we shall see whose kung fu is superior!
ok, maybe that makes the argentine tango class mzrowan talked us into going to last night sound a bit more... bellicose than it actually was. :) actually the teacher was charming and friendly. she did sound a lot more like she was trying to say "direct your partner with your chi" than any other dance teacher i've had (without actually using the word "chi"); but she was happy to break down how that worked for us. :)
but i had this weird changing-styles experience that reminded me of martial-arts movie training montages: we spent the evening learning this subtle leading style in great detail, but whenever i danced with moominmolly (we switched partners a lot) it was extremely tempting to stop thinking about the lead and just make things work, because we've danced ballroom tango (and other ballroom dances) together enough that i knew i could do that. but i think normally i tend to lead a lot more with my arms than she was trying to teach us to do (we started with no dance frame at all, just with the follower putting her hands on the leader's chest-- which i found distractingly sexy, but it seemed like a good exercise for leading from one's center); so i had to fight my tendency to respond to things i was having trouble with by dropping back into my old style, you know?
other thing i liked about the class: both the teacher and her advanced students seemed completely comfortable demonstrating things using whichever role was most appropriate for the demo. if she wanted to make a point about leading, she'd lead and her (male-- she swore she had female students, but none were there) student would follow. in practicing, if one of the advanced students wanted to correct my form he'd ask me to lead him. etc. in my limited experience this is a bit unusual for ballroom dance classes; though it might be just a limitation of my experience.
other tiny thing i liked: she and one of her students started the class with a demo, and one of the things i noticed was that every now and then she'd put her hand on the back of his hair, like a little caress. it just seemed like a sweet, intimate gesture; but also interesting because, you know, her hand wasn't constrained by the dance frame-- and when i asked about it she said both of those things. that it was possible because the lead was so much with the body and not the arms, and that it was nice for the follower to give the leader positive feedback if he was doing a good job. ;)
but i had this weird changing-styles experience that reminded me of martial-arts movie training montages: we spent the evening learning this subtle leading style in great detail, but whenever i danced with moominmolly (we switched partners a lot) it was extremely tempting to stop thinking about the lead and just make things work, because we've danced ballroom tango (and other ballroom dances) together enough that i knew i could do that. but i think normally i tend to lead a lot more with my arms than she was trying to teach us to do (we started with no dance frame at all, just with the follower putting her hands on the leader's chest-- which i found distractingly sexy, but it seemed like a good exercise for leading from one's center); so i had to fight my tendency to respond to things i was having trouble with by dropping back into my old style, you know?
other thing i liked about the class: both the teacher and her advanced students seemed completely comfortable demonstrating things using whichever role was most appropriate for the demo. if she wanted to make a point about leading, she'd lead and her (male-- she swore she had female students, but none were there) student would follow. in practicing, if one of the advanced students wanted to correct my form he'd ask me to lead him. etc. in my limited experience this is a bit unusual for ballroom dance classes; though it might be just a limitation of my experience.
other tiny thing i liked: she and one of her students started the class with a demo, and one of the things i noticed was that every now and then she'd put her hand on the back of his hair, like a little caress. it just seemed like a sweet, intimate gesture; but also interesting because, you know, her hand wasn't constrained by the dance frame-- and when i asked about it she said both of those things. that it was possible because the lead was so much with the body and not the arms, and that it was nice for the follower to give the leader positive feedback if he was doing a good job. ;)