[Tango-L] Flat foot, heel first or toe first?

[Tom Stermitz]

My opinion is different.

First, smoothness in the walk is almost completely about the usage of  
the hip, knee and ankle joints rather than toe vs heel leads. To prove  
this, it is obvious that you can walk "camel" or smooth with a toe  
lead; you can walk smooth or choppy with a heel lead.

Second, I don't think many tango dancers actually use a toe lead. I'm  
not talking about stage dancers trained to present a specific  
appearance and line. I know that many tango teachers SAY "lead with  
the toe", but if you watch them they aren't actually doing that. (They  
are repeating what they think they are supposed to say.) Most tango  
dancers land with the foot flat, but their weight hits the heel first,  
then passes across the foot.

Usage of the whole foot gives the leader more control over balance and  
smoothness, as well as the ability to provide extremely subtle  
messages to the follower, such as asking her to slow down the  
collection the legs, micro decorations, and weight changes.

This is particularly true of social dancers.

As we can see from their resumes, most tango teachers from Argentina,  
notably the ones with the credentials to travel, are performance  
dancers, not social dancers. Some of them might social dance, but that  
isn't their primary interest or training.

On May 5, 2011, at 9:14 AM, HBBOOGIE1 at aol.com wrote:

> Jack
> Tango can be walked two ways.  Like a cat or a camel. The cat would be
> smooth leading out with the toe.
> The  camel would be abrupt leading with the heel. It doesn't matter  
> what we
> call it  John Wayne Cat Camel or whatever every leader steps forward  
> on his
> toe or his  heel. Watch any video and pay attention to the man’s  
> feet and
> you will see the  smoother dancers all take the toe lead the others  
> all lead
> with the heel. The  way it was explained to me is when you move  
> forward with
> the toe you can control  the length of the step to the music and  
> dance more
> smoothly. If you step forward  on your heel the step is shorter so  
> it’s
> harder to dance to slower music and be  smooth.
> Most of the close embrace BsAs style dancing is heel leads good  salon
> dancers use the toe lead. When I watch tango danced the main thing I  
> look  at is
> the man’s foot placement. If he’s dancing on his heels his movements  
> are
> quick and his feet don't seem to be in total control. Watch a man  
> leading
> with  his toes and you'll see a totally different dancer with every  
> foot
> movement  exact and in control. I'm not judging here just pointing  
> out how I see
> tango  danced.
> David
>

Tom Stermitz
c: 303-725-5963
http://www.tango.org
Denver, CO 80207