3617  Elephants, lead and styles.

Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 16:50:13 +0000
From: Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Elephants, lead and styles.

To discuss tango styles was never in my mind but it was prompted by
something that was well described by Alberto in his metaphor about the tango
elephant.

It was a period when everyone described only a part, his part of the whole
thing.

Somebody would say you dance chest to chest, button to button, another
person would say you dance in a V frame the man placing his right nipple on
the woman's chest bone, no way! somebody else would interject, you dance
with some separation.

You walk on two parallel lines and step flat with your foot. No sir, you
step on one line and land on your toes when you do it. Ha!, no way! man, you
always step landing on your heel in a natural way.

Or you lead with your chest. I never heard such a thing I lead with my arms
and hands, no way guys, you lead by doing a counter motion, Ha! I lead with
my whole body.

This to give a couple of examples, there could be even more ad infinitum
with discussions lasting for days and days. You will remember discussing if
stepping back was right or not. :))

All those people were discussing their own experiences, they had been taught
to dance in the way they described.

They were discussing different styles of tango, each one with its own
technique but did not know that existed different ways of dancing.

Let's take leading a boleo (back boleo) for instance. Someone may lead the
lady to start crossing her left leg back, like for a back ocho but he will
suddenly stop that motion with his chest (milonguero style) to produce a
boleo, some body else will stop her motion with his right hand (salon open)
, someone else may stop her motion with a change of direction of his body :
as her leg moves to her left side he steps or projects his body to her right
obtaining a good bouncing boleo (Nuevo Tango).

So all of them were right but in their ignorance believed, many still do,
that the way they danced was the only correct one; some sort of religion and
therefore the infidels were condemned to eternal burning in hell.

This misconception was almost exclusively propagated by some of the teachers
of "MIlonguero style".

Nito would explain for instance - " when I start dancing I step back, there
are other dancers who will step to the side, but we step back " . The
problem is not stepping back per se it is not to know how to step back. :)).
some people in their ignoarance have the audacity and the arrogance of
saying that if you step back you do not know how to dance tango. :)).

About one year ago I was an assistant instructor for Nito and Elba at CITA
in Buenos Aires. We were teaching Salon Style. I started dancing with a
Japanese girl that after a few beats stopped and told me - "you should lead
with your chest", I smiled and said there are many ways to lead, with the
chest is only one of them, we are not teaching that form here at this
moment; more importantly you should keep in mind that I am the leader and
you the follower, so you should follow anyway I lead .

Summary: There is more than a way to cook an omelet.

Best regards, Sergio