[Tango-L] Who leads what who follows what

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Alexis,

I think you misunderstand what I meant when I said that the man must wait for the woman to finish her step before he leads the next one. I've been dancing and learning and teaching tango for years, and I've noticed that one of the biggest problems that men have in dancing tango is that they get "ahead" of the woman. What I referring to is the allowing the woman to take weight and be balanced and ready to take the next step before being pushed, pulled or otherwise manhandled into the next one. I see it all the time. For instance, the man leads the woman to do a back cross (half of an ocho) and before she's finished stepping, he's already pulling her around to do the next back cross....

Obviously, the best dance is seamless, harmonious and continuous. I do not meant to imply that dancers do a "chunky" dance. Actually I hate that and it's one of my pet peeves of teachers who teach "steps" and dancers who think that performing poses and gyrations while Piazzolla plays in the background is dancing tango. However, in order for the dance to be seamless, the man and the woman must dance in harmony. Since the man leads the steps, it's his absolute responsibility to make sure that the woman is ready to accept each step. It's not so difficult to understand this. It has nothing to do with interrupting the dance at each step or the speed of the dance movements. It is all about timing....

Cheers,

Manuel

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> Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 10:42:34 +0100
> From: al at sgi.com
> To: doug at swingfusion.com
> CC: tango-l at mit.edu
> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Who leads what who follows what
>
> doug at swingfusion.com wrote:
>> I am lead. Have been instructed to always lead very footfall of follow,
>> every weight change of follow, every boleo, gancho usw.. Follow adds style,
>> follow adds embellishment. I shape dance, she adds nuance. I lead beats,
>> phrasing, musical structure of dance. Follow works within structure to
>> create intricacy.
>
> Followers *can* be more active than this, because to lead properly is also
> to listen and to move only after you both *agree* where you're headed and
> how fast so that you can move together.
>
> Which means there's a conversation which opens the possibility
> of dialogue.
>
> For instance, most good followers will influence what you do with the musical
> structure of the dance. You won't realise it, but it'll happen (unless you're
> an insensitive leader). Followers aren't just house interior decorators, but
> *also* architects. I even happen to think that in the *really* good dances
> the follower has an almost dominant responsability with respect to how
> you're dancing to the beat of the music (or slightly behind or in front),
> and a shared responsability with respect to how the couple is
> dancing to phrases (and how pauses are wound and unwound).
>
> Some good followers will even take over the lead completely at times (the
> most oft encountered circumstance is where the follower *forces* enough time
> for something which you can see as an embellishment, but which changes
> the matching of steps to the muscial phrases, which makes it much more
> than an embellishment), which is perfectly acceptable *to me* as long as it's
> clearly communicated, but other leaders will abhor this.
>
> I happen to like dancing with extremely active followers, because it makes
> the dance more surprising and you're never on autopilot. Other leaders don't
> like to get out of their comfort zone and don't adhere to the "no guts, no
> glory" philosophy, and they may not like the lack of total control.
>
> Of course, that's all in ideal circumstances. Intricate and subtle
> leader/follower communication is only possible when there's total
> trust in both directions between leader and follower (if you're constantly
> thinking the other person will screw up, you're *not* bound to listen to some
> signals that take you in an unexpected direction, and that holds for leaders
> and followers alike).
>
>
> --
> Alexis Cousein al at sgi.com
> Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect SGI/Silicon Graphics
> --
> 
>
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