Re: [TANGO-L] The Shape of the Molinete/Giro.

[steve pastor <tang0man2005@YAHOO.COM>]

          I unintentionally sent this directly to Derik, instead of the list. He has responded privately. Perhaps someone else will have a comment.

  Derik:
  You may be familiar with Robert Hauk, who probably qualifies as a "close embrace all the time" person. I would think that quite a few people who visit this site do. I once said to Robert in a class something to the effect that "steps are always small in close embrace". His reply was that, no, certainly not. He then proceeded to take very large steps while walking, then leading several of what we might call "figures".

  Women who are trained to move with the leader's center will create a step that will put their feet, and their center, directly in front of the leader after they have taken their step.

  If you move your center a large distance, they will take a large step. The highly skilled women also have the ability to influence how far, when, and where you step.

  As taught by Robert, and Steven Payne, who also teaches this style here in Portland, there is a very real joining of bodies in the embrace. It's very easy to feel. It's also very easy to feel when it is not there.

  One woman who had been taking lessons with Steven traveled to New York and tried to dance tango there. She found that she could not follow the men because they only danced open embrace. (She resolved to take lessons in an open embrace style.)
  The "close embrace all the time" follower is left with nothing to follow because she requires physical contact with your torso. If you give her that, and she has had a good teacher, and has learned her lessons well, she will take large steps if you lead them.

  The flip side of this is when the woman does not share enough weight with the man. He then doesn't have enough of her energy to work with.


Perhaps this will lead to another always interesting discussion about different styles, and what we call them!

  Steve






		
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