[Tango-L] Men dancing with men

[Bruce Stephens]

"Sergio Vandekier" <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com> writes:

[...]

> The false premise here is that men practiced with each other as
> followers to become better leaders.
>
> The truth was : Men had to practice with each other because there
> were no women to do it with.  If doing the follower's part made them
> better leaders that was an added bonus but not the purpose of this
> practice.
>
> They practiced as followers to give a partner the chance to do his
> leading part knowing that later it would be his turn to lead. No man
> practiced as a follower to then be able to dance as a follower
> either. They sometimes do it in exhibitions.

Doesn't it seem plausible to you that that state of affairs would have
created a dance which is in some ways suited to learning in that way?
(That is, if tango evolved in an environment where almost all leaders
first learned to follow, that that might have created a dance which
would be easier learned like that?)  

(Of course, that environment would also mean that beginners (taking
whichever role) would always be dancing with relatively competent
dancers of the other role.  That might encourage some aspects of a
dance, which you might seek to reduce if beginners routinely tried to
dance with each other.  I'm not sure which would be a more significant
factor.)

> Men then always danced as leaders at the milongas, they never intended
> to dance as followers.

Sure, I don't think anyone claims otherwise.

What I've heard is that it's valuable for men to learn to follow, in
order to lead better.  (I haven't heard the obvious analogous claim
made for women.  Not nearly as often, anyway, and never with such
confidence.)

I think I found it valuable; however, I fully acknowledge that that
doesn't really constitute convincing evidence for the claim.  (I might
well be incorrect, and even I'm right that would only indicate that
it helped me.)

> There is a big difference between what was/is done by men and what
> we are discussing here which is women dancing as leaders at the
> milongas.

Sure.