Leaders. How was your Tango journey?

[enrosskay]

Hi. I technically started dancing 2 years ago, but had to stop and start many times due to medical stuff. I think that if you add it all up, I have about 14/15 months of dancing in my body.

I've learned quite a few moves but I struggle to connect them. I only went to a milonga once as there are not many where I am. The milonga was only open to members of our own dance school so I was somewhat comfortable with the dancing but not to a great extent.

My biggest problem was and always is musicality. Since a lot of my brainspace is taken up by ensuring my steps are right, i dont have much bandwidth left to 'think of' and then execute a muscially appropriate movement.

Can somebody please tell me how a leader 'decides' on which move to do? In my head, I imagine a veteran dance has many many sequences in mind, but how one comes to mind as the most suitable remains a bit of a mystery.

Also, could somebody tell me what the numbers are like where they dance? I had always thought there would be more followers than leaders, but we actually seem to have more leaders than followers, which is a small bit bothersome. Are ladies not as inclined to dancing as once they were? We have some dancers, particularly men from the LGBTQ community, who are happy to follow as well when we are short, which helps the numbers, but overall I'm a little surprised that we are having this problem. Is it common?

Also: there are other tango classes and groups in my city. For now, I have only attended one school, group lessons, no privates. Should I attend these other schools now that I am no longer a total beginner? I was a bit afraid of getting mixed up, and also of insulting my own teacher, but maybe now that I am more of an improver than a beginner, this would help me?

 

[JournalInTime]

Hi.

Welcome!

I technically started dancing 2 years ago, but had to stop and start many times due to medical stuff. I think that if you add it all up, I have about 14/15 months of dancing in my body.

Right off the bat: Don't let anything you are feeling right now get to you too much. It typically takes 2-3 years to get through and come out the far side of lessons, become a regular at a milonga, and possibly find a longer-term private dance coach, before you even start to feel at home. Some people do get there sooner . . . but some people get there later, too, and my personal experience with "medical stuff" is that it puts you in the "get there later" group, especially if you're past 40 years old.

I've learned quite a few moves but I struggle to connect them.

What I'm about to say is not universally agreed upon, but here goes:

Tango isn't about moves. It is about walking to the music with another person. Learning some steps can make that more interesting, but ultimately, everything is improvised in the moment. Everything.

You can learn to improvise better by focusing on cleaning up "movement particles" such as single walking steps (forward, side, back), pivots (both directions), rocks (in place and turning), and various changes of axis (on/off), embrace (opening and closing), and level (more/less knee bend). Clean it all up on both legs, and in both systems (parallel and cross). Then no matter where you end up relative to your partner, in the music, or in a crowd, you can follow up with something. This is how you link movements into a smooth flow that matches the music.

There are a ton of tips and tricks to improve the linking itself: See the entire musical phrase as a wave that goes from A to B in space and time, and think more about the wave than about the individual movements that make it up. Push into movements to find enough energy to carry you through that wave. Learn that every "mistake" is an opportunity, and that if you keep going through and after it like you meant to do it, you won't freeze up. "Listen" with your body to what your partner is doing or wants to do, and go with their proposals sometimes instead of trying to choreograph the whole dance yourself. Use pauses to feel the musical phrases, prepare your wave of energy, and listen to your partner.

And so on for 100 years.

All of that stuff is advanced relative to what's taught in the first couple of years of group classes. I'm not saying it's easy. I am saying that focusing on that instead of on patterns will take you further, faster in your dance journey. I've seen (and taught) some pattern-locked dancers, and they might have 20-30 years of "moves," but they don't dance fluidly. They stutter and halt, trying to think of the next thing. They aren't writing poetry, but cutting and pasting stock phrases from a mental library.

My biggest problem was and always is musicality. Since a lot of my brainspace is taken up by ensuring my steps are right, i dont have much bandwidth left to 'think of' and then execute a muscially appropriate movement.

Focusing on particles, links, and energetic flow rather than steps frees up that brainspace. You aren't thinking about steps any more. You're just doing whatever makes sense in that instant. "I'm on this foot, relative to my partner in this position, with this momentum, so there are only so many ways I can transfer weight or check the momentum while staying with my partner . . . but they're all good. I'll walk here or pivot like this, because it makes sense in this instant, and not worry about what the dance step is called."

Can somebody please tell me how a leader 'decides' on which move to do?

See above. You have a musical phrase. You push off and launch yourself into it. That gives you a certain energy, which you then use to walk, pivot, rock, whatever else you want to do. Doing that puts you and your partner in a certain relative position and system, with a certain momentum. Those things make some follow-up movements easy, some tricky, and some impossible. You mostly choose the easy ones, with the occasional tricky one for emphasis or drama, and that's that.

I imagine a veteran dance has many many sequences in mind

Speaking for myself and many people I know: not really. Sequences, patterns, whatever you call them . . . they are teaching tools. They illustrate how walks, pivots, and so on work, and propose ways to string them together. They absolutely do have names, and to ensure clear communication in discussions like this one and in person, people talk about their dance with those names, but don't let that fool you: Most good dancers move from point in space and time to point in space and time with whatever feels right, and don't care (much) if it matches some pattern, or what that pattern's name is.

Early on, sequences are useful "cheats" to compensate for lack of experience with this way of dancing. But it's important to see past that, and not to let them become a crutch. If they become a crutch, then whether you've been dancing for 14 months or 14 years, you'll still freeze up trying to match sequences to the real world, where the music has the wrong feeling or number of notes for what you want to do, where your partner's interpretation throws a wrench into what you want to do, and where other couples on the floor block what you want to do.

The lessons that really matter are in basic technique – posture, axis, embrace, how to walk well, how to pivot well, how to navigate the floor, etc. – and not in patterns. Inasmuch as you might want lessons in "moves," they're usually more about how to apply technique in specific circumstances: a sacada is just a walk with a goal in mind, an enrosque is just a pivot with another goal in mind, and so on. These classes are useful for solving more in-the-moment problems with improvisation.

Also, could somebody tell me what the numbers are like where they dance? I had always thought there would be more followers than leaders, but we actually seem to have more leaders than followers, which is a small bit bothersome. Are ladies not as inclined to dancing as once they were? We have some dancers, particularly men from the LGBTQ community, who are happy to follow as well when we are short, which helps the numbers, but overall I'm a little surprised that we are having this problem. Is it common?

This is totally regional, so there's no "normal." Where I live – a North American city of c. 4 million people, with close to 10 full-time dance studios and one or more milongas every night of the week – we are follower-heavy. Sure, I've seen leader-heaving evenings, but they're remarkable one-offs. Most events here have anywhere from 3 followers to 2 leaders to 2 followers to 1 leader, and it isn't rare for there to be 3 or even 4 followers to 1 leader.

 

[Rabbit]

My biggest problem was and always is musicality. Since a lot of my brainspace is taken up by ensuring my steps are right, i dont have much bandwidth left to 'think of' and then execute a muscially appropriate movement.

Can somebody please tell me how a leader 'decides' on which move to do? In my head, I imagine a veteran dance has many many sequences in mind, but how one comes to mind as the most suitable remains a bit of a mystery.

This is partly a mental compression problem. In order to be able to improvise coherently, you need the brain space to be cleared, which will eventually happen when you no longer have to consciously think about the details of the movement.

A useful practice for now is to use movements you're already very comfortable with and don't have to think about much, listen to the music and:

- try to stop on ends of musical phrase and pauses

- distinguish between smooth and staccato movement

Also: there are other tango classes and groups in my city. For now, I have only attended one school, group lessons, no privates. Should I attend these other schools now that I am no longer a total beginner? I was a bit afraid of getting mixed up, and also of insulting my own teacher, but maybe now that I am more of an improver than a beginner, this would help me?

You should at least try some of the other classes to see if the teaching approach there might work better for you or the leader/follower ratio is more favourable.

 

[enrosskay]

Welcome!

Right off the bat: Don't let anything you are feeling right now get to you too much. It typically takes 2-3 years to get through and come out the far side of lessons, become a regular at a milonga, and possibly find a longer-term private dance coach, before you even start to feel at home. Some people do get there sooner . . . but some people get there later, too, and my personal experience with "medical stuff" is that it puts you in the "get there later" group, especially if you're past 40 years old.

What I'm about to say is not universally agreed upon, but here goes:

Tango isn't about moves. It is about walking to the music with another person. Learning some steps can make that more interesting, but ultimately, everything is improvised in the moment. Everything.

You can learn to improvise better by focusing on cleaning up "movement particles" such as single walking steps (forward, side, back), pivots (both directions), rocks (in place and turning), and various changes of axis (on/off), embrace (opening and closing), and level (more/less knee bend). Clean it all up on both legs, and in both systems (parallel and cross). Then no matter where you end up relative to your partner, in the music, or in a crowd, you can follow up with something. This is how you link movements into a smooth flow that matches the music.

There are a ton of tips and tricks to improve the linking itself: See the entire musical phrase as a wave that goes from A to B in space and time, and think more about the wave than about the individual movements that make it up. Push into movements to find enough energy to carry you through that wave. Learn that every "mistake" is an opportunity, and that if you keep going through and after it like you meant to do it, you won't freeze up. "Listen" with your body to what your partner is doing or wants to do, and go with their proposals sometimes instead of trying to choreograph the whole dance yourself. Use pauses to feel the musical phrases, prepare your wave of energy, and listen to your partner.

And so on for 100 years.

All of that stuff is advanced relative to what's taught in the first couple of years of group classes. I'm not saying it's easy. I am saying that focusing on that instead of on patterns will take you further, faster in your dance journey. I've seen (and taught) some pattern-locked dancers, and they might have 20-30 years of "moves," but they don't dance fluidly. They stutter and halt, trying to think of the next thing. They aren't writing poetry, but cutting and pasting stock phrases from a mental library.

Focusing on particles, links, and energetic flow rather than steps frees up that brainspace. You aren't thinking about steps any more. You're just doing whatever makes sense in that instant. "I'm on this foot, relative to my partner in this position, with this momentum, so there are only so many ways I can transfer weight or check the momentum while staying with my partner . . . but they're all good. I'll walk here or pivot like this, because it makes sense in this instant, and not worry about what the dance step is called."

See above. You have a musical phrase. You push off and launch yourself into it. That gives you a certain energy, which you then use to walk, pivot, rock, whatever else you want to do. Doing that puts you and your partner in a certain relative position and system, with a certain momentum. Those things make some follow-up movements easy, some tricky, and some impossible. You mostly choose the easy ones, with the occasional tricky one for emphasis or drama, and that's that.

Speaking for myself and many people I know: not really. Sequences, patterns, whatever you call them . . . they are teaching tools. They illustrate how walks, pivots, and so on work, and propose ways to string them together. They absolutely do have names, and to ensure clear communication in discussions like this one and in person, people talk about their dance with those names, but don't let that fool you: Most good dancers move from point in space and time to point in space and time with whatever feels right, and don't care (much) if it matches some pattern, or what that pattern's name is.

Early on, sequences are useful "cheats" to compensate for lack of experience with this way of dancing. But it's important to see past that, and not to let them become a crutch. If they become a crutch, then whether you've been dancing for 14 months or 14 years, you'll still freeze up trying to match sequences to the real world, where the music has the wrong feeling or number of notes for what you want to do, where your partner's interpretation throws a wrench into what you want to do, and where other couples on the floor block what you want to do.

The lessons that really matter are in basic technique – posture, axis, embrace, how to walk well, how to pivot well, how to navigate the floor, etc. – and not in patterns. Inasmuch as you might want lessons in "moves," they're usually more about how to apply technique in specific circumstances: a sacada is just a walk with a goal in mind, an enrosque is just a pivot with another goal in mind, and so on. These classes are useful for solving more in-the-moment problems with improvisation.

This is totally regional, so there's no "normal." Where I live – a North American city of c. 4 million people, with close to 10 full-time dance studios and one or more milongas every night of the week – we are follower-heavy. Sure, I've seen leader-heaving evenings, but they're remarkable one-offs. Most events here have anywhere from 3 followers to 2 leaders to 2 followers to 1 leader, and it isn't rare for there to be 3 or even 4 followers to 1 leader.

Thanks for your detailed response.

Re coming out the other side of lessons, I'm prepared for the long haul. Our teacher does do privates but there's a long waiting list, so I think that will speed me up when the time comes.

What you say about movement particles makes a lot of sense. I pay close attention during the classes but I could and should probably spend more time at home practicing what I just learned. I also like the idea of a wave as I tend to make every part of a 'move' very much a discrete item, and when I make a mistake it then freezes me. Your point about dancers moving from point in space and time to point in space and time, regardless of the names of patterns, was very helpful.

Q for you: how often is reasonable to dance to keep improving? 2-3 times a week?

 

[enrosskay]

This is partly a mental compression problem. In order to be able to improvise coherently, you need the brain space to be cleared, which will eventually happen when you no longer have to consciously think about the details of the movement.

A useful practice for now is to use movements you're already very comfortable with and don't have to think about much, listen to the music and:

- try to stop on ends of musical phrase and pauses

- distinguish between smooth and staccato movement



You should at least try some of the other classes to see if the teaching approach there might work better for you or the leader/follower ratio is more favourable.

Thank you, this is helpful and, to be honest, in the last little while I have noticed the fog clearing and I'm beginning to feel more confident. I will take your advice about practicing with the bits which come easily to me but focusing more on the musicality.

 

[TTanguero]

The lessons that really matter are in basic technique – posture, axis, embrace, how to walk well, how to pivot well, how to navigate the floor, etc. – and not in patterns. Inasmuch as you might want lessons in "moves," they're usually more about how to apply technique in specific circumstances

I'll really underline this. The first point at which I felt I was really dancing was when I realised I hadn't thought at all about figures during the tanda. I was just moving to the music with my partner.

From where you are now, I would aim to switch from 'steps first, music second' to 'music first, steps second.' There will come a point when you are able to just respond to the music without thinking about steps, and that's the stage at which you can move to 'partner first, music second.'

 

[Brummbaer]

I've learned quite a few moves but I struggle to connect them. I only went to a milonga once as there are not many where I am. The milonga was only open to members of our own dance school so I was somewhat comfortable with the dancing but not to a great extent.

My biggest problem was and always is musicality. Since a lot of my brainspace is taken up by ensuring my steps are right, i dont have much bandwidth left to 'think of' and then execute a muscially appropriate movement.

Can somebody please tell me how a leader 'decides' on which move to do? In my head, I imagine a veteran dance has many many sequences in mind, but how one comes to mind as the most suitable remains a bit of a mystery.

The best early advice I received as a leader was to consider to as a 'string of pearls'. Walking is the 'string' and then the 'pearl' is whatever the music inspires, space allows, or move that you can lead. That may be a cross, a molinete, ochos (fwd, bwd, possibly in a circle), ocho cortado, rock step (cunita)... If you have a limited vocabulary, then your choices are limited!

Re 'musicality' - listen to AT music (inc. vals and milonga) when you're not dancing. Read some books on it (e.g. Joaquín Amenábar's Let's Dance to the Music). There are also some podcasts about tango music like Tangomundo's Around the world in 80 tangos It is in English and German. Noticed that it now seems to be on YouTube and various podcast sites.

Learning tango is like learning a language. You start with simple phrases, build up vocabulary and grammar, then suddenly you find you're 'fluent' (or more importantly 'good enough' for most situations). I don't think what I'm going to do now. It depends on my partner, the space available, the music (orchestra, rhythm, interpretation, feeling, etc, etc), 'floorcraft', the floor itself, temperature and humidity!, the time of day (or night!)... You're having a conversation in dance - and it's more than shuffling around. How do you get there? Practice and familiarity. At some point you extend those group lessons to privates. Maybe that's even changing, or adding, a teacher.

The KISS (Keep It Simple, St*pid) strategy needs to be applied! It can be scary (like taking an expensive, high-performance, car through some city - I think of Paris), but you do what you've practiced and can do. Don't be tempted by that new move, unless it's a practice session. In which case do it with other pupils until you sort it out. Break it down into elements. Change the entry and exit. Change the music and your interpretation. What happens if you pause? Link it with something else you know. There are no wrong steps (ok, some which don't achieve your objective)! It doesn't work! What's your escape strategy? (Don't just stop!)

 

[Pharaoh]

Hi. I technically started dancing 2 years ago, but had to stop and start many times due to medical stuff. I think that if you add it all up, I have about 14/15 months of dancing in my body.

I've learned quite a few moves but I struggle to connect them. I only went to a milonga once as there are not many where I am. The milonga was only open to members of our own dance school so I was somewhat comfortable with the dancing but not to a great extent.

My biggest problem was and always is musicality. Since a lot of my brainspace is taken up by ensuring my steps are right, i dont have much bandwidth left to 'think of' and then execute a muscially appropriate movement.

Can somebody please tell me how a leader 'decides' on which move to do? In my head, I imagine a veteran dance has many many sequences in mind, but how one comes to mind as the most suitable remains a bit of a mystery.

Also, could somebody tell me what the numbers are like where they dance? I had always thought there would be more followers than leaders, but we actually seem to have more leaders than followers, which is a small bit bothersome. Are ladies not as inclined to dancing as once they were? We have some dancers, particularly men from the LGBTQ community, who are happy to follow as well when we are short, which helps the numbers, but overall I'm a little surprised that we are having this problem. Is it common?

Also: there are other tango classes and groups in my city. For now, I have only attended one school, group lessons, no privates. Should I attend these other schools now that I am no longer a total beginner? I was a bit afraid of getting mixed up, and also of insulting my own teacher, but maybe now that I am more of an improver than a beginner, this would help me?

So, you have 1 year of experience. I’ve heard it takes, on average, about 5 years to become a decent leader and around 3 years to become comfortable as a follower. I’m 3 years in now as a leader, just reaching an intermediate stage, dancing at least 4 times per week, and I’m starting to get dances both at home and when I travel.

My first 2 years were brutal, and most of the leaders I started with quit because they weren’t getting dances. It’s also very expensive. If i knew how much tango would cost me in the beginning, i would never started it lol.But if you have the ability, work hard, invest in lessons, and dance at least 4–5 times per week, you’ll become more comfortable within about 3 years.

You really have to love it to stick around and go through all that struggle, lol.

P.S musicality is major for me as well

 

[JournalInTime]

Thanks for your detailed response.

You'll soon learn that brevity isn't one of my virtues. But you're welcome!

Re coming out the other side of lessons, I'm prepared for the long haul. Our teacher does do privates but there's a long waiting list, so I think that will speed me up when the time comes.

Or find a teacher elsewhere, if "elsewhere" isn't too hard to get to for you. People from small communities around my city come into the city – where there are dozens and dozens of teachers – specifically for that reason.

I also like the idea of a wave as I tend to make every part of a 'move' very much a discrete item, and when I make a mistake it then freezes me.

Exactly – you get it, which not everybody does. I think we all go through a "I wanted to do X, got Y, and now what?" phase. I didn't spend much time there because I was recruited to work at the studio where I learned, so I was thrown into the deep end and had regular contact with private teachers. But people who started at exactly the same time as me and didn't meet teachers who discouraged thinking of tango like this:

____!_______!_______!_______!____

instead of like this:

⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅ॱ˙˙ॱ⋅.˳˳.⋅

Are still dancing herky-jerky today.

Q for you: how often is reasonable to dance to keep improving? 2-3 times a week?

This is another thing without a universal answer. Some people say that "going out to dance" isn't all that instrumental to improving, and that skill development takes lessons and prácticas. To me, that seems iffy, like trying to become a better surgeon by reading books and never cutting.

I've tried many configurations since 2013 and concluded that "one lesson a week, one práctica a week, two milongas a week" works best for me. Early on, "lesson" meant "group lesson," but since 2016 it has meant "private lesson." I never hit fewer than two milongas in a week, but I've been known to swap in a third instead of a práctica, to add a third on top of a práctica, and to squeeze in a second práctica. I don't do this every week purely for reasons of sustainability: I am almost 60 years old and have a full-time job, and I can't stay out late nights, work days, and still take care of my body.

Still, there have been weeks when I've thrown caution to the winds and attended some combo of 7 or 8 milongas and prácticas. But I'll be honest and follow up on that with ". . . and I didn't improve because of it." Being tired with sore feet inhibits learning from experience, and at some point you start dancing not-so-well just to survive, which comes with the risk of giving you bad habits.

 

[brujo]

I think for me one thing that significantly made tango more enjoyable is relentlessly trying different new things that are sometimes purely tango but sometimes tango adjacent. For example, I got into fusion dancing because my tango instructor at a time was a guest DJ at an event. I got into gyrokinesis because it was offered before a practica at my tango studio. I got into alt tango house parties because it was mentioned to me at a practica by another dancer. A lot of that provided a perspective of tango that was sometimes more relaxed and fun than a traditional Milonga or a practica. Summer outdoor events, musical events at colleges, milongas in different cities and festivals all offer a slightly different crowd and perspective.

 

[Brummbaer]

What you say about movement particles makes a lot of sense. I pay close attention during the classes but I could and should probably spend more time at home practicing what I just learned. I also like the idea of a wave as I tend to make every part of a 'move' very much a discrete item, and when I make a mistake it then freezes me. Your point about dancers moving from point in space and time to point in space and time, regardless of the names of patterns, was very helpful.

Just another thought... You'll notice that the names of the 'particles', the elements, are mostly those for the follower (cross, ocho, giro...). That doesn't mean the leader doesn't do them (and it's good to learn and understand the follower steps - but that's another topic!). As a leader, think of what you're leading the follower to do - how you 'play that instrument'. The follower does need to be aware of the vocabulary of this conversation, but it's not just because there's this sequence, this phrase, that has a cross at that point. You have to actually lead that cross with your body. You don't even need to step to do that (but that's another topic for later).

As for practicing. Yes, a partner helps. Even arranging with someone from class at a practice session (práctica). Failing that there's always a broom, or mop, or just the handle. You can use it horizontally to check your arms and shoulders, to check you're not dipping to one side, and vertically to check your position (don't look at your feet! Keep your head up and get someone else, like the teacher, to tell you what's wrong).

You need to get beyond that 'freeze'! You can't do that on the dancefloor and expect to get dances (but it can be ok in practice). An acquaintance used to do that in class and it really put people off dancing with him. Fortunately he got over that.

 

[Brummbaer]

Q for you: how often is reasonable to dance to keep improving? 2-3 times a week?

It depends on other things in your life and availability. Obviously more helps. An intensive time (with teaching and practice) helps. It also depends on your lessons and the skill of the teacher. Some (many?) AT teachers are not good teachers. They're still learning to teach. If you find a good teacher for you, stick with them. Even worse, some may still be learning what to teach, or teaching a different style from your objectives.

So, it's good to know a selection of teachers and how, and what, they teach. Even advanced, or professional, dancers are not necessarily good teachers and you may need some skill to extract what you want, or need (maybe a particular style , or interpretation, of doing something). Sometimes they don't do exactly what they say! There's some small, but important, nuance they just do but of which they're unaware. But that comes as your skills improve

How often? Some teachers think it's ok to do some new, complex, sequence each week. So people don't get it before next week, and it's forgotten. I'd say, initially, one lesson per week and as much practice as you can manage. I wake up with my tango dance partner so that's easy. As you get better, maybe one group lesson, a práctica, and then part of a milonga.

As we've got more advanced, and with time (like specific tango holiday, or an intensive weekend, or even week, with teachers) maybe upto 2 workshops/day and a practice session. Occasionally an evening milonga as well.

Normal life - usually at least one milonga/week. Some practice at home. Sometimes a private lesson.

 

[Hophop]

Leaders, how long did it take you to stop feeling bored with your own dance? Or, did you even start feeling bored?

From the point of view of a follower, sometimes I can have a great tanda and the limited vocabulary of the moves barely register if it is at the same time musical, connected, warm and fun.
As a leader, depending on the night, somewhere between the third and the fifth tanda, im bored of my own dancing. The followers arent complaining, but they only dance one tanda with me. I know i still lack the precision and speed to express all of what i hear in the music, and that will keep on improving. But will this feeling ever go away?

 

[Brummbaer]

Leaders, how long did it take you to stop feeling bored with your own dance? Or, did you even start feeling bored?

Not so far - after over a decade.

There's always some new challenges - particularly dancing with some beginners or novices. But there are also the compensations of dancing with that advanced follower.

 

[JournalInTime]

Just another thought... You'll notice that the names of the 'particles', the elements, are mostly those for the follower (cross, ocho, giro...).

Cross, ocho, giro, etc. are already patterns. Not long sequences, but patterns.

I'm advising focusing on true particles: pauses (static and dynamic), weight shifts (slow and quick, complete and partial, mirrored and not), steps (front, side, and back, linear and curved, with various dynamics and collections), pivots (in either sense, on either or both legs, open or in collection, from "just barely" to 360°), and so on forever. That's role-blind. All dancers have to be able to do those things well to dance, though some particles matter more to one role than to the other (followers do more pivoting, especially in turns, and leaders do more unmirrored weight shifts).

That doesn't mean the leader doesn't do them

And at the level of true particles – not big chunks like ochos (step, pivot, argue about when and where to collect) – the leader does them all the time.

—

Anyway, all of this is instrumental to not stopping to think, which is what turns tango into the herky-jerky. It's imperative to develop the ability to lead any particle 2 that makes sense after any particle 1, to get to any particle 3 that makes sense after particle 2. "Makes sense" isn't hard to grasp; e.g., you cannot step twice to the right without a weight shift to left (if only a brief, unmirrored one on a 1/2 or 1/4 time), or pivot on a leg you aren't standing on. The place to work on this is without a partner, in front of a mirror – in a drill.

When it comes to partner practice, the best teachers I've had have always said, "Dance. Just walk if you want. But at some point, throw this in. Put it wherever you like so that nobody telegraphs or anticipates." This "drills" the other aspect of dancing with flow, which is avoiding the habit of thinking, "Well, I can always stop and reset," or worse, "Well, this always follows that."

In social dance with an unknown partner, stopping and resetting, and burned-in Y-follows-X thinking, are disagreeable and stand a good chance of that person never dancing with you again . . . I certainly don't re-invite followers who execute ochos as "step, reset to two feet, pivot, hopefully leave on the right foot," or who auto-cross every time I take more than one step forward, or start a second ocho after I lead one. And I wouldn't expect a follower to accept my invitations if my dance were a long series of patterns with hard stops in between, and the patterns marked 5 notes when 4 were played.