Leaders. How was your Tango journey?

[ArbeeNYC]

I am curious, at this stage, would it be worth it for me to start learning follower role just to be a better leader? Or i should stick to learning strictly leading?

Hard to tell. Personally, I'd stick with continuing to learn to lead. Maybe by revisiting or continuing to practice the fundamentals. You can continue to take classes if that's what you've been doing. It may be a bit early for private lessons (and they are expensive). Do you go to prácticas?

 

[Pharaoh]

Will wait for festivals. We have marathons but they are expensive and i was told only for intermediate dancers. I don’t want to pay and sit. Usually, if i see that i danced with everyone i could, I leave. I go to practicas, milongas, group classes, and privates. I found privates to have the most impact for me.

 

[Pharaoh]

Milonga vs practica stopped mattering for me much, as i usually dance with the same people. I actually prefer practicas, which look the same as milonga for us, except they can give you feedback. Milonga we just dance.

 

[Pharaoh]

Oh, yeah, and I ended up with a girlfriend-dancer, so I have the whole package of experience going lol

 

[Rabbit]

I am curious, at this stage, would it be worth it for me to start learning follower role just to be a better leader? Or i should stick to learning strictly leading?

I think the more relevant question is whether you enjoy following and does your partner want to lead you as well? I don't think that role switching is necessary to become a good dancer.

 

[Pharaoh]

I think the more relevant question is whether you enjoy following and does your partner want to lead you as well? I don't think that role switching is necessary to become a good dancer.

Not really, I don't plan to become an instructor or a follower. It is more to may be understand how the follower feels to perfect my lead moves. Otherwise, my main specialty would be leading. Thank you.

 

[opendoor]

I think the more relevant question is whether you enjoy following and does your partner want to lead you as well? I don't think that role switching is necessary to become a good dancer.

I agree with you completely, a tango student does not benefit from learning both roles. I (male, leader) learned both roles from the beginning and it felt like constantly switching between two solar systems. There was no mutual benefit.

But, and I also agree with you here, I have learned that following is much nicer than leading. Unfortunately, there are far too few leaders with whom I can close my eyes and surrender myself completely to the lead.

 

[tangoing]

There is definitely benefit in learning both roles, one of my favorite ways to reverse engineer how a movement is done or how it should feel is to ask a teacher / advanced dancer to lead me in it.

For example, leading a back ocho from using your arms vs your torso vs your back vs your legs. The first two are obvious but the last two are a bit more advanced, and having good back ocho technique (something a follower will usually get good at compared to a leader) will allow you to truly feel the difference in nuance.

I’m actually at a point now where in my city I may be one of the few non pro non queer male leads that actually follow pretty decently (and probably better than most casual followers).
Although I rarely follow at actual milongas, even dual role ladies just want me to lead usually.

 

[itwillhappen]

I am curious, at this stage, would it be worth it for me to start learning follower role just to be a better leader? Or i should stick to learning strictly leading?

You can also try a motorcycle license to drive a car better. You'll certainly learn a lot about crosswinds, cornering and tire grip. But if you really needed it, it would have been included a long time ago.

 

[Paja]

There was one post in this thread saying, in ideal world both in pair can dance with closed eyes.
I had such experience, couple of years ago, milonga after workshop in Hungary, with Laszlo, my favourite lector from Budapest. In was 1am, all windows in ballroom were blinded by heavy curtaines, all light switched off, there was complete dark in the room. Dancing pairs were ready on dance floor and first tango begins. Very sooon every leader adopts first and most important rule - do everything carefully. We exchanged partners after every tango. How? Leaders released embrace and put one hand up. And followers were searching for free hand. No speaking allowed. Next blind tango with next partner. Every next tango without vision control I had feeling like I am building up new sense, I felt couples around me by move of air, slight change of temperature, gentle touch of their clothes, unbelievable.
All this last for 30 min and after we all feeled absolutelly amazed by such new experience. I wish to repeat this again, but have had no chance.

 

[TTanguero]

I am curious, at this stage, would it be worth it for me to start learning follower role just to be a better leader?

Actually learning to follow, maybe. Having some lessons as a follower? 100%! I had some following privates at a very early stage, and it was one of the best things I ever did in terms of understanding how my lead should feel. After that, every time I learned something new, I'd ask the teacher to lead me first.

 

[opendoor]

There is definitely benefit in learning both roles... For example, leading a back ocho from using your arms vs your torso vs your back vs your legs...

Sorry, tangoing, what you describe is not benefit in learning both roles!
Learning the leading role always also includes the follower's perspective and body mechanics (Otherwise it could not be called learning the leading role at all). Learning the other role is something totally different.

 

[tangoing]

Sorry, tangoing, what you describe is not benefit in learning both roles!
Learning the leading role always also includes the follower's perspective and body mechanics (Otherwise it could not be called learning the leading role at all). Learning the other role is something totally different.

Always? I’m not sure about, I’ve been in many classes where you don’t learn the followers perspective and their body mechanics for whatever pattern they’re teaching and I’m usually asking the teacher to lead me in them (and most leads may not do that since they simply can’t follow well).
What would you describe is learning the other role if not learning how the lead feels in those classes?

 

[opendoor]

Always?

Then I can be glad that I have never met such "teachers" in tango. I only know of such things from my ballroom period. It is common there.

 

[Rabbit]

Having an instructor lead you in a known movement in a class to show you what you should be doing requires very little following skill. The instructors tend to have very clear leads since they are used to dancing with novices, you don't have to figure out what the movement is, it doesn't matter if you do it clumsily.