Tango: Group lessons or private?

The question of whether you're better off with group or private lessons is a bit of a controversial one.

This is my (strongly held, but very personal) view.

I started learning in group lessons and I have had both group and individual lessons. I have also taught groups and individuals. I can see the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches. In the end, though, I think that the advantages of individual lessons for beginners are quite pronounced.

In my experience (as a student, not as teacher) the overwhelming majority of people who turn up to a group tango class give up within a few weeks. This is why.

When you arrive there will (if it's a successful class) be anything from ten to twenty people in the room. The economic reality means that the organiser will be wanting twenty or more. The chances are that the week that you join you will be the only newcomer, or one of two or three. Therefore, by definition, everybody else in the class will be better at it than you are. This leads to feelings of inadequacy, which are not helpful when you are dancing with partners and you are conscious that they do not think that you are very good.

What you need is the teacher to give you a lot of attention to help you master the very basics that will let you understand what everybody else is doing and join in. Unfortunately, the teacher has twenty other people to bother about. Let's suppose the class runs an hour. Probably half an hour will be whole class instruction. You will stand there while the teacher demonstrates stuff and asks you, collectively, to repeat what s/he is doing. The rest of the time, they will correct individuals and give them feedback. Twenty individuals in thirty minutes means about 90 seconds of individual instruction. In fact, it's worse than that. The teacher knows that, as you are a beginner, you are quite likely not to come back. S/he therefore concentrates on the regular students with whom s/he already has a relationship and who, economically, represent their bread-and-butter. In fact, I know one teacher who takes the view that they will not spend time on a student until they have come for long enough to have demonstrated some commitment and an ability to take instruction in a group setting. So, if you are lucky, you will get 60 seconds of personal attention teaching you the fundamentals that you will need if you are going to be able to follow the rest of the class. That's less than the amount of time I might spend helping a beginner at Tango del Domingo, where they're not even paying for it.

Then, if you get to the stage where you are dancing more or less successfully with someone else in the class, the odds are they're not that good. It's a beginners class after all. So when something goes wrong, it might be you or it might be them. Sorting out the mess takes forever. Tempers fray and any fun you were having evaporates.

Traditionally, tango was always taught by dancing with someone better than you and learning from them. There are some very kind and generous people who enjoy going to class and helping less experienced dancers, but, given the cost of a class, most people will be understandably more concerned with their own progress than with yours. It's really not a good place to be.

The exception to this is structured courses. If you have a good teacher who has a group class of absolute beginners who start together and who are expected to progress week by week, with no new people joining in part way, this is probably an excellent way to learn. Unfortunately, there aren't that many such classes and most people I know are unwilling to commit at the same time every week for the full length of the course. And, of course, if anybody drops in and out, you're back to the same situation as with the drop-in classes. And, even then, you're not dancing with someone more experienced than you, which everyone knows is the best way to learn.

Once you have mastered the basics, there's a lot to be said for group classes. Tango is, after all, a social dance and group classes get you used to dancing with a variety of different partners and navigating a space that you are having to share with others. Many people enjoy the social aspect of group classes. Indeed, I suspect that many people in these classes are there primarily for the social side of it. They're not the best place to start, though.