there will be more forward pressure between lead and follow, as the follow (if I'm reading you right) has not yet shifted her torso back - only her leg? So the forward pressure would briefly intensify, and then go back to the starting pressure,
Also, how does the follower know how far back to step?
Two good questions..
I'd say the answer to #1 is that there is a VERY SLIGHT and very BRIEF increase in the pressure when he starts forward movement to which, in my opinion, you can and should respond to
in kind,
but no more, in your torso. You aren't a
wall he is pressing against when he makes this first very slight movement initiative. You are, in essence, a part of him.
Of course, if he never takes the step, then its not all so brief and you may find yourself accidentally moving your torso too much, but that doesn't happen often (it might happen if, for instance, he suddenly can't go where he intended because the couple in front of you has moved against line of dance into the space he was going to move you to.) While you are in the early stages, and still dancing with beginners, expect some jerky leads rather than the smooth transitions we are talking about. Leading tango is really hard.
How far back to step... that is the eternal question and you will most likely get more than one answer over the course of your dancing. I think its one of the things that makes tango a little harder than ballroom, because you have to start to
extend for your backstep before having much clue how big of a step you might end up taking. (for some reason side steps don't cause people quite as much trouble)
MY answer is that the leader can see back there and you can't. Therefore, all you can do is assume you will eventually have the ability to fully extend your free leg and be prepared to do so, and he should assume you are going to do that. Anything else is a partial extension and exactly how partial is too hard to guess. After all, you can't exactly feel your way back, cautiously and slowly exploring with your foot for obstacles, nor can you have ESP about how far back to reach based on a step not yet fully led. Nor can you keep your free leg dangling somewhat behind you in an arbitrary fashion obviously holding it out of the way, but not doing anything with it.
Of course, depending on the music and his style (and his experience), you may have plenty of time to make a slow reach and find it very intuitive with his movement. With a beginner leader, his transitions will be more abrupt and you have to reach a little earlier to avoid getting stomped.
But since you haven't put any weight on it yet, you may end up shortening up your step when he actually moves you to it. (one of the many important reasons not to put weight on your free leg before you're supposed to.)
Your next question might be... "what does he do if there's not room for you to fully extend?". Well, if you think about the geometry, the lower you are in your standing knee, the further you can reach. So if he is doing any sort of holding you up or lifting, it might be a sign that you can't step very far. (conversely, downward pressure to get you deeper into your knee might mean he's going to be expecting to take a big step.)
Now maybe that just seems a little too "secret handshake". But keep in mind one important thing about stepping back that I STILL have to remind myself of (damn ballet training!)
You aren't reaching with a pointed toe with lots of stretch through the top of your foot.
If you do that, you will have to pull away from your partner to put your heel down as the step completes. I've had teachers who said you shouldn't be putting your heel down until your body is OVER the foot to pass to the next step because the leader feels the "clunk down". And I've also had teachers who said your heel shouldn't really ever be UP in the first place.. the sole of your foot should be towards the floor, not the wall behind you. (Isn't there some culture where showing the soles of your feet is very rude? Hindu, maybe?)
Sigh... one of many things on the list of things teachers don't agree on and can't explain consistently.
MY view is that your reach should allow you to get your heel down to, or reasonably close to the floor
when you first do your reach without having to pull away from your partner at all. This is NOT intuitive to me, because i find myself wanting to reach back with a pointed toe and turned out leg. (lets not get into how turn-out will mess with your walking right now!) If you reach with a pointed foot and the leader doesn't take a big enough step for you to get all the way back with your heel down, you will either pull away from him to do so or end up leaning more on him because you didn't get back over your axis. Either way... not good.
So the length of your reach will depend on some variables like how flexible your achilles is and how high your shoe heels are. Its one of the reasons the really high heels are in some ways EASIER to dance in than a flat... you can get your heel down in backwards walking because of the angle. On the other hand, the higher heel will also decrease your reach because of the way it affects your FRONT foot.
In my experience of watching and talking to leaders, more followers err on the side of taking steps too SMALL than reaching too far. Unless you are deep in plie' or have gumby achilles, then with proper technique as regarding being able to keep the heels downward, your reach probably isn't going to be too big.
And if the leader wants to take a step
bigger than your reach, you have to be prepared to let your foot skim backwards a little as you move to it. More reasons not to have weight on it too soon!
Which brings up another point.. you're really just reaching because he's PROBABLY going to take you backwards if he's giving you increased forward pressure. In reality, he might not take you backwards...anything can happen. Anticipation is the follower's worst enemy! So when I say "reach" and "extend", you are doing it with a relaxed (but energized) free leg that in truth is prepared to go ANYWHERE even AFTER you started reaching back.
All this takes time to learn and get the feel of the movement and timing. You may find your other training helps with all these fine points and you may find as I did, that certain things (like reaching with a dramtically pointed foot) create problems. When everyone dancing tango danced in close embrace and in crowded Buenos Aires milongas, the finer points of reaching may not have come up. There was nowhere to go. Nobody took big steps. The dancing was all small and compact and you couldn't see anyone's feet anyway, so doing fancy things with them was irrelevant. All that mattered was connection and musicality.
Your mileage may vary....
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