Hello! Does anybody know, where your weight has exactly to be during the Tango walks? If I stay balanced, the Tango feels quite "heavy" and I need a lot of strength. If I try to use only a bit of imbalance it starts "running". What's the real clue there. How do you manage being fast - when necessary but also being balanced in quick rotations with check positions at the end.
I always wonder that 2 minutes Tango are much more exhausting than a five minutes Quicktep.

An all too common mistake is to presume that there is a constant location (on your feet)where the weight should be on top of.
Even in Tango, this is not quite true.
Your weight will shift to accomodate the creation of seamless, jerkless movement.
(This is a technique that is currently being argued over ad-nauseam in this forum BTW).


Anyway, weight shift, particularly in Tango, should be studied as part of a process and not as a constant position.

Lastly, the Tango is more exhausting because you expend energy in starting AND stopping the movement.
Whereas, the other 4 simply require light use of existing momentum--making it comparatively effortless once the movement is started.




m

The Tango is a walking dance. The weight is most of the time over the back foot. It was once said in a workshop that to imagine the tail of a Dragon going straight down to the floor from a straight spine. The great late Len Scrivener said that even though the count is as normal S S Q Q on two Walks and a Link. He counted out loud. Stop. Stop. Quick. Stop. He would count it this way all through the Closed Promenade and the Reverse Turn exactly the same. I have always found this to be a good training exercise. Once you have set your height through your knees, stay there. A place where people do make a mistake is lifting on the Link. There is no imbalance. If you do you will look as if you are diving down into the floor. The Hold. The man's palm should be across the ladies spine, which will mean the fingers are well towards the other side. Also watch the feet .Start with the right toe level with the instep of the left foot. Every time the feet come together this is where they should be. The lady the natural opposite. There is a lot more like the knees veered into each other and using inside edges of the foot on some steps. The lady is more to the man's right side. A good coach is needed.

"An all too common mistake is to presume that there is a constant location (on your feet)where the weight should be on top of.
Even in Tango, this is not quite true.
Your weight will shift to accomodate the creation of seamless, jerkless movement."

However the idea of static weight is much closer to being true for tango than for the other dances. In tango, the weight is stationary or nearly stationary for a greater portion of the step. The foot gets going, with the body trailing it rather than leading it as it would in the other dances. And the point of imbalance is reached only very late in each step, so the period of imbalance is the briefest of any of the dances.

Don. You are right - a good coach is needed! Here is what I got from a very experienced coach to go out of PP: "First stay on your standing leg - then shift your weight to the leg/foot in front of you and then release your front foot from the floor" I tried this exactly that way and found this to be a nonsense, because if your weight / the pressure is already completely on your "landing foot" nothing will happen - when you try to release the foot, what is almost impossible with your weight on it, you will almost fall apart. This is what I was told by somebody who was on place 9 of the world ranking list! I found that many good dancers are not really good teachers (even if they have the license to teach).

An nother advice (from another teacher - former European Master 10 dances) - stay between your feet like a "wrestler". Maybe there is something correct on these advices but than they should have to be more precise. How can you stay between your feet like a wrestler when dancing? I never figured this out. I will stop here because I have too many examples like these two -all unusable.

But one last question: Do you keep your hip over the knee all the time? Or are you really sometimes "sitting between your feet" like a wrestler?

Ballroomlady. I love the Tango. It is possible to get a good picture of a couple after the Link from dancesport uk. I have one before me now. The lady is well back to the man's right. The shouders are slightly open . The feet aren't. They are comletely closed. The front foot by both is with the heel off the floor in a fairly high position with the knee bent. The ladies knee is behind the man's knee and touching.All the weight is on the rear foot.. The rear leg can't be seen because of the dress. As I said even though the shoulders are in Promenade, at this point the feet are not. They will both step one floorboard wide to go into the Promenade step where the ladies right and left leg will follow the man on both steps. Not in front. The chin is up and the look is arrogant. If you hung a plumb bob on the man's right side to the rear it will be dead plumb on that right hip. There must be no tendancey to lean in the direction of your next step at all, which is a common fault..From the other end of the ballroom it would look as if you are heading into the floor.

"As I said even though the shoulders are in Promenade, at this point the feet are not. "

Very curious what you mean by that.

Taken literally, you would seem to be saying that the shoulders are parallel, and the feet are still pointing directly opposite the partners.

Whears textbook promeande position would have the shoudlers parallel and the feet point 45 degree in the direction of movement, which is to say interesting the partner's at 90 degree.

Generally the only time you won't see that in a promenade-prep position is if the lady has forgotten her standing foot at a previous alignment such that her feet are now turned out rather than parallel. A common but painful mistake - can't take much of an action unless you foot is at least 45 degrees into the movement, giving your standing knee a change to develop towards the moving one.

Anonymous. As I said before. Find a picture of a link. There are enough of them. The lady is the one that opens.
The man's left and the ladies right. toe on the floor only Knees bent. The normal starting position on the setup. If the feet were brought together they would be in same position. The knee is forward of the body which it will be if the heel is off the floor and the knee is bent, The ladies knee is touching the side of the man's leg and is behind. So you would say the feet are in a closed position.With most who don't know usually have opened both the shoulders and the feet way apart. They only need to open one floor board each as they step to allow the promenading foot to be unrestricted as it goes through. Lady doesn't move untill she feels the movement of the man's front leg. Last.On the Link the same rule applies that the knees veer in towards each other. On the Link the knees are not very far appart. Remember we are moving sideways. Again advice is needed from a good coach. It is not uncommon in a class for a couple to hold that position untill the teacher has looked at everyone. My longest has been eight minutes. I had done this before, so I timed it.

Actually the question was, how and when has the weight to be shifted from one foot to the other not how to stand in promenade position. I just chose the PP as an example.

Don:

"The ladies knee is touching the side of the man's leg and is behind. So you would say the feet are in a closed position."

The minute you said 'behind' it sounded like you were describing a promenade foot position not a closed one. But the proof would be in the orientation of the feet - antiparallel to partners = closed. Anywhere from perpedinduclar to parallel to partner's = various interpretations of promenade.

Promenade is not so much about opening up, as it is about achieving a workable orientation that is a compromise between the sideways progression of the couple, and the need of the feet and legs to work at least partially in the direction of travel.

Ballroomlady:

"Actually the question was, how and when has the weight to be shifted from one foot to the other not how to stand in promenade position. I just chose the PP as an example."

When it's time you won't have a choice - the movement will force you to do it. But of course you have to set up the right movement.