[Tango-L] "Stay away from Derek (self appointed tango teacher)

[Michael]

Derek:
I'd love to give you a break! Your arrogance is only exceeded by your ignorance of close embrace. Changing the embrace? Why would I want to do that? The embrace is like two batteries in a flashlight. If they aren't in contact (facing the correct direction), the light doesn't come on. To dance open would break the circuit between the batteries. I don't want to break the circuit with my partner. 

I've never heard "The embrace opens and closes like a bandondeon." WRONG!! My heart opens and closes like a bandeneon, not the embrace. Sometimes I can also feel her heart pounding. I may have to slightly adjust the embrace to allow the woman more room for a figure, but there's NO good reason to go from close to open. If couples have to go to open for a figure, it's probably a show tango figure, not appropriate to the social floor. Or one, if not both, partners are so stiff they can't dance close because their stiff arms prevents them from getting close.

Thank goodness it's a beautiful spring day in Washington and I'm going out to enjoy it instead of reading Derek's posts.

Michael Ditkoff
Washington, DC
I'd rather be dancing Argentine Tango

Looking forward to my next trip to NY to dance with N. and O. I thought I knew close embrace. These women dance closer embrace.
  Derek unfortunately wrote:
  I do front ochos all the in variations of close and open embrace. As you have heard it said many times, "The embrace
  opens and closes like a bandondeon."  My point is to vary the embrace.  You should know how to be connected
  with your partner, no matter what.  Keeping the embrace closed all the time is like
  keeping the bandondeon closed all the time...ridiculous!  My view is that the inexperience
  and lack of understanding probably falls more on the side of the people who do close embrace all the time,
  and their teachers who purposely eliminate teaching the front ocho entirely....like Tine.  Give me a
  break....lol.