My Relationship With The Floor • Becoming a Better Leader

It is my experience that I am always learning something new with every dance, every partner, every song and every class or lesson in Argentine Tango. 

I had the good fortune to join a group lesson at the University of Florida in Gainesville a few Sundays ago. My instructor Irene danced lead and taught both lead and follow. 

I have been taking classes in leading for at least a year, perhaps more, and dancing as a follower for several years at most all of the milongas I attend. 

I have heard it said that it takes a year to learn to follow and three to learn to lead.  I agree! Perfecting style, adornos, technique, grace and posture are my tangible joys on the journey that is Argentine Tango. 

As is often the case when I am learning, words get in the way. I have listened to every teacher attentively, and when listening to lessons on leading I have heard again and again that the energy of leading is sent from the sternum. 

I have heard that the upper body of the leader, the shoulders of the leader and the chest of the leader are what a follower senses and follows in a tango.  

When leading I also followed that lesson, however I was blessed with a gentle critique after two hours of dancing lead in Gainesville. The instructor asked if she might offer me a suggestion. I gladly accepted. 

She was a very skillful and subtle leader…. I watched to see just how she invited her partner to certain moves, but could not quite see how she actually lead the step. 

I have had this same difficulty when watching Maestros of the dance. They seem to be able to lead (invite) their partner to take eloquent and sometimes complex steps without any real movement of their torsos at all.

I have puzzled over videos, playing them again and again, but I could not see what actually was not there. 

To my critique: The instructor suggested that I was leading with my torso. I agreed. She then pointed out that I would be a more effective leader if I were more grounded. She suggested that I use the floor, the energy from the floor to lead.   

I realized I was not grounded as a leader. I understood at once. My relationship with the floor had been first learned as a follower. 

After the first year of learning to dance in heels, finding the right heel height and perfecting my axis as a follower, I had accidentally become light. 

I had been focusing on responding to my leader, yet I was not “in the floor."  I am sure that in Salon embrace it was hard for many leaders to know just where I was in the dance.

As a leader, I find it very easy to dance with a partner who commits to each step. When I feel her land, I am more confident that I am able to lead the next step successfully because I know where she is! 

Now I will learn to lead from the ground up. 

Returning from Gainesville I opened the floor here in my town, Jacksonville, Florida and was able to practice my new awareness, my new lead with a true dancer. 

She is very well trained in other traditions and very comfortable dancing with me as we both discover what is really at the heart of Argentine Tango. 

I told her about my trip, my awakenings, and my new “style” of leading. I was glad to receive her feedback on my new use of the floor. 

So we danced.  The first part of the first dance I lead as I had in the past. Then I shifted to my first real effort in leading from the floor. 

I could sense a difference right away. I was more confident. I was able to lead using less upper body motion. I was able to clearly send her backward by pressing against the floor, somehow gaining strength or gentle power to clearly lead her back step. 

I felt far more connected to her than I had in previous dances. (There is not too much of me to follow. I am 5’ 2” and at my right weight tip the scales at 120 pounds.) 

She reported that she felt my lead clearly. We danced the hour away, and indeed after one Tango she said “That was fun.” As a leader, if I can create a dance with her (or him) that they really enjoy dancing, I feel successful. 

Sending my energy from the floor through the center of the chest before I even take a step sends my partner in the proper direction and empowers me to hear her. 

This style of leading, which my instructor told me was a reflection of the style of the people who dance Tango in Argentina, will take time to perfect of course. 

However in practicing leading at home…… I am a new woman. 

I was also very glad to watch another woman teach Argentine Tango. Each instructor has their own style or process. She had a full floor of eager young students! 

Here in Jacksonville a full floor is four! A good floor is two. I am coming to understand that not everyone wants a challenge. 

I understand that some people are reluctant to make a mistake in public. Some new dancers think so much about what they are doing that they think themselves right out of the moment and so miss the connection that makes for the magic. 

I have fallen in love with the experience...... bumbling moments and all (rest assured I bumble still) and will continue to hold space for all who want an hour of Tango here. 

Abrazos

Learning to Lead Argentine Tango • The journey continues!

I was able to travel to the University of Florida for their free Argentine Tango classes this Sunday. The beginners lesson was from 6:15 - 7:15 and the Intermediate class was from 7:15 - 8:15. It was well attended based on my experience. I suppose there were at least 20 students and an almost equal number of leaders & followers. 

I will always take a beginners class as there is always a new insight, a new way of understanding the dance, another teachers skill and formatting help me share the dance as well.  There are always new dancers to partner, and in so a new world of understanding with every dance in every class.

I enjoy dancing with beginners (I still consider myself to be one.) If I am able to lead a dancer who has had only two weeks of class successfully through a song, then I feel as if I really am improving as a leader.
Same gender dancing seems effortless on a college campus and I am very grateful for that. In my town there is still some resistance same gender dancing, but if you love the dance, the gender of your partner is not an issue. 
If you are in Jacksonville, Florida and would like to come out workshop with us, you are invited. We dance every Tuesday evening from 8:00 to 9:00 PM at 5049 Normandy Blvd in the 32205 zip code. 

I do not know the name of the instructor who offered the class this week, but I have had a lesson or two from her before. She has always provided me a valuable insights.

I like her style of teaching very much. She is straight forward and teaches the principle of movement, then we practise that principle with a partner. Next there is a rotation of partners, a new principle and more practise. 

I am now studying to lead. I have trained four years to follow. I did bring my “girl shoes” just in case there was a shortage of followers. However, no. Leaders were needed and all the students there were very gracious about having a dance with me. 

I was very glad at class end that the instructor offered me an observation. (Had I any sense I would have asked for more observations, and perhaps a Tango!!!)  

Her suggestion was that my lead not as grounded as it could be. She notice that I seemed to lead from the upper body (true) and that if I were more “into the floor” she felt that I would do much better. 

We had a short chat about grounding. She shared her observations of Argentina, people, culture and Tango to put her comments in perspective. I really look forward to applying them on Tuesday when we have our next practica. 

I believe that this grounding, the developing my relationship to the floor, of being more present, more mindfully connected to the floor as the foundation of movement, I will be able to transfer more energy to my partner and in so doing provide a more clear lead to take perhaps a back step. 

I was also happy to get another perspective on unwinding or “uncrossing” a partner from the crossed position. I asked a question about that process as a follower. When led to the cross I do not automatically transfer my weight from by right to my left foot. I wait for the lead to that transition and the follow the next invitation. 

There are some “spicy” steps that can happen in the crossed position as well as many options for the leader to invite the follower to make some dazzlingly easy patterns.  Yes, I leaned many a tip! I won’t bother to post them all. However as a leader I came to realize that following through - all the way through - after leading a step is very important. 

This concludes my Argentine Tango blog for today.

See you on the dance floor? 

Walking to the Cross • Workshopping Argentine Tango • Jacksonville, Florida

I love Argentine Tango! Had I a car, or a dance partner, I would attend absolutely event Milonga I could manage. I would surely dance at the UF Tango Club every Wednesday, the Class & Milonga in Ormond Beach every Thursday and both Milongas in Gainesville. Alas…. no car, no partner. 

My solution? To rent a dance floor so that those who dance Argentine in town may come out to practice. As well, I am hoping more and more people in Jacksonville, Florida will want to learn Salon Style Tango. There are so many cultural obstacles (it seems to me.) One is the “Men Don’t Dance” obstacle, and I just can’t do anything about that. 

Another obstacle? It seems most people in town have never really been exposed to the dance and so Performance Tango, which is lovely to watch and impossible for most to accomplish, is probably the image most have of this elegant walking dance. No matter! 

I am pleased to say the dance floor is open most every Tuesday from 8 pm -  9pm in Jacksonville, Florida. (detail at blogs end.)  As I am often the dancer with the most experience on the floor (not the teacher by any means) I share what I have learned from the best teachers I have studied with and I am happy to say that some of the people who drop in for a dance come back again and again.

This past Tuesday we were working on “The Walk” which all serious students of the dance work to perfect always. I have to say that it is much easier to pick up the fine points of the dance (gentlemen in particular) if you have the proper footwear. After a few workshops, it will make all the difference in your styling, balance and posture if your shoes are comfortable, flexible, and fit well. 

This last statement was made clear last class when we workshopped “Walking to the Cross” in the pattern “The Basic Eight.” I realize that some frown upon teaching patterns, and I respect their reason for doing so. However, properly used, the positions of the Basic Eight can serve as a language, a common ground for both teacher and student to begin working on steps like the “Ocho Cortado” or the “Molinete”.

At our workshop - luckily - everyone is willing to learn both the leader and the follower roles, regardless of their gender. Learning to dance both roles gives each dancer a greater understanding of how the dances happen, as well a greater empathy for their partner. 

The Gentleman leaders each had a follower to practice with as we practiced the principles of the Basic Eight again, and again, and again until some muscle memory began to happen. Teaching step at a time worked best. Those difficulties I had when I first started leading were easy to spot for the new leaders.  Important points we covered:

1. Invite your follower to take the step.
2. Wait for your follower to complete that step before leading another.
3. Allow your follower enough room to take her step (particularly at the cross.) 
4. Be aware of which foot your follower is weighted on. 
5. Maintain a comfortable embrace. 
6. Breathe!! (It is so easy to get lost in thinking about doing everything just right that breathing seems unnecessary!)

Because we were talking and working things out as a group, I feel that many basic principles of the dance were experienced (rather than heard) by those dancing. An awakening moment happened as well.  

I blog about it because I was very happy to share the moment, and bemused that I had not been able to convey a particular principle of the dance (although I thought I had repeated them often enough) to make the process of “crossing” clear. 

If you are now wondering what I am talking about, I will post links to videos that show these concepts at page end (presented by actually dance teachers).  Impatient? Please scroll down to enjoy the videos and come back.* 

The AhA happened when a male lead wanted to learn the followers part. I obliged. I did each step as I had shown him, and yet when I lead the cross, he did not follow my lead and cross one foot over the other at the ankles as should happen.

We tried again. Again I lead the cross, but nothing happened.  We adopted the practice hold so that I could see why he was not crossing his feet when lead to do so. 

We discovered that the reason was that the principle of walking backwards while stepping behind oneself had not yet registered. 

If you try to dance Argentine Tango and walk as you normally do, I am not sure it is possible. We practice the walk each week as well the vital movement of shifting weight in place. When showing how I learned to walk backwards as a follower (also by watching master followers dance) I learned that not only was I to step backwards, but that I was to step backward placing my stepping foot behind the weighted foot. Rather like walking a balance beam.

My new follower had not yet practiced the followers backward walk often enough to have a body memory of this. When he changed his style of walking so that he was stepping behind himself it was very easy for him to walk to the cross.

I am sure he will be a better lead as he know nows what the follower is feeling as well as how the follower is stepping to accomplish a lovely cross. Of course to teach it in its parts we have rather a choppy experience, but at the end of the workshop we danced several songs until the process became more facile. 

I suppose the short of it is that no matter how well I try to share with words…… body memory is the best teacher. 

Thanks to all who come out to dance Argentine Tango in Jacksonville, Florida. 

We have a very, very large floor, mirrors, barres and joyful people. Look for us at SDS Event Center, 5049 Normandy Blvd, Jacksonville, 32205.  All levels are welcome $10 floor fee pays the rent. 

Now as promised - links to useful videos. 

A favorite:

https://youtu.be/wvewX55VADs

Another look:

https://youtu.be/NLy-KHz-gJQ

It is important to know that the follower follows! These videos show the basic as a series of steps to an eight count. In Argentine Tango we dance to the music!.