1842  part 2 ... Milonguero vs. Salon - Taboos

Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 21:19:22 +0000
From: Jay Rabe <jayrabe@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: part 2 ... Milonguero vs. Salon - Taboos

Christian,

I agree with your suggestion that the reluctance of the younger generation
to dance chest-to-chest (whatever you want to name that style...) is a
cultural taboo thing. It's doubtless a complicated mixture of many things:
Lack of being comfortable with their own bodies is one key; Unfamiliarity
with expressions of physical affection, even as innocent as a hug; Not
wanting to be forward and aggressive and violate the taboo against touching
a woman's breast (for the man); Not wanting to be "forward" or "easy" or
"available" (for the woman). The result is, the men do not exercise their
masculine intention (the projection of their energy into the woman's space
that is so necessary for a proper tango lead), and the women tend to lean
back, weight on their heels, which is disaster for a proper follow, even if
you are dancing separated (whatever you want to name that style ...).
Unfortunately these cultural influences are not something that an instructor
can easily address. I have personally attempted to do so once or twice, with
what appeared to be OK results, but then you never know whether the student
was just being polite and hiding the fact that I had offended them by
directly mentioning the taboo subject. But the approach I took was to
comment that new dancers seem to over-compensate for what THEY see as their
physical liabilities. Tall men and women tend to bend over and slouch when
dancing with shorter partners. The list recently had a good discussion about
the fallacy of that accomodation. Heavy dancers tend to hold their energy
up, preventing them from being properly grounded, lessening their balance in
the process. And women, especially larger breasted women, and the men who
dance with them, tend to lean back to avoid contacting chest-to-chest - or
worse, keep their energy back even when they ARE dancing chest-to-chest,
like there's a lack of committment to the contact.

Any ideas on how to combat these things?

J in PDX

P.S. And please hear me clearly: I'm not making categorical statements. I
said "tend to." Certainly not all tall dancers slouch, etc.