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When The Lead Rocks

So that we’re clear about this — the word ‘Rocks’ in this sentence does not mean that said Lead is ‘cool’, or that they have stone rocks for brains. No. What this refers to is a Lead that…well…Here’s a scenario for you: A couple steps onto the floor together. The Lead embraces their Follower, the music starts, and then this Lead begins to rock the couple from side to side. This, is The Lead that Rocks!

From a Following perspective, a good portion of you reading this will immediately know this kind of Lead. And that’s because more than 80% of the people that you dance with begin each and every dance like this. Mind you, it’s not like you don’t know the music, or haven’t hear this particular song 10,000 times at this point, but still here you have ‘le guideur du jour‘ or in this case, ‘le moment‘, and they’re rocking from side to side as if! As far as you’re concerned it’s a minor annoyance, you just want to dance and aren’t quite getting why we have to do this each and every time. Further still a good portion of ‘le guideur du moment‘ will not exactly ‘rock’ but rather ‘stomp‘ from side to side, and the ‘thud‘ (the impact of their foot hitting the floor) is quite noticeable! What goes hand-in-hand with this mishigas is the squeezing of the embrace (compression), head tilt (into the Follower’s), right forearm force, left arm and hand rigidity, tension everywhere in the embrace, and a personal favorite of soooo many Leads – arm and hand pressure from either the lead’s left or the paddling right hand! Soooo much fun. Now we add the rocking from side to side and you’ve got yourself the trifecta of a dance experience that will more than likely send you to the chiropractor in the morning! Gosh, isn’t Tango fun ? 🙁

From a Leading Perspective, let’s be clear about something: Somewhere in one of your beginner Tango classes, your teacher said something to the effect that you should place the Follower on beat, and the most effective way to do that was of course…rocking from side to side at the beginning of the song. They also said you should start every song like this. And if your teacher didn’t say this to you, more than likely you’ve seen a whole swath of (ahem) ‘better‘ (cough, cough, cough…something caught in my throat) Leads do this same thing. You’ve even had a ew of them say something to the effect that you want to do this yourself. Followers LOVE it <ahem>. They need to be told where the beat is at all times, ’cause lord knows not a one of them knows what they’re doing, right ? So you gotta show’m, right ? <ahem> Further still if you don’t… ummm…put your foot down, they’ll never feel it and not know where they should step. Sometimes you gotta put that foot down hard, hit the floor, right ? Does that sound familiar to you ?

The Dancing Fact …ummmm…not so much with the rocking from side to side. Doing so sends the wrong message to the Follower, most notably that you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing. Further still it sends the message that you don’t know what you want. And even beyond that, any future Followers that you’re wanting to dance with are watching that and thinking to themselves – ‘beginner dancer!’. And you wonder why some Followers won’t dance with you ? While this is not the primary reason, but it does contribute to the fact that you’re clueless.  To be fair, there is nothing wrong with being a beginner dancer, we were all one once, and truthfully most us that are really studying the form are still very green beginners. There’s just one difference between you being a beginner and others like me, we hide our errors better than you do! 

Fixing it ? How do you fix this one ? Again, like everything else in this category of Tango ‘mishaps’, this is engrained behavior in you and unless someone points out that you’re doing it, you’re going to continue to do it, and the really sad part is that you won’t be aware of it at all. So how do you fix it ? Well, 1st you subscribe as a Gold Level Member and then you get to see the missing parts of the video that can help you to stop making this tiny little error. It’s really that simple. Hit the green button below.

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Keep something in the back of your mind: What you’re seeing in a youtube video is a couple that is performing for the 15th row for a room full of people. They’re not social dancingWhereas this website is all about ‘Social Tango’  or how to make things function on a social dance floor. Social Dance floor ? Your local milonga! They are showing you flashy moves as a presentation, to show off! But not stopping and talking about how this works which is what you need to see. This website and all of it’s content show you the how and  why you’d want to put that piece of vocabulary there, or how to make things work. This website is all about those things and more!

You could watch Tango YouTube videos and thereby spend your time, trying to infer, and figure out how things may work in that particular situation. Bend your body this way or that, twist and force this position or that. Place your foot here or there and figure it out. This is known as Tango Twister.  Which can be a lot of fun, but more than likely it won’t help you, because you’re missing something: The explanation from an experienced teacher showing you how to properly excute this stuff from a Leading Perspective as well as from a Following Perspective!

The goal of YouTube videos is to get you to study with those teachers in person. The goal of Tango Topics videos allows you to work at your own pace, in the comfort of your own space, so that you can play them over and over again to improve your understanding of the vocabulary or technique being described to therefore better your dancing experience. The goal of classes and workshops is to get you to come back over and over and over again, thereby spending more money with that teacher. This website and the videos under it are here to act as a resource for you to help you to improve your dance. Pay once and you’re done.

Eventually, one way or another you’re going to pay for this lesson, either here and now, or with them. TANSTAAFL! The difference between that lesson and this ? Is that you get to play this lesson over and over and over again. Further still, there are supporting materials (other videos) that help to explain the language and the underlying technique of how and why things work, so you can easily reference those things in the corresponding articles that go with the material, and or any language in the Tango Topics Dictionary. 

DROP ME A MSG HERE

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