[Tango-L] Two of My Teaching Pet Peeves

[Tom Stermitz]

I share your two pet peeves (three if you think about it):
  - How to walk in a straight line.
  - How not to step on her feet. How not to get stepped on.
  - How to walk to the cross without going too far outside.

These are real issues for all newcomers to dance, and it is  
understandable that it would take some effort to resolve them.  
Teachers can and should figure out how to speed the learning process  
and correct bad technique earlier on. Sensible body mechanics are  
often compromised by stylistic ideas, which can even lead to injury.  
The followers back and SI joint is a weak point.

First, to sympathize with the newcomer to tango:
  - The new leader is really afraid of stepping on her, so he  
typically overcompensates.
  - Walking backwards gracefully is difficult and certainly much more  
unfamiliar than walking forward.
  - Spiraling movements (moving outside to the left of her) are much  
harder to do than walking straight forward
  - He sees the teacher's movement, but has a tendency to exaggerate it.


WALKING IN A STRAIGHT LINE

As your body moves forward, your foot should land under your center of  
balance. If she is in front of you, then you are also stepping under  
her center of balance. This is true by stupid definition: It is called  
"walking without falling over". But, there is a real reason why  
leaders have difficulty with balance and walking in a straight line.  
He is trying to avoid stepping on her, and compensates by moving his  
feet to either side. On the follower's side, she tries to overstep  
backwards to get her feet out of the way.

Solutions:

Leader needs to move forward in a natural "side walk" stride. A  
purposeful, upright, bold stride of the leader helps everything: Land  
heel-ball, end with the weight transfer with his "hips, heart and  
head" over the ball of the foot. This keeps his posture forward,  
upright and on balance. The follower's connection to his body moves  
her backward, and her feet can "naturally" float to catch her body.

Landing on the ball of the foot is a stylistic treatment, that is a  
direct contradiction of 20 or 40 years of daily walking. Maybe it's  
desirable for some versions of tango (stage, for example), but for  
regular social dancing it is so much better to work with normal,  
natural movements. If you teach a class of beginners to lead with the  
toes or ball of the foot, you will produce a class of guys worried  
about their feet and mincing across the room instead of moving their  
bodies boldly.


WALKING BACKWARDS GRACEFULLY

Walking "naturally" backwards means that the ACTIVE leg is the  
supporting leg, the one that pushes her body through space, and the  
FLOATING leg stretches downwards and back, rather than reaching.  
Reaching and engaging the butt muscles, digs into her SI joints. The  
recently popular, "culo alegre" style of arching the lower back makes  
this much worse. Maybe the 20-year old ballerina is not yet injured,  
but for normal women, the wear and tear on the back is really harmful.  
Consider also that pregnancy loosens a woman's joints, and has a  
specific impact on the SI joints.

There is a simple way to address this: Keep your heels downward,  
almost grazing the floor. A gently straight leg comes from keeping a  
soft butt, stretching the inner thigh, psoas and lower tummy, and  
stretching the achilles.

Quick survey: How many women have sore backs after a workshop weekend?
  - Do you reach back or stretch downwards?
  - Is your butt soft or tight muscles?
  - Are you trying to take big steps?
  - How's your core support?
  - Is your belly-button pulled toward your backbone?
  - Is your heel pointed downward?

Secondly, reaching way back, away from the leader disconnects the  
woman's leg from herself. She is guessing how long the stride will be,  
rather than matching the float of her leg to his forward movement. The  
most connected strides come when the leader's and follower's legs  
match speed and distance. One of the best exercises I have to discover  
this is for the follower to "almost brush his thigh" as it comes  
forward. If she can slow down her float to match his tempo, she will  
always be out of his way, and never out of connection, both internal  
and with him.


SPIRALING AND WALKING OUTSIDE (TO THE CROSS)

My pet peeve is leaders who over-lead the cross. They walk way outside  
and their movement shouts: I'M GOING TO CROSS NOOOOWWWW!". That  
habituates the followers to gross, even grotesquely exaggerated  
movements.

I know. It is popular to teach that he should lead her cross with a  
spiral. I prefer leading the cross mostly with the axis. I think of  
the leader FOLLOWING her with his spiral as he walks outside, leading  
the cross with the axis shifting slightly diagonal, and then un- 
spiraling to follow her as she moves to the cross.

Again, sympathy for the beginner is important. Walking in a straight  
line is much easier than rotational movements: spiraling, pivoting and  
ochos.  Walking to the cross introduces two difficult things at once:  
walking off to the side which has to be coordinated with a spiraling  
movement. The beginner visually picks it up the teacher's movement,  
but then exaggerates it when they try to replicate it.

My solution is to keep the walk to the cross much more gentle, more  
linear and with less twisting.



On Jan 17, 2008, at 6:27 PM, Tango For Her wrote:

> Someone wrote to me:
>
>> "keep his left foot in (one of the biggest problems out
>> there that teachers really don't fix in mostclasses!)
>> and having the follower take a smaller back
>> step than all those teachers out there LOVE to
>> teach so that they wouldn't separate from their
>> young leaders."
>>
>> Are you refering to the cross ???
>
> Not necessarily.  No.
>
> Teachers spend a lot of time teaching beginning
> leaders how to walk and go to the cross.  They spend a
> lot of time teaching followers to extend their leg, in
> doing a backstep.
>
> But, I have a few pet peeves about a lot of tango
> teachers.
>
> Look.  You want your beginning leaders and
> intermediate leaders to stop knocking their followers
> off balance?  Find ways to teach them to have their
> left foot step in front of them rather than off to the
> left.  They ALL do it!  STOP THEM!  Why go on with
> your classes if you are going to keep letting them
> step slightly off to the left with their left foot?
> ...
> Someone, PLEASE, tell me why soooo many teachers teach
> young followers to s-s-s-s-stretch their leg out,
> really far, in a backstep!!!  Is that the only way to
> teach them to have a straight knee and a beautiful
> leg?  Can't they have it with a shorter backstep like,
> say, in the same county?
> ...
> Sorry, everyone!  Those two, and a few others, drive
> me nuts!  Almost every teacher that I have seen lets
> those things go!  They are a couple of the BIGGEST
> reasons for confusion!
>
> Whew .... I'm okay. Now.