[Tango-L] basics

[Sandhill Crane]

--- On Sat, 9/18/10, sherpal1 at aol.com <sherpal1 at aol.com> wrote:

>  Something that is becoming viral in female dancers in our
> community is the sway back posture, where their chest is
> thrust forwards and their pelvis is tilted backwards, rather
> than tilted in a neutral position. 

Yes, I've seen it too and frankly it's terrible.
Often they combine it with the embrace in which their left
hand is oh-so-tenderly placed on the man's floating ribs,
and gracefully sticking out their elbow. Yikes.

I've danced with women who have that posture and embrace
(the two usually go together) and it's really difficult
for me. We're literally bumping bellies because her back
is arched and she has her hand low on my torso. I can't
say it's pleasant but maybe it's an acquired taste.

> In my opinion, one good female tango teacher would stop
> this inappropriate posture immediately which if not corrected
> will prevent the woman from advancing in her skills and will
> cause her some real back problems down the road.  

I'm pretty sure this posture & embrace is a fashion
among women, that ordinary women dancers learn
from the "alpha" females (teachers or performers).
It's a women's fashion in the same sense that platform
shoes are a women's fashion: what the men think doesn't
count for much, it's what other women think of it.

It's quite recent too, I never saw it 10 years ago
and started to become common where I live (US)
maybe only 5 years ago. I wonder who started it?

> For some reason, most male tango teachers do not pick up on
> this one very basic element of good female posture.  

I don't think there's much that male teachers can do
about it. It's going to persist until the well-known
female teachers and performers start doing something
else. I'll be glad when that happens, unless they
invent something even more awful ....