1941  Dancing on the beat

Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 12:33:32 -0500
From: tangomaniac@JUNO.COM
Subject: Dancing on the beat

I've read a lot of postings about dancing on the beat. There were some
comments about
the woman being behind the beat. I haven't read anything about how to
lead so I'm going
to try to fill the gap. I won't say there is only one way to lead because
that will start a flame war.
So instead, I offer how I lead.

First, I can only dance close embrace. Open position is very difficult
for me because I'm
not connected to my partner. A bad connection leads to poor
communication. For me,
there's NO figure worth doing if I have to go to open position. I don't
want to give up the
connection, the passion, the chemistry. Relaxing the embrace a little for
a difficult figure
is fine but if have to separate, it's not worth it.

That said, my upper body has to move first so my partner feels my
intention. Previous posts
weren't clear about the man moving on the beat. The word moving implies
he is moving his
foot before he moves his upper body. Women follow the chest, not the
leader's pelvis (
as in ballroom), not the leader's foot. Both partners can be on beat if
the leader moves his
upper body BEFORE the beat so both partners step on the beat. The man is
only a small
fraction of a second behind the woman. As Carlos Gavito said "I lead but
I follow."

For followers, their weight can only be on one foot. Which one? The one
the man puts them on.
With their weight forward they should move the foot that is free when she
feels the lead.
A lot of women who dance ballroom who cross over to Argentine Tango have
the difficulty of
adjusting their frame from leaning backwards to leaning forwards. I can
tell when I'm dancing
with a ballroom dancer. She feels the lead, and leans backward without
moving.

One issue that hasn't been directly discussed is that for some dancers,
figures are
more important than musicality. It's execute the figure. If the execution
is on the beat,
that's a bonus! I remember when I started taking lessons, I was on a
mission. Whatever I
learned Saturday at Noon had to be executed that night at a milonga.
Nevermind the music, the
woman's skill, execute the figure. I couldn't understand why the
execution at Noon didn't work at 10 pm. Answers are 1) I didn't
understand the figure as well as I thought and 2) Performance anxiety
(Now I REALLY understand the similarity between sex and tango, LOL.) It
took me a long time to
learn that the first goal is chemistry, connection, and passion.
Intricate figures are a
method to express chemistry, connection, and passion.

A few weeks ago, I posted a message asking women to respond to "What do
you want in
partner." The results will be posted in "La Voz del Tango." All the
results aren't in but so far, the
answers haven't changed since I wrote my original article for "La Voz" in
1999. Musicality remains
one of the factors. NOT a single woman, at least so far, wrote "figures,
figures. Give me more figures!!"

If either partner is stiff, the muscles tense and you restrict your
freedom of movement. Last night,
I saw Tango Mujer. Valeria Solomonoff did a solo using fantastic
flexibility. She had to be soft
and relaxed. I remember dancing in New York with Rebecca Shulman at a
Tango Mujer milonga
at the purple door. (Yes, the door is purple.) What a treat!! (for me
that is.) She was very soft. In
fact I said to her, "Rebecca, dancing with you is like a knife going
through hot butter." She looked into
my eyes and said "Who's the knife."


Michael Ditkoff
Washington, DC
Coming to NY next week for 5 nights of dancing