263  Giving Good Boleo

Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 00:44:04 -0700
From: "Larry E. Carroll" <larrydla@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Giving Good Boleo

Leading boleos well is not easy. So few women get to do boleos, or at
least get to have fun doing them.

But if you DO lead boleos well, you can lead them even with a woman
who has never done a boleo - often well enough that she amazes
herself. (If you are dancing someplace where you are a stranger do not
be surprised if your partner asks if you are a teacher!)

This is because a boleo is something that happens naturally when you
lead your partner to reverse the direction of a pivoting action, such
as an ocho.

You can see this if you practice ochos against a wall, bracing your
hands on it as a partner substitute. Do backward ochos and reverse
direction in the middle of one to begin doing forward ochos.
Centrifugal force will make your free leg fly up in the air - a
boleo.

Or do a forward ocho and reverse directions in the middle to begin
doing backward ochos. Your free leg will fly into the air in front of
you: a front boleo (similar to an amague, but rotating around your
supporting leg rather than flicking straight back).

Of course an experienced follower will instantly realize what you are
leading and will control the boleo to suit herself. If the dance floor
is crowded she might keep her free foot low to the floor. Or if the
floor is uncrowded and she is athletic, she may lift her foot much
higher than her knee. She is likely to add force to the swing of her
foot to make the boleo more whiplike. And she probably practices good
tango style and keeps her knees together, which makes the boleo "wrap
around" her supporting leg.

But even if a woman has never done boleos before - even if she has
never heard of them - she will still do a boleo if you lead it right.

To get it right when you practice the lead for the boleo it is a good
idea to understand a few facts.

Leading a boleo well is NOT a matter of using a lot of force. Instead
you have to time the moment of the reverse just right. No one can tell
you exactly at what point in the pivoting of her body you should do
this. You simply have to try it and find the "sweet spot" for yourself.
Then find it again and again until you no longer have to think about
it.

On adding snap. Normally when you are leading ochos her speed of
rotation should stay the same. But when leading a boleo from an ocho,
just before you reverse the ocho accelerate it. And just after the
reverse go faster than normal, then slow her rotation back to normal.

Her supporting foot and leg is the axis that she turns around. Chances
are you are stepping side-to-side as part of the lead, so you may think
you are doing a linear action. But you should also be twisting your
upper body to lead her. Thus you are actually rotating your center of
gravity around her axis. So be sure to keep your center the same
distance from her center. (This may not sound easy, but with practice
it becomes automatic.)

Another point. It is your upper body, where you embrace your partner,
that gives the lead for everything in tango. As you reverse the
direction of her pivot, lean away from her slightly to further give a
feeling of inevitability to the boleo. This is a bit tricky, since
you are also rotating your center of gravity around hers. But you can
do it. (I have faith in you.)

Finally, despite the fact that it is your upper body that does the
primary job of leading, your hand on her back can help. I usually keep
a light touch on my partner's back - or even keep my hand an inch or
two away from her back if I find myself falling back into the bad habit
of over-using my right hand. But when leading a boleo I place it firmly
behind her to give added confirmation of what my upper body is
leading. Especially if I am leading a new-comer to tango this is no
time to be politically correct about using hands to lead.

Larry de Los Angeles
https://home.att.net/~larrydla

Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 01:26:21 -0800
From: Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET>
Subject: Giving Good Boleo

Larry and friends -
I enjoyed your note and I must say that putting all this in words can be
tough - my hat's off to you. Larry wrote:


{"You can see this if you practice ochos against a wall, bracing your
hands on it as a partner substitute. Do backward ochos and reverse
direction in the middle of one to begin doing forward ochos.
Centrifugal force will make your free leg fly up in the air - a
boleo."}


I find this to be particularly poor advice, for any level of dancer. Ochos
can be done well completely on your own, with no partner, no wall, no
nothing. It is also possible to experience at least a small boleo
completely on your own exactly as Larry describes but without the wall. I
find that when dancers are encouraged to use a wall, they inevitably end up
using the wall for support and worse yet, actually leaning, sometimes
heavily, on the wall. This encourages improper technique. The common
result is that I end up dancing with someone who constantly leans heavily on
me, and uses ME for support during ochos, and even simple walking. Either
that or they pump their arms against my body during the ochos - definitely
not fun! I fully acknowledge that the lead in ochos (torso rotation) and
the partner connection does offer the possibility of dramatically more
fluid, lively ochos as compared to doing them on your own, but I feel that
this can only be properly experienced with a partner. Using a wall, in any
way, adds little value and has a huge potential to promote poor technique.

{"Leading a boleo well is NOT a matter of using a lot of force. Instead
you have to time the moment of the reverse just right. No one can tell
you exactly at what point in the pivoting of her body you should do
this. You simply have to try it and find the "sweet spot" for yourself.
Then find it again and again until you no longer have to think about
it."}


Yes!! I'd like to add that EVERY follow has a dramatically different "sweet
spot" (as you call it) for boleos. A woman with tightly toned, tense
muscles typically produces a quick boleo, and a woman with relaxed muscles
typically produces a boleo of longer duration. Many women control the
movement and add musicality to the boleo by tightening or relaxing their
muscles to produce a boleo that perfectly matches the music - this is THE
dream boleo! Small and snappy, long and sinuous, and everything in
between...done with sensitivity they can really be expressive.
Dan