Re: Centering the Follower?

[Robert Hauk <robhauk @TELEPORT.COM>]

Hey list,

I am posting this again, something went wrong the first time around.  It
is way out of the sequence by now but it might be interesting for some
of you anyway.  This is one of those topics that keeps coming up.

astrid wrote:
>
> Clifton wrote:
>  I think what separates an intermediate follower from an advanced follower
> is embedded in this statement by Astrid:
> >
> > "I am told that good followers achieve a kind of Zen state where their
> minds go blank and they just respond much like martial arts masters."
>
> This was not my statement, more like Robert Hink (?) describing something
> that I also wrote about to the list months ago.

I did say something like this a few months ago so I thought I
would try and clarify what this might mean.

The Zen like mental state I described is something I first encountered
playing improvised music.  There is a point, when the musicians are
really connecting, where I have no thoughts in my head at all, and the
music seems to flow out of me directly from my emotions.  I am no longer
worried about what I am creating, if it is good enough, where it is
going, etc...  It feels like there is a direct path from feeling to
sound and the experience is very immediate.  When the music is over I
feel like I am waking up from a dream.  I have played music for a few
years for a group of dancers who do contact improv, and I always find
that when I have found this place in the music, the dancers have found
this place dancing.  We connect across the space of the room, and we
interract.  The musicians respond to the dancers, and the dancers
respond to the musicians.  It is an intimate, immediate communication
without words.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this could happen on the
dance floor dancing tango.  In this case I have to help my partner relax
and really dance her to the music so she can let go.  I dance smoothly,
and without complicated steps, to get her into a groove.  With some
women I will dance a repetative sequence so that they know where I might
be going so they quit worrying about the steps.  When I feel my partner
relax I begine to vary the sequence, and I don't know how I decide
really, it just happens when we begine moving together well.  If things
stay smooth and we don't get bumped we just go deeper into this
connected state, and the dance can go anywhere.  Often I end up doing
'steps' I have never done before, and that I can't remember after the
dance is over.  I am no longer thinking in words at all.  There is only
the music, my partner, the movement, and the other dancers around me (I
still have to navigate and not interfere with their dance).

The wonderful thing is that my partner doesn't have to be an experienced
dancer for this to happen.  I have felt this while dancing very simple
steps with a relative beginner.  It isn't a technique as such.  If I can
make a comfortable space for my partner, and give her confidence that
she can do all the steps I am going to do, and I will dance with very
simple steps if it is necessary, then she has the possibility.  A
beginner who listens to the music can do this even before she knows much
about the dance.  The main thing to know is that for me to get into this
wordless 'Zen' mental state I have to first get my partner there.

There is no way to force this.  My answer to Clifton's original question
is that there is nothing he can suggest to his partner to make it easier
for her, no technique to perfect.  The leader first has to make the
dance comfortable and safe for the follower.  The follower has to feel
that she/he will move where the leader moves.  When the follower can
feel confident with the movement, then it is possible to forget to think
about where to step.  Then it is possible to let go.  When we give our
partners suggestions on the dance floor we close the door to this place
entirely.  They will try to do what we suggest, and will be seeking
aproval, or maybe they will just think we are idiots for suggesting
something that, to them, sounds rediculous, or they will be hurt and no
longer able to trust.  The only thing I have found that I can say to
really help is something encouraging.  Something that gives a bit of
confidence.

Having said that the follower has to know something as well.  If the
follower is trying to do the steps consciously, or worse trying to do
'embellishments' learned in a class, or anything that keeps the
intellect engaged, the door is closed.  If the follower is thinking
about the dance then the dance will be a conscious, intellectual
activity.  In this case it could be a technically perfect dance and yet
there is no possibility for the Zen state.  I walk away from these
dances hungry, feeling empty.  This is most unsatisfying when it happens
with a partner who has a lot of experience, and should be amazing to
dance with.

When I go dancing the Zen experience is what I am after.  It is nice to
be able to dance well, and look nice on the dance floor, but if it
stopped there I probably wouldn't be so crazy about tango.  The Zen
experience is really what I am after.  This is the feeling I wouldn't
want to live without.  I think this is what the old milongueros in
Buenos Aires are after when they go out dancing.  Why else would a 75
year old man want to go out dancing every day until 5:00 AM?  It can't
just be about looking good on the dance floor.  For a 75 year old man it
can't just be about chasing women.  I think this feeling is the magic we
are all after.  The milongueros all talk about it, often in very poetic
terms.

Many happy dances,

Robert

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