Re: Female leaders (Ingrid's message)

["Lagrana, Fernando" <fernando.lagrana @ITU.INT>]

I would like to give some encouragements to Ingrid, provided this message comes through.

I was born and grown up in the South of France, a wonderful city called Biarritz, in the Bask country. People dance very often in this area : village festivals, family celebrations of all kinds, etc. you can dance all year long. During a typical dance evening, you could hear two kinds of music : for the "young" (jerk, rock, slow, twist, disco, and now hip-hop, trance, etc.) and for the "others" (paso doble, rumba, polka, waltz, bolero, tango, and now salsa, cumbia, etc.)

Real difference is not the age of the dancers but rather the way they dance. Typically, the "young" dance "alone" (although this not really true for rock) while the "others" dance in couple. And I always witnessed the same : there were two many female dancers... or two few men who really wanted- or knew how to dance.

As a result, to make sure they could dance, women danced together, and no one was surprised, shocked, ironic, or expressed whatever negative attitude : this was considered natural. And this is still so. Every Wednesday evening, my wife Elisa and myself do "los ayudantes" to help animate a practica close to Geneva (Switzerland) where we now live : I lead, she leads, I follow, she follows, we both do the two roles, we both dance with men or women, depending on what our fellow dancers and friends are willing to practice, review, learn, etc.

So Ingrid, go on. As Metin Yazir says, mistakes don't exist in tango, you can transform them into new steps. Obviously perception, feelings, will not be the same. As a leader, will you try to seduce your female follower in the same way you would do as a follower with a male leader ? This is another debate, which touches deep inside... and that you may be willing to launch as well !

Cheers,

Fernando De Jota
AlmaTango
Geneva, Switzerland
fernando @almatango.com

PS - If this message doens't come through, Ingrid may be willing to post it for me.

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