[Tango-L] Suggested Leads

[Alexis Cousein]

Tango For Her wrote:
> 1b. I believe that, most of the time, we as leaders,
> determine a direction and feel for a movement and use
> cues to suggest that our follower begins her movement.
>  Then, we move in concert through that movement,
> generally, desiring to not get ahead of her through
> that movement, unless the move calls for "getting
> ahead of the follower".  

If taken like that, all leads should be suggested leads.

But it's more than just "suggestion". The way you suggest
is by moving where you want to move to. Then you encounter
resistance (or rather, the inertia of the follower) and
the rest is indeed movement in concert. There's nothing
artificial yuo have to "do" to suggest. It's all a matter
of timing and of finesse.

But I still think it's dangerous to overemphasize this
"suggestive" aspect. I see lots of suggested leads that are not
suggestions at all, but an invitation to guessing.

I also think that these finer points can only be learnt over
the years. It's certainly not beginner's stuff.

 > Thus, the three stages of a step as
 > presented in many classes: I suggest, she steps, I
 > step.

It's again a dangerous way to present things; there's no
such thing as three discrete steps following each other.
Even within a step, there is a continuous play of suggestion
and listening whether the follower actually accepts the
invitations; the most obvious example is how much room
you're leaving for the follower to fill.