I would agree this is very correct. I would also add that in addition to the possibility of emotional fear that beginners may have, there is also the fear of getting stepped on by the man or stepping on the man by the beginner who is untrained in Close Embrace. Trained leaders who respect the dance and respect women will recognize that fact nearly immediately and not just grab a lady tight to him.
In beginner group classes or practicas, if I go to dance with a lady who is new, I respect that and don't just grab her close to me. Close embrace must be taught and learned and if she hasn't had training in that and become comfortable in it yet, I respect that and just dance open and give her a clear lead so she can have success learning her role in the dance for that lesson. At a milonga, I usually wouldn't dance with a lady until she is advanced enough to dance well in close embrace and has a nice walk. (Exception would be if the milonga is VERY lightly attended and she is getting few or no dances but seems eager to try. And then I still wouldn't be just grabbing her close against her will.) El Stevito de Gainesville On 9/17/2010 9:38 AM, [email protected] wrote: > The tango embrace is the same as the embrace of someone you love, even though > you may not know or care about the person. It is the dance position. In my > experience as a tango dancer and teacher, many "foreign" dancers, especially > those from Anglo-Saxon traditions, are indeed afraid of the embrace. They are > not used to being that close to someone who is not their sweetheart or close > relative, and sometimes their emotions get all confused after a tanda of > moving together as one hugged so close by a stranger. _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
