Financial habits and finding teachers

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Fashion statements

In a previous post, I was writing about dancers who look poor or rich and how sometimes it’s the dancers who look poor who are actually rich. In an episode from “Left Foot Right Foot” I got into a discussion and commented using the post about poor-looking rich dancers. Robert’s response inspired me for yet another round of thinking about this analogy.

What Robert mentioned in his response was that some fashion brands for rich people oftentimes have two different lines of products. In one of them, the company’s logo is evident and even repeated in many places. Whoever buys those clothes definitely makes a statement of wealth. “I am wearing an Armani suit”“I am carrying a Luis Vitton bag!”. These items are not cheap by any means. They are expensive but they also target an audience that uses them as a statement. People buying them want the rest of us to know that they can afford to buy them.

The second line of products are also prime quality items but this time the logo or any other sign of it is not shouting. It is probably hidden in the label, or in some small print but in any case, it is not like the other line. So why would someone buy an expensive suit, dress or accessory if it looks like a common one without an evident famous brand logo? You guessed it. To not look rich. People who can afford and buy those products may be your next-door millionaire neighbour. They look good, you can understand that what they wear is of good quality but you couldn’t guess that it possibly costs thousands of euros or dollars.

Rich-looking poor teachers

I started wondering if there was a lesson to be learned or a parallel to be drawn here. If we are the consumers in Tango then we buy our products, our dance, from our teachers. The teachers market is obviously so diverse but you can see some kind of parallels. Some teachers will choose to spend hours and hours on basic stuff like the way you walk, the way you connect with your partner, the way you do pivots etc. Of course, all these are elements of the dance that won’t shout to the people looking from the outside that you are a rich dancer. They will reveal the richness to your partners but it will take one to understand and know one.

On the other hand, there are teachers who would try to feed you with as many possible sequences and fancy moves, not really caring if you execute them in a way that makes sense physically, biomechanically and musically. People will learn how to do those sequences and will be able to dance with each other but as soon as they come across a dancer coming from the other kind of teachers, the mismatch will be obvious.

Being a leader in the dance, I can understand when I dance with a follower from a teacher of the second group. Since the follower is presenting the result of what the leader suggests, if the follower knows sequences then one move automatically makes them think that they know what follows next. This anticipation and preparation that their body automatically does, is destroying whatever improvised idea the leader might have. In the end, the sensation on the leader’s side is like the follower dancing alone. Since I don’t follow, I am not sure what the result of the opposite mismatch is but I leave it to you to let me know in the comments.

What is the right teacher for you?

So here is a thought experiment. If you want to check your teachers and see if they aim to make you a rich or a rich-looking dancer reflect on what they teach you. How much time do they spend drilling on boring and fundamental elements? Do they underplay them? Do they overstress them? Have a look at the milonga to see how they dance. Do they look like they want to show off their richness or do they get lost in the crowd? How relatable is their dance with the rest of the people?

Then again reflect on your priorities and values. Are you a person who likes to show off your wealth even if it comes with huge debts and loans behind it? Or are you a person who likes to have the security of a good amount in their bank accounts and doesn’t show off their wealth? Are you the person who would buy the clothes with the big logos or the one who would go for the quieter look? Or maybe you want to be the second type but you are really the first.

Reflect on your personality and your financial habits and values and it will help you find the right teacher. Finding the right teacher for you is like going on a date to form a long-term relationship. You can’t expect it to work if the two types of personalities don’t match. If your values align with your teacher’s then you are on the track for a nice long-term relationship. If not… you are on track for a divorce.


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Personally, thinking about my teacher choices so far, I see that the ones that I want to return to are the ones who actually align with my values. The ones that didn’t align I can’t say they had a huge impact on me.

Tonight’s Goodnight Tango

Tonight’s Goodnight Tango is a song about values and how people get so easily tricked and have the impression that money alone will make them better than the rest. It is all about materialism and how thinking of wealth just in terms of what you show off makes people so empty in the end. All this was written almost 100 years ago (1926) by Enrique Santos Discepolo. Imagine him living today!

So how about you? Do your values align with your teacher’s? What is your teachers’ style like? Are they looking poor or rich when they dance? Do they flaunt their wealth or stay relatable and quiet?

Do you have something to say on the topic?

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