[Tango-L] In tango, the woman turns around the man? was: Navigation

[Sandhill Crane]

--- On Thu, 1/13/11, Gordon Erlebacher <gerlebacher at fsu.edu> wrote:

> Alberto Paz from New Orleans taught
> us to face the wall when we start. 
> He said on our very first tango lesson 7 years ago:
> 
> In tango: the woman turns around the man, and the mean turns around the 
> floor. The implication clearly was that the dance was circular and not 
> linear.
> 
> Thanks Alberto: you had it exactly right.

I dunno. I can't really go along with this -- "In tango:
the woman turns around the man" as a general rule
or prescription of how to dance. I don't doubt that a
skillful man like Alberto Paz can make it work, but it's
not necessary, and it's very, very easily misused.

I'm sure we've all seen this scenario: a man plants
his feet on the floor and pushes his partner into ochos
or turns. It's exactly what you can expect if you tell
students "the woman turns around the man". 

Even if that mishap could be corrected with experience
or more teaching, it's simply not an important principle;
not anything you'd want to make the foundation of the
dance. It feels nicer, and incidentally takes up less
space, if the man is also turning around the woman.

We can have a whole discussion about the principles
of tango, but "the woman turns around the man" isn't
one of them.