[TANGO-L] hard wiring and milonga

[Frank Williams <frankw @MAIL.AHC.UMN.EDU>]

Heyo Friends,

1.  ...glad to hear you kids had a good time in Denver!

2.  Oleh reports:

>>Alex said in class 'that North American followers cannot do small shuffle
step to the left (relative to the line of dance), because they are hardwired
by instructors to' ....<<

Several responses:
  i)  Perhaps Oleh is the exception that proves the rule.  I wasn't there,
but I have tremendous respect for my friend Alex.  I agree that followers up
here are often 'hard wired'.  [For one thing, their circuits are not
properly grounded ;-)]  But as most teachers know, typical students are only
capable of learning the dance backwards.  It is the exceptional student (and
usually a follower) to whom you can teach the most important fundamentals
right up front.  So if your own experiences differ somewhat from a
teacher's, it only means you're different, perhaps insightful, not right or
wrong.  Like it or not, teachers are supposed to give dancers the confidence
and means to get 'out there' as quickly as possible.   

  ii)  However (and NOT in reference to Denver), teachers who suggest
dancing tango structure/steps to milonga music are asking for trouble!
Maybe they are naïve to the ramifications of this 'short-cut', or faced with
students whose memories are totally saturated by other classes.  Milonga
demands a flawless, solid, trusting connection.  Executing tango steps at a
milonga tempo is IMHO difficult and counterproductive.  Traditional milonga
steps differ from tango for a good reason: with the quicker timing, the
movements are simpler and lighter to require less energy.  Only when the
frame/connection are *really* dialed-in can you 'bump-up' the energy without
problems.  Personally, I think it's a great disservice to teach milonga
using tango steps/structure.  Ochos in milonga?  Ooof!  ...only in an
emergency (or maybe as a joke)!  Because of the energy mis-match, I
personally struggle not to keep tango out of my milonga but to keep milonga
out of my tango. 

  iii)  Based on my travels I would agree that followers 'up here' - and I
hope that YOU are an exception ;-) - *don't* trust that you will really lead
them.  They don't give you their body to work with.  They don't shut down
all the necessary circuits because it usually doesn't work.  

  iv)  That's obviously because most leaders are not prepared to kindly take
a woman by the body and give her just what she wants and needs to feel great
while really following.  When Mr. Average Leader was a new beginner, no
woman in the class was forward enough to snug-up against him!  ...If they
did there's still the difficult issue of perceiving and managing the axis.
So the problems (and the blame) are cyclical and endemic.  Before you circle
back and blame the teachers, let's not forget the often-impossible
expectations of new tango students.  Obstacles like modesty, the paradigms
of other social dances that just don't apply and even common misconceptions
about the basic nature of dance itself.  ...so many distractions...


3)  In retrospect, we should all have learned milonga before tango!  Even
though it's too late now, milonga is still one of the best remedies for
problems with single-axis tango.  It helps teach what is essential and what
is not.  It shows (for those who are attentive) that the key to making the
dance work is relaxation and trust.  If something you like is not working,
trying *harder* will only make things worse.  You have to RELAX harder!  ;-)
For (single-axis) tango and milonga, these revelations and their practice
are worth all the memorized steps and 'intellectualizing' under the sun.


Take care, all!

Frank in Mpls.


Frank G. Williams, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota
frankw  @umn.edu
612-625-6441
 
Department of Neuroscience
6-145 Jackson Hall
321 Church St. SE.
Minneapolis, MN  55455
 
Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
1971 Commonwealth Ave.
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108
 

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