Three years ago, I wrote a blog post about why the role imbalance in tango is bad for leaders and followers alike.

It’s pretty obvious why it can be miserable for followers, but I also highlighted three ways in which it’s not ideal for leaders …

I wrote then:

First, because as much as it’s wonderful to be able to dance non-stop if you want, it’s less wonderful to feel under pressure to do so because you’d feel guilty letting followers (and especially follower friends) sit around waiting. My ideal is to dance when the music moves me, and socialise when it doesn’t – but I’m not going to sit out lots of tandas if I can see there are many followers wanting to dance; it is a social dance, after all.

Second, because tango is supposed to be a joyous activity, but it obviously isn’t if a significant number of followers aren’t having a great time (and you can definitely sense that).

Third, unless we can solve these problems, there’s a risk that more and more followers will eventually leave tango, and the dance will decline.

Veronica Toumanova made me think of it again when she wrote a new blog post, Why women learning to lead is good for everyone. She too argues that the imbalance hurts everyone – and it’s of course an excellent read.

She got me thinking more about the topic, and I was struck by three further problems with the present imbalance.

Pressure to lead rather than follow

I am very much a baby follower, and my progress here has been exceedingly slow. One of the reasons for that is the vast difference in the level of effort I am putting into following compared to my utterly obsessional approach to leading.

A related reason, however, is the lack of opportunity as a direct consequence of the role imbalance. Yes, dual-role dancers have told me that I’m perfectly entitled to follow when I want to, and I fully agree in principle – but it’s still very tricky to do so when there are many followers waiting to dance.

Role-balanced events would mean I would feel entirely free to lead or follow as the mood strikes me.

Registration pressure

Second, registration pressure on leaders. It’s obviously a very unpleasant experience for followers to be unable to register at will for tango events they’d like to attend. While leaders do have the privilege of being able to do so, we also face the impossibility of meeting all of the registration requests we receive.

One year, for example, I had follower reservation agreements early in the year for Feast festivals running through to December. For every follower a leader can make happy in this way, we’re going to disappoint half a dozen more when we have to tell them we’re already committed.

That could create particular awkwardness if followers feel that leaders are choosing one over another. I’ve at least been able to avoid this by adopting a strict first-come, first-served policy.

Additionally, because I know that there are followers on the waitlist whose registrations will not be accepted until there is a balancing leader, I’ve also tried not to be That Guy who leaves bookings until the last minute. However, a lengthy period of uncertainty around moving home has meant it would actually have suited me much better to have felt able to register very late in the day.

Poor floorcraft from poor leaders

I know, I know: I’ve mentioned the topic from time to time. Blame Veronica for making me think further about this issue.

One of the issues she highlights is the fact that male leaders aren’t incentivised to improve unless, like me, they get pleasure and satisfaction from the learning process itself. There are a lot of leaders who simply cease lessons as soon as they can dance all of the time, and the bar for that is extremely low.

What that means is that there is a non-trivial number of poor leaders on the floor and that will undoubtedly be a contributor to the poor floorcraft standards often experienced. A rebalancing of roles will either force those leaders to up their game or they will drop out; either way, the problem is solved.

Which brings me to …

The female leader floorcraft narrative

Pretty much any time the topic of women leaders is mentioned, there will be a male leader who’ll complain that they have poor levels of floorcraft.

The reality, of course, is that beginner leaders have poor floorcraft: there is absolutely nothing gendered about this. The male leaders who complain about this seemed to have either forgotten what they were like in their early days or were completely oblivious to the chaos they were causing on the floor.

The multitasking demands of leading are fierce when you’re new to it, with floorcraft often the first casualty. Additionally, early in our leading careers, we start by leading large movements which take up a lot of room on the floor. It takes significant time, skill development and practice before we are able to lead small movements – and to maintain full directional control throughout.

I was fortunate enough to go to BsAs at the end of my first year in tango. There I was forced to learn the skill of leading everything within the couple’s own space. If you haven’t had that trial by fire, it typically takes significantly longer.

Read Veronica’s post here

I won’t attempt to summarise what Veronica herself has written, but highly recommend reading the piece here.