[Tango-L] A Training Scale

[Lisa Battan]

Thank you Huck!  I'm glad you like the thread.  I do find the partnership
between horse and rider very, very similar to the partnership between tango
dancers.

However, and this is not personal to you at all:  I don't like the language
of lead and follow.  I understand very clearly what you mean and I know that
this is the popular parlance of the day.  But, I find that language very
clunky and not very descriptive of what is actually happening between dance
partners.  Follower seems to imply something very passive.  As if the
follower were only an expression of the leader's will. As if she had no
bones, muscles, or mind.  Or, as if she had no part in the creation of the
dance.

Also, the language of leader and follower also implies that there is an idea
of the leader and a delay in the execution of the follower. It doesn't
really explain how the idea of the "leader" is communicated to the
"follower."   As you point out, good communication between dance partners is
almost instantaneous.  There is no delay.  And, isn't the dance really about
communication and partnership?

Also, leader may imply someone superior.  The follower could be inferior.
But, we know that both people are needed to create that magical moment of a
dance.  So again the language of lead and follow fails us.

In describing the interaction between horse and rider, we never need to
resort to the language of leader and follower.  There is however, a lot of
discussion about communication and partnership, aids and positioning.  But,
not leader and follower.

I once heard Corina de la Rosa define leading as proposing something about
the music.  I like that description very much.  Note that it is "proposing"
and it is not dictating, forcing, telling, screaming, controlling or
commanding.  All those negatives could be associated with leading.  Further,
with proposing, then the dance partner is still left to dance and express
herself - to accept the proposal and to make it reality.


Lisa Battan
www.battanlaw.com