Dyane, IMO there is no need to find a regular partner, rather the contrary. I would not use the expression "really work hard at developing very good following skills" either, because I don't consider dancing as a follower a hard work, I'd rather say it's more soft skills;) I think the best teachers for developing a good connection are strangers. The good connection does not depend on the regularity. The sense of musicality can be developed easily without a regular partner, by listening to the music, by walking to it, by dancing with all kinds of leaders with different ideas of musicality. You just take the best essence for yourself. If you just like to lead to dance more or to show yourself, IMO this is not enough to be a good woman leader.
As a follower I have danced with many women leaders and find but a few of them were good leaders. IMHO some qualities are essential (I won't talk about the basics like musicality here, just the gender stuff): You should be able to naturally connect to another woman's chest without being afraid or embarrassed, quite the contrary, you should be able to enjoy the connection and be sure of yourself and what you're doing. You should like to take the initiative and decisions, have a good orientation in space. Some call these masculine qualities. There are women of androgyne type that can walk like a man and it looks great. But if you're not the type, don't imitate any male, because you won't be authentic. There are women that are good leaders and they will still not walk like a male. There can be a fine inspiring musical sensitiveness in women leaders that is not easily to be found in male leaders, a lack of rudeness, a wonderful cat-like movement... a male cat-like movement, of course ;). Maybe I should add that I'm not a leader. I haven't felt the vocation so far ;) Anna _________________________________________________________________________ In 5 Schritten zur eigenen Homepage. Jetzt Domain sichern und gestalten! Nur 3,99 EUR/Monat! http://www.maildomain.web.de/?mc=021114 _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
