[Tango-L] Lead and follow

[Bruno Afonso]

On 10/12/08, Jack Dylan <jackdylan007 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>  Yes, of course the man must understand the woman's role and must know
>  all her steps and pivots that he is going to lead but, IMHO, I don't think that
>  requires the man to actually be able to dance the woman's role. There might
>  be some minor advantage but we all have a limted amount of time to spend
>  on our tango and is it really time and cost effective to learn and practice in
>  the woman's role when we could spend that time learning and practicing in
>  our natural role?

You will never understand the women's role if you don't attempt to do
it in a conscious way. This is very clear to me.

I believe that after a certain initial level you will improve as a
dancer at a much higher rate if you practice following. You will
realize much faster what is happening, figure out ways to tackle
issues, become aware and conscious of both roles and actually be able
to help out followers that ask for feedback. I'd rather spend 1/10 of
my time following than 10x more practicing something that I have no
idea of what it feels like to someone else.


>  And just who will lead these men who want to learn the woman's role? I might
>  be being selfish but I'm certainly not going to spend my time and risk possibly
>  injury by leading a large, clumsy man. And one thing I am convinced of is that
>  my leading technique will not improve by leading  men; men and women are
>  just too different and I don't just mean physically.

If the man feels clumsy and large, he's not doing it right. If you
learn how to follow you will be able to tell him what he should
practice to change that. A lot of exercises can be done alone,
developing good technique. I've found working with men is a very
different practicing experience with very interesting outcomes. It has
been, in all honesty, an enlightening experience sometimes. Specially
because we drop the "be nice filter". I won't practice w/ every men
but then again, I will probably spend a lot more time practicing w/
some women than others.

The amazing dancers I admire - both men and women - are very
proficient at the non-traditional role. It's a no brainer to me.

Besides, there's nothing more sexy than a woman that knows how to lead
with style. I don't know how women feel about this though. :-)

b
-- 
Bruno Afonso
http://brunoafonso.com (personal, mostly portuguese)
http://openwetware.org/wiki/User:BrunoAfonso (Professional, english)