Feeling the Lead
by Elena Alexandra

Thoughts after "Magic of Tango" class with Howard Barsky

When Howard returned for a class with us on September 5th, he stressed the importance of “feeling the lead” – not only for the followers, but for the leaders as well.

Howard led us through an exercise where we all took part in being leaders and followers.  Half of our group closed our eyes and held out our hands waiting to be approached and met by the hand of our leading partners.  Those of us in this follower role allowed ourselves to be guided by our leaders around the room – backwards and forwards, side to side, in and out of cross steps (cruzadas), rocking back and forth, and moving in and out of figure eights which we drew with our feet on the dance floor (“ochos”).

Ultimately, we let ourselves go and trusted ourselves to be guided by our leading partner, we opened up to listen to the signals, the subtleties, and the hints of a language based entirely on the connection between people. Those of us in the leader role, relied on the subtle feedback from those we were guiding to help direct and initiate our own movement. Eventually it becomes apparent that the leader followed as well as led, and the follower led as well as followed… leading and following became one.  In order to do one, we needed to do the other.

To learn this dance is to learn to connect…
… to listen
… to hear
… to open up
… to receive from another
… to respond…  reflecting back our connection
To learn the Argentine Tango is to experience a most subtle, almost invisible, non-verbal language, that is a most powerful thread of connection between us all. Tango is the ultimate art of conversation… and the bridge to an amazing feeling that can only come from speaking the same language. And this is where we begin to express the true beauty of the dance.

In this video Howard talks about "Feeling the Lead", he shares the excersise that he learned from an advance tango instructor, following is the demonstration by Howard & Elena.