[Tango-L] basics - "swayback" & "around-the-lower-back-grip" in followers - origins?

[Sandhill Crane]

--- On Mon, 9/20/10, Brian Dunn <brianpdunn at earthlink.net> wrote:

> ...and once the arms race ("legs race"?;) )is underway,
> even the ones with flexibility have an incentive to push
> the envelope even further. Wannabe followers
> observe this, and a style is born.

I guess I disagree that the curvature of the back
has any structural advantage. I guess I'd be surprised
if the motivation was anything other than just the
opportunity to show off one's well-formed behind.
At this point I think we need to get some women to
join in ... maybe we guys are missing something!

> === Potential functional advantages of an
> arm-around-the-leader's-waist embrace:

I would guess it originated from the flexible
embrace practiced by tango nuevo dancers.
Maybe it's easier to just leave the hand at pretty
much the same height on the man instead of sliding
it up to his shoulder.

> As long as we're discussing style, I invite similar
> non-judgmental speculation on how the
> "waiter-serving-drinks" horizontal position of the
> leader's left hand may have evolved

Well, I think it's one of those things that just doesn't
make much structural difference, so you really can just
choose anything you like and it will work more or less.
I could hold my hand in a totally novel way, let's say
using the Vulcan hand sign, and I bet I could make it
work. (What if I went back in time a few years and said,
"Hey, I'm going to dance like I'm carrying a pizza"?
People would laugh but it would turn out to be the
next fad. Ha! That would show 'em.) So we should expect
that hand styles will change quickly, just like shirt
collars or neckties (to name just a couple of other
things that don't really matter).

If we wanted to trace the evolution of these various
fashions we could probably just look at performance
videos on YouTube. The early history of tango is lost
in the mists of time, but its recent history is very
well documented in video form. In ballroom tango, it's
known that a German couple introduced the head snap in
a competition in the 1930's (if I haven't garbled the
story). We could probably likewise identify the originators
of the arched back, the rib touch, and the waiter hand,
if we wanted to waste a few days watching YouTube.