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CHAPTER 12. The Boleo.

Excerpt....."I was being led by Mike Rose last night. We were working on the illustrations for this book and he was showing me some gancho variations. Without warning, he led a boleo with some force. It was an amazing and slightly shocking experience, but it worked. The reason it did so was partly because he is such a great leader and I was feeling confident. I am sure that this meant that I was relaxed and balanced, so that, as he arrested my body movement and reversed the lead, my free leg was able to swing naturally. I had little sense, however, that I had contributed much to the movement. It had happened not because I did something in particular but more because I allowed it to happen. If I had stiffened my free leg it could not have flown at all unless it had been subjected to extreme force. As I write this, it occurs to me that if had Mike said to me: “Hey, let’s try a boleo!” it might well not have worked as well as it did, because I would have felt the need to do something different."

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