329  Women (or men) leading & navigating

Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 13:20:27 -0900
From: Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET>
Subject: Women (or men) leading & navigating

Friends -

When I'm on the floor dancing, I don't immediately notice if the leader in
front of or behind me is male or female. I notice first whether they can
navigate or not. If the leaders around me can navigate and have good
floorcraft, I really don't care if they're male or female, I just know that
this allows me to enjoy my own dance. If they can't navigate, they cause
problems. This applies to male and female leaders universally. There is no
double standard when we're all on the floor trying to enjoy ourselves. To
that end, I know several women who are good leaders and navigators and I'd
rather have their great energy on the floor than those male leaders who
don't seem to care about navigation or haven't been taught how important
navigation is. Yes, this can and absolutely needs to be taught, right from
the start. It's a lot more important to social dancing than having your
foot toed out at precisely the right angle....... The teachers who
understand this tend to develop great tango communities.

Dan