[Tango-L] Why is it so hard to walk?

[Alexis Cousein]

On 16/06/2011 23:13, Sharon Pedersen wrote:
> I've been watching some new leaders in our community, and they struggle with
> walking.  Huge steps leading with their legs, or holding themselves in an
> awkward contorted stance and walking with always-bent legs, or taking very
> wide steps when walking forwards, or being unable to coordinate to a
> relatively slow beat and having to hover the foot in the air waiting for the
> beat to catch up before putting it down.  Why is it so hard for people to
> walk?

Because walking *in an embrace* requires trust. Trust that the
follower will move out of the way, to name just one thing. Also,
if you don't tell them the embrace is not something you should break
and what that entails, they may not turn to the follower when e.g.
stepping outside and Things Will Not Work.

>
> How do you help your beginners to walk reasonably and musically?
>
With the minimum of fuss. Tell them not to bounce up and down,
keep the knees slightly flexible when the feet are joined (to avoid
being perched on stilts), to collect their feet to avoid
waggling, to watch the embrace and then walk just like they were 
strolling, and they'll do fine.

But as you can see from the list, there's enough that can go wrong...

Confuse them with things like "move like a cat/tiger/whatever" or
worse "land on the toe on forward steps so that your body moves up
and down with the strong and the weak beat of the music" and it's a
game of "if you can't beat them, confuse them".

What they do have to learn is how to lead (i.e. how to make sure
the follower gets out of the way so that they can indeed just walk).

Tricky, that, and there are even different schools of thought (I
confess I'm a minimalist there: a good connection and a small
weight transfer does wonders, but some others seem to use no weight
transfer and subtle turning, which gives the walk a different style).

All of them require careful nurturing of the embrace, though. If you
aren't communicating, you won't be understood no matter how you say
it.