[Tango-L] "Hiding" weight changes

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

--- robin tara <robinctara at gmail.com> wrote:

Yesterday I was assisting Reuben Aybar, here in Buenos
Aires, and we taught a man to "change weight" without his
partner feeling it, in about 5 minutes. The words "weight
change" is misleading though. What he learned was how to
change feet without his partner feeling it - his axis
remained the same. 
---

Hi Robin,

It seems to me that you are describing teaching the man to
change weight in a way that the woman ignores it, which is
a much different thing than saying that she can't detect
it.

It's not necessary, or even possible for his axis to remain
the same while he changes feet. (The axis must pass though
the weighted foot.) What matters is that her axis stays the
same while he changes feet. He does this by moving around
her axis and using a little spinal rotation to keep her on
her axis. She feels that he is not displacing her axis, so
she doesn't change weight. But she should be able to feel
his weight change, and know enough to ignore it.

The other side of that is that if he maintains his axis and
rotates his spine, it will displace her axis, and she will
change her weight, even though she can feel that he has not
changed weight.
______________________________________

I did specify a "moderately sensitive woman" as the one who
will detect any weight shift. By that I mean a woman who
can sense everything the man does, without having to
consciously think about it. I suppose that makes my
argument circular.

We have recently read from a beginner that he looks to find
his follower's foot before executing a sacada. I suppose it
would be easy to hide a weight shift from a woman of
comparable level. But why bother? Without looking, I know
where my partners feet are. I expect the same courtesy from
her.

And Keith is no beginner. He has assumed to role of a tango
expert on this list, with the explicitly stated goal of
training "world class" tango dancers. My goal is to train
competent social dancers. At the minimum, I expect my
students to always know exactly where their partner is, so
the men execute sacadas without looking at the floor, and
the women know which foot the man is on.

Sean

PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society
  Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh’s most popular social dance!
  http://patangos.home.comcast.net/
   



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