[jivecat]

Originally Posted by mshedgehog

I was very well taught at the start though so I learned how to follow straight away, it sounds from your account earlier on this thread as though you had a ton of your time wasted.

It was Ceroc time wasted as Ceroc in those days didn't bother to mention the importance of following, or maybe I was just slow on the uptake. Luckily, when I got to tango I'd pretty much grasped how to follow, or I wouldn't have made it past the first lesson, no doubt.

Anything that requires too much sacrifice of balance or concentration. Depends who I'm dancing with, of course. They do get easier with practice but I don't force anything when I'm meant to be dancing socially. Partly because I hate it so much when leaders force things on me that they haven't mastered, so I feel it's only fair. Sometimes I should be a bit more adventurous though.

I hate leaders forcing things on me in MJ, especially when they assume they are leading correctly and aren't (although I'll happily respond if they request to practise on me) but I'm still reasonably tolerant of it in tango - this maybe because there's only a small choice of partners, so it's in my interests to put up with it if I ever want to dance. Also, it is a small group and everyone knows each other's ways quite well.

I am starting to play a rather naughty little game with myself, though. You know when you're being led through something and there's a bit of a wobble, and for a moment it's not apparent whether it's you or him? I like to really ground my balance at that point so I know for sure it's him rather than me - it tends to catch them out as it is not what they are expecting. There is a slight expectation that you will gallantly hold each other up, or at least gloss over each other's balance errors, which I have been omitting to do, just for the sheer fun of it. Trouble is, the more astute of my regular partners are already getting wise to me and are plotting their revenge.

I had the same problem with boleos just recently, maybe for the same reason. If I tried to relax that leg, which is what they tell you to do, it just went all over the place or was resting on the ground so it couldn't be moved at all. Luckily I got a tutorial with an experienced teacher who was helping out in the class and although I didn't manage to make it work in that lesson, I did puzzle out why it was that it didn't work.

I was dropping the hip, because that was the only way I could see to 'relax' the leg. Eventually I realised that the hip and the leg are not the same thing - it's possible to lift the free hip - so that your pelvis feels sort of balanced - without holding the thigh joint in a particular position. You only 'lift' the hip in the same way it lifts by itself if you stand with both feet flat on the floor, heels together, then lift one heel off the floor. Just like that. Then you figure out how to do that and relax the thigh joint. It's possible but it's not 'natural' unless you dance all the time, and it has to be habitual before the boleos will actually work.

I have been conscientiously practicing this on trains, and it's getting a bit better, but the chances are about 90% that my explanation will be totally useless to you.

What about buses, lifts and time/dimension teleportation pods? Perhaps you practise your pivots and walking on these?

I have been confused about the relaxed free leg as I can't figure out how it can be done, unless it is an inch or so shorter than the other leg. Which it isn't. Your comments are a good pointer, however. Also, I have to reconcile the relaxation of the free leg with the discipline of good balance and conscious placement of the foot and toes as they move through each step, which generally requires that the rest of me be not relaxed.

I noticed that in fishnets I can get a proper gouge with skin coming up, without tearing the tights. It's a bugger in one pair of shoes that tie with a ribbon bow on the instep. Tie a double bow - do this and trip yourself up. Tie a single bow - do this and it comes undone. Tie double knot, single bow - it takes forever to get your shoes off.

I haven't graduated onto fishnets yet, though I am toying with the idea. I may ease myself into them by trying natural coloured ones first, so I can pretend I'm not wearing them.