[Tango-L] Who leads what, who follows what

[WHITE 95 R]

> From: doug at swingfusion.com
> To: Tango-L at mit.edu

> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Who leads what, who follows what
>

> Regular partner & I dance tango maybe 12 hours per week for 1 year now.  600
> hours?  Sounds right

That's a tremendous amoint of time. I congratulate you for your dedication to learning tango :-)

> so I
> still suck and she kicks butt.  It’s nice she dances with me.  Anyway, I
> learn mostly by leading and seeing what partner does.  

I think that you would benefit greatly from taking private lessons from a good teacher. If you still "suck"after all this work and practice, I'd suggest a different method for  your improvement since you feel that you still dance poorly after all this time.
>
> I asked question because also I learn by partner executes step & I feel how
> her body moved.  Then I try to adjust lead to move her in same way I felt.
> So she moves and I listen to her body.  We sometimes dance like this too.  I
> didn’t know if this was ever part of real tango.

What you describe is ideally how tango is danced. You seem to have a very good idea of what to do.
>
> Oh.  And for Manuel.  As jazz drummer, I don’t always dance to beat of
> music.  Sometimes I comp, but I also do fills or play a line against the
> music.  Maybe I dance 3 against 4, or 5 against 8 (5 equal steps in 8 beats
> of music).  But _only_ with regular partner who gets it.  Other women want
> to fight my timing.  They think I’m clueless and can’t find the beat.  Oh
> well.  Jazzers can be a real mess.

I love Jazz too and I think I understand what you are talking about how the jazz musicians play in a sort of counterpoint. I also hear how jazz musicians play with the timing of music and sometimes change the 4x4 in to something else (think Brubeck). However, I think that trying to dance like a jazz soloist does while the rest of the group plays the underlying music is a very difficult and advanced thing to try to do. I totally understand your desire to express yourself in your own way. I certainly wont try to tell you that you are wrong and you should dance like I do. 

>
> Thank you again for your kind replies.
>
> D
>
You are welcome,

Manuel
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