Re: [TANGO-L] Neverending Ochos

[Carlos Lima <amilsolrac @YAHOO.COM>]

Carlos Rojas <Crojas @HACIENDACDC.ORG> wrote (quoting?):
>
Should the frame be weak or firm? I think here rests the answer, if your
frame is not firm and commanding, then the follower has no direction as to
what to do.  This is not the follower's fault, but the leader's.
<

Results from my introspection, quite possibly not applicable to others.
Special situations aside, I offer a firm, meaning, most certainly not soggy,
frame (call it what you may); or a gentle (I hope) but positive apilado
embrace. (Face to face in all cases, or close enough to that.)

Zero pressure by default, or close enough to that.

I am style-flexible, so I do not need to contradict reasonable preferences of
my partners' as to kind of embrace.

Now this is only half of the story. The other half is up to her. In fact, the
whole thing is up to her. Most experienced dancers in my neck of the woods
prefer a light touch, and the good ones are of course not soggy, nor do they
need to be "reigned in". Some want extreme lightness in a very flexible
embrace, what we could call a "virtual connection"; others want something a
bit more substantial.

Rightly or wrongly, I believe that all of this is really lady's choice. She
appears to me to determine the amount of resistance offered and,
consequently, the level of "control pressures" (as in pilot's jargon). If she
cannot stay with me every millimeter of the way with her choice, c'est la
vie: there is nothing I care to do about that, except maybe with a first
timer who wants me to help a bit.

What about non-stop ochos? Oh, girls learn that in classes, and soon start
improving, thank goodness. I eventually figured out that one must take very
seriously the idea that virtually all movements in tango are neither for the
man nor for the woman, but for the couple. The woman does not "do" ochos as
the man does something else, or nothing. THEY do ochos, or whatever. Took me
quite a while, stupid me, to realize some of the finer logical consequences
of this. Oh, by the way, a woman and a wall do not constitute a couple,
either.

Cheers,



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