[Tango-L] variable embrace

[steve pastor]

I have come to believe that, since the term "close embrace" can mean
  several different things, it leads to a lot of confusion.
  The more erect you and your partner are when you are in your embrace,
  the closer your feet are together. The more forward "lean" there is to 
  both of your postures, the more distance there is between your feet,
  plenty enough for the woman to bring her unweighted foot across and 
  in front of herself.
  Note, too, that when the two upper bodies are parallel to each other, it is
  possible, by rotating the upper body/bodies appropriately, and changing the 
  amount of forward pressure, for the woman to feel the desire to let her leg 
  go in the indicated direction, across the front of her body.
  My experience tells me, though, that the actual physical connection that 
  I get from most partners is so weak (ie close embrace means standing 
  really close to your partner) that the woman can't feel this sort of lead. Then,
  too, there is the challenge of being able to rotate the torso more or less 
  independently of the hips, and vice versa, so that the leg can move freely
  in the direction of the woman's new balance point...
  It takes both partners being on the same page to make this work. No opening 
  of the embrace is required.
  On the other hand, if you want to open the embrace, go right ahead.
   
   
   
   
  
Carol Shepherd <arborlaw at comcast.net> wrote:
  In terms of following experience, close embrace to me pretty much means 
variable embrace. I was in a class at CITA with Naveira and he was 
coming around to each of the pairs and corrected my partner of the 
moment, who was a pretty new beginner. We were dancing more-or-less 
close embrace (having learned as a beginner in open embrace it was 
extremely close embrace to me) and my partner was trying to dance me 
into a space that my body simply couldn't occupy, for front ochos and 
for giro. Naveira told him "you have to change and make the space for 
the woman, and then you change and go back." Obviously ochos and giros 
can be made bigger and smaller (hence the stage and salon style 
discussions) but at some point the space inside of the right arm for a 
front ocho is either big enough for the follow, or it's not. Depending 
on the amount of COD moves the lead chooses to lead, there will be a lot 
of transitions in the embrace. I applaud the men with whom I have 
danced who have made this a seamless experience! :) The reality, 
however, is that this adjustment is a pretty difficult challenge for 
beginning dancers who lead, and it is not an issue in open embrace. I 
am not "advocating" open embrace over close embrace...just acknowledging 
that it is really important to teach leads the space transition for COD 
dance vocabulary and it is a lot for a beginner to handle.

-- 
Carol Ruth Shepherd
Arborlaw PLC
Ann Arbor MI USA
734 668 4646 v 734 786 1241 f
http://arborlaw.com

"legal solutions for 21st century businesses"
_______________________________________________
Tango-L mailing list
Tango-L at mit.edu
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l


       
---------------------------------
Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally,  mobile search that gives answers, not web links.