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The leader passes his wishes to the follower, and the follower accepts them. ~ Or perhaps not. ~ She responds ‘her’ way. ~ This ‘conversation’ between two people is the goal of Tango. ~ Where two become oblivious to everyone but themselves. ~ To ‘connect’ with each other during the dance. ~ We will describe the lead signals, frame, and the movements of Tango that come from them in detail here. ~ They are easy to see and do. ~ Unfortunately the concept of mentally melting into your partner, to keep that person in front of you and not let them go anywhere without you, and that you work to absorb each other’s feelings and closeness through to the end of the dance is difficult for most to comprehend. ~ But you need to. ~ It is what makes Tango happen. ~ ~ ~ Please scroll down.
Here is where we delve into the mystical part of Tango. ~ That which is called the ‘Tango Trance’. ~ Or ‘Zen’ Tango. ~ The ability of followers to receive a mental rush from the dance. ~ When they allow themselves to let go and become one with the other. ~ When they experience ‘the connection’.
I have felt this rush that a follower can feel, being led by a Tanguera leading me several years ago. ~ It has only happened that one time to me while dancing the followers part and I mention it now only to verify that I personally do know it does happen, and is possible, if the follower lets it happen. ~ And they should want to do that.
Much of this page is conceptual. ~ We feel it is the only way to put Tango across as it is meant to be danced. ~ That if you understand the feelings inherent with Tango, the movements that cause them will just happen. ~ You will mentally cause your body to go into the proper zone for it to move as it should by itself. ~ But to check ourselves, we will indeed go into more detail further on. ~ Regarding the physical movements that are supposed to happen. ~ To be sure your head is screwed on correctly so that they do. ~ But for now, please simply accept what you read. You are being ‘immersed’.
One more caveat. ~ For the sake of this discussion we will say that leader’s and follower’s rolls may change at will, and it is good that they do at times. ~ So that both understand the other’s part, and why they must do as they do.., when they need to. ~ But simply for writing expediency now, we will assume here that our follower is a woman. ~ So that we may say ‘she’ instead of ‘the follower’. ~ Ok?
So we will start inside this woman’s head. ~ She is doing Tango. ~ She is engrossed with keeping up with the leader. ~ Not in a what’s the next step kind of thinking, but just in sensing his movements and reacting instantly in return. ~ She knows how to move. ~ It’s automatic for her. ~ She is not thinking. ~ She is responding. ~ Her face is contorted. ~ Her teeth are clenched. ~ She is unaware of anything around her except the leader and his movements. ~ And of course the music.
She has allowed herself to be placed in a circular ‘frame’ in front of the leader and she is working to stay solidly there. ~ Directly in front of him, and moving with him when and wherever he goes. ~ Instantly stopping whenever he does. ~ Ready to reverse direction at any moment. ~ She knows she is a beautiful flower that the leader wants to see bloom. ~ So she is trying to help him do that. ~ She knows what it takes. ~ She must do her part. ~ She can rest later.
Here’s the frame. ~ Here’s where the lady is. ~ Here’s what she is doing.
The leader and the follower have come together on the dance floor. ~ Various leaders and followers approach each other in this manner under every degree of familiarity. ~ They may be lovers or strangers but their job now is to produce Tango. ~ They will determine the character of their dance at it’s very beginning. ~ The lady sets the distance between them. ~ The leader sets the pace as the dance begins.
The leader takes the lady’s right hand in his left, and moves his right hand around her side to place it against her back. ~ He extends her right arm outward and upward to what amounts to a fairly standard dance position, with her hand at a comfortable height somewhere near or slightly above the level of her shoulder. ~ The lady will then work to keep her arm totally fixed in this position, relative to her chest and shoulders, for the duration of the dance. ~ This is extremely important. ~ It is not the leaders fault if it is found to be somewhere ‘else’ during the dance. ~ The follower must not allow it to flex upward or downward, forward or backward in relation to the rest of her upper body. ~ It is now part of the total ‘fixed’ frame and one of the most important means to sense the leader’s movement. ~ If he moves, she must feel it. ~ Her upper body is moving as a whole, locked in tandem with the leader’s upper body. ~ Much of what she will be responding to will be felt through this hand and arm of the frame. ~ The frame should be considered to move and turn as a solid, circular, ring. ~ Half of it being moved, with the rest of it then needing to move as well. ~ Flexing as necessary to accomodate the dancing, but the ‘sense’ of it remaining solid. ~ The follower feeling for the variations of motion and presssures that come from the leader alone, and not simply caused by her trying to stay with him.
The arm and hand are one of the ways she will use to know the direction her body must go. ~ Please notice I did not say the ‘steps’ she must take.
The follower, in coming together with the leader, determines the distance she wants between them by where she places her left hand on him. ~ On his arm, shoulder, or further up around and behind his neck. ~ The closer she wants to be to the leader, the higher her hand will be placed. ~ Her left arm forms a gentle curve from her to him, with no elbow angle sticking out to interfere with others on the floor. ~ If the follower comes all the way to the leader, in close embrace, they merge.., and the ring, as such, disappears. ~ The frame is now within their bodies together. ~ The leader’s movements directly felt within the follower, causing the same movements to happen within herself.
Her absolute and primary goal is to stay directly in front of the leader. ~ This requires her most major concentration. ~ Everything she does is to this end. ~ She is keeping the circular or close frame taut. ~ Moving with the leader, keeping the distance between them the same at all times. ~ Forward or backward. ~ Moving sideways with him as the leader goes to the left or right. ~ The leader turning on his own axis causes the follower to rush to circle him so as to remain at his front. ~ It is not always easy. ~ But the leader will wait for her. ~ He will allow her the musical beats to make the steps it takes to get there. ~ The leader knows where the follower’s feet are, and where they must go, because she is part of him. ~ He knows where he wants those feet to be.., much better than she. ~ He has an image of their placement going in his head at all times. ~ He is dancing the ladies feet in his mind. ~ He is playing an instrument. ~ Plucking the strings. ~ Striking the keys. ~ Stepping and moving to the music. ~ And the instrument simply responds. ~ Producing visual beauty. ~ The flower blooms.
Please pay heed here... ~ As this truly is the key I see. ~ This is where the dance begins and this is where it ends. ~ This is Tango. ~ Free your mind to it. ~ The idea and the fact. ~ Conceive that the leader is a follower too. ~ Letting himself go to go wherever his mind will take him. ~ Giving himself up to move freely and smoothly around the floor. ~ The floor which to him is but a ‘space’. ~ A place in which to feel, and to enjoy being alive in. ~ To escape his melancholy, his longing, and to smooth his tortured love of life. ~ He the leader is being led. ~ By sounds and smells and dreams.., and thoughts of what could be. ~ For the duration of the dance he escapes the real world. ~ Not caring where Tango takes him. ~ Loving where he is.., and where he’s going.
That the follower wants to come along is natural, for those who understand. ~ She wants to be with him and knows to ask no questions. ~ Just being ready for wherever they may turn. ~ Just wanting badly to be and stay with him within the trance called Tango.
To increase her ability to sense the leader’s movements even more smoothly and quickly, the follower may close her eyes while she dances. ~ She knows that when she does this, she will not be distracted by such things as dancing close to walls or furniture, or when other dancers pass by. ~ More importantly.., by closing her eyes she also instantly increases the ‘Alpha’ waves within her brain. ~ This gives her ‘relaxation’ and allows her automatic responses to kick in. ~ One cannot think Tango to happen. ~ One must allow their intuitive and ‘Zen’ abilities to run the show. ~ We have told many people of this phenomenom. ~ To go into the zone in this manner. ~ It’s unanimous that it works. ~ That it helps followers follow. ~ Once they get used to using it.
To stay in front of her leader, a follower simply needs to take one of three particular steps, or rather, to move in one of three directions. ~ That is all that Tango is. ~ Because the ladies back then didn’t really want to bother, you know? ~ They were busy. ~ They wanted to enjoy life and keep it simple. ~ So they developed the height of simplicity. ~ This to me is exactly the reason that Tango is so completely universal. ~ The sum and substance of Tango amounts to just three simple steps. ~ A step to the side, or a step forward, or a step backward. ~ With directional pivots, which occur between the steps, and other conversation from the leader such as reversing direction, changing the follower’s weight, and other ‘variations’ within the dance, all walking or traveling in any direction or manner, creating patterns of every description in the process, is easily done. ~ The three steps simply need to be led, as each becomes needed to carry out the wished-for improvisation at hand. ~ Are you starting to understand how easy it should be? ~ I hope so.
Understand and accept that Tango is just a walking dance. ~ It’s a very simple concept actually. ~ No need to make it more difficult than it is. ~ It is its very simplicity that makes Tango all that it is. ~ This will all be covered in the section on ‘’moving’, but here we will try a bit more to explain away the need for ballroom thinking. ~ Patterns, sequential moves and memorizing.
If you are doing it the ballroom way now, I understand you may very well feel it is the correct way. ~ Especially if your friends are doing it that same way too. ~ Peer pressure is a killer. ~ But that certainly does not make it right. ~ Pretty much as hieroglyphics, for instance, were thought acceptable at one time by the Egyptians, even though it was and is understood by the rest of the world that an alphabet is the better way. ~ Single letters to form words or single steps to form patterns both produce the same gain. ~ Easier to do than memorizing a unique shape for every word in your vocabulary but which may not be known by others, even those just beyond the next pyramid. ~ The many Tango patterns where each consist of several different steps, all face the same problem. ~ Much simpler to learn and sense just three particular directions to go, as they are led.., each in turn.
All ‘named’ Tango patterns and moves, such as molinette, ocho, etc. are in fact simply comprised of two or more of the three types of steps. ~ An ocho for instance is never really an ocho until after it has been done. ~ Then one can say, “Hey look! That pattern sequence we just went through looks like a figure eight.” ~ But a follower can never plan on doing one, can they? ~ At least to be told that one is coming? ~ The leader simply cannot pass on an idea such as that to the follower. ~ There is no way to say two or more steps are about to happen. ~ Because of course each and every step is improvised at the instant they are about to happen... ~ Who can say what will occur next? ~ Not even the leader is always sure, much less that he can tell his partner what is to come two or three steps down the line. ~ So if you are a follower, please forget the idea that you need to learn how to do ochos. ~ Or that you should learn any individual pattern as a unit. ~ You need to re-think what you need to do. ~ What it is and takes to truly feel and follow single step, directional leads. ~ To do them without thinking about where to put your feet. ~ That part has already been done for you. ~ Simply learn to sense and go in whichever of the three individual directions you’re given to take. ~ The ‘patterns’ will just happen if the individual leads are followed. ~ The leader builds whatever patterns in his head, not the follower. ~ If they happen to look like an ‘ocho’ after they’re done, it’s only a coincidence. ~ It is basically a waste of time to think about in advance. ~ Simply connect with your partner and move together as you find it happening. ~ Don’t ever ‘think’ about it.
‘Moving’ and it’s four sub sections are next... Click below.., and go slow.
MOVING
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