My opinion is different. First, smoothness in the walk is almost completely about the usage of the hip, knee and ankle joints rather than toe vs heel leads. To prove this, it is obvious that you can walk "camel" or smooth with a toe lead; you can walk smooth or choppy with a heel lead.
Second, I don't think many tango dancers actually use a toe lead. I'm not talking about stage dancers trained to present a specific appearance and line. I know that many tango teachers SAY "lead with the toe", but if you watch them they aren't actually doing that. (They are repeating what they think they are supposed to say.) Most tango dancers land with the foot flat, but their weight hits the heel first, then passes across the foot. Usage of the whole foot gives the leader more control over balance and smoothness, as well as the ability to provide extremely subtle messages to the follower, such as asking her to slow down the collection the legs, micro decorations, and weight changes. This is particularly true of social dancers. As we can see from their resumes, most tango teachers from Argentina, notably the ones with the credentials to travel, are performance dancers, not social dancers. Some of them might social dance, but that isn't their primary interest or training. On May 5, 2011, at 9:14 AM, hbboog...@aol.com wrote: > Jack > Tango can be walked two ways. Like a cat or a camel. The cat would be > smooth leading out with the toe. > The camel would be abrupt leading with the heel. It doesn't matter > what we > call it John Wayne Cat Camel or whatever every leader steps forward > on his > toe or his heel. Watch any video and pay attention to the man’s > feet and > you will see the smoother dancers all take the toe lead the others > all lead > with the heel. The way it was explained to me is when you move > forward with > the toe you can control the length of the step to the music and > dance more > smoothly. If you step forward on your heel the step is shorter so > it’s > harder to dance to slower music and be smooth. > Most of the close embrace BsAs style dancing is heel leads good salon > dancers use the toe lead. When I watch tango danced the main thing I > look at is > the man’s foot placement. If he’s dancing on his heels his movements > are > quick and his feet don't seem to be in total control. Watch a man > leading > with his toes and you'll see a totally different dancer with every > foot > movement exact and in control. I'm not judging here just pointing > out how I see > tango danced. > David > Tom Stermitz c: 303-725-5963 http://www.tango.org Denver, CO 80207 _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l