[Tango-L] Woman's Left Arm Position

[Keith]

 Hi List,

 Recently, Javier and Andrea were in town to teach some classes and it was fantastic. Javier is brilliant. But now, many of the
 girls are imitating Andrea’s left arm position, which is with her left hand low down around the man’s back. You can see it in this
 video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZco_X7shs

 Now I know that it’s the girls’ choice, but I find this position very uncomfortable, especially when they put weight on my right
 arm. I also don’t understand its purpose as it also looks uncomfortable for the girl.

 In addition, one of our resident teachers-on-the-dance-floor is telling my beginners to put their left hand in this position so that
 … “they can feel his lead”. So now the man is supposed to be leading with his back?

 I know I’m an old fuddy-duddy and lose track of all these modern dancing techniques, so can somebody explain the purpose of
 this arm position. One of the problems with being the dance teacher is that I'm supposed to know everything, so I can't ask
 anyone here exactly what Andrea said in her ladies class :-).

 Keith, HK