You’re out social dancing, and you’re finding yourself with either being led to a lot of Follower’s Molinetes, or the you’re leading the Follower’s Molinete over and over again with very little variation. From a Leading perspective, you’re stuck in Lead’s Mindset, or you’re just out of ideas where you feel like you need to impress the Follower with something new or different. From a Following perspective, you really don’t care just as long as the whirling dirvish you’re dancing with stops every once in a while and leads something else that is a bit less stressful. The only thing you’re caring about right now is staying in front of your Lead and trying NOT to be in the Lead’s armpit.
Scenario over!
Today’s Tango Topic deals with a variation on a theme that almost never plays itself out in a crowded Milonga mostly because you know…it’s a crowded Milonga. There’s no space for craziness. However, what we’re talking about today isn’t craziness. It’s a variation on a theme that you already know how to do from a Leading and Following perspective.
So today we’re going to skip all the usual build up to this and generate a bulleted list of what it is that we’re after and why.
With that said, let’s dive into Today’s Tango Topic – The Linear Molinete.
First a reminder of What is “Dancing In A Small Space” (or ‘DIASS’ as Tango Topics refers to this idea) ! There are two parts to the answer to this question:
First, in it’s simplest form, it’s all about the vocabulary and engaging Five pieces of Tango vocabulary. The Five Pieces ? 1.) The 5 of the 6 Ways of Walking. 2.) Milonguero Ochos (sometimes referred to as ‘Lazy’ Ochos)3.) Milonguero Turns (not the Follower’s Molinete). 4.) Back and Forward Crosses (not the Argentine variety, there’s no space!). And 5.) Linear (and Circular) Ocho Cortados. This is all done in Close Embrace. Note that there are no Sacadas, Colgadas, Volcadas, Ganchos, Boloeos, or Death Drops and/or Drags. None. However, there are a whole bunch more pieces of Tango vocabulary that almost never get talked about, or thought of here, that can also be applied, such as Calesitas, Paradas (Step Over), Pasadas (Drags & Sweeps), ’Patter’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Pitter-Patter’), The Incrementals (see Golden Nugget Extensions), just to name a few.
Secondly, there’s the actual ‘Dancing’ part of the statement which is more about movement more than anything else. Said movement is done in a very confined space, no bigger than one meter square, if that. The people that practice this way of dancing, while they may not be conscious of it, there is a sincere desire to not to take up space, mostly because there isn’t any space to begin with. This is moving in milonga environment really, where the distance between couples, on all sides, is no more than about the length of one hand (about 17 centimeters). So from the perspective of the Small Space Dancer, there is precious little space to ‘do’ anything at all due to the conditions of the ronda, so as a result of this confinement, the dancing part is really about the minimal. Everything is done either around the lead, or the space that the couple current occupies and does not extend beyond that space. Quite factually, depending on which city we’re in when dancing this way (Buenos Aires comes to mind), one would take up no more space than the space that one’s feet occupy at that moment in time, and no more than that, but without moving from that spot!
What is a Linear Molinete ? In its simplest form, it’s the Follower’s Molinete spread out along a line instead of a circle around one’s Lead. In the Follower’s Molinete, the Lead engages in a Giro, or a self-turn over a singular spot. The Lead can not move from that spot otherwise it makes work for the Follower. In the case of the Linear Molinete the Lead has several options, however, the simplest one is that as the Follower is led to engage Back/Side/Forward, the Lead can engage Side/Side/Side, or Forward/Side/Back, or Back/Side/Forward with the Follower’s motion. The difference between the circular version of the Molinete/Giro structure and the Linear version is that the Lead’s steps are also Linear as well.
So instead of the Follower’s back step going around one’s lead as it would in a normal Follower’s Molinete, the Lead could invoke a side step with their Follower’s Back step. Or they have, as indicated above, three different options > Side/Forward/Back.
In the example above: The Follower’s back step is indicated by the Lead to go straight back instead of around, and the Lead then goes with them staying the same distance, at the same speed, in the same direction, and at the same level. Only in the example the Lead takes a side step with the Follower’s back step. Same with the Follower”s side step – a linear side step, the Follower goes side, and the Lead matches it. On the Follower’s Forward Step, the Follower is led to go forward and the Lead takes a side step.
This is, in its simplest form, a Linear Molinete for both roles.
About The Video. Total runtime for this video is: 09:08. This is a combined video format, lead and follow technique are mixed together.