My Dancing.
I'm not sure how much to talk about my dancing anymore - when it's good I don't notice because I'm listening to the music and not worrying about it, and when it's bad it's just a laundry list of things to practice in a not-funny way. Plus, I'll never set the Thames on fire, let's face it. Do I love tango? Oh, yes. Does it drive me nuts? Oh, yes. Am I ever going to be awesome? Oh, no. Does it stop me rattling on?
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
I notice that I'm much less nervous about my leading than about my following, because following is asking yourself, "Can I?" and leading is saying, "I can." As a follower, if you accept a dance with someone you pretty much have to be prepared to follow whatever they lead- a huge unknown quantity. As a leader, you know already what you can do, and chances are you know what your follower can do, and it's much, much less stressful.
When I manage to get a really sharp follower it brings home the fact that my tango vocabulary is not huge - I'm a big fan of the walk, basically. At the same time, the volcada/colgada/gancho thing isn't my style as a follower and kind of as a human being, especially volcadas - give me my axis back, dude! I worked hard for that! I'm in stilettos! Give a girl a break!
Ahem! ANYWAY. I shouldn't be surprised that I don't like leading those, is my point.
history is littered with the evidence of men who loved volcadas too muchAlso, tangent: what man in his right mind leads a gancho on a woman in stilettos? Just...is that wise? I'm asking. (Not talking about professionals here, they are very spicy and sexy etc., but for your average social leader and your average social follower, it's kind of flirting with disaster, I think.)
That being said, my following is actually much nicer than it was before I started leading, which is half the passage of time in general and half because I'm more relaxed about following. Also, another half is because I'm much pickier about my dances now, having an attitude of, "If you can lead this better than I could, I'm happy to dance with you. If not, please excuse me." So, that's three halves. Good thing I'm not an accountant. I'd be rich!...and in prison.
To sum up: following is fun. Leading is fun. My feet hurt. Those Italian engineers really never lived that one down, did they?
2 comments:
Ha!!! Using the leaning tower as a symbol for the volcada.... brilliant! And I love reading about your dancing, you have such a sharp wit it makes me jealous! Volcadas are difficult, I am learning about how to protect my back right now, which is GOOD. Because lots of leaders don't know how to lead a volcada, which is BAD. Well, it is only bad because they do it anyway. There are few leaders whom I dance with when I feel the volcada coming I am able to stay relaxed. I know that they will keep me safe, so I don't fear for myself.
Keep writing, I adore you! ;-)
In defense of the gancho: if it's done right, the stillettos don't matter. It all depends on the leader's leg-placement and the follower's axis. If the follower is generally balanced and everything, and only does the gancho when the lead is clear and lets the thigh hit before the lower leg swings up, then heels will not be a problem. The is no way in hell she'll hrt the leader.(Especially the higher up her thigh makes contact with the leader's thigh. This might stil be dangerous to do on a growed dance floor if the leader isn't paying attention to the people around him, but in general it would be fine.) If, however, the leader doesn't give her enough room (i.e. his heel is too low to the ground, leg not turned out enough, he's too far away from her and tries pulling her off axis) then he's just inviting stilletto flesh wounds.
Post a Comment