5103  Woman's Left Arm Position

Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:37:12 -0400
From: Keith <keith@tangohk.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Woman's Left Arm Position
To: tango-l@mit.edu

Hi List,

Recently, Javier and Andrea were in town to teach some classes and it was fantastic. Javier is brilliant. But now, many of the
girls are imitating Andrea?s left arm position, which is with her left hand low down around the man?s back. You can see it in this
video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZco_X7shs

Now I know that it?s the girls? choice, but I find this position very uncomfortable, especially when they put weight on my right
arm. I also don?t understand its purpose as it also looks uncomfortable for the girl.

In addition, one of our resident teachers-on-the-dance-floor is telling my beginners to put their left hand in this position so that
? ?they can feel his lead?. So now the man is supposed to be leading with his back?

I know I?m an old fuddy-duddy and lose track of all these modern dancing techniques, so can somebody explain the purpose of
this arm position. One of the problems with being the dance teacher is that I'm supposed to know everything, so I can't ask
anyone here exactly what Andrea said in her ladies class :-).

Keith, HK

Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:46 +0100 (BST)
From: "Chris, UK" <tl2@chrisjj.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Woman's Left Arm Position
Cc: tl2@chrisjj.com

Keith wrote:

> Javier is brilliant. But now, many of the girls are imitating Andrea_s
> left arm position

The same thing happened after her last visit to Paris.Good thing is, the
effect didn't stick - once she'd left, the students returned to normal.
Perhaps because Paris has little of the resident teacher problem you cite.

> I find this position very uncomfortable, .... I also don_t
> understand its purpose as it also looks uncomfortable for the girl

Whenever I've seen Andrea dance socially (e.g. during the years she based
her dance school in London), it was with a more regular embrace. Somewhat
like this:

https://videos.tango.info/?vsrc=youtube/LmP3wRFbPcA

Different guy, mind.

--
Chris

Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:28:54 +0200
From: Ecsedy ?ron <aron@milonga.hu>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Woman's Left Arm Position
To: Tango-L <TANGO-L@MIT.EDU>

Keith> girls are imitating Andrea?s left arm position, which is with
Keith> her left hand low down around the man?s back. You can see it in this

Chris> Whenever I've seen Andrea dance socially (e.g. during the years she based
Chris> her dance school in London), it was with a more regular embrace. Somewhat
Chris> like this:

I find the two embraces almost identical. The small difference probably comes from the more compact embrace they used for the milonga and the fact that the guy is maybe a little bit taller.

This type of embrace is - in my experience - means a strong and quite parallel chest to chest connection with very little to no weight on the man's right arm...if those girls put weight on your arm, they are imitating this quite wrong. The embrace should feel like you have a woman stuck on your chest and a palm stuck on your back. As for any pressure, most milongueras who used this (on me) were not giving me resistance (for movement) just the constant feeling of connection.

I personally prefer (of course: I am not so tall) the type of close embrace where the woman embraces me all around my back, having her palms under my left shoulder. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCUHZjsHlUo

Cheers,
Aron

Budapest, Hungary
https://www.milonga.hu/