I got this commentary in a weekly newsletter from our local Tango School here in San Diego (the one that has a teachers training program.) I found it somewhat amusing, so I thought I'd share it with the list, especially those who object to followers being compared to non-human things.
And I'd like to clarify that these are not my opinions, just something I thought I'd forward for the entertainment value. Enjoy! (I truncated it to meet the 5K limit for this list) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: el_mundo_del_tango <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 6:58 AM INTRO – "FOR THE FOLLOWER" Last week I wrote about improvisation for the leader, so this week it makes sense to write about the follower's side of the story. Sometimes when teaching a follower I find that it is necessary to work on the "auto-ocho" habit. Like a wild bronco that needs to be broken, these followers become runaway horses when led forward from the cross. This phenomenon manifests itself as a series of un-led forward ochos that spiral out of control. On occasion, I will stand there unmoving as the follower commits forward ocho after forward ocho while I patiently wait for her to finish. Horse trainers have developed techniques for breaking wild horses which requires the tying up of a bronco to a barn or tree until it is too tired to fight anymore. I haven't heard of such techniques being used in tango, but it could be a possible last resort. When a leader is a victim of "auto-ochos" all he can do is sit there and wait for the follower to finish and then give her a nice, warm smile. The reason that these `auto ochos' occur is because the some of us teachers have not trained our students to follow properly. Unfortunately, ochos are often learned as patterns and the follower's technique is not addressed in enough detail. To make matters worse, bad habits can be learned from leaders. Sometimes leaders will push the follower and give them the mistaken impression that pushing is the correct lead. So when a gentleman doesn't push when leading a forward ocho and uses the correct lead based on turning his upper body and committing clear weight changes, the follower is sometimes unsure of what she is supposed to do. On the other hand, some leaders have a very weak lead. During the execution of a forward ocho many of these leaders don't rotate their upper body to the right, so the follower doesn't have enough room to step. In response some followers can develop a bad habit of forcing their way through the forward ocho. In this manner they become accustomed to ignoring the lead and dancing by themselves. Herein lies the agony of being a follower. The question is… if the man doesn't lead properly should she help by completing the step for him? My answer is… NO!!! It is human nature to want to please your partner and sometimes we feel that it is not unreasonable to give in to the temptation. Just remember the consequences will lead to bad habits for him and probably for you. So lets analyze what it takes to be a good follower. A woman must give up any attempt to guess what the next step of the dance will be and live in the present. Her biggest concern should be to determine which leg is free to step... Please let me explain… When a leader places a follower's weight on one leg, a good guideline states that the woman controls her standing leg and the man controls the free leg. The follower needs her standing leg to keep her up, but she has the ability to give control of her free leg to the leader. So whenever the leader puts the follower's weight on one leg (lets say in this instance the right leg) her other leg (in this case the left) will be the one that will takes the next step. Therefore in this example, when the man leads the woman to walk backwards… the first leg to step backwards will be the free one, the left leg. If he leads her to the side then the first leg to step to the side will also be the left one. ETC… So the free leg (the one with no weight) will always be the stepping leg and the follower will never have to guess which leg to step with. If this concept is understood then it should really take a load off the follower's mind. If a follower can stay in the present and focus on these weight changes, then she can free up her mind so that she has time to focus on musicality and proper technique. A woman must focus on what is important. These weight changes are much more important than thinking about whether she is good enough to follow the leader, or whether or not her stomach is showing through her dress, or whether or not she knows enough adornos, or whatever. Just start by focusing on weight changes. Then if you can ignore all the other voices in your head… you will have time to focus on musicality and technique. _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
