Obviously I didn't describe it well to make you think that I ignore the lead. No, that was not what I meant. I do follow the lead.
To Follow without Following
- Thread starter LoveTango
- Start date
The way I follow depends on the way they lead. Some leader prefers to dictate the dance, then I strictly follow. Some leader gives me a lot of room for interpretation, if I only strictly follow, he would be frustrated, or else I would be frustrated.
pascal
Active Member
+1
I have to adjust when going to/coming back from BsAs. There, the ladies won't move if you just suggest the move, or give an information about where you'd like them to step. You have to lead them.
Browsing this thread I've seen a couple of posts about women leading (or learning to). We have many in our community, they often bring two pairs of tango shoes, and wear alternatively the one with high heels when they want to follow and the sneakers-style one when they want to lead.
sixela
Well-Known Member
That's not the way I read it: her tango has become easier now that she's accepted she has a responsibility of her own (amongst others, with respect to timing). It took my present most frequent dance partner a trip to BBAA to understand that, paradoxically, "following" isn't a passive role at all.
Followers do much more than follow (which is exactly why , as some have observed, they want to be moved, not just "suggested" stuff - they have other things on their mind than to try to guess where the couple's going).
sixela
Well-Known Member
[Just to avoid misunderstandings, I think we're in violent agreement, but I think semantics are actually important, at least on a forum, so if you'll allow me to offer a different perspective on the words I'd use.]
To me that's leading. After all, leading is making sure that, with the frame and your body movement, the follower doesn't have to guess where you're going (and where you're expecting her to go).
She's going to the space that the embrace and the chest of the leader allows her to go, quite naturally, and if she follows and you haven't goofed up the lead, there's nowhere else to go (unless you're backled and change plans).
Leading is confident or it isn't leading. It's not going to work if you wait for the follower to return the paperwork. But that leading is not the same as "ignoring" the follower.
THE characteristic of tango is that the leader and follower move in unison, and that means that there's a shared responsibility in the timing. In fact, the leader also must be aware of where the follower is at all times and what timing she has, and you can't be aware of something if in some sense you aren't also 'listening' (as in 'keeping your senses open', not as in 'letting someone else override your decision').
If you have a really good couple working like a well-oiled machine, the follower has a lot of influence on the timing of steps (and even subtle hints at where she'd prefer to go) by the amount of resistance to movement she develops.
I've danced with Argentine ladies who were light as a feather most of the time but would turn instantly into the proverbial 8000lbs gorilla as soon as you were trying to lead something really wrong for them -- they sure *made* me listen, so I don't think listening to the follower is a European *****footing thing. If you're *****footing and not leading, that's probably a misunderstanding due to the different meanings of "listen".
The follower's certainly not a force to be ignored, and in fact, a good embrace means that both the leader and follower can't really ignore the partner unless if making a point of ignoring cues (I've known good leaders who indeed successfully thwarted every attempt from a skilled follower at creating time and space for an adorno. But they weren't ignoring the follower, they were aware of what she wanted and then actively disagreed, 'listening' in one sense but 'not listening' in the other).
To really ignore a follower, you actually probably won't lead at all. You'll just go somewhere and leave a follower with no clue as to where you're headed (which will probably in the course of the tanda sometimes mean where her feet are).
It's admirable as a statement of the confidence necessary in leading but it's dangerously misinterpreted by some...
If you lead correctly, it's got to be extremely difficult for a follower to be trod on with full force. If you invade the space in which you don't want her to stay and have a good connection, the exclusion principle (your chest and hers won't be at the same place at the same time) will dictate her to move out of the way, unless she does the "I'M LED THAT WAY BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, EMERGENCY BRAKE" freeze act (but then she's not following at all) and your reflexes aren't good enough to detect it on time.
