The ‘Right’ Shoes

Some day soon, you’re going to want the perfect pair of shoes.  These shoes in your mind, completes the Tango image you have for yourself dancing socially. They make you look elegant. They make you feel like you can do anything. Mind you that image is an illusion in your head, but let’s not quibble about reality. These shoes are either handmade in Italy, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, or somewhere and/or something in between. They’re the shoes you always dreamed of. They’ve got all the features that you believe will allow you to become, finally, the dancer that you’ve always wanted.

The Reality ? The shoes really don’t matter at all! It’s the skill inside them that matters the most. Work on that, instead of the 200.00 you just spent on a pair of shoes you can’t wear because you haven’t learned how to walk yet! 

Put another way, a good number of people (women & men) are sold a bill of goods when they start dancing that they must have ‘the right shoes’ in order to dance, when that’s not the case at all. If you’re learning to dance at a studio, they’re trying to make money by selling you as much stuff as is humanly possible, and you don’t know any better. So the shoe is just one high priced ticket item, that sucks you in and keeps you coming back. The fact is that you need to learn how to walk first and foremost, and that’s not something you’re going to get in 5 minutes (it’s not) but slowly over time, as you retrain your body to do something that is wholly unfamiliar to you. And the shoe, actually, truthfully, honestly gets in the way of that happening for a variety of reasons. 

To be fair there is something to be said for comfort and finding the right pair of shoes that do not hurt your feet. However, that is for a later topic. 

Do you need shoes right now ? No. Eventually, yes you will…well not really – a pair of socks will do the job just fine until you get your foundation clean/r/ed (that’s the ‘walking’ business above). But eventually you’re going to want to go dancing and not look like a social misfit because you’re in socks, so you’ll want an actual pair of shoes! Honestly though, you really don’t need them, socks or street shoes work just fine, or socks over street shoes. 🙂 However a pair of Comme Il Faut (which had a reputation of being desirable, the company was sold a while back, and the quality isn’t what it used to be – the world has moved on to Madame Pivot actually), or something like that, are just a pair of shoes. To be clear, no matter whom you’ve seen wearing the latest brand of ‘hot shoes’ and the things that those people do in those shoes, it’s not the shoes…it’s the skill set in the shoe – that person! That human being has sweat in front of a mirror for hours, weeks, months, years at a time. Working on refining over and over and over again their ‘technique’. The shoes ? They mean nothing. Don’t miss-hear that as shoe bashing. That shoes aren’t pretty and shouldn’t be worn. No. That is not true. They should be, eventually, but not at the beginning, and certainly not until you have mastered your foundation (which is going to take awhile). Save your pennies (euros, rubles, etc), focus on your technique, focus on practicing (solo practice, and exercises) on a daily basis, focus on actual social dancing. That’s where the real skill lay, not in the shoe. The shoe is an illusion and only an extension of what is inside of you.

MORE REMINDERS

Tango Reputation

No matter how hard you try (positively or negatively) you’re going to acquire a ‘Tango Reputation’. Meaning ? How you engage socially, how you dance, who you dance with, how ‘good’ you are, how often you dance, if you teach, where you teach, who you teach with, whether or not (if you teach) you dance only with your students or with others, if you teach others while dancing (tsk, tsk, tsk), whether or not you dance milonga, how good your milonga skills are, whether or not you lead and follow or not.

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The ‘Connection’ Fallacy

Connection” is a wonderful idea. We like to believe in the romanticism of this word, and all that it implies, which is as it turns out a considerable amount. However, the word itself, from a Tango perspective, has been beat up and bruised that it more than likely has lost it’s original intent. When you say the word to someone it could mean any one of eight (8) different things as it relates to the dance. However, this is not a definition of the word, for that please see the Tango Topics Definition of the word "Connection". 


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Lead Bashing

Bashing ? Meaning that you’re throwin’ some shade, picking on, pointing out the errors of, giving some shit, pointing fingers at, trash talking, talk down, blaming and shaming, and the euphemistic UK’ism “taking the piss”. While that last one is more about making fun of someone, that’s not actually what this idea is all about. It’s about disparaging someone, or in this case, from a Tango perspective, the L/lead’s abilities (the person, and the action).

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Follower Bashing

All too often a good portion of Followers get the short end of the stick as it were. They’re blamed for missing this or that, not having enough resistance (a major no-no), not pushing, not leaning enough (false apilodo another major no-no), not stepping in the right place, not keeping up with the lead, etc. They’re blamed for a host of things from walking, to musical interpretation. After a while they develop a complex of just taking responsibility for almost everything that happens that isn’t desirable in the dance, instead of the Lead taking rightful responsibility for what’s been led! This is known as ‘Bashing The Follower’.

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The Follower’s Molinete

Typically referred to as ‘The Molinete’. This is the ubiquitous turn that everyone uses, even though there are 7 more that are equally as useful, it has the default turn for most dancers. The part that you should pay attention to is the second word in that phrase, ‘Follower’. This is Follower specific vocabulary. There is a Lead component to it, which is called a ‘Giro’ (translated from Spanish to English it means “I turn”) , but this is really all about the Follower.

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Lethargy (Moving Too Slow)

Lethargy is moving too slow for the intended lead’s request (‘lead’ is the action, and not the person). What this really boils down to is the reaction time of the dancer that is a.) a lag from the time at which a request was sent to the time it was received. and b.) way in which it is done (the real speed issue). Note what’s missing from this definition, the roles of the dance! There is no blame in this definition. None what so ever. However, that is seemingly about to change. It’s not, but your perception of it will until you get to the end.

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Variation

Repetition is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades. Which is to say, that no one, absolutely no one, likes being led to the same thing over and over and over again. Variation is the key to success! Small variation, large variations that open doors to other ideas, other thoughts. But in the end, variation. Taking an idea and then reversing it, or slowing it down, speeding it up, speeding up a part of it (musically), slowing down a piece of it, taking off the beginning or the end and reversing their positions. This is variation.

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A Community Tanda

What is a Community Tanda ? Put simply it’s a Tanda whereby the participants of a Milonga are invited, and then wholly encouraged, to dance with someone that they have NOT danced with before or at all.

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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!

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