Thursday, May 29, 2008

On Intention

There is a conversation going on here that has been happening in my head for awhile.

When I am in the embrace of a lead, I am surrendering a certain amount of my own direction. I follow his lead, I take the steps he leads and hopefully, we find a synchronicity. One of the few true decisions I retain is the intention I bring to the dance.

When I step, what is my intention? When I place my arm along his shoulder, what is my intention? Am I completely connecting? Am I holding something in reserve? Am I allowing myself to be vulnerable and open enough to the dance?

I think the key is that my body is the vehicle of the extension of the lead's energy. When I feel him make the intention, I allow that intention to move my body in response.

When I surrender, or submit, to my lead's intention, what I really am saying is, "I hear what you are asking of me, and I will allow you to use my body to communicate your intention" and this is not in any way passive. This is a conscious acknowledgment on my part that I like your energy, and I like matching it and I enjoy how we move (it) together, and I have my own flavor to mingle with your intention.

And I can stop it cold if I don't like it.

Recently, I have found myself backleading into the music, which is a terrible thing to be doing! I wonder if I am reading the intention of the leader that he isn't following through on, or am I so lost in the music that I miss his subtle cues that he is pulling back from that next step?

Shouldn't there be a symbiotic connection? Shouldn't, or doesn't, my lead read me as I am reading him? I don't want to sacrifice the beauty of the connection to the music at the sake of reading my lead. How do I have both?

3 comments:

Aly- Bliss Monkey Studio said...

that sort of speaks to my own question about tango (from a pre tango mind here): what if I don't want to learn to follow? Or what if I don't want to spend a lot of time following the way men's bodies move to music?

you rock however

Mtnhighmama said...

For me, It's not following the way men's bodies move to music. It's more of a meeting of two people, who happen to be the genders they are--but typically it's pretty hetero-centered-- and agreeing to fill the roles of the dance. You can't both lead, or things get muddled.

You don't have to follow based on gender. I follow because I like giving it up. I like when that magic moment comes and I can let go and follow...when the dominant can be swept away and the only essence I have to be in is to listen, to agree, to meet, to surrender with strength.

At some point I will want to learn to lead, and there's no reason you can't start as a leader.

You can lead me anytime. :)

Mtnhighmama said...

And, it's rare to find a woman that can take the lead and do it in a way that makes me want to give in, to give it up. Her touch is too light, too hesitant, too intuitive even, maybe?

I'd like to find that female leader; it would be mind-blowing for me, I expect.