Tuesday 16 November 2010

Nice Arse

I was watching somebody dance the other day. She dances very well; so does the man she was dancing with. She is not one of those little voluptuous Mediterranean women; nor is she the ballerina type. She is more the sort of shape you would visualise wearing green wellies in Hertfordshire or knitwear in Oslo - tall, slim, angular, gentle, and totally on the beat.

And I reflected that regardless of your shape, whether you have a fat bottom, a thin bottom, a round one or a flat one, squareish, prominent, pear-shaped, athletic, negligible, or enough for two, following well in tango is going to make it look fabulous. Callipygousness in motion. If you want to feel good about your bottom, this will work.

It works in every style, except that I think the more you open the embrace the more it becomes about the legs instead.

(Whether it works for men as well I can't say, as I haven't had the opportunity to watch enough men who follow well. It doesn't happen that often, and when it does I tend to be busy dancing myself. But I don't see why not.)

8 comments:

El Ingeniero said...

My co-blogger Jaimito made a similar observation in this post http://milongaparatres.blogspot.com/2010/03/tango-booty.html.

But while he suggests that somehow the dancing shapes the behind into a nicer shape, you are suggesting that the act of following well makes it looks prettier. I think I agree with you a little bit more than I do with him :)

Simba said...

Isn't it widely believed that dancing (not just tango) is a result of sexual selection? That would be a good explanation, I think.

I tend believe that it is the great dancing in itself that is attractive, more than the dancing making the body look good, and that should go both ways.

msHedgehog said...

@Ingeniero - quite. I definitely do not agree that it has any real effect on the shape. It's just not that physically demanding. You have to work a lot harder to do that, and even if you did, you would get the kind of results that worked just as well standing still, and that's not what I'm talking about at all.

My thesis is indeed that it has nothing to do with shape; it's a matter of motion, and so it matters whether we're good at it.

이방인 said...

Great post! It applies for men, not only for men following but the ones leading properly, and more importantly walking properly. Javier Rodriguez always emphasizes the need to relax the muscles of the butt while walking, so that it can fill out that part of the pants as the muscles are not contracted. Not that I've been watching too closely, but you can see similarities in Javier's pupils' bottoms, resulting from the combination of posture, energy, walk, etc.

Anonymous said...

And people wonder why I'm content to sit and watch at milongas,not dancing, admiring the beautiful .. er .. dancing.

I'm a bloke - not sure it makes my ass nice to look at - I;d say tango accentuates a man's top half not his bottom half... whilst accentuating a woman's bottom half, not top half.

msHedgehog said...

Broadly, I'd say I'm with Anonymous on that one.

Anonymous said...

Hmm! As for the men, their bum will look good, only if they have a good looking bum. There are far too many men that stick out their bums when leading and I think it looks really odd. Not relaxed at all.
Normally, I do notice a man's bum, but not in Tango. I am looking for other things instead. A nice looking bum on a man is no indication of whether he is a good dancer.
As for women, if their posture is good, and they are following well, they will look good regardless of the shape of their bum. The type of garment one wears can accentuate this area. High heels also help. :-)

Tangocommuter said...

Ah! The sticking-out-behind!

I'm inclined to think it's actually not the sticking-outness of it (except in some over-exaggerating individuals) but rather the result of good flexibility in the small of the back. That is, the small of the back seems to curve in further, which makes the behind seem to go out. Walking backwards, and actually reaching back rather than walking back, increases lower back flexibility. I think following a lot must have a beneficial effect on the lower back, and hence, apparently, on the shape of the behind.

Nothing much there for leaders, sadly. But lower back flexibility is valuable: it looks good, and I was told by a physio that it helps prevent injury by keeping the discs in place.