No Subject

[clayton beach <akumushi @ONEBOX.COM>]

Dear List,
Well, this started out as a simple response, and kept on growing.  I
spend entirely too much time philosophizing about this dance.  Please
try to read it through, and hopefully it will make sense at the end.
 These are the musings that keep me from doing school work.  Anyway,
enjoy:

I think everyone has experienced tango plateaus:
You start to think that you're really getting good, that you've got it
all under control, and you don't have a whole lot of room for improvement.
 You're getting really comfortable with your dance and start getting
cocky, then WHAM!
Now you can't do anything right, you suck at dancing, your feet don't
work, everything s horrible.
Bit by bit you start to see things differently, get more comfortable,
then you start to think that you're really good...
Does this cycle sound familiar?
It's happened a hundred times since I started, and will have happened
a million by the time I die.
Anyway, my latest epiphany, and something I been focusing on has some
bearing on the topic of centering the follow.
First, we must keep in mind that the woman should have an autonomous
sense of her own balance.  She should be capable of almost everything
on her own.  This is accomplished by practicing alone, and with dancing
a lot.  If a follow wants to get real good, she should dance with good
leads, but she should also dance with the really shitty ones.  Show me
a follow that can keep her balance and look dignified with a horrible
lead and I ll be the happiest man alive.
I the woman works hard she can gain a true sense of balance.  Hopefully,
the lead will do his job and she won t need it too much, but the best
offense is a good defense.
For a follow that has mastered her own body, the mechanics of the dance
follow a simple set of rules
The tango only consists of side, back and forward steps, which can be
further simplified to open  (side) steps, cross (forward/back) steps
and pivots.  If the woman can keep her balance during open and cross
steps as well as pivots, then she will be able to follow anything a man
LEADS WELL.
So, how does the man lead well?
He must first realize that everything is open, side, or rotation.  If
a man thinks in anything more than two, at most three steps at a time,
he has left his partner and is dancing alone, in his head.
For me, the most important thing is the woman's body and her comfort.
 All of my attention should be given to her.  The music is the blood
through my veins, it s something that has so permeated my existence that
I cannot imagine life without it.  I cannot stress the importance of
listening to LOTS of the music.  It is something that both the lead and
the follow should not even be thinking about, just like they re not focusing
on (breath in breath out, breath in, breath out)  Maybe it s why people
seem to think that only Argentines can really feel the tango.  They are
exposed to it form birth, whether their parents dance or not, it is part
of their common heritage.  Just as some Americans don t particularly
like jazz, there it is part of our cultural heritage.
Anyway, the music should be not even be an issue.  A good follow becomes
an extension of my own body, and I can feel exactly where she is.  I
can be aware of every muscle in her body and when I move, she follows.
 There is a portion of my brain dedicated to moving limbs that are not
even a part of my body.  This is why it takes a little more than a couple
of dances to really be able to dance well with someone, and why people
in relationships dance so well together.  Just like your first bumbling
romantic encounters, you must learn your partner s body before you can
dance well.  Every woman has particular strengths and weaknesses, and
it s up to the man to support her where she is weak, and provide her
with opportunity s to show off her strengths.  This takes time, and forging
ties with the dancers in your community is an important step in improving.

There is an intimate bond between the lead and the follow, and it is
something so beautiful that to bring any sexual or egotistical feelings
into it is to defile its purity.  Sure the tango is sensual, but it is
far more sophisticated than a  mating ritual.   In my opinion, it is
the most beautiful part of humanity.  The lead and follow are the most
pure forms of human communication, and the tango is an incredible amalgamation
the arts: music, poetry, and movement.
The lead must respect his partner s body, and she must be willing to
trust him with it.  In order to lead, the man must position his body
around her axis to invite her into the next movement.  Here s an example
of how this applies to the dance:
To keep the woman's balance during (rotational) boleos, the man cannot
move her side to side (away from her axis).  These movements are entirely
rotational energy.  The boleo occurs by changing the direction of rotation
precisly when her body has reached it's limit.  Remember when you played
with a yo-yo?  It goes down, and if you change its direction at the right
point, the yo-yo returns.  That is the "sweet spot" discussed earlier.
 The lead must be able to feel the tension in her body, and use it to
create the snap.  It s like a rat s tail with a wet towel.  It takes
very little force to make it sting.  The speed and timing of the move
are the critical parts.  Line boleos are the same, only he is pushing
her off her axis.  Using up energy, he prevents her from stepping, if
he changes direction right before she loses balance, then boom; you've
got a line boleo.  These movements are examples of how the man must respect
the woman's center, and be able to feel the energy in her body.  Follower's
feel clumsy or unskilled when unskilled leads take them off of their
axis.  The key to leading is for the lead to position his body such that
the movement that he is intending to lead is the only movement that she
can without compromising her balance.  If leads can manage this, and
follows know their bodys well enough to ALWAYS maintain their balance,
then tango nirvana is reached.
Just like electricity, a good follow will follow the path of least resistance.
 If the lead respects her axis, and she is comfortable, then a follow
will reach this "nirvana" or "tango trance."  It is when she can finally
relax, feel comfortable without trying to second guess what the lead
wants, that a follow can clear her mind a just FOLLOW.
If she does not have her balance, (if the lead is pushing or pulling
her over) then she will have to be conscious of what the lead s trying
to do.  She will start anticipating n order to avoid discomfort.
As a beginning (an extremly inexperienced) follow, I know that I can't
follow anything too complicated.  It's because I haven't developed my
"following balance."  The balance that a follow must have and that required
of a lead are completely different worlds.  We leads don't have to worry
about some menace trying to contort our bodies, stepping on our feet
and kicking our shins.  The best thing for a man to do about his balance
is to start following.  It's sink or swim!
More than ever, I'm realizing that the dance is composed only of the
three elements I spoke of earlier(open, cross, rotation).  The complexity
arises in how the two partner's bodies are related in space.  "Moves"
get their unique look from the combination of how the partners are stepping,
the timing of these steps, the amount of torque(rotation) in their torsoes,
and the orientation of their bodies(side to side, facing, side to front
et cetera).
If a move isn't working, if one partner is off balance, then one of these
elements is out of sync.  The reason why we should go to lessons and
intend workshops is not patterns.  It is to gain the knowledge of what
relationship, what combination of the fundamentals is needed for the
move to succeed.  This is why we hear about the triangles, L's, circles
and all of the other geometric interpretations teachers use.  They are
ways that a teacher attempts to explain the necessary elements of a whole
family of moves.  If you can do one sacada well, one boleo well, one
gancho well, and you have been taught the mechanics and elements necessary
for all of these moves, then there is no reason that you can't take some
time to goof around and find all of the other ganchos, sacadas and boleos.
 Working in the mirror image of a patterns you know will double your
repertoire.  Double it again by doing all of your moves completely reversed!
 (imagine a tape of yourself dancing being rewound).  Want to double
it again?  Try leading your moves only switching the roles.  If you start
to dissect the dance like that, then you ll start to realize that things
that you thought were different patterns are actually just the mirror
image or the reverse of a pattern you ve already been taught.  This is
how people who can really improvise well can do it.  Limit yourself from
the confines of what you ve been taught.  Get together with friends and
practice, throw topics at each other and goof around.
Workshops and classes are for technique, getting pointers on how your
body is interfering with the dance, getting stylistic tips, and being
shown the fundamental elements of the dance.  Good instructors know this,
and they may use particular patterns or "moves to give an example of
an entire family of related concepts.  If all you get from a class is
a couple of patterns that you ll forget in a month and that aren t even
fit for social dancing, then you ve wasted your money.  Two instructors
that I've had the opportunity to study with that take this approach are
Metin Yazir and Fabian Salas.  Both are great guys, with an awesome understanding
of the human body as well as the mechanics of the dance.  Every minute
with these guys is valuable.  There are other instructors that I go to
purely for the artistic and interpretive side of the dance.  Leandro
Palou and Andrea Misse are a couple that teaches together.  If they EVER
come to your town, you owe it to yourself to check them out.
Time for discovering moves, and finding variations is the practica.
Intermediate dancers are wasting their time and money when the lessons
ignore the "fundamentals" and focus on patterns.  You can t do these
moves until you really understand how to use your body.
You want the most valuable time with a travelling instructor?  Take the
"fundamentals" Class.  No follow cares how many moves you know if you
can't make her WALK comfortably.
At any rate, these are my current musings about the dance.  Thanks to
everyone that actually read it all the way through!!!
Get out there and enjoy yourselves.
Sincerely,
Clayton Beach,
San Diego CA
Akumushi @onebox.com


--
Clayton Beach
akumushi @onebox.com


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