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Show Me Who You Are May 23, 2005 Recently I talked to 3 accomplished tango dancers who are over six feet tall. I asked them the same question: what advice do you have for tall dancers? They all replied: be as tall as you can be. This is opposite to what many tall people do when they dance. I am not tall, but I suspect, even in daily life, many tall people try to be short. They hunch their backs, bend their knees, and lower their heads so that it is easier to talk to others and get into subway. Hiding their height avoids attention - you feel safer if you are not so different than everybody else. In tango, it is common for tall dancers to make themselves short as well - they think by shrinking themselves they can connect better with their partners. Unfortunately, it does not work, especially in close embrace. In close embrace, if a tall leader hunches his back, his chest has no presence and the follower cannot read his lead. If he leans forward with his head, the follower has to arch her neck and her upper back, which is very uncomfortable. If he bends his knees, it takes away precious space for both people to walk. A tall leader shrinking himself to connect with his partner can be a painful sight. He ends up locking her in some awkward position and she has no idea where to go. It looks like she is trying to climb some impossible cliff, rather than dancing tango. So we have to be in our natural height when we dance, not 1 cm more, not 1 cm less. When you have good posture, you have better control over your own movement. It makes it easier for your partner to connect to you and read your lead. If the leader is tall and the follower short, they just have to connect at wherever their body naturally meets. It could be her chest to his belly. There is no other choice. This follows the idea that you have to be yourself when you dance, both physically and emotionally. If tango is a conversation, it should not be some chit chat about the weather, but a real dialogue about our emotions. To convey emotions, we have to be true to our feeling first, then we can express those feelings through dancing.
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