[TANGO-L] Tango and Martial Arts

[Mark Rector <rmarkrector @YAHOO.COM>]

Stephen Brown wrote:
"The martial arts to provide a basis for understanding
movement, but I am not sure how much they help with
leading and following skills."

When I began dancing Tango, I was immediately struck
by the similarities between Tango and European martial
arts. The passing steps, isolation of upper and lower
body, pivots, giros, sacadas, projection of center,
etc., of Tango mirror centuries-old traditions in
European swordsmanship and Western martial arts.

As for martial arts helping with leading and following
- a good fencer or martial artist must be adept at
manipulating his "partner" in space, and moving in
concert with him. All of this helps with Tango... at
least, it helped me!

Cheers! -Mark

=====

Mark Rector
Editor & Translator, MEDIEVAL COMBAT
Editor, HIGHLAND SWORDSMANSHIP & HIGHLAND BROADSWORD


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Send "Where can I Tango in <city>?" requests to Tango-A rather than to
Tango-L, since you can indicate the region. To subscribe to Tango-A,
send "subscribe Tango-A Firstname Lastname" to LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------