Re: Female Leaders

[Manuel Patino <white95r @HOTMAIL.COM>]

It seems that the tango started as a dance between men and women.
Apparently, at the beginning, men learned with other men (and I presume
women also leaned with other women as well as with men). Culturally, the
tango is all about the relationship between a man and a woman on the dance
floor (at least this would seem to be the prevalent dogma amongst the
majority of tango aficionados). Even a cursory search will reveal many
articles and posts about "the connection", "the passion", "the embrace",
"the intimacy", etc. of the tango. All these things would lead one to think
of tango as romantic, if you will, endeavor. From this perspective, same sex
partners would not be the norm at a traditional milonga (e.g. in Buenos
Aires)

Now, in a lesson environment or in a practica, there would seem to be very
little controversy about one's choice of learning the leading or the
following parts of the dance. Here in Atlanta, it is fairly common to see
women dance with women even in public milongas. The reverse is not true
however. From the standpoint of learning and practicing, it is quite OK for
men to dance with men and I suppose the same applies to women. I have on
occasions, danced with my men students as the leader and the follower too.
However, at a traditional milonga, it would not do to dance with another
guy. It just isn't done. I guess in North America people are more relaxed
about those things and most milongas are small, almost intimate, affairs
where people already know each other and it's easier to do something like
that. I'm sure that in Buenos Aires, that would cause some degree of
controversy.

All that aside, there are some problems that can arise out of the
women/women or men/men dances. Often times, the gender balance does not
support women dancing with women and many guys stand around with nobody to
dance with. The reverse  is also true, I've seen guys dance together while 4
or 5 women warm up their chairs! In our classes we encourage people to
switch partners, we also try to make sure that everybody gets a chance to
dance and to practice the things learned in the class. Sometimes, a woman
who asks other women to dance is doing more harm than good by reducing the
number of potential followers by 2! As for women leading men, well...
Leading and following are very different skills. While some women are
consumate leaders and can lead anybody to do anything, most women as leaders
are much more light and tentative than the men (they will use less brute
force and less body mass). Men, on the other hand, tend to be poor followers
as they are heavier and do very little of the technique required for
following (back ochos, pivoting, turns, etc.). This makes the whole thing
considerably more challenging. Men are much harder to lead and women are
generally smaller and lighter and have more of a challenge to lead.
Personally, I don't think there is much to be gained by women leading men
around in tango. I think that while it is useful for men as leaders to feel
what the follower feels, the reverse is not necesarily true. The skills of
the follower are very difficult to master and are considerably different
than those required to lead. I don't believe that a woman can become a
better follower by learning to lead. I do believe that a leader can become a
better leader by experiencing the leads himself.

As for people's personal preferences?  I guess everybody is free to do
whatever they desire as long as the others involved go along with it.
Whatever gets you through the night......


Partners of their choice to all,


Manuel

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