If you Lead and read this page quite frequently, this post is probably the single most important post you will ever want to read here. Read on.

There’s a mantra, a saying, that we want to make the base part of our leading ideas, in nearly everything that we do. And the reason is that this particular mantra has far-reaching implications in everything that we do. Everything. This particular mantra has the benefits of reminders built-in, if you understand the underlying methodology behind it, it also encompasses the methodology of beat, and the super importance of musical interpretation, and it has one other thing built into it: Meta Tango Philosophy. With that said, let’s dive into The Leading Mantra.

‘My mind, in their feet, on the beat, to the pauses, within the phrases’.

While this simple, but clearly disjointed sentence, is seemingly deceptive in its simplicity, it has far-reaching implications! This should be every lead’s mantra before they ever step on the floor.

Let’s dive into it….

‘My mind‘, refers to having a very clear idea in your mind of what is about to be led. Not a vague idea or series of ideas but a crystal clear idea. And frequently Leads don’t have a clear idea more than a step at a time…which in turn creates a ‘muddy’ representation from a visual standing as well as from a musical standing. In essence, this idea is all about being crystal clear in your thoughts as a Lead. If you’re not clear, then the Follower can’t be clear in their execution! Therefore a ‘muddy’ dance that wanders all over the floor, and more importantly all over the beat!

‘In their feet‘, (in the video it’s “her” but ‘their‘ is more gender agnostic) refers to not the Lead’s feet but the Follower’s feet. We, as leads, don’t give a rats damn what the Lead’s feet are doing but rather what the Follower’s feet are doing! At the same time, this also employs a noted skill of Proprioception. Which is not looking but feeling where the Follower is in space and in time. And one more, ‘In her feet’ also refers to the execution of technique from the Follower’s position. We don’t care what they do, but how and when they do. Which should be expeditiously concise, controlled, and without tension, force, or rigidity, but within the realm of what was asked in a timely fashion.

‘On the beat’, means that the Lead, in this case, is responsible for placing the Follower on the beat and not themselves and there is a radical difference between the two.

‘to the Pauses‘, this one is probably the single most important of the phrase itself. Why ? Because most people don’t hear the pauses, and yet it is the musical pause that creates structure in the dance. Without the pause, you’d be running around the line of dance. The pause is there for 3 reasons, a.) to reset the couple. b.) to change vocabulary and adornment choices. c.) to create a latticework of structure in what you’re doing. There is an order to how we want to do things. We want to accentuate the ‘story’ of the song through vocabulary, and that begins with hearing the pauses and hitting them!

‘within the phrases’, refers to musical phrasing or in this case ‘Tango’ phrasing…there is a shorthand to some Tango vocabulary that can literally create a specific feel, and we want to accentuate this idea. Each pause is the ending of one phrase and the beginning of the next, and as such we want to start to think of our vocabulary choices as accentuating these phrases to tell a story!

This is the Leading Mantra.

You’re welcome. 😉