communicating with your partner

[Lioness]

Our coach regularly makes a point of walking around, deliberately trying to get in our way. In that situation, as with any comp situation, I am highly tuned to what DP is doing. Half the time he forgets the routines, and I never really learnt them properly. I just follow him wherever he goes.

We have this neat little following exercise. We stand in ballroom hold, and DP will have his weight on one foot. My job is to sense what foot he's on. Then he will move in a random direction. I follow (or at least, I'm meant to). If he has his weight properly placed and compresses, it is nearly impossible to not follow. We practise it lots, in the hope that it will transfer into a competition scenario. There is no communication beyond body language.

[TangoDancer]

This is a very common practice, and the main part of the movement in Argentine Tango.

[elisedance]

Our coach regularly makes a point of walking around, deliberately trying to get in our way. In that situation, as with any comp situation, I am highly tuned to what DP is doing. Half the time he forgets the routines, and I never really learnt them properly. I just follow him wherever he goes.

We have this neat little following exercise. We stand in ballroom hold, and DP will have his weight on one foot. My job is to sense what foot he's on. Then he will move in a random direction. I follow (or at least, I'm meant to). If he has his weight properly placed and compresses, it is nearly impossible to not follow. We practise it lots, in the hope that it will transfer into a competition scenario. There is no communication beyond body language.

thats a great excecize - wonder if I can get DP to do it...

[skipper]

My job is to think, "And where are we going now?". He has the first word and I "finish" the sentance. Then I wait for his next word.

Sometimes we practise with me blind-folded---it's a trust issue. Do I really need to know? Afterall, he can 'see' the whole floor--frequently I am moving backwards on my line.

[elisedance]

Today we had a practise, a lesson and then a longer practise.  In the latter we first worked over our lesson.  Then we did our waltz and FT routines - only there was latin music (samba) going on so DP put on headphones and listened to a CD to dance to.  What amazing practise for me!  I could only 'hear' two things: the samba (totally off time of course) and DP.  We worked through both routines and they felt way better than usual.  DP was leading with confidence and I was listening to him with a very attentive 'ear'.  After he even complemented me on 'staying on time'.  A really great practise.