I spent yesterday working as a tour guide and talked about tango with some non-dancer tourists. The thing that must be most difficult is that in tango you surrender all control to the man, right? Its sort of like a game of dominance and submission, maybe? one of them asked. Its one of my least favourite words in tango: entrega. Since its an abstract concept, there is, of course, no one-to-one correlation with an English word (in translation, we often deal with smeary clouds of meaning, not single points), but its more metaphorical meaning clusters around the concepts of surrender, deliverance, hand-over and transfer and the first is probably closest to what most people mean by it in a tango context. When you dance as a follower, you do relinquish control over one thing: the directions of your movements. Its a signal from the leaders body which sends you, in response, moving with him forwards, backwards, pivoting, etc. I dont decide whether Ill take the side step to the left or to the right or whether this will be a forward or a back ocho. Perhaps as a result, I very quickly became quite indifferent to steps, to directions as such. In fact, I dont care whether the ocho is a forward or back one and I dont feel in any way restricted in my self-expression by not choosing the step vocabulary. Im interested entirely in *how* we dance that ocho, in the precise timing, cadence, feel and perhaps adornos within it, all of which I feel we create together. Following is always an interpretation. It often feels more like being instructed to draw a cat than having someone actually holding your pencil and guiding the lines. The idea that followers hand over responsibility for the dance seems to imply that the important thing in the dance is choice of steps, choice of directions to move in -- and actually I believe its one of the dances least important elements. I think this is one reason why most followers are unimpressed by fancy moves in themselves and are often obsessed with quality of movement. The image of voluntary surrender also, I fear, promotes an idea of helplessness, of passivity. Together with the often-heard idea that followers need to be taught to not anticipate, the way people put this seems to suggest that the followers role is primarily about NOT doing things. About waiting, stillness, lack of action. Whereas, for me, in tango each partner is using force, power, strength and tone wherever they are necessary, economical and efficient, in their *own* bodies (not applied to the other person) to move themselves through space. Followers move with the leader; they arent simply carried along. Its more like being a member of a rowing team than a leaf drifting down the stream. Except that I dont care whether you steer our boat this way or that way -- the views are beautiful in all directions, we have no destination in mind. Its not about getting to a specific place, its about the sensation of pulling our oars through the water and feeling the smooth movement of the boat. Occasionally, when leading, I do come across a follower who feels helpless, who feels as though she is telling me help me, Im powerless, make me dance. Theres a certain heaviness and resistance to her movement or a certain floppiness in the upper body, a feeling of droopiness, of collapse. And, as a leader, I hate that feeling. What I would like to feel is a sense of capability, a sense that whatever I do she will be ready, competent, responsive. That I can dance with complete freedom because I dont have to worry about her (though, of course, I have to be aware of her, attentive and responsive to her movements). I want a partner to go out on the beat with, not a suspect led away in handcuffs. Im looking for a partner who, as the Americans say, can handle herself. My aim as a follower is to feel more like that too. Ready for action. And that, it seems to me, is the opposite of surrender.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 15:56:35 +0000
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