360  Close Embrace Cultural Style?

Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 21:20:45 EST
From: Daniel Smolen <DocDAS@AOL.COM>
Subject: Close Embrace Cultural Style?

Bravo Astrid:
Close embrace may be affected by cultural, psychological, and
temperant but certainly not strongly contrasted between the US and Argentina.
Stephen, come and dance in Philadelphia or NYC and you'll see what I mean.
If a woman doesn't know you she will not immediately offer you the intimacy
of close embrace. Prove your skill and manners, sometimes in a matter of
seconds, and she is yours!
Dan

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 10:48:29 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: embrace

I had a beginner, recently, who had taken 1 lesson, try to correct my close
embrace, "embrace". She was trying hard to get, I guess, what we're calling
a parallel frame/embrace. Everything squares right up, sternum, shoulders,
the works. She's a friend of mine, so I let her try this, but it felt really weird
to dance that way. I don't think I'm doing this "V"/45' angle thing &
definitely not doing the parallel thing anymore, ugh.

Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:44:43 -0300
From: Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Embrace
To: tango-l@mit.edu

The embrace you are referring to with the left arm hanging down was
danced here for the last 2 years. It is now on the way out. You don't
see it that much. The "new" embrace trend is to wrap the left arm around
the shoulders. (How do I explain this?) The other is to do a modified
version where the left hand rests behind the right arm and under the
shoulder.

Both embraces demand you be balanced, on your own axis, and with good
posture. Without these 3 things, with the first embrace you will hang
on the guy, be heavy, and throw him off. With the second, you will not
be able to dance. You will wobble because you cannot do this without
having balance. There is no way to use the man for your support. (Or
him you for that matter) The second posture is excellent to use when
the man is much taller.


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Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:56:02 -0700 (MST)
From: Huck Kennedy <huck@eninet.eas.asu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Embrace
To: tango-l@mit.edu

Deby Novitz <dnovitz@lavidacondeby.com> writes:

>
> The embrace you are referring to with the left arm hanging down was
> danced here for the last 2 years. It is now on the way out. You don't
> see it that much.

That sounds like a good thing to me that it is
going away, based upon my experience with it. We're
talking about "9 Puntos" on tangodesalon.de/en/evideo.htm,
right? For those who haven't seen the video and want
to, notice how her left arm cuts across his right upper
arm during most of the video. I guess this must work for
them or they wouldn't do it, but it seems to me that for
many couples, unless she is somehow miraculously using
a lot of arm strength (which many women don't exactly
have in abundance) to keep the weight of her arm from
cutting into his upper arm, he is probably going to feel
a lot of pressure as the tanda wears on.

I've actually had my right arm start to go to sleep
and get first very painful, and then numb, from this kind
of continued pressure. It can be extremely annoying, to
the point where I finally cannot go on dancing without
asking my partner to please move her arm to someplace
else, a rather awkward request to have to make at best. :(

Huck