1798  posture for women

Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 19:25:06 -0500
From: Lois Donnay <donnay@DONNAY.NET>
Subject: FW: posture for women

I just received a call from a beginning dancer asking about posture. She
had been to a class with a visiting instructor who advocated a "head
down" position - looking at the floor - for women. I don't like this,
and I always tell women to keep their head up, even if they choose to
"cast their eyes seductively downward". Which is better?

Lois from Minneapolis

Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:27:13 +0100
From: Bruce Stephens <bruce@CENDERIS.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: FW: posture for women

Lois Donnay <donnay@DONNAY.NET> writes:

> I just received a call from a beginning dancer asking about
> posture. She had been to a class with a visiting instructor who
> advocated a "head down" position - looking at the floor - for
> women. I don't like this, and I always tell women to keep their head
> up, even if they choose to "cast their eyes seductively
> downward". Which is better?

Head up, I'd have thought. Otherwise you're inevitably off balance,
and probably horribly so.

Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 00:51:48 -0700
From: Rick FromPortland <pruneshrub04@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: FW: posture for women

hi lois,
if she's doing close-embrace, she'll have to peek over her partner's shoulder & then probably only see his feet &/or his rear. i sometimes do this, for laffs or to see if her feet are crossed. some of my friends catch on & raise their unweighted leg, course have to look carefully at which foot is which, they look similar...
r

Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:11:09 +0000
From: ASTRID SATO <astridsato@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: posture for women

Lois wrote:
"Which is better ? (head up or head down)

Lois, I wonder why you even bother to ask. There is no such thing as a
head-down-posture for women in tango or in any other dance. The head weighs,
as far as I know, about 5 kilos, and if it is held down, it is a disaster
for the entire balance of the body and the man who has to lead that (female)
body.
The only down-thing I ever heard of in tango was eyes cast down for women.
However, this was suggested by a Japanese female teacher, when we asked
where to look with our eyes so close to the man's face. Mind you, this was
in a school whose Japanese owner's ambition was teaching a "cleaned up"
tango, no vulgar stuff, as he saw it. So he made that silly rule that heads
should never touch.
IMO the most comfortable posture for a woman is head up, touching the man's
head and eyes closed.

Astrid from Sevilla, in the searing afternoon heat of September...

P.S.
tango in Sevilla is now at "Garufa" cafe and bar, on the corner of Calle
Jimenez Aranda and Blanco White, on Wednesdays and Sundays, starting about
10.30pm, til 2.30 am or so... I hope this will get onto the Spanish website
for tango somehow, as the info for Sevilla is old there. Took me days to
find out the milonga's present site.
There is more tango at the Casino de congreso, next to the discoteca
Apandau, Avenida de Maria Luisa, on the same nights.

P.P.S.
Everybody at Garufa was very friendly and welcoming. I showed up alone,and
all the men danced with me, I never sat for longer than 5 or ten minutes,
and they were saddened to see me leave so soon(this weekend I will return to
Tokyo)