[Tango-L] Ladies Leading

[larrynla@juno.com]

Nina Pesochinsky------------------------------->
So where did the men get the naive idea that following is not having "to think or be responsible or anything but just float along and enjoy the music." ?!  [followed by some of the problems women have dancing]

"THE men"?  Gotta watch that generalizing from one man to all!  THEY are not to blame for my, ahm, crimes.

And you mean that every dance experience I have as a follower is not going to be, or even approach, the ideal experience? Darn.


buffmilonguera------------------------------->
I am surprised that you found women to be insensitive, too "fancy," etc.  I learned as a follow, and repeatedly tell new leaders, no amount of fancy steps can substitute for a warm embrace and musicality.  Not that I didn't try to learn some of the fancy steps as a new lead, but I don't worry about them very much when I am at a milonga....and certainly a lot less than some of the male leads I see/dance with.

"you found women to be insensitive, too 'fancy,' etc."

Nope.  I specifically said "MOST women" leaders.  Maybe MANY or SOME would have been more accurate, but it's the worst offenders who we remember.  As we must.  It's a leaders job to avoid the bad leaders so that we can protect our partners from them.

Women on the average likely will bring different advantages (and disadvantages) to leading.  But few are immune to the same problems most male leaders have, especially when beginning to learn leading.  One of those is dealing with a lot of sensory input from the surroundings and navigating them.

Another is wanting to give your partner a special experience, which includes fancying up the 'steps' one leads.  A "warm embrace and musicality" is certainly important, maybe more important than any other part of dancing.  But repeating the same patterns over and over again with no variety is going to bore some followers.  Also, many women I know spend a lot of time working to make whip-crack smart their boleos, ganchos, golpecitos, and such and would be disappointed not to be given chances to use them.


Chris, UK (excerpt) ------------------------------->
"I think the problem is having no clue as to the guy-guy thing that makes the ronda happen"

I've never noticed that guys were naturally all that adept at making the ronda happen, either.  Especially when beginning to dance, it's not easy to stay aware of all that's going on around us AND attend to your partner's special problems AND interpret the music etc.

In fact, women may "naturally" be better leaders. Brain function research suggests that ON THE AVERAGE women do mental time-sharing better than men, while men on the average are better at focusing all their attention on one target.

Larry de Los Angeles

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