[Tango-L] How many figures do you need?

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

I can't fault guys too much for trying to learn new figures.  Heck, I try to learn new ornaments all the time.  As a follower, I'll get a much wider variety of steps than a man will at a milonga.  That could by why the male/female responses are as they are.  When I decide to lead at a milonga, I'm always thinking "what else can I do?"  Women may just take this variety for granted instead of realizing how hard it is for man to develop his dance.  I find it more difficult for me to express myself fully as a leader than as a follower.  Not sure how much of that is skill-related versus the roles of the partners.

It's nice that men really think about making the dance interesting for the women and that they compete with each other in one form or another.  As with anything else, it's about finding a good balance.  So I don't think anyone should be pooh-poohing learning figures just because it's learning figures.  Learning figures at the expense of partner connection, though, would be bad.

Trini de Pittsburgh


--- On Sun, 5/17/09, roger <roger at websa.com.au> wrote:

> From: roger <roger at websa.com.au>
> Subject: [Tango-L]  How many figures do you need?
> To: tango-l at mit.edu
> Date: Sunday, May 17, 2009, 2:13 PM
> I have just read all the emails on
> 'How many figures do you need?' .  The
> response seem to reflect the remarks made about making
> love. The males seem
> all obsessed on "How many" and female response is one of
> "It's not how many,
> but what you do with them." (Replace "many" with "big" and
> you see my
> point). It seems to get back to the fact that males think
> of performance,
> females of connection.