[Tango-L] Lead an invitation that can be ignored or fought‏

[Sergio Vandekier]

Dear Mario,

             I want to congratulate you on your accomplishments, it was only yesterday that you were asking guidance on how to lead and now, look at you !, you can predict the future of tango lead and follow in North America.

I guess we can agree about certain elements:

1- Couple Dance technique requires the existence of a leader and a follower.

2- Historically the leader has been the man and the follower has been the woman.

3- One of the characteristics of dance is to move in a harmonious way throughout the floor. Lots of technique and practice are needed in order to acquire the necessary skills to achieve this goal.

4- To have a follower that ignores or fights the leader sounds somewhat absurd.

5- A good tango has to be wished by both the leader and the follower.  When a leader does not like to dance with a particular follower he does not ask her to dance

6- If a lady does not wish to follow a particular leader all that she has to do is refuse to dance with him. 

7- There is a masculine and a feminine role in tango dancing.

8- These roles may be exchanged:  Women leading women, women leading men, men leading other men.  In these  instances the respective roles may be assumed or not, resulting in this last instance in a "feminine" woman leading or a "masculine" man following, for instance.

A few years ago I was with Nito and Elba at CITA (Cosmotango). We had to give a lesson in the morning and another one in the evening;  there was plenty of time in between which I decided to use to take all sort of "unusual" Tango lessons.

So I took  " Milonga Candombera" from Facundo and Kelly,  "Milonga Murguera" and "Teatrical Tango" from Eduardo Capussi and Mariana Flores, a lesson where the woman could ask for extra time to perform her embellishments (by pressing slightly the man's arm) and one given by Chicho Frumboli

where the man lead the woman to do the man's foot work while he was doing the woman's.  A great exercise for your mind.

Summary: Many changes and experimentations are possible, you may choose the way you wish to dance.  There are certain things that sound absurd and will not travel too far.

Best wishes, Sergio

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