Sergey Kazachenko wrote: > Charles Roques wrote: >> You start there and build from it > > In, for example, cha cha, you start from the basic step and keep adding to it. > But the basic step itself is a legal figure that can be danced on the floor. > The tango 8CB step the way it is usually taught - starting from the > back step - should not be danced at all. > Why not? You can dance the "back" step without being against the line of dance (or simply in place if you don't have even a micrometer of room behind you or are not sure), just like you can dance "forward" steps against the ronda (yes, I do see people who chant "no back step" as a mantra but still manage to make a mess of things, just because they think that mantra chanting protects them against all evil spirits and ills).
There's too much emphasis on the "step sequence" in all this criticism and too little on navigation (i.e. awareness of context) -- and a lot of unwarranted fundamentalism as a result. The "dreaded" "back" step is a part of the illustrative pattern simply because the pattern serves to show some possibilities - stepping inside, stepping outside, stepping sideways, a cruzada, and yes, to show that the leader doesn't *always* *have* to march incessantly onwards to *his* front. If you're teaching it so that it causes navigational issues, it means you're not providing proper context or making people aware of navigational issues, but to be frank, if that's the case, your pupils will be able to make a mess of things with *any* pattern; after all, most dance floors have corners, and they're bound to get lost as soon as they encounter one, and once they start doing any gyrating moves, you can be sure that no awareness of context leads to "front" steps against the line of dance anyway. The Golden Rule: don't step where you don't know you have room, or adjust the step length to make sure you do have the room. Whether the "step" is sideways, to your back, to your front or turning doesn't change that. _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l