[Tango-L] Learning to have a voice

[Jay Rabe]

Daniel Trenner said in his Portland workshop [perhaps exaggerated for 
impact] that follower's should just dance, and leaders should keep up with 
them. Of course I'm sure he didn't mean that follower's should abandon 
following. My interpretation of his philosophy is that it's identical to 
this thread about the follower finding and expressing her voice.

As an exercise in some of my classes, I've had the follower's "just dance," 
with no following of any lead from the leaders, and the leaders just keep up 
with them. The primary intent of the exercise was to give leaders some 
practice in listening to the follower, adjusting to the fact that a follower 
will rarely go precisely where he intends/expects. His goal is regardless to 
stay connected to her, landing his step exactly when she lands hers, and 
with placement such that he is still in front of her.

Of course I've cautioned the followers that this is not something they 
should do outside of an agreed-upon exercise, but it does give the followers 
some insight into what it means to express themselves.

     J
     www.TangoMoments.com


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Melanie Eskoff" <melanieeskoff at austin.rr.com>

Trini said "BTW, getting women to "speak" more during the dance is
something we?re still working to solve.  That appears to be
much more difficult than getting the man to listen."

Nothing really new here, just wanted to share my take on it.  In my 
experience both sides can be slow to develop this level of conversation.  Of 
course, I'm speaking to those who include this concept in their definition 
of AT!  We all understand that some of you like very defined roles and don't 
think this is appropriate.  Those persons should all take this opportunity 
to scroll to the next message or catch up on laundry and shopping.

Before I started dancing AT, I indulged in West Coast Swing, where, like 
many dances executed at a high level, a follower who contributes is valued.  
One of the ways I learned to have a voice in WC was to put on my favorite 
songs and dance, as they say, "like no one was watching".  Move to the 
music.  You get good at what you practice.  It transformed my dance.  I also 
used this exercise for tango.  If followers get comfortable in their own 
skin, moving to the music, you will find yourself inserting this expression 
into the dance at those little moments that occur, where they're 
appropriate, where they fit in and add to, rather than disrupt the flow of 
the partnership. If you haven't practiced it ahead of time, it's harder to 
find it on the fly in the thrill of the moment.  During this practice time 
you'll will find yourself creating your own adornments and expressions 
rather than just copying others.  Of course, the greater listening and 
responding ability of the leader, th!
  e more adventurous you can be.  Then I practiced bringing this into the 
partnership by prefacing practice with my partner by formally asking, 
"Please excuse me for several songs while I indulge in some things I've been 
working on.  I won't be following as well as usual."  This allowed me to 
with play with my own legs, with his legs, with the speed of the dance, etc. 
with total abandon.  No guilt.  In reality, my following didn't really 
decline as much as one might think.  It was excellent practice for my 
partner in listening (something with which he was already familiar from WC). 
  Since all of the motivation for my expression in this private priactice is 
motivated by the music, when I bring it to the dance, it feels very natural 
and is not a "shock" to the leader any more than sudden musical 
expressiveness on his part is a shock to me since I'm riding the music as I 
dance.  I remember Rachel & Jaimes teaching an advanced class in Portland a 
few years ago in which they had a!
  ll the leaders leave the room and instructed the followers to intentio
nally take a different step at a particular moment.  The leaders returned 
and the reaction was as varied as this list.  Some were outraged and glared 
at the followers for not following.  Some did what most good leaders do when 
they get something they didn't expect (whether they lead it well or not).  
They kept dancing.  And some creative little devils used it to stimulate 
their own creative jucies and became brilliantly improvisational.  We really 
do dance who we are.

Trini,  encourage your followers to dance several hours by themselves, then 
make the formal apology to a partner with whom they're comfortable during 
practice, and then go a little wild for a song or two.  When they calm back 
down (or not!) their dance will be changed for the better.  They will learn 
to break out of the zombie follower mode and listen to the music and their 
partner AND themselves.  WARNING! Never under any circumstances do this with 
a monologue-only likes the sound of his own voice-style leader, if you like 
following him and want him to ask you again.  Leaders like this can be quit 
charming if they do indeed have a lot of interesting things to say.

Jake (he who writes like a house a'fire, but with slightly less smoke 
damage), in response to your request for what we think the most important 
first elements of understanding should be for new dancers,  I feel the above 
exercise of dancing alone and letting the music become the driving force 
behind your movement, is a great homework assignment for new dancers.   
Encourage them to be comfortable in their own movement with this beautiful 
music, because we all know that the minute you put another human body in 
front of a leader his mind kicks in, "What foot is she on?, Same foot? 
Opposite?"  Same for the followers,  "Ohmagad! Ohmagod!  What's he gona' do 
next?"  This is also the opportunity to let them groove that pulsing 
transfer of weight and collection of balanced energy downward onto the new 
standing leg, before the next step.  My choices for most important first 
concepts.

And NO, I don't think practicing moving by yourself only teaches you how to 
move by yourself!  That's a bunch of baloney.  Don't lose the point I'm 
trying to make on those few words.  I'm talking about being connected to the 
music and comfortable with your own movement as conditioning to doing so 
with a partner whether leading or following, whether dancing rhythmically in 
close embrace or open with more complex combinations.  Practicing and 
improving balance and musicality is never a bad thing.

Chau,
ME


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