[Tango-L] How wide is the base of "The Lead Pyramid"?

[Brian Dunn]

Dear Larry, Damian, et al.

Damian wrote:
>>> ...You never *NEED* (emphasis added - Ed.) to stop a lady with your hand
for a parada mid weight or not...Does it mean that it's wrong - no, this was
taught for years and years so must be valid.  It's just that it *CAN EASILY
BE DONE* (emphasis added - Ed.) without the hand in the middle of the back
and therefore create a smoother, gentler lead
<<<

Damian, I very much appreciate the distinction you're drawing between "what
is right/wrong" and "what is necessary" for leaders to do, or to think
about, or to focus on, when trying to communicate through the "wiring" of
the lead/follow "circuit".

Sometimes in class we point out that I can get my follower to "do" something
by sticking out my tongue at her, if we have a prior conscious intellectual
agreement that me sticking out my tongue means she'll consciously "do" a
gancho/boleo/front cross step/whatever.  In most of the conversations about
"leading with xxx", or "how to lead xxx", this stick-out-the-tongue maneuver
qualifies as a successful (albeit unconventional) choice of a lead/follow
conversational element.  What apparently keeps it from being a POPULAR
choice is:
  1) this particular successful form involves a lot of things which aren't
necessary, and
  2) it has no historical validity as a commonly observed behavior in Buenos
Aires tango.

But focusing solely on 2), we must return to the effort to figure out the
fundamental nature of "lead/follow" by observing others' behavior.  But
there are so many aspects of tango communication that are NOT apparent to
observers!  Often, these aspects are not visible in conscious awareness to
the partners themselves!  While most of us probably agree that we would like
to maintain continuity in general observable form of movements (although
perhaps not worshipful imitation thereof) with the traditional choices of
tango's originators and their descendants, we often hear tango teachers
abstracting their observations of a particular move into interpretations of
what is *necessary* for the communication to succeed. This is done often by
very talented natural dancers of long traditional experience whose
considerable dance skills are not matched by an equivalent depth of insight
that would enable them to explain HOW they do what they do in a teaching
setting.  Like the tongue-sticking-out example, this process of
abstraction-from-observation can succeed on its own terms in class settings,
but involves lots of confusion between what is sufficient (due to specific
prior agreement learned in class) and what is the "minimum necessary" (due
to the predictable intrinsic qualities of two partners pursuing a shared
state of awareness from two polarized perspectives).

I appreciate that you took the time to point out that it is not "wrong" to
follow the pedagogical ideas developed in many cases by talented dancers who
genuinely sought to pass on their experience to highly motivated learners.
But I support your apparent interest in a closer investigation of what is
actually the "minimum lead necessary" to communicate across the lead/follow
boundary.  This inquiry has the possibility to lead us into very fruitful
tango explorations without hamstringing our "tango conceptual framework"
with unnecessarily cumbersome and misleading ideas about how all this
lead/follow stuff actually works.

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, CO 80302 USA
www.danceoftheheart.com
"Building a Better World, One Tango at a Time"