[Tango-L] Mars, Venus, Violins, etc

[lgmoseley@aol.com]

I suspect that most of the disagreements which have surfaced in the discussions of Mars, Venus, Violins, etc. arise largely because some participants do not distinguish between, on the one hand, dancing and, on the other, learning to dance. The distinction is important. Some Tango groups make progress only when they move from defining themselves as a dance class to defining themselves as a dance club.

 

When you are learning, you need all the help that you can get - verbal descriptions, mantras, exercises, demonstrations, supervised Practicas, unsupervised Practicas, videos - and there are probably many more. That is the stage at which the analysis, the breaking the dance down into its tiny components, is most important. Even then, the flash of insight often occurs only when one does something with an experienced partner. For example, it is at this stage that it is often useful for a man to dance the lady's part and to discover what it feels like to be led. One hopes that eventually the feeling will transfer itself to muscle memory and you do things without thinking about them.

 

When you are dancing, that conscious learning ceases to be the central focus. You then become just half of a couple. For the man, ideally you are connected to your partner and you just move - and she moves with you. Some times she will do what you expected and intended. At other times she will surprise you. When it is going well, she will both surprise and delight you.

 

Thus, it is not a question of either technique or feeling - it is both. The technique must come first - largely because most of us are not born with the natural ability to walk on the balls of the feet, to soften the knees, to 'collect' or brush the knees, to swivel on one leg, or master all the other elements which are needed. Once you have those skills, but only then, it becomes intuitive and you can concentrate on feeling for and with your partner.

 

Perhaps the recent discussion has been stimulated by the participants having had different experiences. Some ladies will have danced with men who are, in all innocence, bullies – they try to push or pull their partner into a movement which they intend (often an inappropriate movement which they have learned at a recent class). Some of the men will have danced with ladies who, again in all innocence either cannot or do not respond to subtle hints (changes of body motion or angle, slight movements of the shoulders, tiny lifts or drops, etc.) and they feel that they have to be more forceful. In both cases, a little patience (or some quiet work at a Parctica) will usually make the problem go away.

 

So, rather than complaining about your partner, try to think what you can do to make the dance more enjoyable for them. After all, you can usually do more about your problems than you can about theirs.

 

Laurie (Laurence)

 

Feliz Navidad a todos, y brazos tangueros

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