Al Gates

HOME | ETIQUETTE | PRACTICE PARTNERS | PROFESSIONALS | CLASSIFIED | INSTRUCTORS | CONGRATS-GETWELL WHATS-UP |TERMS-TECHNIQUE |SUGGEST-COMPLAIN-E-MAIL-INFO FORMS|LINKS | RETURN TO MAIN PAGE

Student Comments

September 19, 2002

Today was great. First we met and spent time playing a game and getting to know each others' names better and then the really fun part began.

We learned how to Tango! I had been excited about this for a while, so when we were actually learning it, I was very happy. I was also given the chance to invite some of my friends from my dorm to come and share in this awesome experience.

I quickly learned that Tango was a fairly fast-paced dance. But even sooner than that I learned that I was not a very fast-paced learner of this dance at all. I don't know if I have ever screwed up so many times at the same thing that many times in one night. But fortunately, my partners were forgiving guys, so I didn't have anything to worry about. The dance was very intimate and sexual, which made me a little uncomfortable with some of the guys whom I didn't know at all. I am a very modest girl, so being so close to someone that you don't know made me feel a little self-conscious. But I guess that it is a good thing, because it was a growing experience for me in many ways. I learned a lot about my physical abilities, as well as my emotional ability to let go of my worries and just enjoy myself.

I thought that some of the discussions that took place during the dancing gave me a really good chance to understand my friends and classmates a lot better. Being so close to someone forces you to talk to them, and then you are that close I think that you also share a bond, as small as it may be, that brings you a little closer. By forcing us students to touch each other, we were given an opportunity to drop our modest fronts and really be who we are. We were able to feel unashamed of our bodies and be more familiar with our partners'.

This was a way of us to let go of our inhibitions and also some of the traditions that some of us have been raised with. I know that in my family, you wouldn't usually start dancing a dance like this with a guy that you had just met five minutes earlier. But the Tango session was an opportunity for all of us to try new things and meet new people without feeling like we were being analyzed by our fellow classmates. After all, we were all going through the same things and most likely experiencing the same sort of feelings.

Overall, I was really happy with the experience. I was so happy to be given the chance to learn a little bit about something that I most likely wouldn't have ever learned otherwise. I would have to say that the best part of the day was watching instructor dance together with his student at the end. It was so amazing that it could bring tears to your eyes. I know that every girl in that class was wishing that she could be that girl out in the middle of the room. Moving so smoothly that it seemed to not even faze her that she was doing difficult steps with forty people watching her. Hopefully I will be able to find something in my life that is like that for me.