This is also a bit of a surprise to me. In some ways it feels like we are taught the wrong things as beginners.
Agreed. More advanced dancers would consistently advise me, "You can have a nice dance just walking." And I would consistently try, only to discover that at the milonga, two or three steps is a long walk. I saw the people who advised me walking, but they were all "somebodies," so people gave them room – not because they danced big, dangerous steps, but because they were higher up the social pecking order and blocking them would get you shut out. At that stage, knowing turns and some static vocabulary would've been nice.
The reason
why I waited six months to go to the milonga was because that marked the end of my second session, at which point I had a couple of walking turns and could lead steps that didn't advance too quickly when I was caught between the "somebody" couples who controlled the floor. My teachers recommended not attending the milonga without those tools, and I'm glad I listened.
I was taught that the safest place is the edge
Me, too. When those same teachers said, "Now you have the tools – go dance!", they also tacked on, ". . . but I don't want to see you anywhere but in the outside lane." I was told in simple words I couldn't misinterpret, in two languages, that the center was where peacocks danced very large and dangerous static movements (like huge colgadas with heels poking out), and therefore the absolutely worst place for beginners.
I see many dancers (both men and women) who do the steps and seem to have fun, but they desperately need work on posture, hip position, use of arms (or lack thereof). Does it matter? If they’re having fun, maybe not....
It matters when you get a repetitive strain injury to a joint. That isn't fun at all. I've managed to injure one ankle (on ice), two knees (genetics), and lately my back (moving crates), none of it due to dancing. It all sucks terribly, and I know people who've given themselves the same injuries while dancing with bad back posture, outthrust hips, weird arm positions way above their head (ugh), etc.
My main problem at the Milongas is very often what the heck to do when the couples in front of me don‘t walk because they are doing pattterns standing... I still have very little vocabulary for that.
I'm most likely to dance turns if the space is big enough, or those static steps you're not supposed to dance at the milonga if the space is tiny and I'm going to be parked behind someone for 30 seconds anyway. My primary partner and I dance so close that people remark on it. We've also learned to dance all steps close, including stuff like follower back sacadas. So you can do a lot in a 50cm × 50cm square eventually.
Before I learned that, I made all my beginner vocabulary circular whenever I got blocked. Anything you can do while moving down the floor – walks, crosses, ochos, etc. – can be curved by stepping slightly around your partner or making your steps with one leg different in size from your steps with the other. You can interrupt any of that with balanceos, too; you can have a lot of fun with balanceos in ochos, balanceos to cross and uncross repeatedly, and so on. Walking on the "dark side" in cross system can be turned into a tight little circle; I recommend dancing in cross system as much as possible, as it gives you more options. Leading the free leg without transferring weight, in little touches, can mark the music well and safely if you're parked in place.
Just remember that "adding vocabulary" like this is something you don't have to keep doing forever and grow obsessed with. You'll eventually have more steps than you can possibly use, and you'll condense your vocabulary to the steps
you like and feel are comfortable and elegant. The focus shifts to technique, to avoid those injuries I mentioned just above. For instance, I've done entire sessions on boleos but I rarely lead them – not because I can't, but just because I don't like boleos much. I've also done entire sessions on sacadas, which I put everywhere. (Of course your partner has a voice, too; mine doesn't like boleos, either, but she loves ganchos and volcadas, so I've worked on those more for her than for me.)
Yep, 100% this. Pretty much all I did for the first 2-3 months of private lessons was walking. That's absolutely appropriate in terms of technique, but hopeless in a crowded milonga as there is so little walking going on – just lots of circular stuff. If you don't have any circular vocabulary, you end up doing lots of rebounds in slow circles and generally feeling frustrated.
This is true. That's why I brought the problem to my private teacher and got the vocabulary advice I wrote above: curve your steps, interrupt steps with balanceos, dance more in cross system, play with the free leg.
