[Tango-L] Big toe lead

[Sergio Vandekier]

I grew up in a neighborhood famous for tango, Villa Urquiza. One of my first 
tango maestros was Jose Vazquez (Lampazo). He was well known as a dancer for 
his elegance, his skill and his unique way of dancing milonga in the whole 
city of Buenos Aires.

Lampazo started to dance in 1939 and continued to dance for most of his life 
except for about 20 years (1953 t0 1972). He lived through the golden era of 
tango and new the greatest dancers that ever existed such as Petroleo who 
created many of the tango moves we use today such as the walked turn, 
molinete, boleo, and the upright posture in contrast to the more flexed one 
of the Cnyengue style.

In his time it was a custom to go to the practicas in other neighborhoods.  
He along with a group of about 15 young men would go to the practica in 
Villa Devoto every Monday, Wednesday and Friday  . There they could see new 
steps that they tried to copy.

After the practica they would gather at street corner in Villa Urquiza to 
start changing the steps learned according to the personality of each one of 
the dancers. Everyone danced in a different way .

In those days women did not go to the practicas so the creation was entirely 
done by men among themselves. They continued to practice in the street 
corner under the light lamp till the neighbors (bothered by the noise) 
poured a bucket of water on them from a balcony by 2 or 3 am.

Lampazo liked to start dancing either with the usual side step to the left 
or straight forward.

His lead to the lady to step back was to change weight in place: he would 
put his body weight on his left foot, then on his right, then on his left 
again, the woman followed accordingly changing her weight. Once his weight 
was on the left foot the right was free to advance and the woman stepped 
back with her left.

But he also liked to put his weight on his left foot and then advance his 
right one slightly to gently touch the left shoe of the woman. In this way 
he lead her to start walking backwards.

The process of changing weight in place was accompanied by a slight movement 
of the upper body from side to side that was very characteristic of him and 
elegant.

For the sake of this discussion I called that move "big toe lead".

Another time I will explain what I mean by using your leg to lead.

Best regards, Sergio

P.S. I only have a couple of days free right now.

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