Re: [TANGO-L] Inside a Beginner Man's Mind

["Laurie Moseley (at home)" <LGMoseley @AOL.COM>]

I agree that many of the teachers whom I meet, at least in the UK, do not try
to communicate  the fundamental idea, either to the men or to the women. The
problem arises from the word "lead", which in English has an overtone of
power. In Spanish it is "marcar", which I understand as "indicate", and which
has the overtone of "invitation" or "temptation". In English, Carlos Gavito,
in one class that I attended, expressed it as

"the man indicates, the woman leads, the man follows"

It encourages the man to stop the "power" thoughts and to replace them with
"inviting" thoughts. It also encourages the lady to wait, but to wait for an
indication, not for a step from the man.

To do it, the man has to concentrate on the indication from his body,
particularly from the chest. The feet are unimportant until the lady has
moved and made space for him to step. In our own teaching we use exercises
specifically for learning this difference. One simple example is to do the
following:

1.Form the embrace in the usual inverted slight V shape
2. Man puts the lady's weight on the intended foot
3. Man moves his chest slightly forward, but does NOT move his feet
4. Stop at that point and let the class look at where your body and feet are
5. The lady will normally have taken her first backward step, but the man has
not moved his feet at all
(If not, try again !)
6. Now and only now, he can step into the space that she has provided

If at point 4 above, the learners look at the man's feet, they should see
that those feet have not moved. That should get the point across. It is
something which can be practised, and seems to generalise to other positions
than merely the starting embrace.

Years ago, when I was a ballroom aficionado, I had one very good teacher who
used the concept of "slow feet". This left me baffled, as I couldn't see how
the feet on their own could be slow, without the rest of the body being slow.
Now that I dance and teach Tango, the concept has become clear.

Abrazos

Laurie (Lorenzo)