When it comes to the embrace, I personally try to be the accommodating one. By this I mean that if the woman prefers a more open or a closer embrace, then she will have it. Two people can have a good time dancing even when one partner forcibly dictates the distance. However, if one dance partner is not “listening” to the preferences of the other, then I believe it can be the first step in a recipe for disaster. For this reason I believe that figuring out what your partner wants in the embrace is so important, for both leaders and followers. One of my goals in tango is to try and make sure the woman enjoyed dancing with me. I decided a good place to start is in the embrace; it is our first impression when dancing with someone new. A fun, comfortable dance for the follower could very well be dictated by how she feels when you begin. It can set the tone for the rest of the dance. It does mean that the number of actions a leader can do might be restricted to that particular embrace. This could be partly because a leader may not have had much practice with it. For example, the limited space of a very close embrace may lead to a lack of confidence on his part to lead a move well enough for someone to follow easily. If this is the case, for that tanguero I would say stick with the embrace you are most confident with. It’s better to lead with an embrace you are familiar with and do steps you know well. Master what you know before going on to learn and add more to your repertoire of moves and embraces. After speaking with a number of ladies here in Korea and in America, I’ve found that the large number of them prefer something a little like this:
“More advanced moves are great, if I know how to do them. However, I don’t find anything wrong in doing simple actions led well with good musicality. I would prefer that simplicity compared to someone who does a bad or average job leading more advanced techniques.”