of each other.
L and I were delighted to meet Ruben, and I hope that when I go back (who knows when I'll manage that?), I will get to meet you in person at last!
(By the way, do you remember whether Ruben saved any of those chocolates for you? I was just thinking about that, for some reason. :)
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