[Tango-L] Stop the Figures and Concentrate on the Connection and the Music

[Jeff Gaynor]

Ron Weigel wrote:
I was in the class last night -- good job Ron! A couple of comments as a 
newbie.

>After class Susana told me what was behind this. Our student dances
>very well for someone dancing one year, but she had encountered
>someone at a festival who actually dropped her in the middle of the
>floor during a song because she couldn't follow his giros. What kind
>of message does that send?!!
>
>  
>
Right after this I danced with her and did 3 or 4 of these on a hunch, 
and she followed them just fine. The point being that the other dancer 
probably did not respect her axis nor did he probably accomodate her, 
viz., no matter what movement the lead initiates, he must adjust to what 
happens as a result rather than mechanically following through the rest 
of some sequence. I call this accomodating since I don't know what the 
real term, if any, there is for it. Once her momentum was moving one 
way, he has an obligation to see to it that she doesn't end up in a heap 
even if he looks like a total ninny. The few times I've seen things like 
this (a pattern starts and one finishes with a flourish while the other 
stumbles around the room), I note a distinct difference in how it is 
perceived.  Experienced dancers heap scorn on the leader, novices heap 
scorn on the follower.

>There are thousands of dancers out there (probably tens of thousands
>worldwide) who learn tango as a set of steps to be executed. The
>mindset of these dancers is think a figure, then execute it. They do
>their figures without having basic knowledge of partner connection and
>musicality. These dance robots execute a set of memorized patterns,
>without understanding the leading and following technique that create
>them. Dancing set figures may be typical in ballroom dancing, but it
>is far from the essence of tango as a social dance.
>  
>
Ah, but there is a pedagogical problem here. Ultimately you want 
followers and leaders to dance and whatever figures occur will happen of 
their own accord as dictated by space, music, momentum and other 
factors, right? Figures are one way to impart the movements that 
characterize the dance. They are easy for teachers to show and students 
can learn them reasonably within the limits of a class. Since good 
teachers can use them effectively, they will remain a strong part of the 
tango landscape. I might humbly tender that they are not evil, but that 
teachers don't comminicate to the students that figures are properly 
like training wheels on a bicycle and should be used as an aid to help 
them internalize the dance. Abandoning them is a mark of maturing as a 
dancer and that ought to be an explicit goal, right? Of course, I'm sure 
there are teachers who really don't know that figures aren't tango as 
well as those who just can't teach, but these are separate issues.

$.02

Jeff