[Tango-L] The leads left arm--elboe down

[Stephane Fymat]

Burleigh,

Solving your left arm movement problem has nothing to do with how you hold
your palm, it has to do with how you hold and move your body and how you
lead.  If you initiate all of your movements - walking, giros, ochos, etc. -
from the center of your body (chest or solar plexus, depending on your
teacher), then the arms will stay quiet.  The arms are an extension (and
expression) of your body's movements, not movements on their own.

If you want to dance a quiet, close tango, you can find the right embrace as
follows.  Stand in front of your partner, toes to toes, both on your own
axis, arms to your side.  Embrace each other with both arms, as if in a hug.
Open up your left arm with hand at eye height, have her put her right hand
in yours.  Done.

Your left arm/her right arm should be relaxed but relatively firm.  This is
very tricky to do, as most people tense up.  Think of how you hold a big
glass of beer, it's heavy, but you hold it up without tension in your arm.
Same idea.

As a way of checking your left arm movement, do this.  Let your right arm
circle around her at shoulder height.  Wrap around her back enough that your
fingers touch the back of her right shoulder.  As you dance, if you feel her
shoulder/arm moving, that means that you have moved your left arm.  Try the
move/step/walk again until her arm doesn't move at all.  FYI, this is an
exercise, not an embrace for you to learn.

Quieting down your dance, e.g. your left arm, is a process of incremental
improvement over time.  Step by step.  It can take years.

Once you have the body movement part down and your left arm quiet, how you
hold your arm and hand becomes a matter of personal choice.  The rule
becomes what feels comfortable for you and the woman, and also looks good to
the eye.

Nuevo tango has much more freedom of movement in the arms, but the question
again is where does the movement originate, the body or the arms?  I know
teachers who teach both ways.  I personally believe in starting from the
body, and allowing the arms to adapt to the nature of the movement.

The famous person you are referring to is Gavito.  By the way, he never
taught that to students.  He taught a more regular embrace, albeit a little
higher than most.  That is the difference between technique, e.g. the normal
embrace, and style, how Gavito adapted his embrace for himself.  And, be
careful, there is an illusion in his embrace.  It appears as if he is
breaking the woman's wrist and that she is uncomfortable.  However, it only
appears that way if you think he is applying any pressure onto her hand.  He
didn't.

Stephane
-----Original Message-----
From: tango-l-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:tango-l-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
burl burl
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 10:36 AM
To: Tango-L at mit.edu
Subject: [Tango-L] The leads left arm--elboe down


I have a constant fight with my left arm.  I just want it to stay put and it
either creeps up at the shoulder or starts thrusting my partner into a back
ocho.
   
  A friend of mine pointed out that if I hold my hand so that the palm faces
backward I will do two things naturally--my elboe will drop and I will be
far last temped to shove my partner "back-handed" since there is far less
power when pushing in this way.
   
  I see some leaders (here in New York) who have this left hand curled with
the back of the hand facing up (I think there is some famous guy who does
this too) but this seems to raise the elboe to near right angles with the
shoulder which encourages my other bad habit--the slow hunching up of the
shoulders in a Frankenstein effect.
   
  Another respected dancer tells me that I need to think of surrounding my
partner (the giant beachball lecture) and so the hand has to have the inside
plam-side toward her (ie tangent to the surface of the theoretical beach
ball).
   
  Another respected dancer tells me that I can't have my hand turned away
from my parnter because my left hand, while it excerts very little preasure,
needs to be available if my partner decides she needs it (I guess if she
trips or finds my lead difficult to detect).  His idea is that while it may
be good for my posture to have the hand either curled up in the air, or
facing back it is selfish--and in the long run bad for my lead.
   
  Yet another unrespected dancer here, tells me that it is nearly impossible
to dance Tango Nuevo without using a swing dance hold (ie palm up with the
thumb over the womans' back hand).
   
  I am working on the quiet tango--very close, no noisy moves.  So it is all
about style and I would appreciate any comments you might have on the left
hand.  
   
  Yours
  Burleigh

		
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