[Tango-L] Leading and following roles

[Sergio Vandekier]

After reading Astrid's note where she does not understand my sense of humor 
I decided to share with you the thoughts of a German woman (the same as 
Astrid). A young, beautiful woman and great tango dancer that immigrated in 
Argentina a few years ago.  This may clarify what I have been somewhat 
unsuccessfully trying to explain.

Dear friends from Tango -L I am going to reproduce a paragraph from the book 
by Nicole Nau and Ricardo Klapwijk. "Tango, un baile bien portenio"  Pag.158 
.

"Before I traveled to Argentina I did not know with clarity what my role in 
tango was.
As a German I had been educated as a woman that " takes the role of the 
man". A woman that at the very least knows as much as the man does. A woman 
that can and does measure up to the masculine world.
I had never lived the man as my companion, as somebody to talk with in the 
middle of a group, my interlocutor.

That desire to find a place by a man, was one of the reasons that, by 
instinct I had discovered tango for myself  . Tango was a place where I 
finally could be a woman.
Full of sensations, intuitive, feminine and strong at the same time. I 
learned how to be a companion without competing.

I started to enjoy the power of being able to mix my feminine strength with 
the masculine one challenging it and at the same time  to let myself to be 
conquered.

I also learned with more precision in Argentina what leading and following 
mean : both the woman and the man have the same value, but despite of that, 
they are not equal in form; both are equally responsible with respect to the 
couple but each one in his own role.

Each one in his own definition and in his own place. I started to understand 
tango not only as leading and following but as leading and let somebody 
guide you. A reciprocal companionship.

According to Maria Nieves, Carlos Copes dancing partner; "In real life the 
woman is equal to the man and in tango this is true as well".

Finally, now I see it with clarity, if tango was merely an act of leading 
and following in which masculine domination achieves a compulsory feminine 
submission it would not be as excitant and as passionate.  In this country 
we dance something else than the success of the man over the woman."

**It is sad to say it but till you understand what I and Nicole try to 
explain, you will not be dancing real Argentine tango. You will experience 
something but not the real thing. It is difficult to explain what an orgasm 
is to a person that never experienced one.

In the meantime let the ignorant ofend and insult me, the impatient 
vituperate me, the unable to understand remain in condemning silence.
To see after a while how those same people copy and plagiarize my notes.
But do not worry I am used to it.

Have a good day, Sergio

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