Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I'm man enough to be open to the possibility to possibly admit I might be wrong, perhaps....or, it's always the leader's fault...

Because I complained about getting the "thumb guillotine" sometimes, where the woman grasps my thumb like a baby chimpanzee, even to the point of the tip of it turning bright red, and thought it was a follower axis/balance issue, where she was "hanging" on for dear life kinda thing...which I do more commonly get this with beginning followers...

I've been getting some feedback on the position of my left hand in this photo ::

Heather smiles...

I looked at all the photos I have of myself dancing, and my hand is pretty much in this position in all of them...okay, scratch the "pretty much"...

Here's the "excuse" I offered ::

98% of the time I get a "normal" hand situation with the woman, where her fingertips are up in the crook of my thumb and index finger, with my fingers lightly clasped around hers...this follower always does this (with me anyway)...there's another woman here who always does this, but lets her hand slide down to my wrist, which always feel problematic to me...

I was using the photo to illustrate my thumb position (in space) more than my hand position...usually my wrist is cocked back a bit, but not into the full waiter with a tray position, which is unnatural to me...

But, all that said, I will be more aware of what's going on in that department...



[more excuses before my full blown "guilty" admission}

But see, the guy in this photo has the same hand position [palm perpendicular to his body...mine is perpendicular or facing my face a bit], and she has sweetly slid her little soft hand up into the crook between his thumb and forefinger...that's what I get, or end up with, most of the time...

I don't know who the dude is, but he's gotta be good, and gotta know what he's doing, because he's dancing at Canning, right? (grin)

Photo by Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times

So, I'm man enough to be open to the possibility to possibly admit that I might be wrong about the position of my left hand, perhaps, maybe...and, that the thumb guillotine could actually be my issue, and not a follower issue...or, "it's always the leader's fault"...(grin)

I'm dancing tonight at the first milonga of the Fandango, so I'll pay attention to what's going on...and report back...

Check out Johanna's post on this subject (of my hand position), and the resulting commentary here....

5 comments:

ModernTanguera said...

Ohhhhh, you do the thumb thing! The one that has our whole community cracking up on facebook. Any prominent thumb is being tagged with the name of a tanguero-friend who has been mercilessly teased for his "hitchhiker thumb".

Interestingly, the woman in the photo with you is doing something that I do sometimes, with certain leaders - instead of clasping your hand, she seems to be just resting her fingertips in your palm.

AlexTangoFuego said...

Hola Mod...

Yes I do the "thumb thing", and I will always do it. It's the most natural and relaxed position for the thumb. And, note that the following dancers always do it, too.

Someone needs to be sure and make fun of them, too.

Tete Rusconi
Ruben Harbyamat
Gavito (when not doing a show) (deceased)
Dany 'El Flaco' Garcia
Osvaldo Cartery
Ricardo Vidort

Gustavo Naveira
Fabian Salas
Osvaldo Zotto
Omar Vega (deceased)

Ney Melo
Detlef Engel
Murat Erdemsel

I only found Julio Balmaceda's hand form to be different, leaning more towards the 'waiter with a tray' form...a nuevo-esque influence in my opinion...

Yes, I do get that from some followers ...I refer to it as "hooking" the fingertips on the heel of my palm...hooking, resting...same thing...it's nice...I like it...

Debbi said...

As long as both are comfortable, I couldn't give a rat's ass as to whether his hand is on the Y, X or omega axis....
I've danced with all shapes of hand holds, with and without thumbs, palm up, palm down, in between, arm straight up or curled in - and as long as there is a connection between the two and a comfort is found, it works just wonderfully. The only time it gets sketchy is when it is uncomfortable and the leader does not allow any adjustments. If the "my way or the highway" hand hold is used, I tend to enjoy it less.

Just my two cents.
:-)

AlexTangoFuego said...

True Debbi,

I'm so fuckus'd on my own dilemma (it wasn't a dilemma a few days ago) that I forgot about the followers having to adjust to a multitude of hand positions.

Women are so great.

They put up with us men to no end.

Anonymous said...

wrong, "shmong", that's what I say. ;-)

In tango you dance like yourself.

You dance who you are and if your thumb is up, then it's up. As a follower, something like that really has no affect on my dancing. I adapt to you and place my hand however it needs to be placed. And you probably adapt to me too.

Every man I dance with on Saturdays does something completely different with his left hand and I just go with it - and in return he adapts to me. It just works out. :-)

The milongueros down here with 50+ years of experience didn't take lessons and weren't taught a "correct left hand position". ;-)

You're just fine.