[Tango-L] Getting to Expert - or, Do you Work on your Axis?

[Caroline Polack]

I had to laugh - Henry Miller, physics of axis et al.

It's true, speaking as a woman, I find myself fighting all those technical 
terms because my dance partner is an engineer so it's the only language that 
he seems to understand. Just dance, I would tell him, stop trying to break 
down every single step into a mathematical equation because otherwise you 
would lose the essence of what Tango is all about.

I feel the more analytical he gets about the steps, the further away he 
becomes from the feel of what the steps are about. The last class we were 
in, I hissed at him because he spent a half an hour asking the teachers to 
explain the "double step" that the women would do to adjust when the man 
leads forward with his left leg. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. 
(It was literally, "so, you have to breathe in, pause and then lead forward 
with your left leg? Or do you pause then breathe in, relax then lead with 
the left leg or is it breathe in, pause, then lead with the left leg? Can 
you show me again but really slowly, please? In fact, could you count out 
each step?"  It went on and on and on like this, I was on the verge of 
throttling him. I have actually told him that from now on, he's only allowed 
five minutes of questions in class or I would never go with him again.

Other people in the class were starting to give him dirty looks because he 
was monopolizing the teachers' time away from teaching the other steps that 
we were supposed to learn that day. Finally, I had to step in and say to the 
teachers that I will help him figure it out and to please continue with 
their lessons.

Last night, when we practiced, I had to stop everything and exchange roles 
with him so that I was the man and he was the woman just so I could show him 
how to lead because he was getting so caught up in the technical that I felt 
as though we were robots being programmed to do such and such exactly.  By 
playing the leader, I was able to show him the more natural and sensual 
movements of pivoting a woman, of guiding her to where he wants to go with 
his shoulders, with the slight pressure of his hand on her back, of leaning 
over just slightly as if to walk again the wind.
He was very embarrassed that I forced him to follow but after a few songs, 
he began to understand in ten minutes what the last six months had failed to 
teach him - which is Tango is a sensual dance between a man and a woman, 
done in time to music. Everything else will follow with practice and 
improved body memory.

Keep it simple, silly.

Caroline

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