457  Keeping men & experienced follows/beginning leads

Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 15:47:19 -0800
From: Trini or Sean - PATangoS <patangos@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Keeping men & experienced follows/beginning leads

My experience over the past couple of years as an
instructor and milonga host has led me to develop
several techniques specific to keeping men more
involved in tango. Attracting them to the dance is
less of an issue. With these techniques I haven't had
to recruit experienced leads to gender balance a class
nearly as much as I used to.

For teaching, I break the dance down into its simplest
elements, which involves "movements" as opposed to
"steps". Explaining how a particular technique
supports a movement (a step or a pivot) or
communicates that movement to a partner gets the leads
much more involved intellectually, thus encouraging
them to learn more. Helping them thoroughly
rationalize a movement motivates them to try to
perfect it physically. I try to keep in mind that
tango basically started as a street dance that anyone
could do.

It also helps to teach leads something simple that is
fun for the follows, like stepovers or those little
wiggles. Get her to smile with delight and he feels
great!

Another big winner has been to mentor leads - but
carefully. Arguments with my husband when we were
learning have taught me to approach constructive
criticism with men gently, positively, and with lots
of encouragement. But when they see me investing so
much time with them, they tend to work harder
themselves. I can't do that with every lead but it's
made a big difference in getting the most promising
ones to stay involved - and get their friends
involved.

Hopefully some new ideas for folks. As for
experienced follows with beginning leads? I love
dancing with beginners because it gives me a chance to
relax and not be always "on". I can isolate my
technique better and practice doing ornaments (which
makes it fun for him, too!).







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