Are those legs being social or not on the dance floor?
I’m talking about those frog shaped legs at the milonga. After a long slash along the entire length of my calf from a heel at a milonga I have been compelled to write about this. And leave you a short video.
After the slash, I sat and observed this particular woman as I wondered how she could have managed such a feat. She was clearly having a great time dancing with the same guy, giggling and enjoying their unskilled tanda. AND I am not here to criticize her enjoyment of being completely manipulated by her leader. But no wonder she was off balance at one point committing some version of a front boleo with a wide gap between her legs that resembled a #4 stretch with the heel in question facing straight out towards other unassuming victims.
LADIES, those legs are meant to come together for a reason. EVERYTHING in tango comes from your understanding of walking, which translates to your understanding of the relationship between your 2 legs, which will translate to your pivots and to your boleos and all decorations.
Your weighted leg, your standing leg is YOUR responsibility and through your connection to your partner you are given information on what the other, the moving leg, is to be doing.
In general throughout my teaching in the US and Europe, I have found a general misunderstanding about this 2 legged relationship. I find those who are extremely fixated on KLT Keeping the Legs Together and those whose LEA Legs are Extra Appendages that they have seemingly no control over! With the KLT group this fixation renders them remarkably tight to the point they can hardly move their legs. I am not denying that the adductors (a group of muscles of the thigh that bring legs together) are at play here but what IS missing is the understanding that your legs still have to move, and they move because, just like in walking, the thigh bone, the amazing femur, is a ball and socket joint. Those thigh bones are meant to roll in their places, in their sockets, in your pelvis. If you are so tight in your musculature here, you can’t move easily – which hinders many things, including balance. And the same is true with the LEA group. Meaning, they lose their balance too because the appendages are so far away from their home.
There is a way to manage both of these groups to have beautiful functioning dance legs without risk of injuring those around you or yourself!
So I leave you with a little video!