In terms of following experience, close embrace to me pretty much means variable embrace. I was in a class at CITA with Naveira and he was coming around to each of the pairs and corrected my partner of the moment, who was a pretty new beginner. We were dancing more-or-less close embrace (having learned as a beginner in open embrace it was extremely close embrace to me) and my partner was trying to dance me into a space that my body simply couldn't occupy, for front ochos and for giro. Naveira told him "you have to change and make the space for the woman, and then you change and go back." Obviously ochos and giros can be made bigger and smaller (hence the stage and salon style discussions) but at some point the space inside of the right arm for a front ocho is either big enough for the follow, or it's not. Depending on the amount of COD moves the lead chooses to lead, there will be a lot of transitions in the embrace. I applaud the men with whom I have danced who have made this a seamless experience! :) The reality, however, is that this adjustment is a pretty difficult challenge for beginning dancers who lead, and it is not an issue in open embrace. I am not "advocating" open embrace over close embrace...just acknowledging that it is really important to teach leads the space transition for COD dance vocabulary and it is a lot for a beginner to handle.
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