Monday 22 April 2013

What's so hot about Ruby?

As I said in 'Praise of other women', it can often be a bit of a mystery to the women in tango what we might aim to achieve, beyond just being able to follow the kind of thing it's possible to do in the open-level class before a milonga. Why do people want to dance with one woman rather than another? We often just don't know; and we make stuff up, often false and unhelpful.

I think that once you have some information about what people appreciate in good dancers, you can pretty much work out for yourself how to achieve it. When trial and error doesn't work, it's easy enough to find someone to ask. But if you don't have any idea what you're looking for, you're stuck, and lessons are often wasted.

Here, then, are some sticky notes of miscellaneous praise for various tango women, all of which came from people whose leading I respect. Some of them are almost the same as each other - but describing different women. I feel that's worth knowing. I've paraphrased some slightly - they were all in conversation over several years and not written down.

When stuck, you could pick one that you liked the sound of, and find out how to be it. Maybe we could have some more, different ones in the comments? Because I could only get these from people I know.

So:
 
A hugging-and-then-flapping-hands gesture to signify: "her embrace feels like angel wings and my heart is happy".

 "It's like dancing with a little amplifier."

"She feels incredibly steady, like it would be impossible to push her over, but she's really easy to move."

"She was so on the beat, I realised I could think of it like the music was coming from her."

"She embraces you, and you don't even want to move."

"It's crazy how she manages everything!"

"I know I can trust her on a difficult floor, if I lead her to step straight into me, she'll always do it".

"She has an extremely comfortable embrace."

"Like a rollerball. Or a hovercraft."

"So smooooth."

"At the end, tic, tac, perfect!"

"Tres bonne connection."

"So easy".

"She gives off this snuggly vibe like she really wants to be exactly here."

"She has hungry feet".

"It's nice to dance slow music with someone who can do it justice."

"She's nice, I enjoyed it, she has quick feet."

"When we walk, she seems to have endless legs."

"Totally musical, and absolutely no ornaments whatsoever."

"She has one of the most wonderful embraces, I'm just, like, I'm happy now, we don't need to go anywhere".

"I realised I could weight-change her one toe at a time."

"You should have danced with her today, she's like a V8, brrrroommm!"

"Incredibly soft".

"Centred and playful, impeccable balance and axis."

"Tecnica, and feeling".

[post-publication additions below]

"Al compás!"

"Every time I dance with you, always new, nice embrace, nice musicality, always surprises ... [to friend] She's explosive!"

7 comments:

Jón said...

Here are my three most remarkable impressions:

It made "schlurfff" and I got sucked into this warm and soft pillow of an embrace........ how could I move and not break it ?

She was very light and changes between closed and not so closed embrace were smoooth and without hesitation. There were a few misunderstandings, but the confidence of her moves made me sense and react subconciously like a good follower. It didn't feel like it was me....... This connection had spiritual quality.

This last one is negative, but that's maybe just my taste. That follower is quite popular. She has "hungry feet" and energetic movements, but to me it felt like: "dancing with a pneumatic drill"

Jón

msHedgehog said...

Thank you. I doubt that what you mean by 'hungry feet' is the same as what the person speaking to me meant; but it's a very vague description, so that's not at all surprising.

Will the next comments please skip the negatives, as that's not what this post is for, and they will just confuse the reader.

msHedgehog said...

@Commenter requesting non-publication - no problem, don't worry.

Anonymous said...

Once I heard " I could walk with you forever". I was grateful to hear that. Because for a long long time I wanted to learn to walk, just walk right. And I worked so hard on that. I guess it worked :) The guys do notice:)

Tangolilly said...

I heard that dancing with a particular woman (unfortunately, not me) was like being bathed in warm oil. How delicious is that? I've been trying to work out how to do it ever since...

msHedgehog said...

@Tangolilly - could you, in theory, ask her? It would be interesting.

janjotting said...

the thing i am most happy to have been able to say about dancing with someone was that 'it was like dancing with the sea'.