[Tango-L] On Axis, Off Axis

[Evan Wallace]

Hi Deby,

 

Glad to hear you are feeling better! Robert must be feeling better too if he
is back to teaching.

 

In a recent posting, you said that both dancers should maintain their axis
100% of the time. Depending on what you mean by this, I am not sure I agree.
By "maintain axis," do you mean that a) each dancer should maintain a
consistent shape of the body (i.e., not getting all bendy and wiggly), or b)
that each dancer should maintain their *individual* balance 100% of the
time, or both?

 

I of course agree with the first proposition, but not the second. There are
many cases when both dancers are off of their individual balances, but the
couple as a whole is balanced. Consider a colgata, for example. In a
colgata, both dancers can be way off their individual balance, as evidenced
by the fact that if the dancers were to suddenly let go off each other, both
would falter and fall away from each other. 

 

To put it in physics terminology, any time the imaginary vertical line
through the center of mass of a freestanding object falls outside of the
area described by its "footprint", the body is out of balance and will fall
over. This happens all the time in the close embrace, to some degree or
another. An obvious and extreme example would be something like Gavito's
signature apilado lean, where both lead and follow are not even close to
being on their individual balance, but the couple is balanced-indeed, rock
solid. 

 

In fact, any time the close embrace is danced with even slight compression,
the center of mass of one or both dancers (depending on their relative
weight, and, I suppose, the size of their feet) is likely to be forward of
their footprint, and hence out of balance. You can test this as follows with
somebody who is willing to experiment with you. Dance around for a bit and
then suddenly freeze at some arbitrary point. Then have one of you, say the
lead, drop the embrace and step away suddenly. If the follow falters and
pitches forward so that she has to take a step to regain her balance, then
she was not on her individual balance at that point.

 

(Indeed, no biped can ever move unless it is off balance a good fraction of
the time. By definition, the act of walking is the act of continually
causing your center of mass to be forward of your supporting foot so that
you start to fall. The step you take is how you regain your balance. This
process repeats itself with each subsequent step. The same principal applies
to dancing.)

 

Every instructor I have ever talked to about this says exactly what you
said: that dancers should 100% of the time be "on their axis" or "on their
own balance." I asked Tete specifically about this when I was there, and he
said just what you said. He also said he dances with no compression between
the bodies, which would imply that both dancers could indeed always on their
individual balance. But I just simply can't believe that this must be true
as a general rule (I'm not even sure if it is actually true all the time for
Tete, but I've never danced with him, so I don't know). I, for example,
really like to dance close with a fairly strong forward compression, which
means that, in some cases, neither my partner nor I are *ever* on our own
individual balance in the course of a song. I'm not saying this is the right
way dance or the only way to dance, but rather that it is possible, and can
be extraordinarily comfortable and even relaxing. There are, in fact, many
things that can be done *only* when the individual dancers are out of
balance, the colgata and apilado lean being just two obvious examples.

 

So, if you meant only a) and not b) above, then I will quote Gilda Radner's
character, Rosanna Rosannadana, on the old Saturday Night Live skit, and say
simply, "Oh.never mind." If you meant a) and b), then I'd like to start a
lively discussion on the topic of balance and the use (or over use) of
compression, especially in the close embrace.

 

Again, glad you are feeling better.

 

Evan Wallace

Seattle, Wa
Tangoing.com