I'm sure Jonathan can give you a great answer to your question, but in the meantime, I can say that "collecting" your feet is a technique that will be used repeatedly in different dances as you progress. It sounds like this is just the first time you've been exposed to it. Most teachers don't introduce it right away, as most students just starting have enough to do to just stand up straight and learn steps!

I'm not sure what step you are describing, but it sounds like it might be Promenade with left swivel, which is part of the beignning bronze syllabus. There's a description of the step on this site under "Learn the Dances" You have to select Tango under "Smooth," then select "Entire Tango syllabus" to find the step. It looks to me like it includes the collection you are describing.

One of our teachers showed us that technique. She said to use it on any slow step forward or backwards, were the moving foot is passsing the foot that the weight is on. Unforetunately she left before our next lesson and we did not get a complete explanation of this technique. So I may be way of base on this.

We use it and is seems to add stacatto action to the Tango.

What I understand, is the moving foot, makes two movements. 1 to get even with the weight bearing foot and 2. to move ahead or back. Weight is only placed on the moving foot after the second movement.

I am interested to see what the experts say. We like this technique, but never see anyone else using it.

I have also seen people stop the moving foot short of the other foot.

In Argentine tango, collecting the feet is absolutely essential between every step, or nearly so.

You are not doing AT, but are doing either Intl or American, but still it has a lot of application as you learn to slink and stalk.

Jerry

Confused Newby. Are you refering to a Brush Tap which is used extensively in the Tango. It is simply bringing your RF to your LF from a Promenade Position which is the Brush Tap, and use the same foot for the next step on a different beats. If I completed a group which would have me stepping off on beats 1 2 instead of 3 4.I might use a Brush Tap to stay in rhythm. To make it easier think of a Drag Hesitation in the Waltz where the same foot is used twice. The principle is the same. Good Luck

Thanks for all your responses. Actually, Ellen, I believe the step my instructor was introducing the Collect on was more like the promenade with the right turn on this site. I have looked at that clip over and over and I just don't see the female doing the same thing he asked me to do, so I am having a hard time visualizing what it should look like as well as feeling what it should feel like. I keep feeling like I'm about to topple over when I do what she asks, but I don't becasue she holds me up. Or maybe, that's what it's supposed to feel like?

Well, falling over is never a good idea! ;) But I don't know whether you feel that way because you actually are falling over or it just feels that way becuase, as a beginner, you are still in the process of finding your center. The problem sounds like something that can only be fixed in person, with an instructor watching what you are doing. Can you have another private lesson to work on it?

Confused Newby. Could it be that on the second to last step of a Closed Promenade That's the RF , He wants you to turn your toe inwards so that when you close there is no further turn on that foot. At one stage both of your toes will be turned in. Not like a Feather Finish in the Foxtrot where your placed RF will continue to turn. Every step has a name. It would help if you made notes and learned the correct names. If you were to file a letter away, in with a heap of others. Wouldn't you give it a file number.Thats what your brain needs. Instead of one of those which comes after that other thing. Good Luck.

Yes, I agree, quickstep. Unfortunately , she's not big on making sure I know names of steps she teaches me. In the step she told me to "collect" I did a promenade R,L. On the 3rd step she said to collect the RF next to the LF(instead of stepping out in front again on the RF as I first learned it). On this 3rd step the man is supposed to cut in front of my direction of travel. Now he is facing me instead of in promenade pos. On step 4, I step side LF, and on step 5 I close RF to LF.

Reads like a Promenade Close in the Paso Doble.

If it's American Style Tango beginning bronze, it's probably supposed to be Promenade w/ Right Turn to Back Tango Close. If that's the case, the "collecting" of the foot you're talking about wouldn't be in lieu of the forward step on the RF, it would be in addition to it.

...and if you think about it, it has to be that way, because if the following step was with the LF as you described it, then you would have actually changed weight on to your right foot in place, which is not just a mere "collection", but an actual bona fide step. So either you forgot about, or at least forgot to mention the forward step on your RF following the "collection".

Now regarding the collection itself, keep the following in mind: In the end, it's supposed to be nothing more than a position you pass through on your way from "A" to "B", without stopping. If your teacher is having you stop, it's probably a training tool to help you learn the timing (and by "timing" I'm not referring to musical timing, but rather the relative speeds of your body parts to one another, your body as a whole to your partner's, your travel to your rotation, etc). Often during the learning process it's necessary to slow down or even stop to train your body into the right positions and to do things in the right order, at the right speed, etc. But that doesn't mean the ultimate goal is to stop.

Or at least, let's hope not in this case. There's a reason that the left-turning version of promenade is known as "Promenade with Left Swivel", whereas the right-turning version is merely "Promenade with Right Turn". In the Promenade Swivel, the lady turns in front of the man using a pronounced (and often stacatto) swiveling action, around a fixed axis of rotation -- in other words, the progression is temporarily halted and the turn is done in place. The Promenade Right Turn, in contrast, is not done with the man literally swiveling in place in front of the lady. It is a continuous progressive rotation between steps 2 and 3, or as the English might say, a "Pivoting Action".

For this reason you ultimately will not stop to brush or "collect" your RF. It will simply pass by the LF on its way from one position to another, perhaps slowly but nonetheless continuously. And if you think about it, it should do this more or less automatically, because that brush position is already on the path from A to B. Just as when you walk straight forwad, unless you swing your foot outward in some unusual manner, the feet should always pass narrowly by one another.

Watch that video clip of the Promenade Right Turn again, and notice that Melissa's RF does indeed brush past the LF, but without a pronounced stopping action. Then watch the video for the Promenade Left Swivel, and you'll see the brief stop as she turns in place on her LF. This is by design, not by accident.

Regards,
Jonathan