Willingness Vs. Eagerness

What kind of partner do you want to be...What kind of partner do you want to share this experience with?

What is the difference between someone who is willing to go on a date with you and someone who is eager to go on a date with you?

Who would you hire a person willing to do a job or someone eager to join your team?

Who is going to learn to play the guitar faster, the eager student or the one willing to give it a try?

Enthusiasm makes all the difference!

Following (note to self)

(These are notes to myself and will require some experimentation through trail and error)

I danced with several awesome followers this weekend and I am trying to analyze what it was that made those dancers so Delicious while the memory of them is still in my mind!

When following transfer weight smoothly rolling from toe to heel (when walking backwards)inside of foot to center of foot (when doing side steps) heel to toe (when walking forward)try to keep the foot almost horizontal right before landing when taking front or backward steps.

Try and feel the length of stride that your leader is intending, if he is going to do a traspie or syncopa step it will be shorter due to the amount of time it takes to make the step. Better to be a little bit longer than he intended than too short, this will murder the leaders back after one song because he cannot keep his own axis and must also keep you from tripping over yourself.

Always remain grounded, never fall into the step.

Don't take too long of a step or you will not feel grounded at all to your leader and you my hurt someone that you are unaware of, that the leader is aware of.

Don't block your leader on the open side by keeping your arm too stiff, this is gentle embrace, Not an inflexible frame.

Stiff tight legs are hard and nasty and don't feel good to dance with, and will block a lot of possibilities. Relaxed legs are soft and feel wonderful to dance with and they will react to the lead in the way that the leader intends.

Better to be a little behind the beat than ahead of the beat.

Keep a good spiral in the body by remaining relaxed everywhere, feel your core muscles stretching rather than tightening.

Keep your own axis unless the leader takes you off of it by stretching or compressing the embrace, at that point use these counter acting forces to maintain an equilibrium these forces when applied must balance each other out or the whole thing will go off axis, it would be very embarrassing to fall over (trust your leader and make sure that he can trust you not to apply more force than is given) your leader is not there to help you keep your balance unless he takes you off of it nor are you there to help him keep his.

When taking a step be confident that you are doing what you felt (you probably are) and make a good quality step, getting your weight at least over your hip joint, if it feels as if the leader is trying to dance the Phrase, go with it smoothly, a jerky stuttering step is usually not what we are going for.

(If anyone sees something that is completely wrong with the things I have written please let me know so that I don't get too far in the wrong direction)

Tango Compared to Kissing

Kissing can be an art in itself. There are a number of people in this world that can rock your world with only a kiss. Unfortunately there are also many people in this world that, well, they suck at kissing.

How do you tell someone that they kiss like a fish/your grand mother/a nun/your dog fido/a blow up doll/a maniquin/a barbie doll/a slice of liver/a sponge/a bowl of raw calamari...etc...

You don't! you just don't kiss them EVER AGAIN.(luckily there are people in this world who have the grace and understanding to put up with some bad kissing long enough to help the guilty party overcome their ignorance, but there are limits!)

OK, This is a Very Good Post (not mine)

This is aimed at (from me) those followers whom give their leaders a very stiff (arm wrestler like) stiff as a board right arm, expecting them (or me, more importantly) to push or pull them through what they should be doing on their own, and leaders/teachers whom teach this damned foolishness.

On either side of the embrace (open or closed side)the arms should be like antennae, that is to say they are there only to give either partner extra information about what the other partner is trying to communicate or how they have received the other half of the communication. A competent leader should be able to lead almost anything (with the exception of off axis turns, colgadas volcadas and soltadas) without arms.

I for one was guilty of leading with the "killer right arm" for a very long time, And I apologize to the many, many, many women that I tortured with this awful practice a few years back (you know who you are). I learned the error of my ways because I was willing to accept instruction from a couple of very competent instructors (Luiza Paes, Deb Scalar).


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Click the link to find out what the hell I'm talking about.

Deeper Connection

In order to truly communicate through Tango we must pretend that Tango is the only language that we have in common.

Gum Chewing

At a recent workshop with Evan Griffiths one of the exercises was to vary the amount of concentration between your partner and yourself.

The woman I was paired with was chewing gum the entire exercise, this to me indicated that she was only going through the motions and really didn't care to connect with me (or anyone) at all.

I've danced with this woman before and never really felt a good connection, and I've watched her dance with others and noticed that her dance lacked something no matter who she was dancing with. Now I know the rest of the story.

I guess my grade school teacher was right, gum chewing is very inconsiderate, especially while dancing Tango(or making love).

Interesting Note On Followers

There is this one particular follower I get to dance with from time to time that does a few things that I used to find very distracting and somewhat annoying (embellishments, self led lapizes, etc...) what she does is not important, what is important is that lately I've begun to enjoy listening to what she has to contribute to the dance more and more.

I guess it's part of the listening lesson that I have been getting from a couple of my favorite instructors for more than a couple of years.

The point is, that even though I thought I was doing pretty well on this listening thing before now it's beginning to make more and more sense.

As an added benefit I'm finding that it is easier to do single axis turns (small colgadas) with her than almost anyone else, it seems this may have been what she was expecting,( I'm not asking her ) or could it be that I'm improving on this aspect of leading that I have neglected for quite a long time because it is not something that is done very often in the milongas where I dance normally.

Watch out, I think I may be on to something!

Just Perfect!

There is this one particular follower I get to see from time to time when I venture into the Big City.

She is always very warm and welcoming whenever she notices that I am in a Milonga where she happens to be, (I've run into her in three different states, but she is always at home no matter where she happens to be dancing tango)she makes me feel like a million bucks every time.

Her dancing is always extremely connected and it seems (to me) as if we are the only two people in the room, no matter how crowded the floor is.

Sometimes she hums or sings, most of the time her breathing and heartbeat are two more instruments to dance to.

Her curves are a joy to behold and heaven to mingle with if only for a short while.

She loves the tango at least as much as I do (a quality that is truly hard to find).

These are some of the reasons I dance Tango, all wrapped up in one very impressive package.