Reading The Tea

When I saw the announcement that Daniel Trenner was teaching a fundamentals class at Friday Night Blues, I was excited and a bit confused. Isn’t he an argentine tango dancer? Why is he teaching at blues? As it turns out, he taught an excellent introduction to partner dance. As a teacher he is charismatic and memorable.
My notes from the class (geared to people new to dance):
1.) Everyone started in a circle, facing in. He had us pick out someone (at random) from the circle to remember. Our task was then to walk around the room, cutting through space without letting “your” person get behind you. Back in the circle, we picked a second person, and this time didn’t let either of them get behind. “Staying to the outside of the room is cheating,” we were admonished. “If you make a mistake, pretend you didn’t.”
Great ice-breaker, everyone milled around the room and took up space. Conversation followed about eye contact with other drivers.
2.) Try to press your front against the back of the first person you picked. Next, the second person. This resulted in everyone running, milling about the room. Lots of giggles. I think this exercise is especially good for breaking the “I don’t want to touch another human” barrier.
3.) Circle again. Pick a point across the room and traverse the space. Now do it by walking forward and backward (still towards a point). Again, awareness of others. If you bump someone, make it soft. adjust the length of your line if the middle is getting too clogged. Traversing again, this time picking a point to turn. (I kept thinking… Improv score!)
4.) His approach to the introduction of leading and following was quite different from others I’ve encountered. We circled up again, and he asked for a volunteer. Any volunteer. A teen-age girl bounced into the center. He made her the lead in much of the demonstration. They stood side-by-side and he demonstrated two ways to go along with her — pulling her behind him or the “gentlemanly” way, offering her the space ahead of them for her to step into. “Which is easier?” Several people guessed the gentlemanly way — he said it’s actually harder, but better. He showed how when she is leading him, she has to keep leading as he steps, then step with him. (The were still standing side-by-side.) We all tried it with partners. Because of the circle before this exercise, genders were mixed up and people weren’t self-conscious about it. (Mental note: remember this…) We then switched to facing each other and leading side steps. (Both partners took turns leading and following.) With music, we did it again, listening to the music. There was discussion of riding horses. When you have a beginning rider, what kind of horse does he ride? An older, plodding, gentle one. As you’re more advanced, what kind of horse do you want to ride? A more spirited one. Plodding through a dance is not great following. However, it is good to do with beginners. Also: if a beginning lead says “You’re not doing this right,” it’s a desperate cry for help. In discussion after, several new follows said that they felt freed by this concept, since that gave them permission to not self-judge so harshly.