The Tango-L mailing list archive
Digest from 1 Aug 2000
to 2 Aug 2000
Reply-To: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
To: Recipients of TANGO-L digests <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 03:00:38 -0400
Sender: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango <TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
From: Automatic digest processor <LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: TANGO-L Digest - 1 Aug 2000 to 2 Aug 2000 (#2000-209)
There are 2 messages totalling 138 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. relaxing (2)
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 09:46:35 +0200
From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?=22LIGER_Michel=2C_CETE_M=E9diterr=2E/DIT=22?=
<michel.liger @EQUIPEMENT.GOUV.FR>
Subject: Re: relaxing
Dear Lisa
You wrote:
> Leaders, how would you describe the ideal feeling of
> relaxation v. resistance
> you hope to get from a woman? Look forward to your thoughts.
As a leader I have experienced followers whose shoulders and arms were so
rigid that it prevented me to properly guide them and smoothly move with the
music. I was also told once by a teacher that I was to tense and should
relax.
In my experience this tension generally is in the upper body and mostly in
shoulders and arms, or anyway can more easily be perceived in this area. A
visible sign of tension is the high position of shoulders.
With my regular partner when either feels a tension in either of us, he/she
will shake gently the arms, lower shoulders and restart dancing. A good
exercise (for us) is to dance with my left arm (her right one) hanging down,
hands in light contact or separate. It is quite possible, in the milonguero
style, to dance this way and even relatively complicated patterns. We then
progressively come back to the usual position, having experienced again the
limited use of this arm and the possibility to relax.
With other partners it is much more difficult. If we know each other pretty
well I happen to use a pause to relax my left arm and help her to do the
same, perhaps also by not using it for a while.
We have so many reasons to have tensions in our mind and body and in general
we are not conscious of them. At least we can try to start every tango in a
consciously relaxed way and hope it lasts 3 minutes !
There was a thread months ago on meditation and tango. It would be
interesting to learn from the contributors whether they have the same
problems and a specific way to deal with.
Lisa you ask the leaders for the best combination of resistance/relaxation.
There is no point here. The resistance is the light pressure (and delay)
towards the leader which allows you to feel his lead. The tension is an
internal pressure that will either prevent you to clearly perceive the lead
or will drive you to oppose to the required movement. So, be both resistant
and relaxed !
Many relaxed and happy tangos !
Michel
Michel Liger
Aix en Provence, France
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 13:09:57 +0200
From: Natarajan Balasundara <rajan @EMC.COM>
Subject: Re: relaxing
"LIGER Michel, CETE M=E9diterr./DIT" wrote:
>=20
> Dear Lisa
> You wrote:
> > Leaders, how would you describe the ideal feeling of
> > relaxation v. resistance
> > you hope to get from a woman? Look forward to your thoughts.
>=20
> As a leader I have experienced followers whose shoulders and arms were =
so
> rigid that it prevented me to properly guide them and smoothly move wit=
h the
> music. I was also told once by a teacher that I was to tense and should
> relax.
>=20
> In my experience this tension generally is in the upper body and mostly=
in
> shoulders and arms, or anyway can more easily be perceived in this area=
. A
> visible sign of tension is the high position of shoulders.
> With my regular partner when either feels a tension in either of us, he=
/she
> will shake gently the arms, lower shoulders and restart dancing.=20
I had written a while ago about the same tenseness. One exercise to see
if oneself
is tense is to swing arms *freely* from side to side. If the person is
really
relaxed, it should just swing all the way and at the very end drop on
the hips=20
and then swing back. If there is tenseness, it will just stay dettached
even at
the very end of the swing before swinging back.
Some beginners are tense out of sheer fear. It usually helps to go
slow, may be=20
take a step for two beats, relax the hold and see if the situation
improves.=20
As a last resort one could suggest perhaps she is tense and there is no
need to=20
be(the more calmly said the better).
When the follower is tense, it is possible that she can not feel the
lead very
well either. Most importantly, the movement is not fluid but jerky and=20
accidents(for which the leader will get blamed) are also more likely to
happen.
"Resistance", on the other hand, is helpful to feel on which foot the
followers=20
weight is on and what the "disposition" of the whole body is so as to
take=20
convenient next step. Resistance is elastic as opposed to a stiff arm
with
joints snapping at intervals. It provides a form of feedback to the
leader.=20
Even as followers are expected to 'listen' to the lead, the leader also
needs=20
to be keenly aware of the follower's movement to dance well. Otherwise,
if one=20
pushes something and it just goes back without offering any
resistance(voiding
newton's third law;-) it would be like walking on the moon -- quite a
celestial=20
experience -- but may not exactly feel like tango(may be for a
choreograhped=20
dance the situation is quite different).=20
rajan.
End of TANGO-L Digest - 1 Aug 2000 to 2 Aug 2000 (#2000-209)
************************************************************