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The Art of Leading and Following - Conducción to Intención: Filling in the Blanks of Argentine Tango Book 4
Let's face it. If you can't lead or follow, you can't dance tango! Using clear illustrated instructions, this book guides you step by step through the Written for dancers of all ages and experience, The Art of Leading and Following - Conducción to Intención will show you how to refine your tango with a profound connection.
137 pages, Paperback
Published August 7, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 11, 2018
“What we need are more people with sensitivity” ~ Osvaldo Natucci
Oliver Kent PhD is an author and teacher who passionately believes that there's no good reason to make another's life harder and that it's usually less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes. As such he's currently in the process of sharing his (often hard-won) experience through writing books that help make life a little easier. He also dances. A lot. He has published many books on the Tango as well as books Healing your Relationship with God, Finding Hope: Searching for Happiness, and two books of Buddhist quotations with accompanying reflections.
Some readers may react to the title of this book as a subject that doesn’t pertain to them – that they 1) don’t dance and 2) don’t know the first thing about dancing the Tango. The push away factor would be preventing general readers from Oliver’s magnetic humor and social interaction teachings in his immensely entertaining and informative books UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF THE EMBRACE: FILLING IN THE BLANKS OF ARGENTINE TANGO. THE ART OF LEADING AND FOLLOWING: Conducción to Intención
is now Book 4 of that series
Not only is this a resource about the history of tango and the place of the dance in both the home base of Argentina and its growth in popularity in most cultures (thanks in part to the beauty of watching fine tango dancers in films and on the stage – and even in the ballroom or milonga), but Oliver’s concepts about the social aspects of the world’s most sensuous dance apply to human interaction in every part of life.
In his Introduction Oliver captures the mystery of Tango – ‘“Beginners want to dance like intermediates; intermediates want to dance like advanced dancers; advanced dancers want to dance like the greats; but the greats always go back to basics.” One of the more unusual things about tango is it attracts people from other dances who want to improve their ability to lead and/or follow. Usually, the leading in these dances appears to be purely by arm movements. These dancers hope that tango can reveal to them more subtle and profound methods. And it can. While it's certainly true that some tango dancers do just scratch the surface of what's possible, settling for waving incantations in the air while the follower magics up the right moves, there's a lot more if you're willing to go deeper.’
With excellent figurative drawings of the conducción to intención Oliver not only describes them well but offers exercises to achieve them. The book is full of excellent demonstrative illustrations of the many steps and sequences that make learning easy. ‘As a leader, beware making quick shallow weight-changes, especially if your partner is in high heels If the follower is trying to follow by seeing what the leader does and reacting to it, rather than feeling what the leader does, it appears that bigger, more physically forceful movements are easier to follow. Because there's no practical way to grip your partner's chest with yours, the leader can't use brute force to move the follower. Intención - the leader concentrates on being aware of moving their entire body and the follower's. There's no need for physical force from the arms.’
This is one fine entertaining book – and chances are after reading it you’ll be searching for a nearby Milonga – of sorts.
Oliver Kent PhD is an author and teacher who passionately believes that there's no good reason to make another's life harder and that it's usually less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes. As such he's currently in the process of sharing his (often hard-won) experience through writing books that help make life a little easier. He also dances. A lot. He has published many books on the Tango as well as books Healing your Relationship with God, Finding Hope: Searching for Happiness, and two books of Buddhist quotations with accompanying reflections.
Some readers may react to the title of this book as a subject that doesn’t pertain to them – that they 1) don’t dance and 2) don’t know the first thing about dancing the Tango. The push away factor would be preventing general readers from Oliver’s magnetic humor and social interaction teachings in his immensely entertaining and informative books UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF THE EMBRACE: FILLING IN THE BLANKS OF ARGENTINE TANGO. THE ART OF LEADING AND FOLLOWING: Conducción to Intención
is now Book 4 of that series
Not only is this a resource about the history of tango and the place of the dance in both the home base of Argentina and its growth in popularity in most cultures (thanks in part to the beauty of watching fine tango dancers in films and on the stage – and even in the ballroom or milonga), but Oliver’s concepts about the social aspects of the world’s most sensuous dance apply to human interaction in every part of life.
In his Introduction Oliver captures the mystery of Tango – ‘“Beginners want to dance like intermediates; intermediates want to dance like advanced dancers; advanced dancers want to dance like the greats; but the greats always go back to basics.” One of the more unusual things about tango is it attracts people from other dances who want to improve their ability to lead and/or follow. Usually, the leading in these dances appears to be purely by arm movements. These dancers hope that tango can reveal to them more subtle and profound methods. And it can. While it's certainly true that some tango dancers do just scratch the surface of what's possible, settling for waving incantations in the air while the follower magics up the right moves, there's a lot more if you're willing to go deeper.’
With excellent figurative drawings of the conducción to intención Oliver not only describes them well but offers exercises to achieve them. The book is full of excellent demonstrative illustrations of the many steps and sequences that make learning easy. ‘As a leader, beware making quick shallow weight-changes, especially if your partner is in high heels If the follower is trying to follow by seeing what the leader does and reacting to it, rather than feeling what the leader does, it appears that bigger, more physically forceful movements are easier to follow. Because there's no practical way to grip your partner's chest with yours, the leader can't use brute force to move the follower. Intención - the leader concentrates on being aware of moving their entire body and the follower's. There's no need for physical force from the arms.’
This is one fine entertaining book – and chances are after reading it you’ll be searching for a nearby Milonga – of sorts.
August 15, 2018
This book does a great job in making you understand which small details are important for a solid connection between the couple.
I wish I had read this book back when I first started learning Argentine Tango, as it clears many misconceptions about how leading works.
Through its series of around 15 exercises, you'll begin to improve your embrace, your connection to your partner, and as a result, your dance.
I wish I had read this book back when I first started learning Argentine Tango, as it clears many misconceptions about how leading works.
Through its series of around 15 exercises, you'll begin to improve your embrace, your connection to your partner, and as a result, your dance.
September 6, 2021
The information in this book isn't actually wrong, there simply isn't much of it. The fact that it manages to comes in at 116 pages is only because the type is so spaced out as it could easily have been printed on half that many. This book may at best be worth one or two dollars from a second-hand store and it's certainly not worth putting into your tango library.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews