569 On women leads
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 07:57:46 -0700
From: Trini or Sean - PATangoS <patangos@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: On women leads
Trini here.
As a woman who both leads and follows at milongas, I lead other women
for the same reasons most men do: 1)I like leading and, 2)women are
generally better follows than men. If a man is a decent follow, I'll
sometimes lead him, too (a rare find).
I think my experience is similar to that of other female leads. What
starts out as a learning experience to appreciate the dance better
(whether for teaching purposes or self-education) becomes enjoyable
in itself. I switch from lead to follow depending on what partners
are available and how I can best enjoy a dance. Most women,
including beginners, don't have a problem with me dancing as a lead
socially. Many women prefer my leading that that of many male leads
in our community because I'm a lot more gentle, though my vocabulary
is less diverse.
I have noticed some interesting things when I lead.
1) Since it's physically impossible for me to muscle someone around
or hold someone up, follows consciously take their technique up a
notch, particularly with balance.
2) Both leads and follows who see me lead begin to appreciate clean
technique and musicality a little more, which female leads develop
from following.
3) It breaks a lot of stereotyping and loosens up the community
toward dancing with a diversity of people.
Female leads, myself included, probably do tend to coach more but
largely to avoid physical pain when dancing. By learning to lead,
follows can get a much better sense of what they can do better by
feeling the same mistakes in other follows.
Male leads would also benefit from following, simply from
appreciating the variations in styling, rhythm, or vocabulary each
lead brings to the dance. When I lead, the same variety just isn t
there as when I follow. I actually get more bored as a lead than as
a follow, even if I m with good follows. At that point, I stop
leading.
=====
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Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 19:32:02 GMT
From: michael <tangomaniac@JUNO.COM>
Subject: On women leads
Trini raises an interesting point about men learning how to follow. Without reciting the history of tango in the golden age, men taught men how to dance tango in Argentina. Why? There was NO Arturo Murray in Buenos Aires. Before a man could learn how to lead, he had to first learn how to follow.
This point is a foundation of Daniel Trenner's classes where the men dance with men and women dance with women. I heard him say that dancers learn tango faster when they learn the other role. I can't speak for women, but as a leader, I've learned a lot, especially what it feels like to be swept like a broom while dancing ochos. At a practica after a group class, my teacher had a women lead me. After being pulled and pushed into and out of ochos, I FINALLY understood what my teacher had been telling me for years: WAIT FOR THE WOMAN! The woman always moves first.
I attended Tango Locura in Montreal in 1999(?) where Daniel taught vals. He had men dance with men. I remember dancing the follower's part. The leader was shifting his weight as we waited for the music to begin. I shifted my weight in response to his shifting weight. He said to me with a puzzled look on his face "Why are you shifting your weight." I said "BECAUSE YOU ARE!"
---------- Trini wrote - PATangoS <patangos@YAHOO.COM>
Male leads would also benefit from following, simply from
appreciating the variations in styling, rhythm, or vocabulary each
lead brings to the dance.
I'd rather be dancing argentine tango
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 13:06:12 -0700
From: robin thomas <niborsamoht@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: On women leads
i can't stand seeing women sitting around not dancing.
it's awful when there are too many followers it brings
down the mood for the whole milonga.
i love the traditional milongas in bs.as. and the
codes and rituals there but here i love to see people
dancing and not sitting. if there were more leaders,
male or female, that wouldn't happen so much. also the
men here are too complacent, we should be competing
for women not graciously accepting their invitations.
perhaps if the guys had more competition they'd go to
classes and get better.
i almost never turn a women down if she has never
asked me before, but if i've danced with her several
times and really don't like it, i have no problems
saying no. i think followers should do the same, i
hate the idea of dancing with someone who didn't want
to dance with me.
robin thomas
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 11:05:33 +1200
From: Brett Davidson <brett.davidson@PARADISE.NET.NZ>
Subject: Re: On women leads
I am only a beginning milonga (danced 12 times!) but agree with Trini and
Michael.
I normally learn to lead much faster when I also learn to follow. This
applies equally as well to the other dance styles I have explored.
I think the hardest thing to learn in tango is to just be with the music
(still have trouble picking up the rhythm sometimes) rather than just
learning steps.
I find that following is helping with this.
Anyway, my $0.01 worth,
Brett Davidson
Christchurch, New Zealand.
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 20:59:17 +0200
From: Christian Lüthen <christian.luethen@GMX.NET>
Subject: Re: On women leads
Dear List,
some further comments to earlier postings of Michael and Trini:
I can but agree to both the statements underneath. Enjoyed my
first time being lead with much astonishement, really learnd a lot!
Unfortunatly only few men agree on leading men. Your chance to
be lead by a women is much higher than being lead by a men ... at
least here in Europe.
While dancing in Cologne last saturday night I was about to leave
at around 5 am. When a tango friend of mine and I agree to have
some dances I did not expect her asking after a while whether I'd
also would follow. Being happy to get a chance I immediatly agree.
Actually she thought that I might be bored after some two or three
dances ... but finally it made me stay until the end of the milonga
dancing vice versa for a long time only to stop when they put up the
traditional end-milonga Cumparsita which we danced the standard
way. This was 6 am.
I learnd a lot following, once more, as she did leading. We're both
looking forward to repeat the next time we'll meet somewhere on the european
dancefloors.
Enjoy dancing, on which side ever!
Christian
--
just my personal 50th of an Euro
christian.luethen@gmx.net
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