What makes for a sublime and charming dance?
Musicality might be the first word to leave followers’ lips.
Playfulness, the capacity to improvise surprising movements or sequences, is another concept that more advanced followers yearn for.
Variation in quality of motion (dynamic) imparts interest and sensation to movements, even with a small vocabulary.
But perhaps the most important and difficult is the quality of the embrace as the lead flows through it. Connection is both functional and emotional. At its best, a leader’s embrace is soft, clear, and gives the follower confidence in her own movements. The same qualities which make the embrace and lead feel good to the follower, are measures of the refinement of the leader’s control over her movement and, thereby, the subtlety of his own expression.
The best leaders have all of these aspects, but you can be a very desirable leader with just one or two.
Choose the aspects that interest you the most and develop those.
To improve your musicality listen to tango music and dance by yourself. (Please don’t hold your arms in a stiff fake embrace. Hands in the pockets will do.)
To improve your playfulness play games.
To develop quality of motion, practice the moves you know at different speeds and sizes, work with parada, rebotes, alteracions, and change of foot.
To develop a beautiful embrace, concentrate on the arch of connection and be vigilant about using it in every step.
