4 things advanced followers do differently
Podcast and transcription.
In this episode, we explore the four characteristics that set advanced followers apart—and how understanding them can transform your tango experience with them.
Listen to the podcast here or in your favourite podcast app.
Hi, this is Dimitris Bronowski, the curious tanguero. My goal is to bring more people to tango and more tango to people. I hope you’ll find this episode useful and that you’ll share it with your friends.
Today we’ll discuss the 4 characteristics that set advanced followers apart—and how understanding them can transform your tango experience with them.
Too many times I have heard leaders complaining about the followers.
‘She moves too fast.’
‘She loses her balance.’
‘She doesn’t listen.’
And the list goes on.
All those things might happen when dancing with inexperienced followers (and let’s not forget the responsibility of the most leaders in creating that situation…)
But I asked myself a different question.
If I got the opportunity to dance with incredible followers, would I be ready to take advantage of this gift?
Would I be able to understand what great followers do differently and take advantage of it?
I went on a journey to understand what advanced followers do differently.
In one of the classes, I learned about the 9 characteristics of great followers.
A misconception:
One of the most common misconceptions in the world of tango is that the leader defines the length of the follower’s step.
Although this is close to the truth, technically it is wrong.
And this brings me to the first characteristic of great followers:
1) Show me your size
Advanced followers know what size of front step, side step, and back step is comfortable for them.
And they communicate it to advanced leaders in the beginning of the song.
What does that mean to you?
When you start to dance, take a side step.
Don’t put any extra effort, just a comfortable side step and pay attention to where she steps.
Then take a front step and a back step and observe.
This is her neutral, effortless step.
Your job as a leader is NOT to lead her a step of that size.
If you go to the side and communicate the info that you are going to the side, she will step using her comfortable size step.
Your job is to put additional effort ONLY when you want to make an adjustment to the comfortable size.
So if her side step is 60cm, your job would be to put effort only when you want to make it 65cm or 55cm.
It’s a ‘5cm effort’, not a ’65cm effort’.
If you understand this part, your dance will become mainly effortless.
2) Orbita
Advanced followers know their orbita and they present it to you.
Advanced leaders take note of this at the beginning of the first dance.
It is YOUR job to understand a follower’s orbita and incorporate it in your leading.
And if you are asking what the heck is an orbita…
Orbita is how much your axis needs to incline before stepping at any direction.
Every follower has an orbita.
Advanced followers know how much they will allow their axis to move till they take a step forward, backward or to the side.
You can find your own orbita if you want:
Imagine your axis, that line starting at your feet (or between your feet if you have your weight equally distributed left and right) and continues up, and passes through your head.
Now, while keeping your posture as is, start moving your weight forward.
In the beginning your fingers will start to activate to hold you in balance.
But there is a point past which you will have to start moving.
Same thing if you move your weight backwards or to the side.
When you do that, your axis is creating a cone.
When your axis is inside the cone you can stay in place.
When your axis is outside that cone you either fall or move.
This gives you an idea of your orbita.
Obviously, you don’t need to wait till you are at the edge of your balance to move.
You need to find how much you feel comfortable inclining before moving.
If you go through that process, you will get a better understanding of your followers’ orbita.
3) Delay
Inexperienced followers react fast.
You start going to the side, they are there at the same time as you or even before you.
They don’t want to be late.
Lot’s of them believe that this simplifies your life.
‘I don’t want to be heavy or slow,’ they sometimes say.
If you are like most leaders you’ll know by now that it takes a lot more effort to dance with someone that reacts instantly than to dance with someone that takes a bit of time to absorb the information before reacting.
Advanced followers do it differently:
First they take their time, to absorb as much information as possible.
Their embrace is more elastic, allowing their hands to start following your motion, while their bodies still prepare to move.
They delay their reaction so that when they do take a step, they can do it with confidence.
As a leader that gives you the opportunity to start leading a step way in advance, so that she has time to absorb it and avoid miscommunication.
Technically, the followers create this delay in their response in two ways:
a) Increasing their elasticity. As an example imagine starting a giro toward your left. To invite her to the front step, your back will start rotating counterclockwise, taking your left hand to the same direction.
Disclaimer: there exist different ways to lead a giro, many people disagree with that notion of pulling.
Your left hand creates a pull to her right hand. As her right hand starts following your left hand she allows for her elbow to move a bit forward (elastic embrace) which gives her time to pull her hips a bit backwards for stability.
Then she takes the step forward. This elasticity in the embrace allowed her to prepare her hips for a most stable movement forward.
b) Modifying their spirals. Spiral is the process of transferring movement from her chest to her hips to her legs. If you think of a pivot that starts from the chest (dissociation), moves to the hips and then goes to the legs you can see why it’s called a spiral.
If a follower tenses all her muscles so that her body moves as one block then chest, hips, and legs will move all together. The reaction time is 0. But, if she partially tenses the muscles that connect her upper body to the middle body and from the middle body to the lower body, then it takes more time for the movement to be transferred. So that’s another way to increase the delay.
4) Speed control
Advanced followers will often dictate the speed of your dance.
They’ll slow you down, they’ll speed you up.
There are two main ways they do that, and you need to be attentive to them.
Once you start listening, and they realize that you do…
You will be one of those leaders that can’t look at head height anymore due to the miradas of willing tangueras.
When is it easier for a follower to control your speed?
In two occasions:
When she pivots and when she takes a side step.
If you are aware that those two moments are the most convenient for her to control your speed, you can be prepared to react.
Let’s see each one:
During pivots, a follower can engage or relax her abs to make her pivot feel ‘heavier’ or simply harder to do.
This slows you down.
During a side step, the only thing she needs to do is to tighten her legs while she is in the middle of the movement, like if she was squeezing them together.
This will make her move slower to the side, slowing you down too.
It’s an ideal position for her to do it, since it is a step where she is very stable.
In the first email of the Curious Tanguero newsletter you’ll discover 5 more qualities of advanced followers. If you are not a subscriber of the newsletter yet, simply go to thecurioustanguero.com and join. You’ll receive an email with a link to the 5 additional qualities of advanced followers. If you are already a member, just email me and I’ll forward it to you.
For now keep this in mind:
First you need to understand those qualities.
It all starts with noticing.
Go to your next milonga and look for the first four elements we discussed:
- Comfortable step size
- Orbita
- Delay
- Speed control
Then include this information in your decision making process as we discussed above.
If you enjoyed what you learned in this episode, don’t keep it to yourself. The best thing you can do is to share it with your friends. That’s what social media and messaging apps are for. You’ll be helping them and me.
The second best thing you can do is to visit thecurioustanguero.com/argentinetango There you’ll find a list of free and paid resources to help you improve and enjoy your tango. I am updating that webpage often with new stuff so make sure to re-visit it every once in a while. thecurioustanguero.com/argentinetango