[Tango-L] Four Layers of Tango Learning

[WHITE 95 R]

David,

You've hit upon a very important issue. In tango, next to learning how to 
move yourself, you (as the man) need to learn to impart your intention 
(lead) to the woman. This is one of the most difficult things to teach. It's 
probably not that your teachers are not good at communicating how to lead 
the steps. It's rather that it's very hard to make someone else feels what 
one feels when leading.It's a liitle bit like trying to describe a color to 
a person blind from birth. Or better yet trying to explain to somebody how 
to ride a bicycle.....

We've been teaching people to dance tango for nearly 15 years. Over this 
time I've tried all sorts of stratagems to impart the "leading" technique to 
beginning men dancers (and a few women as well). There is no single thing 
that will do the trick. Some guys seemingly learn by osmosis, some listen, 
watch and do it, some never quite get it. Sometimes "leading" the guys to 
move a step in a given direction will help them. I'm continually saying to 
the leaders to "lead the woman, make sure she's received the lead and then 
follow her". Really, the key to it is to recognize that the man is always 
following the woman after each lead he imparts to her.

The devil is in the details. How do you lead something? Is it with your 
hands? Is it with your chest?.... It is with the totality of your body, as 
you learn to move your body through space, you learn to move in a way that 
allows you to give your partner a direction and a subtle yet undeniable 
impulse to move where you need her to go. This lead comes from your core and 
it's transmitted through your arms and chest. The woman then takes this 
"lead" and transmits it from her hands and chest through her body to her 
legs and feet.... Then she moves and you move along with her to finish that 
step before you lead the next one. One thing is for sure, you never lead 
with your feet as in starting to step yourself in a given direction before 
the woman has begun to move.....  That usually results in  either the woman 
getting stepped on or being run over (or both). Once you've gotten a fair 
command of leading, your tango will take a huge leap forward in skill and 
enjoyment.

I think this is a pretty clear and accurate explanation of leading (and 
following). However, I doubt that it would do much  more good than whatever 
your teachers have said or done or tried to do in order to teach this.  This 
is just one of those things that must be experienced and integrated by each 
person...


Cheers,

Manuel


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>From: <dchester at charter.net>
>To: Stephen.P.Brown at dal.frb.org, Tango-L at mit.edu
>Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Four Layers of Tango Learning
>Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:19:38 -0400
>
>Steve,
>
>Thanks for taking the time to reply to me.  I think I understand what you 
>are refering to.  When discussing tango with my wife, I have been refering 
>to this as either the geomtric or analytical aspect of the dance.  There 
>are lots of way to model things, and your model makes as much sense as 
>anything I've heard thus far, and it appeals to the analytical side of my 
>personality (although I'm a beginner so my thoughts probably don't mean 
>very much).
>
>For me, the hardest thing about understanding Tango has been the leads.  
>Most teachers I've encountered (thus far) are good at teaching steps, but 
>not good at communicating how to lead the steps.  I still haven't really 
>figured out if leading is more of a science (technical) or an art (but it 
>seems like there should be a way to explain/teach this without taking a 
>year).  For me that's the biggest problem I have with tango.
>
>If someone could come up with a model for how to lead, they'd get a lot 
>more men to stick with it.
>
>Regards,
>
>David

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