Why would an advanced leader train with me?

This question a follower was wondering about!

I don't think that the advanced social dancers have all techniques at top level and if the leader wants to lift up something the problems can be similar to those at my level. When I want to add a variation of a known figure to my milonga vocabulary there are just a short rough period and then we can catch up the normal flow. If I instead want to introduce, develop a for me totally new technique the situation is quite different.

The day I want to expand to a new skill I start to work on it at home up to a level I remember the steps for me and the follower on the chosen figures. After that I can have a private lesson with a teacher but later on I need to train them with a partner and Yes! At this point the problems start!

In my world most of the followers start at beginner courses but as soon as they can atract sufficient number of tandas most of them stop regular courses and trust on that the leaders will teach the rest of the needed skills. There are not many at a practica who wants to sparring dance with me not even if I promise to dance the same number of songs so they can train the steps of their choice!

When it is time to introduce the new elements to an informal milonga there is a clear drop of skill on several areas. Even if I can move ok on pista the flow is not so smooth, not so effortless. When I am tweeking in the new steps the variation of other content gets lower as well as my focusing, selfconfidence and musicality.

There are followers who do not accept this drop in the tanda quality, but want a full dance experience always! This forces the leader to seach new partners and here is an opportunity for the followers willing to cooperate in learning and learn themselves. Maybe you are interested to get new friends also! Here the changes are quite obvious!

Are you training with me now?

 A follower asks irritated at a milonga

Nooo, I just dance badly today!  

A suggestion to the leader

I have been asked and others have confirmed the same phrase at milongas

 

The road & The car as Following & Leading metaphor

music as the landscape

the leaders construct the road and fix the signs

the followers drive their car on the prepared road

 

Following & Leading period

From the very beginning, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of following to be a passive role but it has been a challenge to find a way to describe the active parts included. It has also been impossible to find one picture integrating the whole life of a dancer. The feeling during the first years was totally different compared to the experience of a tanda 20 years later.

What kind of a metaphor could then describe the first years when the leading and following roles have the strongest presence in the couple. In the beginning, we are learning how to move our bodies to Argentine tango and how we relate to music so the dance becomes enjoyable even during your first years!

In classical music, the idea of a musical landscape is common so the idea of tangos creating their own sound landscape was a logical development. Even if some of the song texts are about soccer, heart, blood, and difficulties the music still creates different parallel paths the leaders can choose their favorite among. This is the leaders advantage or often a responsibility during the first years.

The Road Constructor

It is also easy to think a leader as a road constructor when he is choosing the musical path for his feet and body, building the road, which he is offering to the follower too. His skill to navigate and adapt to the other couples will create a safe road on the pista for the couple. Is your road rough or has it a smooth surface? How can your follower recognize the signs for speed limits? Other signs? Are there spaces for scenery stops?

The Car Driver

The follower is not a car as suggested so many times but the driver. It is the follower's decision how to drive that car! It is her decision to keep the vehicle on the offered road and to follow the speed limits and other road signs from the leader during the journey. What is your style of driving? Is it slow or fast? Is the driving occupying all your capacity or are you able to enjoy the path, the musical landscape around you?

The lead/follow period is about learning how to create the tango movements and sequences with your body and how to communicate all that to the partner. It is much more about learning and not so much about improvising yet.

Yes, this is just a metaphor and it doesn't meet all the leading and following aspects but it shows a possibility for a dynamic experience in both roles.


This is the metaphor for the first period on a dancers path! You can here below find the different possibilities there are for us!
https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2019/05/three-stages-of-tango-followlead.html

The bloody heel

Ten days ago one of my followers was involved in an incident where her leg was peeled by another follower's heel. There was definitely some blood and still after ten days she is not able to carry out her life long daily routine. She can dance but not swim according to medical advise!

What happened? 

It took place during one of our weekly milongas. According to those involved and a few around the couple behind my friends was dancing vigorously. The back boleo of this younger follower was not performed with a relaxed leg only but it was powered by her back muscles in the way the some dancers do. So instead of a bruise my partner got her calf peeled off! Afterwards the leaders tried to help to take care for the injuries but the follower wasn't there.

After an accident you are usually quite shaken and more careful with your steps. Not this couple.

There seems to be two different responsibility systems around the pista of today. The older system loads all the responsibility for the couples actions on the leader. What ever path the follower heel takes it is the leader's responsibility.

The other system is more based on individual responsibility. The leader is supposed to adapt his dance to the crowd but here the follower should also take a look around and consider if there is space for high boleos. If she finds the pista too crowded she would resist a high boleo lead and transform it to a low one! She is an independent dancer!

My partners leg 10 days after the incident!

I wonder what are you willing to give up to be able to share the same pista with different styles, ages and skill levels?

Who is responsible for heels on your home pista?  Leaders only?

Your opinion on what should an organizer do to prevent these incidents?

The importance of following and leading

Is the leading more important than following has been the subject for several postings lately.

 
This is my view: I consider the leading and following to be the core functions in our dance. The leader and the follower are equally important at all levels and more similar in effort when both partners have developed their adaptation skills and later on the intuitive dance. However at the beginning the leaders workload is larger.

I agree with the writers about the step learning. I also think that both groups learn their own steps with equal easiness. Some individuals learn more easily then others but within the groups of leaders and followers it may be about the same.

Another area to learn is how to produce the lead/leading signals and follow/receive the signals. Think about a basic ocho as an example. Both groups need to learn the signals for different parts of it and during the hours on the pista leaders and followers do develop all the variations needed for different partners.

And here is the end of the list for follower responsibilities as i see it. On other hand the follower has the advantage to reach the level of true enjoyment or intuitive dancing much earlier than a leader. (a leader can experience the followers special level of relaxation and dream about joining her there some day. . . )

The list of the leader responsibilities is longer. At a later development level the conscious mental efforts and physical demands become similar for the persons forming the couple. During the journey from start to that level the leader is responsible and expected to cover for the shortcomings by learning more than a follower.

To begin with I need to know the follower steps - if not, how could I create the signals for an appropriate lead. It doubles my step learning efforts and even today it is mentally exhausting to remember her/my steps simultaneously when I am learning a new sequence.

Then we have the navigation which is much more than walking forward to an empty space on the pista. It is a complicated skill and last mastered. But when mastered the couple can intuitively adapt their steps to the space available while smoothly advancing on the dance line together with others. We can also, as couples, react to the music with different steps but simultaneously with others so the fully developed pista is pulsating to music. You can see this happen on some videos from Buenos Aires milongas.

The most demanding of the extras is the responsibility for content. The steps must be interesting enough and the connection to music needs to be satisfying. Different followers want different content. The leader must know what to suggest.

In the table below the rows present the areas of responsibilities for both groups.
The columns show how much mental/conscious effort is needed for dancing. It stretches from totally conscious steps --> totally intuitive dancing. A variation of the Four stages of competence process!

For me the different stages/periods are these: During the Lead/Follow period the dancing is mostly a conscious process, demanding all my mental capacity. When partnering we both know the steps by heart and can easily adapt to each others; at the best moments intuitively. To reach to the absolute dance the couples on pista must have the skill to intuitively adapt to the other couples as well as to each others within the couple.

Finally and once more - I consider the leading and following to be the core functions in our dance. They are equally important at all levels and more similar in effort when both partners have developed their skills and later on the intuitive dance.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence

Info stop for feet about tape!

During an encuentro in Stockholm I asked the organizers if I could set up a small rescue station for the feet and it was approved! I want every dancer to be aware of the possibility to support the feet/body with tape (or other devices). Here a picture about it!

But this can be done much more smashing like this German lady!

You may follow her, don't you?

 The earlier posting in this subject!

http://leadingladyl.blogspot.se/2014/01/support-your-feet-please.html

Her dancing body

no will - no lead   

just dancing   

She is a naturally talented follower and a popular partner among the leaders. I always appreciated my tandas with her on every occasions we met on European pistas!

During this tanda there was something else going on, an odd feeling that I was following her. But the strange thing was that she was n o t leading. It was as if her body has started to dance. Please read it once more: as if her body has started to dance! Dancing without her active guidance!

There were movements according to tango's vocabulary and the movements were beautifully following the music but there was not the air of will which directs those movements and is the sign for a lead. Her body was dancing! And I followed her.

This experience kept me fascinated for months and I still wonder

Women, Cooperate!

[This is my final essey on the BerkeleyX : Principles of Written English]

On an ordinary night for Argentine tango the number of followers is clearly exceeding the number of leaders. To cope with this fact, women tend to look for solutions only at a personal level, competing with each other with result that the dances are unevenly distributed. If the followers were instead cooperating to manage the tango events the dances would be distributed in a more equitable manner.


Argentine tango tradition offers a large set of rules and praxises to organize a dance evening and to facilitate the process of finding a partner for the next dance set (Las Chinitas, 2009). The most important praxis in this context is cabeceo, an invitation, where followers and leaders are negotiating about the next tanda, dance set, by eye contacts and head nods. This gives both parties an equal possibility to accept or decline an invitation. Today the more competitive followers do not use cabeceo, but approach the leaders, and by chatting for some moments get an invitation or ask for the next set of dances. One of the rules urges the participants to clear the dance area between the tandas (Las Chinitas, 2009). This is not respected on the less traditional dance evenings, where many women are actively asking for the next dance without leaving the dance floor. Consequently, the followers already on the floor get a new tanda more easily and the dances are accumulated to these active individuals. The effect of these two techniques are strengthened by following online advices and preparations at home.


Some websites as Argentine Tango (Whipple, n.d.) or follower forums and discussions are filled with instructions about chatting, clothing and strategic seating for a successful dance evening. Within tango the most popular color is black, but if you choose a red dress you will be more visible on that evening (Anonymous, 2013). You will also strengthen your position by seating wisely. If you choose a table, which people are passing by or gathering around you can easily catch an eye or start a chat. as a preparation for an invitation to next dance (Anonymous, 2013). These strategies are helping a follower to get a more favorable position and more dances than a strategically less skillful dancer would get.


The gender unbalance within tango has not always had the same pattern, but instead in the early days men, leaders, were actually outnumbering the followers (Denniston, 2007). To study the strategies these men used to manage the shortage of available dances, offers a way to find new methods to address the opposite gender unbalance of today.


The immigrant flow to Argentina, starting towards the end of the 1900 century, had an unusual structure in the sense of consisting mainly of single men. As Denniston (2007) describes, "[…] overwhelmingly single young men who were looking for work, many who thought they would get rich and then go home" (Denniston, 2007, p. 12). She continues by saying that still in 1940s and early 1950s this unbalance was noticeable, "[…] in the formal dance halls, known as milongas, there were always far more men than women" (Denniston, 2007, p. 15). Men, who wanted to learn tango, were training four to five nights per week during several years developing their skill in both following and leading. The very first entry to a milonga was decided by the elder men on the training site. Even when the first attempt was successful, these men returned to the continuous training with other men (Denniston, 2007). In this community the skill was defined as the main vehicle to milongas and the skill level of a newcomer was monitored by the elder males who suggested the day and the place for introducing a new leader to the followers. This praxis regulated the flow of newcomers to the milongas, allowing only those who trained persistently and who were approved by an experienced dancer to enter the dance floor.


This kind of social control of newcomers would not be accepted in modern tango communities, but some of the old praxises are valid even today and by discussing and cooperating a modern set of guidelines for a milonga can be developed and agreed about. In the early days the outnumbering group, men, did find a structure to manage the situation. Today it is the followers' turn to take the lead.



References

Denniston, C. (2007). The Meaning of TANGO, The Story of the Argentinian Dance, 12, 15.

Las Chinitas, (2009). Welcome to Milonga Las Chinitas Retrieved from
http://laschinitashk.blogspot.se/2009/08/welcome-to-milonga-las-chinitas.html

Whipple, C. (n.d.). Follower's Guide to Festivals/Milongas, Retrieved from
http://www.carriechelsea.com/guide.shtml

Whipple, C. (n.d.). Follower's Guide to Festivals/Milongas, Retrieved from
http://www.carriechelsea.com/gettingdances.shtml

Carlitos vs Pablo and Noelia

I have been watching a lot of Carlitos videos lately trying to understand his lead and his musicality! One day I clicked back to a video where Noelia is dancing with Pablo and I was astonished how my youtube experience had changed.

Pablo Rrodriques and Noelia

I have always appreciated Pablo and Noelia as masters of slower tangos. The loss of those calm performances was my main reason to be unhappy when they separated. The rest of it was boring; I thought so at that time.

When I came back to those old songs, I was changed and appreciated now how cleverly he chooses steps and movements. I understood also more about the musical elements he is using for his steps He makes stops, he slows down this milonga to let his feet follow the violin or some other variations in music. Their whole bodies are involved in dancing.

When watching this do it several times and at least once …without sound…! It is easier to concentrate to the movements, the interpretation of music. Anyhow for me it is very risky because I am easily absorbed to a fantastic performance if the music is on! My analysis is fading to plain enjoyment!

Carlitos Espinoza and Noelia

This partnering was a happy surprise and their rhythmical discoveries have a joyful precision. They nearly never stop but let the feet run even faster for a change following the piano or other istruments. The upper bodies are still  together and the dancing is focused on feet including some up/downward movemets for the linked torsos.

Here you have the same song to watch and compare. Please play this too … without sound… to have your full concentration on the movements. You have a fantastic possibility to enjoy the differences between these two performances danced on the same song.

Noelia

The two videos above show also the broad talent Noeila has. Pablo and Carlitos have their significantly very own ways of picking the musical phenomenons for their steps, their expressions are different, abrazos are different but she can adapt to all that and still keep her own artistic expression at high level.

Audience

As audience my opinions seems to be quite haphazard, or my understanding and opinions are strongly limited by my level of understanding, sensitivity. To have other additional experiences seems to change my preferences.

Anyhow I feel deeper joy now after working on these issues! That's great and I recommend it for you too! Work on your favorites to get closer, to get deeper!

Carlitos hand

My favorite pose for leader right hand is the relaxed one with fingers easily together and the thump slightly separated. Many variations are available but I can not recall a single other leader but Carlitos Espinoza, who is spreading out the fingers to maximum in the way so characteristic for Noelia Hurtado.

I got curious and wanted to check, if these specific moments of outspread  fingers during some performances with Noelia could be found earlier with his other partners or if it is a more detailed adaptation of the abrazo; adapting and synchronizing the abrazo down to the very tip of the fingers!


I am talking about this, his right hand!

Youtube is a very unprecise tool to work with, but it offers still some better features compared to my memory! I did choose four of his partners to take a closer look of the abrazo and hand poses: Mamie Stancy, Sofia Saborido, Pamela Aracena and Noelia Hurtado. For each of them I did a search filtered for video. The second level filter was for maximum view count and for latest posting. For Pamela it was the same video and for Sofia the second video had so soft light that the hands could not be seen clearly.

You can check the hands and if you like watch the whole video you find the links in the end of this posting.


Mamie and Carlitos

Pamela and Carlitos

Sofia and Carlitos

Noelia and Carlitos

I remember some quite heated discussions about Noelias hand but never a word about Carlitos in same position. How come? My guess would have been that the rules for the leader options are more rigid but it seems not so.  Or do I just have limited information?

Mamie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DOfZRmqlPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR485E0Debs

Pamela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er1TfrnxqAM

Sofia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUQF5TfEgbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmGMau9ovZQ

Noelia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxwBfckHwkg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flaS2vr-QT0

exeptional
http://youtu.be/ggUFetrOm2Q?t=8s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAltfzpsGmQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndX_C7Bg4kw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUFetrOm2Q

Support your feet, please!

Quite a  few of my favorite, experienced followers must cut down the number of tandas because of metatarsal pain. That is painful for her and really frustrating for both of us! The information about hese two methods to support the metatarso are not new but this is a new year push to start test/use devises for easier and happier dancing. I am NOT professional and you should talk with one to check if these methods are suitable for you and if they are enough to help you stay on the pista. It IS dangerous not to listen your body – we had here in our community (early days when there was not so much information) who lost her metatarso padding with painful consequences for many years.

Stay in place, keep the metatarso tissue collected!
A friend of mine is a professional modern dancer with many hours on bare feet; training and performing. The increasing pain on the front part of the feet was horrifying, challenging her career as a dancer. A solution for her was a bandage of sport tape around the front part of the feet. She changed it once a week during the long period her feet needed to recover.

If you put a piece of tape on the floor and step on it with you whole weight you vill get right supporting effect without squeezing the feet. Wrap the ends around your foot. This may be exactly what you need but for more stable support you can make another round.

This will keep the metatarso padding collected into its proper place without squeezing the structure or your foot.

Giving your feet some extra padding!

There is kind of jelly, colorless paddings used by many here but they are mostly loose ones so after a milonga you can find some lonely, sad jelly padding on the pista or they move around in the shoe so you need to put them to the right place again. In central Europe these devises have a band around the foot keeping them in place.  According to the info you can even wash the after a long dance night!

Do it together! Start a new trend in your community!

I have talked to followers here about these possibilities and helped them to test but it has been too embarrassing to use visible devises in those beautiful shoes. But according to the ladies it helped when they tested!

If this could be something for you and your follower friends, please go together and use the visible paddings, visible sport tape!  If you are 5-10 followers doing it at same milonga it will be  easier and others will join you quite soon!

The change can go VERY fast! 

When I visited a German encuentro and found these white bands in many shoes

 it became soon kind of signature of a dedicated, experienced dancer!

2014.04.07
Some more links to find tips for pain release!

http://www.leonatraining.com/2013/11/mini-class-3-school-of-silly-walks.html

http://www.advancedfootcontrol.com/moreinfo2/

http://www.alignedandwell.com/

Beginner vs. World champion match

I know very few followers who have continuously, daily training as the strategy to become better dancer. Most followers take courses every now and then and consider the dances with more advanced leaders as their main strategy.

Think of a tennis court where a world champion is playing with a beginner. Yes, his skill makes it possible to return all the balls and if he is a nice person, he can drop some of them to create a friendly atmosphere. His skill makes it also possible to place the balls so they are easy for the beginner to return.

The situation is totally different for these two. The beginner is amazed that she is able to play with the world champion and she thinks she is really good, playing with all her capacity. For the champion this is not so much about skill training, playing at the edge of his ability, but about caring, to be nice.
The biggest issue here for me is the situation when she returns to the same tennis court, but this time with another beginner. The match is totally different and it is easy to explain the difference by pointing this new playmate to 10 levels lower stage ( incorrectly). This kind of false idea of your own level creates difficulties in learning and you maybe get to the partnering stage later.

Partnering stage is (for me) when both are playing/dancing at the edge of their skill without compensation from the other, mutually exploring new things.

*This posting is a responce to a specific situation for followers but some parts could be valid for leaders too.

Ricardo Vidort and Muma

Ricardo Vidort
Every stage of your path in tango has its own scenery. This is for a milonguero who has danced for 60 years. At this point it is quite sure you got the essence of this dance clear for you.

The most important for me is this:*The body doesn’t think, the body feels the music as a way to move it and walk, and if we put attention to what our body is feeling, we shall see we are moving.*

Old milonguero knowledge for you via an interview with Ricardo Vidort on Jantango's blog
http://jantango.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/ricardo-vidort-again-in-his-own-words/

An video interview with Muma, who has been dancing with Ricardo Vidort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QfDZVX9wpI&list=UUKAaJeHDmrdn0J4XHrXiLwg&index=1&feature=plcp

Muma as teacher
We are different as persons and need different methods to easily learn to make moves connected to the music. It seems that Muma has a different way giving a key to some learners. Please read this story:

*In my experience, sequences held me back for years learning AT, I think because my mind didn't have the framework for them. Sequences are definitely not a necessary part of the learning experience and the first teacher able to teach me social dance, was Muma, a Molinguera who just had me walk and feel the music and then after I mastered that, she then taught me several little things like ocho cortadas (just the cortada piece which can be on the right or left), weight changes, double times, check steps, trespies, ocho steps, various turns, back steps, crosses and back crosses which can all be done in an amazing variety of ways.

I actually think that most people like me, unable to learn from sequences, end up dropping out and quiting tango and the only reason why I never gave up is because I was extremely stubborn. I actually thought that I had a learning disability until I met Muma and she straightened me out ridiculously fast. I know that some people have minds with a frameworks such that sequences work well for them and I have nothing against that. I see it as intuition vs. intellectual ways of dancing and I can respect both, but intuitive dancing feels much better to me personally. It is a real shame that there are so few teachers that can teach to intuitive minds like mine. Robert Hauk is one of the only teachers within 100's of miles of me that I can actually learn from, and kinesthetic learners like me mostly leave tango and never come back. I have talked to a lot of other people (artist types) who were unable to learn tango from sequences and I think sequences are much better teaching aids for analytical people like programmers, engineers, or mechanics, which is why there are not many artist types dancing tango.*  (link to the original posting)

A lesson with Muma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32q5E1lYVQ&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32q5E1lYVQ&feature=related

A feeling of speed

After thinking a lot i noticed that the speed in music has two aspects as i see it. I try to explain how i am reasoning.

We keep us to the four quarter notes, 4/4 time signature

The first option is how long every and each quarter note is sounding. If we think ordinary tango with 5 parts, 16 measures each, then we get totally 80 measures which usually takes 2,5 mins to play. But we could modify the music file and play it faster, in 2 mins or slower so it takes 3 mins.

How many measures are passing per minute?

Another way to create a feeling of speed is the number or accents within a measure demanding our steps.

How many accents there is per measure?

As dancers we can decide the number of accents we want to use for our steps. Usually in tango we have two accents per measure. If we would step only on 1 and the same for next measure we create a much calmer, slower feeling. In milonga there is 4 accents and when we take them all it can go quite fast!

How many accents we step per measure?

When you are playing a dance video in slow motion you are using the first alternative. The music and dansers steps are the same but sloooooower.


                    In dance the steps are the changing element and the music a constant

To dance with a beginner

In different discussions the combination advanced/beginner dancer is promoted as an ideal. Sometimes I find it as an expression for greed in tango context, when the beginners try to get in to a Ferrari for a fast development. Other times the leaders, it is mostly leaders in this case, want to make a good impression to the readers by announcing their generosity in this way.

The dance skill is also more seen as a Beauty kind of quality instead of a Skill for example in skiing. The first one is a static one - you got your share and that's it.There are feelings of rejection and frustration, when your goals are far a way from your place today. Only few are using these negative feelings as fuel to grow their skill.

When I compared the dance situation to a conversation I clearly understood the difference between the appreciation for a person and the skill level.

An enjoyable dance is not only about chemistry between the partners but it's a lot of about skill too! There can be a totally wonderful person but if s/he can only 10 words of our shared language there wouldn't be a conversation.

If s/he knows 2000 word but is unexperienced, our conversation is still a struggle with the language, our communication tool.

But when we know our grammar, we know the words and we have the flow after many years of use of this language, then we can forget the tools and focus on our subject. Sometimes this kind of conversation is so intense, the exploring so focused on what is within us, me and the partner - we just forget everything else!

Expressions of follower musicality

I have had hard time trying to find the difference between a musical expression and an adorno. Both are part of the follower's musicality and so far the degree of independence of the movement is the most clear difference I have found. For adornos a follower takes own initiatives based on music and the time available. One of the most frequent adornos are the small kicks done every now and then. Another possibility is the marking with the toes on music.

Noelia is following fantastically the piano here!



The followers can find a lot of ways, when carrying out the lead and they have a lot of space to find a personal way to take the steps according to her personal musical taste.

Here you have one of Juana's! That planeo is fantastic!


But there is a beautiful area in between these two, where the follower just adds something extra to the lead.

Watch this, when Juana takes the step and goes down following the piano.



Or this one from Noelia when she divides the step to a series of steps; first slowly and then with two markings!

something about the Stages of tango

I started to dance tango 1998, which makes me ancient compared to many in our community. When I have looked  back over these years I have had a blurred feeling of passing through different stages since I started. But for some reason this feeling has never manifest itself in writing until two weeks ago when I in the middle of a facebook discussion put it in this way:

"I put it a little bit simple here, but at the beginning and intermediate level I needed a follower. If she didn't understand my lead and did something else => there we were standing, loading for a fresh start.

Today I need a partner - a mentally strong follower with her own musicality. If she misinterprets my lead, we just go on dancing, it doesn't have impact on our flow. If I don't *feel* her presence in our dance I feel lonely. 

This subject seems to be in the air today because a few days later I found a picture describing the 5 stages of tango. It is well done with thoughts quite correct and visually beautifully formed. It is a very good aid to stimulate your own thoughts about what you have passed by and the joys you’ll have in future. 

I'm sorry that the picture is not readable, please follow this link! (Ctrl + and it gets larger)

Credit to Steve Morrall, Tango UK (the author)
http://www.tango.uk.com

If we were able to form some kind of shared understanding of development stages for tango it would be easier to discuss. Today many of our discussions are confusing because we mix the details from different levels during one occasion. In my opinion the feeling, experience, thinking and performance of tango phenomenons are different at different levels.
I hope we will some day in future have a kind of shared understanding!

balancing vs. loading

During the entire last year I was following about a half a dozen tandas. That's not much and I can tell you my following is rusty. I have though plans for a slight change here and therefore I did accept a few follower tandas when I was asked in Finland at Tampere festival.

I was like seaweed in storm chasing my balance! It was fascinating. I know that I have good balance as a leader and on my ballet lesson I can stand on my toes in pose and keep my balance for a moment. So it can’t be a balance problem, but WHAT is it then?

The only reasonable suggestion I came up to was: Did I load my steps with incorrect amount of energy?

Think of this situation: You are running and then suddenly you must stop. And there you are waving your arms, moving your whole body and trying to absorb the surplus energy. I am sure you know the situation!

I think now that my balance problem actually was an inablility to give my step the right amount of energy as well as my inability to effectively take care of the surplus of energy.

I think that the experienced followers are really good at allocating the right amount of energy for every single step and it gives them soft and effortless flow of steps. If they misunderstand the lead they can effectively absorb the surplus energy or add some more if needed!

Those abilities I had lost during the years I was following so few tandas.

Addition 15.08.2012
Many followers are talking of balance problems. I think we could help me/them by finding some exercises how to more exactly read the lead and how to alternate the strength used for the steps.

No thanks! and the distance

We all know how difficult it is to say No thanks! when verbally asked! I have never managed to do it nicely and it became even worse when I continued trying to explain, why I was not available for a tanda.

So I became a friend of cabezeo! It is amazing clear, easy to see even at a distance, if someone is avoiding my eyes and not interested to share next tanda with me. To me it was a surprise  that it worked even at Soul Tango festival where the followers were not used to dance with another woman. They giggled when they understood that my cabezeo was a serious one, but they stepped to the pista with me. It works other way round too! When I need to keep a tanda promise it is just so easy to focus on something else until I spot my follower.

The biggest surprise has been the experience of how soft and easy it was to say No thanks! at the shortest distance. I am dancing with this follower every now and then, not regularly so we don't know each other so well. On two occasions she has come to me and put her arms around my neck when asking for next tanda and when I couldn't I was able to tell it softly and I felt ok about it afterward.

If you need to say No thanks! it is always a negative message and sometimes even a surprising one. In most cases the reaction is a reasonable one but I still want to find ways to deliver the message in a more positive way.

I will definitely stop explaining why I can't. I can not see any possibility to succeed with that!

I try instead concentrate on the positive; Here we have someone who actually wants to share this tanda with me so I will try to find ways to comment this appreciation.

Because of the experience with my asking follower I think in some cases light physical contact could make it easier for the person to accept a No thanks!. You have got a no for this dance but you was treated as a human being.

And why should I bother?

I have felt that to some extent I will be dragged to the same feeling as the person who received my No; so if I can deliver my message in a good way we both will have a better night!

Angelina's Tango Blog: Leading ladies

Angelina's Tango Blog: Leading ladies

This is a comment to a posting at Angelina's Tango Blog

I have been regularly leading since 2004 and the last years I have been following a tanda only once every other month. I belong to the first wave of female leaders here in Nordic and it was some rough in the beginning. It is accepted now and the younger ones seems not mind so much who is leading if s/he is providing a good tanda. ;)

There has only been one more negative incident about my leading. One of my male tango friends started to criticize my leading posture calling it ugly; my following posture he find ok and in some occasions even beautiful. I was quite devastated until I understood that he was deeply hurt by the fact that his favorite follower preferred dances with me. So if you choose to lead be prepared ;)

Actually you do not need so much strength in leading and the more experienced the follower is the softer the lead must be (otherwise she gets mad....) I lead even men and after I got better technique and contact with the floor it is OK too. With better technique I started to move more powerfully, I knew where I was going to without any doubt - I think this is the quality many have in mind when talking about strength. But as a leader you need to have a more focused attitude than women usually have and that has taken long time for me to develop. (But when I got there - I am sure that it also gave me a higher salary at my office!)

Big boobs at eye level are a problem for me as well as they are for every short leader - you can't see anything. The short man is happy and I try to handle the situation. It has actually happened only once - she was sitting and when she stood up I became aware of the problem. I offered an open abrazo but she was used to dance in a close embrace so it was a unstable dance but we made the tanda!

I grew up in a culture with very little physical contact and for me it took several years to become fully comfortable with another woman as dance partner. I danced the first years nuevo so open embrace was the appropriate hold and later on I became comfortable with the close one as well.

If you like to test check if cannyengue hold would be an alternative! We use a variation of it for every kind of music. As you can see we are not performers but we dance when we have possibility to do so!

And one more thing! There has been men in queue to participate to the courses my partner and I are teaching at! ;)

For questions you find my email address in the profile section or you can comment here. I would love to hear from you!

Geraldine Rojas - Portal

I have seen Geraldine dance live only twice but I hardly remember anything about the dance but only her dresses. The first time was 2004 when she was dancing with Javier and her dress was red lace. I was a beginner then and could not see the magic in their dance, what a pity....

The second time was in Paris 2010 and her dance partner was Ezequiel Paludi; she in black lace. But it was not better: I could not relate to their dance. It was beautiful but nothing more for me. It was just now when I was working with this portal I started to appreciate their dance. I have watched huge number of videos, many of them several times when I suddenly noticed how musically they are dancing, how fresh the musical interpretations are and how professional they are.

But now to the palylists!

Geraldine Rojas
There is some difficulties with the spelling of her name. The early and most common verson is the one I have used here. On her home page she nowadays writes Geraldin Rojas.

When you make google seach you get several Geraldine Rojas and one of them is very look alike - a dancer from New York with long brown hair and the same name!

Mother and the extended family (click the title to start a playlist)
Geraldines mother is Maria del Carmen, an appreciated dancer of Villa Urquiza style. She is married to Jorge Dispari and Geraldine is grown up in this family together with Samantha Dispari, her sister.

In one of the interviews on Geraldines homepage she tells how unmusical her father was and how this caused the separation of parents. (On other pages Jorge Dispari was stated as her father but I think it is uncorrect)

Childhood performances
I did know she had performed as child but now when reviewing these videos I was still surpriced! What an opportunity to develope her own talent with all these talented leaders.

Young professional
Here we have some of the performances and films she has contributed to.

Dancing with different partners
Pay attention to her ability to adapt to different partners.
I have collected clips I like, watch and enjoy!

Bologna
These videos are from Bologna festival where she was dancing with Javier Rodriguez. It is interesting how these performances have maintained the power to attract us, still after so many years.

with Paludi
After splitting up from Javier, Geraldine has danced with Ezequiel Paludi. This gives her possibility to combine the professional life with family life!

It is obvious that she is talented and she had possibility to develope that talent with great dancers. I am sure that her early training to perform on stage makes the performing situation more comfortable for her, compared to dancers with later start.

But she has also worked on her own training. There are stories about how she as a child danced alone for hours; training steps to different music, alone, early in the morning.

Please enjoy the portal!

In the text section (bilow the video window on Youtube page) you find the liks to Geraldines and Ezequiels homepage as well as to one dance analysis. (the link was removed ...)