That's an assumption that may or may not be true.
I agree there. You can have some broad objectives/plan, but you may have to change that depending on circumstances. One extreme may be to give up and go home; another might be to dance every tanda with a different partner to great music.
I do not understand that. If I'm so far away that I can't see the other person, I can't invite in any other way. (Apart from by smartphone, maybe.
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You may want to use binoculars...I do not understand that. If I'm so far away that I can't see the other person, I can't invite in any other way. (Apart from by smartphone, maybe.
At a festival there should be different attractions, at an encuentro it is predominantly the participants themselves who make the participants come.To experienced this was a chock, really frustrating and I am grateful for a friend explaining it for me! When I understood the pattern I could also accept that my invitations did not work and cope with the *miserable* start of an event!
I haven't yet danced at many festivals, but so far I've always gone with at least one follower friend, as I'd say the single most important thing is to be seen dancing.
Nope. If a follower is at a festival, I assume she's there to dance, and don't equate traditional tango clothing with ability. However, if a woman is wearing flats and trousers, I'll make sure I've seen her following in case she only leads.
My most-pleasing one ever was from one end of a milonga to the other! That was a follower who smiled broadly at me as I passed her seat while dancing the previous tanda.
As above, I'll walk to a good position to cabeceo my target followers.
Good advice. I hate to sound old-fashioned or sexist – things I work hard to avoid being – but in tango, I've found it necessary to be attentive to the above. I'm a man who mostly leads women who follow, so I regard traditional follower garb, particularly high heels, as a useful shorthand. Once I'm certain that the person I want to invite follows, I don't care how she's dressed!
A friend of mine, good dancer, said he'd never dance with a woman in trousers. As far as I can tell, he pretty much followed that rule.
Personally, I can't find any correlation between the clothes and good tandas so far. But even where I see a correlation, like height and shape, there are some exceptions. So it doesn't seem particularly wise to me to restrict yourself by rules.
On wednesday before christmas i was at the most important milonga in my city (El Abrazo). Since I have broken knees, I dance in heavy braces (orthoses). So that these have enough space, I wear super wide baggy pants for dancing. At some point that evening, an unknown young woman hurried towards me and asked me to dance. Even during the first bars she said to me, I knew that you were a very good dancer, just because of the way you dressed. In fact, she was an excellent follower, too, everything was in a flow, everything felt right, very responsive, very flexible in the waist, stable axis. And she was cute too, harem's pants and ponytail!
On the one hand, I agree with the basic idea that clothing doesn't matter. As I wrote, once I'm certain that the person I want to invite follows, I don't care how she's dressed. However, there's a hidden assumption in my statement: If I've watched a person dance, it inevitably means that I've learned not merely whether she follows, but also how well she follows and whether she does so in a fashion that suits my style of dance.
That's just words, though. I've had women tell me similar things: "Oh, you wear proper dance trousers and you have wear on your shoes. You must be a serious dancer!", but also, "Oh, you wear baggy trousers and an untucked, partly unbuttoned shirt. I thought you were one of those pretentious nuevo guys." Meh. It's just clothing.
Exactly, and that said El Abrazo also is the temple of traditional tango. Accordingly, most men dance rather boringly. Of course my outfit reminds partly of these smart neo guys.