857  Female leads (Give them a chance)

Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 17:10:56 -0800
From: Trini or Sean - PATangoS <patangos@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Female leads (Give them a chance)

I have seen "follows learning to lead" go through the same things
Brian and Elemer describe. I think Elemer is right, the follows are
too busy learning about leading to follow.

Give them a break. They will learn the lead's part much faster than a
beginning lead, (because they already have experience) and in a
relatively short time, you will find that they have become much
better follows than they were before they started leading. By the
way, the same is true for leads; they only become competent by
learning to follow.

In the mean time, you've got 3 choices:
1. Let them learn to lead while dancing with you.(After all, they
help take the pressure off of the leads.)
2. Ask them to "just dance" when with you. (It really works.)
3. Don't dance with them. (There is rarely a shortage of follows.)

Here's 2 things I don't recommend:
1. Don't criticize their choice to lead (at least not in free
countries). It's their life, let them live it.
2. Don't feel threatened by their ability to lead. We all encounter
some dancers who are better than we are (Except J. C. Copes). Who
cares if they are men or women?

Sean (The mostly silent half of PATangoS)

=====
PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society
Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh's most popular social dance.
https://www.patangos.org/

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Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 13:40:17 +0100
From: Eero Olli <eero.olli@ISP.UIB.NO>
Subject: Re: Female leads (Give them a chance)

At 09:00 14.11.2002, you wrote:

>Re: Female leads (Give them a chance)

In my opinion the best women contribute a lot in a dance, but many women
find it difficult to find ways HOW to contribute. One way to move away from
the boring submissive role, is to learn to lead
1) this allows the women to get more in contact with the music and thus
later bring more of their own interpretation of the music in the dance.
2) understanding how leading works, they are able to 'see' openings in the
lead which allow for new adornos
3) they can communicate their mood changes etc. more effectively, so that I
can respond to their feelings.
4) they can lear what they can NOT do without distroying my lead.
5) they can learn can how to influence the 'soul' and feeling of a figure
directly.

Most of the dances I have had that are truly fantastic, dances that you
can't forget, but you also have no idea what actually happended... are with
women who lead well, but prefer to follow the right leader.

So, I hope that we can encourage women to lead. And yes, it will change the
way they follow. Perhaps the changes are not positive for all, and
especially in the beginning, but for some the rewards are huge! :-)

Sincerely,
Eero
eero@bergentango.no