[Tango-L] tweaking lower back

[Lois Donnay]

Very interesting, since my experience mirrors this. Before and during my 
first trip to BA, 10 years ago, my back would often hurt. Then I started to 
learn how to hold my head up, fix my spine and posture, and I now know that 
tango shouldn't hurt. When it does, it's a sign that I'm falling into bad 
habits.

What saddens me is how so many people blame their partners for their back 
problems, when it is fairly apparent (to me, anyway) that they need to fix 
their own posture. It is often used as an excuse to never dance with 
beginners - but I don't think you can call yourself a good dancer if you can 
only dance with good dancers. I mean, of course people should be able to 
dance with whoever they can get to dance with them, but I would like them to 
admit that they are doing it because they themselves have not yet fixed 
their dancing, and not because a potential partner isn't yet ready to 
correct it for them.

Lois Donnay
Minneapolis, MN


> I'm surprised and yet I'm not surprised that so many people seem to have 
> lower
> back problems attributed to Tango. I'm surprised because of my own 
> personal
> perspective. In my pre-Tango days I had lower back surgery twice for 3 
> ruptured
> discs - L3, L4 and L5. Even between and after the surgeries I had constant
> niggling back pains despite numerous physio exercises. I still remember my 
> first
> visit to BsAs in 1997 - I wore a back-support every day of the 6-weeks I 
> was
> there. But, since then, touch-wood, I've never had a back pain. To me, 
> Tango
> is like the perfect exercise for anyone with lower back problems. As Huck 
> says -
> posture is the key and, for me, the disassociation between the upper and 
> lower
> body resulting in the constant spiralling of the spine is like perfect 
> therapy for
> the back. Add in the Tango walk - squeezing the thighs and buttocks and I 
> can
> almost feel my lower back being strengthened and stabalized.
>
> So, then, why am I also not surprised that many people do have lower back
> pains attributed to Tango? It's posture. When I see guys  with their head
> projected forward, shoulders hunched forward or bending forward at the
> waist, I think, my god - what are they doing to their back. IMHO, when
> dancing Tango, the body should be straight but tilted forward, stomach in,
> chest up and out and shoulders down. That's it. Oh yes, chest up and
> shoulders down comes from a contraction of the big, mid-level back muscles
> [trapezius?], which must be engaged.