The Myth of Force
Argentine Tango is a Social Dance, and as such there are certain conventions that we as dancers have to adhere to, some are fluid and flexible, and others are loose and available for interpretation according to personal taste, style, or point of view. From a certain point of view, most of these ‘conventions’ are all valid, most. Again, depending how you look at it. Some work, some don’t, and some are less than desirable. And some are myths or misconceptions.
A myth that I run into from time to time in my private lessons is that as a leader and or a follower you require force and body tension, and/or “pressure’ to accomplish your goals. Another way to think of that is one must push, be pushed, pull and be pulled, and or generally be jerked around in order to ‘dance’. I believe that this is not true.
There are aspects of the dance that can seemingly look like force or ‘pressure’ is being employed, and I can assure you that’s not the case. 9 times out of 10, what you see on a social dance floor by well practiced, and near professional and professional dancers, or will see is performed, is done through ease, and a lack of bodily tension…no body, muscled force has been applied. However, that’s not always the case. There’s a lot of versions on this idea, so it may be the case. However, none of the dancers I regularly dance with, or my teaching peers teach these ideas (that I know of).
One myth that I run into a lot, and there’s good reason for why I run into it, as a very popular leader/teacher talks about this concept a lot, is ‘Engagement’. Some folks have taken this idea to the extreme. Its the more common one that I run into. In short, the idea of ‘Engagement’ is that the muscles of the shoulders are always pulling away from the on-coming shoulder. Its actually more than just the shoulder, as there’s more going on here than you imagine. This idea, in my opinion, leads to the dancer thinking that the entire arm, forearm, and hand should be pulling, and or creating a state of tension to hold the ‘frame’ of what you’re trying to do with your arm. And that one should in fact maintain this throughout the entire dance. This is not true. Engagement is a tool through which you can achieve a greater level of dynamic motion, to add ‘spice’ that did not exist before hand, but it is NOT the end all through which you can create the dance, or dance through.
And still another…
There is a the concept of “Two Pounds of Pressure” as a means of creating physical connection in order to move and be receive the instruction to move. Which is to say that in order for ‘connection’ to occur you must be weighted, grounded, and pressing into the embrace and outwards at the same time, but not so much that you compromise the form, shape, or motion being transmitted. Put another way, most followers have heard this refrain from their leaders at one time or another, “I need more pressure from you”. I believe that this line of reasoning is a fallacy, that has propagated a whole cadre of less than desirable dancers.
In my opinion, the only thing that “Two Pounds of Pressure” and/or ‘Engagement’ does is sends your chiropractor’s kids to any Ivy League College of their choice!
There is another way to dance.
Its called “INTENTION“.
What is Intention ? I want you to think of a Balloon, full of helium. Now I want you to imagine that Balloon floating at about head level just in front of you. There is a string tied to the ballon but the string isn’t tied to anything at all. Now pay close attention to this part: What happens if you softly exhale towards the Balloon ? Reaction: It floats away from you. If you think of leading as though it were that soft exhale, and following as though it were the Balloon floating away in reaction to the exhale of breath. That’s the beginning idea of Intention. You can lead and follow through Intention alone. Force is not required. As a matter of fact, through Intention its possible go much deeper into the minutia of the dance that isn’t possible through ‘Engagement’ or “Two Pounds of Pressure”.
One way to think of this concept of Intention is to imagine a stereo playing music turned up at full volume. Imagine that this is pretty loud to the point of being deafening. Now place in the same room a woman whispering a Shakespearean sonnet. Question: Can you hear the woman whispering ? More than likely you can’t. You can see her lips moving, but that’s about it. Now imagine this: Turn down the volume of the music to the point where you can hear BOTH the music AND the sonnet at the same time, and here’s the kicker: clearly and distinctly! So what’s what in this example ? The MUSIC is muscled force, or tension. The Sonnet is the dance that we are creating together.
That, my friends, is Intention. This is what I teach.
So what you can do with Intention ? Far more than you can imagine. It is by its very nature a completely different way to dance, and a completely different way to experience the dance. I’ll tell you this much, once you experience a trained Intention-based dancer, you won’t want to go back to your old way of dancing, ever again. Really.
Note: Once you do experience it, you’ll think it was the finest thing since sliced bread, just how easy it was to lead said follower, or how easy it was to follow said leader. Aside: There’s something else that goes hand-in-hand with this kind of dancer, leading and following from the ‘core’. Its a whole other way to move! You’ve heard the expression, ‘Like buttah…’, and that’s exactly what dancing with this kind of experience is like.
It is through this idea of Intention that the very real prospect of ‘tangobliss’ has fertile ground to exist. To be clear Intention is NOT tangobliss, but is an essential component in the groundwork so that tangobliss can occur.
To be fair, you can employ all 3 of these ideas in the course of a single dance (Intention, Engagement, and Two Pounds of Pressure) for a desired effect. However, it is my belief that the staple of the dance should be Intention.