[Tango-L] Leading with the hands.

[TangoDC.com]

I think there's a little confusion here, based on varying levels of 
expertise.

First, it's important to learn how to lead properly-- i.e., through the 
torso instead of the arms. Arm-leading is generally, for new dancers, bad.

However: after one has developed this skill sufficiently, one can then 
reintegrate the arms a bit, to modify the shape of the embrace-- e.g., 
to allow for over-rotations Led by the torso. Ideally, this would be 
introduced by a teacher, in a private lesson, so that the idea isn't 
misunderstood.

I think the leader's right hand and arm (as well as the rear right 
shoulder, where the follower may have contact) can likewise be developed 
further as subtlety, nuance, and post-basic movements open up for the 
dancers.

I speak here of open-embrace tango, but the same pattern applies to 
everything.

So, I agree with those who slam the idea of hand-leading-- when it comes 
to those just learning the dance, students in their first two years or 
so (depending on their rate of progress). I've followed men who led me 
with their fingers, and it was odd. But by the same token, it's 
important to realize that movements considered "incorrect" at one stage 
of learning can, at another, become quite valid. The "finger lead" got 
me to move in the right direction, after all, odd or not.

This is precisely why tango teachers contradict each other and 
themselves. I do it openly, and explain to my students that the tango is 
a dance of *layered* ideas and techniques, a complexity. After a certain 
point, these things shift from the realm of technique to the realm of 
taste and artistry. There is well more than one way to lead an ocho-- 
let alone to follow an ocho lead-- and the dancer with a larger 
skill-set has options. Lead and follow is all communication, and 
interpretation. With beginning and intermediate students, we just 
enforce a rule, and tell them to communicate within a narrow range. I do 
this in the hope that they'll learn it as a foundation, so they can 
later explore variations without acquiring bad technique and bad habits. 
Other teachers may do it out of dogma, I don't know. But I try to keep 
in mind that I'm teaching an art, which-- like all arts-- has both rules 
and rule-breaking, a figure-ground relationship even on the level of 
technique.

Jake Spatz
Washington, DC


Crrtango at aol.com wrote:
> If you have to push signals on your partners back then you have not learned 
> to lead yet. This subject has come up before on the list and I thought it was a 
> joke. It ranks up there with the one about leading with your head that 
> someone actually wrote a few years ago. I am surprised to see that people still 
> believe this. Unless there is some irony intended and I missed it, one never leads 
> with the hand and certainly not with the fingers pushing buttons!?! 
> Whoever taught that doesn't know how to lead and probably doesn't even know 
> how to dance very well at all. Famous or not!
> The fundamentals of tango are very simple and straight forward but very 
> difficult to master. There are no shortcuts to leading. You can only master them by 
> practice.
> No wonder the peripatetic Argentine tango teachers love us.   We'll believe 
> anything - and even pay 
> for it. 
> Come on, guys (or anyone else learning to lead)! I know the power and control 
> that you love to have by leading is intoxicating, but you still have to work 
> for it (with your upper body, not your hands.)   Your partner does not have a 
> control panel built into her back. 
>
> Who is teaching this stuff?
>
> Cheers,
> Charles
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