[Tango-L] The Lead Pyramid

[larrynla@juno.com]

A lot of discussions in forums such as this one involve taking sensible 
statements to ridiculous extremes.  For instance, "Don't lead with 
hands too much" becomes "Don't lead with hands AT ALL."  It's all part 
of the human tendency to convert the rich rainbow complexity of reality 
to barren black-and-white oversimplification.

Leading and following uses a hierarchy of requests and replies to those 
requests.  The layers of requests/replies might be arranged in a 
pyramid.  At the base would be leads by the torso, the part of the body 
that includes the center of gravity.  We use this to request movement 
in straight lines, forward and back, side to side, and diagonals.  
Maybe 60-80 percent of all leads are at this level, so it would be the 
widest part of a diagram of leads.

Above this is leads that use the shoulders.  These are requests to turn 
to one side or the other.  Curving our path around the floor are at 
this level.  Ocho leads are too.  So are molinete leads.  Shoulder 
leads are in addition to torso leads.  They modify torso leads.  They 
are used less frequently than torso leads and so would be a narrower 
layer of the lead pyramid diagram.

Next come the less frequent arm leads, and the even rarer hand leads.  
Each level of lead requests are less often needed, and each 
progressively refines the lower level.

So one rule resulting from the pyramid of leads is "Never use hands to 
lead a movement if you can use arms (or shoulders, or the torso) to do 
it."  This does not mean hands are never needed.

One example where hands are essential is when we lead a parada in the 
middle of a back ocho.  Here we have to separate our torsos at the end 
of the movement.  One hand is used as a brake on the back of our 
partner, the other to block them from moving forward.  Our two hands 
oppose each other, pushing gently but firmly in opposite directions to 
freeze our partner in place with legs apart and weight on both feet.

Often after a parada we will then go into another movement.  We might, 
for instance, sandwich our partner's front foot with ours.  Or step 
across her front foot and use our free foot to sweep her front foot.  
Or use any number of leads that use a foot, calf, or thigh against her 
foot, calf, or thigh.

Which brings us to the fact that in tango, unlike any other dance I can 
think of offhand, we use not only upper-body leads but also lower-body 
leads as well.  But that's another subject.


Larry de Los Angeles
http://ShapechangerTales.com - site for Immortal Shapechanger series



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