For my dance friends not on the TRG group. Writing credit Deborah Bowman. it seems to me that people who arent able to understand follower decorations as anything other than things tacked on to the dance, added after the structure, and having a lesser importance, are doing this because they are conceptualising things from a particular standpoint: the point of view of a leader who has already decided what to lead (or a follower unable to communicate with a leader - although I dont know of any followers who ever use the cake/icing analogy). Such a leader can imagine *his* step, as he planned it, occurring either modified or unmodified by a followers actions (and such a follower would think of her contribution as absolutely separate from what has been led). Because he planned the step earlier, and his perspective is firmly rooted in *his* perceptual world, the followers decoration is genuinely experienced as an external intrusion which is definitely added on (or, because she doesnt know how to tell him she has something to say, she would experience her own decoration as something that has to be stuck on unobtrusively). This process of thinking of what step to do and then doing it is obviously something that happens when leaders are first learning - but it is equally obviously something that they should be encouraged to grow out of as soon as possible. After all, we all agree that the best tango dancers are ones who are in the moment - this means reacting to the music, the dancers around them, and their partners. These dancers dont experience active following as something added on, because they are shaping every step *with* the follower, as a joint enterprise - they are sensitive enough to incorporate what she is suggesting as they go along, with no I thought I was doing this but then she put that on top of it. (And a follower who is able to communicate will be communicating with the leader all the time, as things happen.) Because of this, these dancers have a perspective which reaches out towards the perceptual world of the couple, and again, while a beginner cant do this at the beginning, s/he needs to know that this is one of the goals in tango, to become an animal with four feet and one heart. Beginner leaders who get this are, while they might struggle technically, excellent listeners and sensitive partners. But leaders who continue to push the cake/icing analogy might never get there, because its out of their reach not technically but conceptually.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 20:08:38 +0000
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