[Tango-L] Way too much kicking

[Huck Kennedy]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Trini y Sean (PATangoS)
<patangos at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> --- On Wed, 3/25/09, Tango Society of Central Illinois <tango.society at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Mario has a point. Paula may adapt her dance to floor conditions, but what are the women observers learning from the demonstration? Are they
>> thinking 'This is an exhibition. I would never do this on a social
>> dance floor.' Or are they thinking 'This kicking is so cool. I wish I
>> could do that', and they won't have the opportunity to give an
>> exhibition defined as such so instead they will do their exhibition on
>> the social dance floor.
>
> I'm sure that not every woman there was an idiot.  I'm sure there were women watching who do when the appropriate time is to some high kicks.

     I'm curious, Trini, just when is this "appropriate" time, other
than on the stage?  I don't see how these particular kicks are ever
appropriate on the social floor with any appreciable amount of people.
 At least not at any milonga I'd ever consider attending.

> But I don't see the point of withholding this type of information.

     What is the point of teaching something that is arguably never
appropriate to the social floor?  Unless the class is specifically
labelled exhibition tango.  I seriously doubt that's the case in this
instance, judging by the text accompanying the video.  It appears to
be this couple's regularly scheduled local tango class, ostensibly for
the purpose of teaching people how to dance tango at milongas.

> Unless, of course, you never want a woman to learn to be expressive, learn new ways of controlling her body, or perhaps learn to hear the music differently.

     So anything goes in the interests of self-expression and hearing
the music differently?  That includes shrugging one's shoulders in
time with the music, swaying back and forth as if one were at a cowboy
hootenanny, or, say, humping the man's leg on the dance floor to
express the randy passion one is feeling at the moment?

> And if a woman does kick too much on the social dance floor, IT'S THE MAN'S FAULT FOR LEADING VOCABULARY THAT ALLOWS HER TO DO THAT.

     Oh dear.  With all due respect to the many fine postings of yours
I've enjoyed over the years, Trini:  What an utterly silly notion.
The leader was not leading the kicks in this video in any way, shape
or form whatsoever.

     The man shouldn't lead anything allowing her to do that?  The
leader in the video is doing nothing more than leading simple tango.
How is that "allowing" the kicks?  What is the leader supposed to do,
put chains and shackles on her legs to prevent such kicking?  What can
he do, other than dump her right there on the floor and run away for
dear life, hoping not too many people noticed him dancing with her?

> Don't be so quick to negatively judge a woman's ornaments when you have no idea the work a woman has to do in order to execute an ornament well.

     Say what?!?

Huck