Completely agree. It's too bad that some people seem to have difficulty with the concepts of cooperation and adaptation.
Distinguishing between types of hyper-active following
- Thread starter gyb
- Start date
The latter proposition: yes, the former, absolutely not. Unless this is a practica, you follow the follower. If you thought you led something else, either choose your partners better, or lead better!
Danish Guy
New Member
Then I would properly step on her toes, or push her off ballance.
If the follower just do whatever she pleases then it's not tango, and not even a dance for two.
Danish Guy
New Member
Dancing together is all about cooperation and adaptation. This part fascinates me.
I lead. But it’s not a leading like a dictator, master/slave or with followers like sheep as noted somewhere.
It’s about communication without words. It’s about starting up easy and tuning in to each other. So I listen to her responses, and she tells me her level, how she likes the lead, if time for decorations is appreciated, how close we do the embrace etc .etc. Hopefully she listens to me too. So we communicate about the dance and adapts to each other.
I like my partners being happy. So with my limited tango back catalog, I try to lead the best dance possible with what we got.
bordertangoman
Well-Known Member
me too; here are my rules for cooperation.
1. You (the follower) have to agree to cooperate
2. I make the rules
Yeah, I prefer to dance with happy people as well. I shy away from the angry types.
Well, I tried googling "Lincoln Nebraska tango festival", and it doesn't look very promising. The entries are mostly about people from Lincoln who went to festivals elsewhere.
So instead, how about this one (that the wife and I are considering).
http://www.chicagotangoweek.org/
Well, I tried googling "Lincoln Nebraska tango festival", and it doesn't look very promising. The entries are mostly about people from Lincoln who went to festivals elsewhere.
That's exactly why it's a prime spot! There's not already a festival there. The "DFAT Festival" (Dance Forums Argentine Tango Festival) would have a monopoly on the action.
The Dee-Fat Festival. I like it. got a catchy ring to it. Who's with me?
I hear a certain DJ out your way (well sort of) will be making the trek to Boston in a couple weekends. Maybe you could catch a ride with her.
This idea of initiating, then delaying, then following the follower gets taken WAY too far by some leaders. Maybe dancing with you doing this method would be a sheer joy because you've got it right. But often, leaders hear this concept and start putting in a lag that is quite awkward for followers.
She gets a firm lead to do a certain thing and the lead is not only clear but assertive and immediate. She take some of her cues about timing and speed of steps from the way that first movement feels. Then despite feeling as though she got a lead to move "briskly", the leader stalls and feels to her as though he's left her stuck without any energy to continue the move she's already weight shifting. She's not midstep where stopping is easy because her weight is distributed on both feet; she's partly through a weight transfer just starting to pick up the trailing foot, but not completely over the new supporting leg. Then she feels like in order to finish her weight shift, she'll be pulling him along. (or alternatively, she has to RE-place weight onto the trailing foot to feel stable)
It's a totally different feeling from being stopped deliberately or from moving slowly. It's more like he gives a push to say "move!", then waits for her to finish moving before he moves any more himself. I've felt this in open embrace occasionally too... it just isn't as awkward to keep going in open embrace. The lead is brisk, then it just... dies. And the follower is left wondering "Where'd you go?"
I've decided, from lack of any other explanation, that this is a result of leaders getting introduced to the concept of "following the follower" without any really good instruction on what that means or how subtle it really is. The follower can't weight shift completely independently of the leader. (not talking about him leading a shift that he doesn't execute himself in his feet) He can't give only the initial indication that "Your weight shift is to go THERE. I'll finish the lead (and catch up to you) after you're there and give an initial lead for the next thing."
If the follower does whatever she pleases without any consideration for the leader, then in my book, it's the follower who is useless.
Good followers I know are trying to please the leader.
Yes, many followers go through an adornification stage where they get carried away with embellishments that interfere with the lead. However, many leaders go through a corresponding stage where the followers that embellish the most (and the biggest) are the ones that the leader is impressed by and so they actually seek those followers out, thus encouraging more counterproductive embellishing.
If the followers who fling their legs about (unled) in a dangerous manner or dilly-dally around with adornments dance all night, while followers who dance cleanly, simply and sublimely are left unhappily sitting out, then the leaders have no one but themselves to blame when many of the followers start dancing a style which ultimately seems self-absorbed and inconsiderate of the lead.
I hear a certain DJ out your way (well sort of) will be making the trek to Boston in a couple weekends. Maybe you could catch a ride with her.
the one to the east of me or the one to the south of me?
It must be south, as I didn't think she was east of you (IM).
I had never explicitly thought about this before, but there's a lot of truth in what you are saying. Possibly on a subconscious level, I think I tended to avoid these type of followers (unless they are people I'm friendly with). Some (but of course, not all of them), do tend to disrupt things (on several levels).
I don't enjoy over-embellished dances at all. Embellishments are often distractive. I like the followers dance to be clean, simple and precise. I try to dance that way. Occasionally I would do embellishment, mostly because the music forced me to do it.