Having the arms involved in the lead, once we have already learned to lead with our torso, is fine. Using the arms to steer the follower in a manner akin to steering a bus is quite another.
I try to avoid or minimize
involvement of arms in generating lead signals. To me arms are an extension of my frame. Information I transmit is clear. Often the followers are able to interprete correctly the intended lead.
There are times when I will
involve the arms (often the right side). This happens when I find the follower’s reaction time is late, or they are overdoing a move like over pivoting, stepping too far, etc. Stepping too far is very rare. The more common problem is stepping not far enough but involving arms can’t help there. When my arms are involved it is subtle and outside observer won’t be able to tell or detect. Sometimes the followers themselves fail to detect but still respond. I have narrated the experiment I did on that elsewhere in the older posts.
I think there is a school of Argentinian instructors that teach and integrate
use of arm in leading. Only person that explicitly teaches it among those I have taken workshops from is Gabriel Misse. Again, I think I have narrated it elsewhere. In his method he insists on
using the arms. He also explains these are techniques handed down by older generation. His method makes sense in a certain way for adding clarity. I find it is not at all necessary. I can be as clear leading with a proper well connected frame. He is certainly not advocating steering the followers with arms. Also, by mere observations you cannot tell he is using arms. Unless you have a very keen eye and know what to look at.
Dancing with arms to me indicates one or more of the following happening. Arms are disconnected from the frame, steering with arm, substituting momentum with arm action, forcing displacement using arms.
Incidently in my experience when following, the worse culprits are followers that are trying to lead. 90% invariable dance with arms as described in the last paragraph. By trying to lead I don’t mean they are at beginning of their journey. These are followers who have been taking leading lessons and trying to
lead for several years. I know a few women that only lead and I didn’t experience such issues with them. I seen a very few followers that actually lead well without arms. That’s why I have very poor opinion about followers that
try or
think they can lead. You may be a good follower and been dancing tango for long time. It doesn’t prevent bad habits in a new role. To be able to lead well you have to start from square one. And put in miles. We are a leader heavy community. Yet we do have an enthusiastic number of followers who like to lead at least some of the time during a milonga. A few of them are friends and have been leading for 6-7 years participating in workshops only as a leader. They are good followers but their leading is mediocre at best because of the arm issue. The less I say about followers dancing less than three years and then also trying to lead the better. Their both roles need a lot of work.
I tend to be perfectionist. With a caveat I don’t let perfection be enemy of good enough. My bar for good enough tends to be higher than saying average skill = good enough. Because the average skill can have wide variance depending on the skills within sample size. Therefore if you undertake to do something, you better get good in reasonable amount of time. People also forget that when you try your hand at opposite role, the partners tend to cut you a lot of slack. That doesn’t make you good since your invitation is accepted.
