Lead & Follow: Balancing Energies in the Partnership
Lately I have been actively learning how to lead in tango. I have done some leading over the years in a couple of different dances, mostly through teaching, but never to this extent in terms of focus and time investment. Not only are my reflections deeper, but I am receiving a variety of responses – both verbal and energetic – from my local tango community. The women admire, enjoy, and express curiosity about my venture, and I learn a lot from their unique energies as followers as I explore the leading role. But it’s the men that I am perhaps learning from the most.
The benefits of a small dance community include incredible sincerity and acceptance, and the men are demonstrating an unbelievable openness to my leading. Several of them - one in particular I would never have expected! – have even asked me to lead them. What encourages me is that they are not only interested in exploring the body mechanics of lead and follow through this exchange; they seem to be subconsciously absorbing some of the energetic dimensions as well. Just the act of switching roles – even if temporarily – necessarily changes our energies towards each other, which opens up both new strengths and new vulnerabilities. It also forces us to experience our own presence in the dance in different ways.
Over the past year my dad and I have played weekly chess games. It’s truly amazing how intricate and variable the game is, even playing the same person every time. Every game has its own flavor, and subtle changes in approach and even mood can drastically alter the energy of the entire game. Last month my father and I marveled to each other at how much of a difference it makes when one of us starts the game versus the other. It’s almost like an entirely different game and yet it maintains its essence in the midst of such a strong change in energy. I feel this same tension between same and opposite when it comes to the leading and following roles, and the similarities and differences both enhance the experience of the whole.
This has been a major point of meditation for me, so I was even more pleased than usual to discover that Sharna Fabiano has written another article in which she directly addresses this very thing. The entire article is very much worth a read, but I did want to tease out a few paragraphs in which she talks about the balance of seemingly opposing energies in the dance partnership. Read her wonderful reflections below, then click on the link to access the full article as well as her previous ones, all of which are excellent and highly recommended. Enjoy!
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