[Tango-L] Where are her feet and where is her weight?

[Dubravko Kakarigi]

Okay Mario:

First, dancing tango is not a cerebral activity. If you end up thinking what you are doing or what you will or want to do as you dance, it's already too late and you loose the impact of both the music and your partner.

So, where is the magic trick? It is in dancing, dancing, dancing and experiencing the dance, number 1. I hope you do not expect to become a good dancer in six months or any predetermined amount of time. Everyone is different. Continuous dancing will let you start feeling where your partner is at all times without thinking about it. There are times when you will feel ambiguous about where she is with her balance so then you make one or two little mini steps or just change your own weight to (re)establish the balance or knowledge of where she is exactly. Never, ever rush into a step without being reasonably sure that your partner can actually participate in it. If you are not sure, do those mini steps or weight changes (btw, I consider those to be steps), so that if she is not on the foot you think she is on, you will feel it without crashing. It is of crucial importance to know both where your partner's axis and her "free" foot are (as someone else
 mentioned here).

Perhaps you will feel a need to start dancing some more complicated sequences or advanced steps fearing that your parters will get bored. Don't! Make sure that you dance to the music from the get-go. Add bits to your dance as you improve, but do not rush. Just about any dancer worth dancing with will appreciate you dancing musically even if in a very simple way. If you dance to the music with pausing (by all means do pause when music asks for it, but pausing does not equal stopping) every dance will be different because every tango is different from the next. Even if you "just walk," there is plenty of possibilities in just walking (change of front, change of direction) to make it interesting. 

Number 2, do not "plan" a "sequence" as you dance. On a crowded floor you will almost never be able to dance it anyway. As a related notion, do not concern yourself with what you want to do, but rather what you'd like your partner to do. Then make it possible by placing yourself adequately.Remember that in tango, from the outside, it is the woman who shines and you support it. But, by all means make sure that she is comfortable in your arms--no surprises until you are sufficiently good to make novel steps so natural for you partner so that they are no longer surprises.

Number 3, practice on your own, do over and over the exercises which improve your balance under various conditions (these are not steps but exercises). This is like doing scales for a musician. Those exercises are done daily regardless of your overall level of dancing. Muscles eventually learn what to do to put your body in a desired position. Perhaps some day I will videotape various exercises I do on my own whenever I have a chance--sometimes adding new ideas to them--and share with the list ...

Number 4, listen to lots of tangos music all the time you can. This will help you build up, what I call, "tango attitude." And that "attitude" must be genuinely yours and will add to your appeal as a dance partner. It goes without saying that listening to music will also help you dance better to it.

There is more but gotta stop at some point.

...dubravko 
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seek, appreciate, and create beauty
   this life is not a rehearsal
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