[Tango-L] Fwd: Women as wild horses that need to be broken?

[Brick Robbins]

I got this commentary in a weekly newsletter from our local Tango
School here in San Diego (the one that has a teachers training
program.) I found it somewhat amusing, so I thought I'd share it with
the list, especially those who object to followers being compared to
non-human things.

And I'd like to clarify that these are not my opinions, just something
I thought I'd forward for the entertainment value.

Enjoy!

(I truncated it to meet the 5K limit for this list)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: el_mundo_del_tango <el_mundo_del_tango at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 6:58 AM

INTRO – "FOR THE FOLLOWER"

Last week I wrote about improvisation for the leader, so this week it
makes sense to write about the follower's side of the story.

Sometimes when teaching a follower I find that it is necessary to
work on the "auto-ocho" habit. Like a wild bronco that needs to be
broken, these followers become runaway horses when led forward from
the cross. This phenomenon manifests itself as a series of un-led
forward ochos that spiral out of control. On occasion, I will stand
there unmoving as the follower commits forward ocho after forward
ocho while I patiently wait for her to finish.

Horse trainers have developed techniques for breaking wild horses
which requires the tying up of a bronco to a barn or tree until it is
too tired to fight anymore. I haven't heard of such techniques being
used in tango, but it could be a possible last resort. When a leader
is a victim of "auto-ochos" all he can do is sit there and wait for
the follower to finish and then give her a nice, warm smile.

The reason that these `auto ochos' occur is because the some of us
teachers have not trained our students to follow properly.
Unfortunately, ochos are often learned as patterns and the follower's
technique is not addressed in enough detail.

To make matters worse, bad habits can be learned from leaders.
Sometimes leaders will push the follower and give them the mistaken
impression that pushing is the correct lead. So when a gentleman
doesn't push when leading a forward ocho and uses the correct lead
based on turning his upper body and committing clear weight changes,
the follower is sometimes unsure of what she is supposed to do.

On the other hand, some leaders have a very weak lead. During the
execution of a forward ocho many of these leaders don't rotate their
upper body to the right, so the follower doesn't have enough room to
step. In response some followers can develop a bad habit of forcing
their way through the forward ocho. In this manner they become
accustomed to ignoring the lead and dancing by themselves.

Herein lies the agony of being a follower. The question is… if the
man doesn't lead properly should she help by completing the step for
him? My answer is… NO!!! It is human nature to want to please your
partner and sometimes we feel that it is not unreasonable to give in
to the temptation. Just remember the consequences will lead to bad
habits for him and probably for you.

So lets analyze what it takes to be a good follower.

A woman must give up any attempt to guess what the next step of the
dance will be and live in the present. Her biggest concern should be
to determine which leg is free to step... Please let me explain…
When a leader places a follower's weight on one leg, a good guideline
states that the woman controls her standing leg and the man controls
the free leg. The follower needs her standing leg to keep her up,
but she has the ability to give control of her free leg to the
leader.

So whenever the leader puts the follower's weight on one leg (lets
say in this instance the right leg) her other leg (in this case the
left) will be the one that will takes the next step. Therefore in
this example, when the man leads the woman to walk backwards… the
first leg to step backwards will be the free one, the left leg. If
he leads her to the side then the first leg to step to the side will
also be the left one. ETC… So the free leg (the one with no weight)
will always be the stepping leg and the follower will never have to
guess which leg to step with. If this concept is understood then it
should really take a load off the follower's mind.

If a follower can stay in the present and focus on these weight
changes, then she can free up her mind so that she has time to focus
on musicality and proper technique. A woman must focus on what is
important. These weight changes are much more important than
thinking about whether she is good enough to follow the leader, or
whether or not her stomach is showing through her dress, or whether
or not she knows enough adornos, or whatever. Just start by focusing
on weight changes. Then if you can ignore all the other voices in
your head… you will have time to focus on musicality and technique.