4419 Leading with whatever you want.
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:02:26 EDT
From: Crrtango@aol.com
Subject: [Tango-L] Leading with whatever you want.
I still submit that leading with your hands or anything other than your torso
or upper body, whether open- or close-embrace is not good leading. It just
sounds like the easy way out, which we all know that many people (mostly male
leaders) are quick to jump on as a new approach to leading or dancing tango.
The various permutations like barridas (which most people, including teachers,
don't do correctly anyway) and sacadas are not really leads.
Ask your partners about being led by fingers. They don't mind? Most of the
women I talk to complain about men leading with their hands.
There are many intellectuals and analytical people who study tango which
unfortunately bogs down these discussions about what are basically very
fundamental principals that don't change even after one becomes "advanced." Intelligence
and analytic abilities have nothing to do with being a good dancer. Any truck
driver or mechanic can do it. (The worst dancer I ever saw, who was also
very arrogant, belonged to Mensa.) In the ten years of dancing, performing and
teaching that I have done, the problems that most people have, no matter how
long they have danced, usually have something to do with the basics. I think the
fact that there are so many awful "advanced" dancers out there speaks for the
fact that they discarded those basics too soon in favor of newer, more
interesting "theories." Nothing wrong with all the cute theories and explanations as
long as you keep in mind that they have very little to do with being a good
dancer.
And Pulpo and Luiza are not exactly paradigms of elegant dancing. Cute,
tricky and acrobatic, yes. Be careful about confusing complexity with quality.
Cheers,
Charles
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:49:48 EDT
From: Euroking@aol.com
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Leading with whatever you want.
Key word: Basics. It is amazing what worlds open when you master the
basics. It is also the hardest to master, as it seems the most boring. Need to
learn new things, need to look better, new move, new me! NOT really, that path
only leads to sustained or minimally long-term mediocrity. A solid foothold
in the basics means that "new" moves are variations of a theme, not really new
moves you have to learn and plug into your knowledge base.
Leading with your hand(s) is natural when you partner does go where you
wanted her to go. It also occurs when you are concentrating on a move and your
upper torso is not inline with your feet and thinking, you react. My teachers
have taught me and continue to teach me not to use my hands or arms
independently of my upper torso. It doesn't mean to not use them but rather not to
use them independently. Like every rule there are exceptions, emergency crowd
avoidance, for one. In these cases, one must modify the rule to use your
hands or arms as subtly as the situation allows.
Not learning the basics, means some of the time, for some much of the time,
you use your hands and arms to cheat or make up for your lack of leading
skills. I speak from experience here, as a majority of the time that I find
myself using my arms and hands it is because I screwed up or am not thinking and
am reacting to get it right. The good news this is getting less and less an
issue.
As a lead, I have had a partner use pressure to keep me from moving in a
direction, it was a safety issue and I greatly appreciated the gesture.
Just some thoughts,
Bill in Seattle
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:15:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)" <patangos@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Leading with whatever you want. - Elegance
We studied with El Pulpo and Luiza last summer and were so
impressed with their quality of movement that we invited
them to teach here on September 9-10.
What El Pulpo and Luiza teach requires a lot of loose
joints (not a loose structure), which is one reason we
invited them. Many people do not have that looseness,
which is something we?ve been trying to encourage. It is
certainly this looseness that makes women appear more
elegant and fluid. Luiza is definitely elegant.
With men, an attempt at elegance tends to produce
stiffness, I think. Quite the opposite of women. In fact,
some dancers that I love to dance with do not look elegant
on the dance floor, but they feel great. Some dancers who
do look elegant are too stiff in feeling for my tastes.
El Pulpo?s more stout shape may keep him from looking less
elegant than a thin Osvaldo Zotto, but when he and Luiza
dance to slow music, anyone can see that it is definitely
quality dancing.
Trini de Pittsburgh
--- Crrtango@aol.com wrote:
> And Pulpo and Luiza are not exactly paradigms of elegant
> dancing. Cute,
> tricky and acrobatic, yes. Be careful about confusing
> complexity with quality.
>
> Cheers,
> Charles
PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society
Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh's most popular social dance.
https://www.pitt.edu/~mcph/PATangoWeb.htm
