Dancing Soul

On the benefits of chaos: Tangofest!

I've noticed that many beginning tango dancers avoid Tangofest. Dancing at events like Tangofest can feel as scary as Boston at rush hour. Some dancers plow around the dance floor, running poor beginners over. There's almost no room, and when you find it, someone else takes it. And some crazy person is leading their partner into leg-flying, death-defying stunts, right in the line of dance.

In reality, leading at Tangofest is what prepared me for normal dancing in Buenos Aires. I learned to dance many steps almost in place.  I learned to use turns as a line of defense when people cut me off. I learned to give the follower room to play in the pauses between traveling forward. I learned to keep an eye out for the space I occupied, and stay moving behind the leader in front of me. You will not learn those skills when you only dance in practicas with tons of space!

Dancing at Tangofest taught me to enjoy subtle, small, musical moments in the dance, both as a leader and a follower. As a leader, I felt no need to try to think up difficult sequences to wow my follower: I was too busy trying to stay alive! As a follower, I learned to close my eyes and trust the leader. After all, if I tightened up when someone got close, the leader couldn't guide me out of harm's way. I relinquished my backseat driver behavior and had more fun. I have some of my best tandas in crowded spaces because it forces me to tune in and focus on the important parts of tango: connection, breath, music, my partner.

Take classes at Tangofest!

One approach to Tangofest is the linear path. Just take classes with one teacher and get one viewpoint and one set of rules for tango. Follow one set of teachers around and take any classes they teach, no matter what level (don't tell ANYONE I said that! The advanced dancers will kill me.). I'm going to do that with Oscar and Georgina this year because I am preparing to teach their style. I want to hear EVERYTHING they say about tango this weekend, including in beginner classes (see you there?).

Another way to approach Tangofest is to embrace chaos. Take all the classes in your level. Accept that, in every class, the teachers may tell you the opposite of the teachers in the last class (stand up straight! Lock ze knees! Never lock ze knees! etc.). In each class, I try to follow the teacher's advice. I ask for clarification and reasons, but I try not to argue. When the class is over, I have almost always learned something new or useful. "Take the best and chuck the rest."

By the end of the weekend, my brain is stuffed full of information that is conflicting and quickly dissipating. I try to take notes and then practice with someone else who was in the class. If I do the sequences or exercises I learned, I will remember them longer.  I assume that only about 10% of what I learned will stick. I also assume that my dancing will get WORSE for a few weeks or months as I incorporate new ideas into my tango.

A few months after Tangofest, I have integrated the new information that I like and have improved my dance. Instead of a linear progression to perfection, I find tango to be little clouds of chaos that clear and leave me in the middle of a gorgeous, sunny day for a while, blinded with the beauty of tango.

GO TO TANGOFEST!

England and France through a three-year-old's eyes

Many of you know that I recently took my son along on a two-week trip to England and France. A close friend from college had extracted a promise to come to his wedding almost a year ago. Despite the economic downturn, the state of my bank account and the thought of bringing a kiddo along, I decided to go. 

Jamie had three things on his list of must-dos: Buckingham Palace, double decker buses and a real castle. Buckingham Palace came about from reading A. A. Milne at bedtimes ("They're changing guards at Buckingham Palace . . ."). The castle came from playing with toy castles at friends' houses and at his grandmother's house. I don't know where the double decker bus fixation came from, but it figured on his list.

You have not experienced cabin fever until you are contained in a hotel (a proper, English environment) with a bored, jet-lagged three-year-old at bedtime. My son is used to running off steam by singing, break-dancing, pounding things (construction worker), putting out pretend fires, and generally making a lot of noise. This is not possible in a public place that has people trying to sleep on all sides, thin walls, and no space to move.

However, after a few days, we adjusted to the new situation and had a GREAT time. Jamie added to his list of favorites over the days and weeks. He got to try on fake armor at the castle and discovered a coat of armor at the Maritime Museum. He rode two carousels in Paris. He watched and then participated in break dancing at the Trocadero metro stop, in view of the Eiffel Tower, and then ate the world's largest cone of gelato. He rode on: a boat, the Metro, the Underground, the Eurostar (train from London to Paris), double decker buses, a taxi, friends' cars, and the train to Cambridge. He walked through Buckingham Palace. He played at the Museum of the Docklands and at the Maritime Museum (both of which have a lot of exhibits that appeal to kids). He visited the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, where he pretended to be a pirate on the pirate ship, climbed around on a fort, played in teepees, and dug in the sand for hours.

On top of that, he had a fabulous third birthday at my friend Samantha's house, with her sons and a neighbor. A Bob the Builder card, a cake with construction tools on top, Thomas the Train presents, four boys under five, and we were set for a rocking party. The mothers drank tea, talked about work, knitting, sons, village life vs. the city--and had fun. The boys ran around, ate too much sugar, and shrieked--and had fun. A great party!

After a few weeks home, we have readjusted to the USA. Jamie started preschool this week. I am job hunting, blogging and teaching dance. If you'd like to see ten of the three hundred pictures I took, the travel photo album has our trip from Jamie's list of high points.

On breathing

I recently started to reread Taking Root to Fly: ten articles on functional anatomy, by Irene Dowd. As I hadn’t read it in almost twenty years, I was amazed to find how much I use her concepts in my teaching. This week, I want to talk about her article, On Breathing and the information she provides about breathing in order to dance better.

Dowd's suggestions for improving breathing techniques in the body:

• Exhale as much as possible, but don't force it. By exhaling as much as you can, you get more oxygen into your body, which allows you to use your muscles better and avoid fatigue. By not pushing the exhale, you use less effort for breathing, reducing the amount of oxygen your muscles need to function. Reducing the amount of muscle tension you use to breathe also releases the muscle tension in your torso, which relaxes what Dowd calls "the body-mind"--just what we are looking for in tango!
• Let laughter and humor be a part of your dance. This helps you breathe more easily than focusing on making your body breathe. You will notice that a lot of the games I give you in class make people laugh. Many of you noted that you were having fun, or that the movements seemed easier after such exercises. What you don't see because you are dancing is that you ALL move more easily when you laugh and smile! Letting the tension go helps tango.
• Find one picture or idea to think about for breathing, rather than trying to open the lungs, don’t raise the shoulders, relax the solar plexus, breathe into the sides of your lungs, etc. all at the same time. Here are some images to try that Dowd mentions in her article:

1. Focus on the breath going up and down the central axis of the body (this is what we do to prepare for the Force Field exercise).
2. Think of your entire trunk as a cylinder expanding and shrinking in all directions simultaneously
3. imagine the breath is a fountain shooting from out of the very center of the top of the head and flowing down the back, taking all tension with it (this is a basis of my Force Field exercise).
4. think of being a tree whose trunk shoots up through its center growing always taller as the sap flows upward. Just as the tree’s branches and leaves move in the wind, your shoulders, arms and ribs hang, without effort. The less muscle tension and focus that you devote to holding your body upright, the more energy you have to give to your partner and to the dance (we'll do I Am the Fat Lady next week, which works on these ideas).
5. think of your whole trunk as a big elastic balloon. The balloon fills and empties by itself, focusing on the flow of air. Dowd suggests making a sound when exhaling to focus on this (think Superpower and Energy Bunnies!).

Many of you have shared with me that you find it difficult to work on breathing when you "don't know the steps yet." Breathing is MUCH more important than the steps in tango: it connects you with your partner and allows a dialogue of movement that the most careful step execution cannot.

Which is more important for you: perfection or connection? For me, it used to be perfection (and, yes, I'm aware that I am still a perfectionist!), but connection has gradually become more important. After a tanda (dance set), I don't usually bemoan the lack of perfection, but if there was no energy and no connection with the other person's body-mind-soul, I feel cheated. BREATH is fundamental to connection, balance, focus and enjoyment.

Dowd (and I) suggest doing breathing exercises on the floor before trying them standing up. Trying them while dancing is step three. If you would like me to show these exercises to you, we can do that in the next class (just ask). Otherwise, breathing and posture exercises justify a private or small group lesson.

Next week: front ochos and turns at the cross for Tango I; intro to boleos for Tango II. See you then!!

Opening your solar plexus: energy in tango (and class notes for 23 Sept.)

All dancers bring themselves to the dance floor: personality, mood, energy level, balance, musicality--the list is endless. However, energy tops the list. A partner, approaching you for the first time, feels something about your energy and responds to that initial impression on a conscious and subconscious level. Does this person make you feel secure? Does it feel good to connect with that energy? Does this person feel relaxed/tense/etc.? On some level, no matter what steps are done and what music is danced, that energy hit from your partner flavors the tanda (set of dances) and the experience.

When I lead, I always make sure that my solar plexus (the soft spot right below my sternum) is relaxed. The faster the dance, the more open my solar plexus needs to be. The harder my partner is to move, the more released I need to remain in my center. If my partner is tense, my response is to reduce my own tension by softening my solar plexus.

This seems counterintuitive: all the situations I mentioned above seem to demand MORE pressure, more push, more energy in order to dance well. I get more energy by breathing and releasing my solar plexus. When my center is relaxed, I can achieve more with less effort. I need more focus, more intention as to where and how I want my partner to move, but with less push.

Because I am a small person for leading (5'5" and 144 lbs.), many of the folks I lead are bigger than I am. I cannot MAKE them go where I want through brute force. I have to use intention, breath and focus in order to be able to move them. I don't like pushy leads when I follow, so I try not to be a pushy lead when I lead. The only way I can be clear but not pushy, is to keep my energy open and relaxed: I breathe and open my solar plexus.

Things that make leading easier:

1. Commit energy to establishing your own axis. My teacher, Oscar Mandagaran, counsels dancers to focus energy on extending up and down (through the earth, up to the ceiling) and then moving that strong axis around the room. In other words, don't take everything you have and shove it forward and backward in the room: stand tall and let your solar plexus open wide, letting your follower feel all that energy pouring out of you, and then just move them!
2. Send all of your directional energy towards your partner. For example, instead of stepping slightly sideways to avoid your partner's feet, really step TOWARDS them. Focus all of your effort in the direction you want your follower to move. Unless you want a duck waddle, don't do that yourself :-)
3. Whenever you plan to move quickly, such as a corrida (a quick quick slow move), OPEN your solar plexus right before you initiate the movement. Don't think "push" and don't push. Let energy come out of your center and ride that wave.
4. Whenever you plan to do a move that you don't feel 100% comfortable leading yet, open your solar plexus. The last thing you need your partner to feel is that "Oh, sh*&%t" tightness from you. Your partner feels that tension, and tenses for a coming crisis, making it harder for you to lead at all, let alone something difficult for you already. Relax, and your follower will relax.

Things that make following easier:

1. Commit energy to establishing your axis. If you are not on balance, even a good leader has trouble leading you in the dance. Use your breath and energy to create balance and grounding.
2. Send your directional energy TOWARDS your partner, not away in the direction you are traveling. Keeping the energy focused on your leader means that there is a mini force field between the partners, even in close embrace. This protects you from getting stepped on much more than trying to get your feet out from underneath yourself. Also, this gives the leader more energy to play with, reducing the leader's tendency to drive you like a MAC truck.
3. If you feel your partner tense, release your solar plexus. There is no need for both people to stop breathing and get tense. You will be able to keep up with either difficult moves or a poor lead if you are balanced and breathing.
4. Use your breath and relaxed solar plexus as the center of your balance, rather than hanging on the leader. You become a lighter, more responsive follower at the same time that your body is working less. More balance, more fun!

Three levels of energy: self, couple and room

Paying attention to your own breath, axis and energy establishes your own body in the room and the dance. Directing some of that energy towards your partner establishes the connection between the couple, which is the basis of tango. Extending that awareness and energy to the entire room brings the energy of the entire group into play, allowing you to draw from that energy to make your dance.

During my thesis research, several people I interviewed in Buenos Aires told me about how dancing worked when they first started to dance in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They told me that, when they first watched tango, the entire room of dancers moved without running into each other, functioning as one entity. I have seen this happening as well as felt it occurring, and the sense is of the flow of the music, embodied in the group.

I developed the games we played this week, Solo-Couple and Energy Bunnies, to teach awareness of the dance floor and all the dancers, in order to cultivate this exquisite feeling of being as one on the dance floor with everyone else dancing. In Solo-Couple, everyone had a chance to find the flow of the music and the amount of space in the room, and then practiced staying in touch with that feeling while dancing as a couple. In Energy Bunnies, we worked on giving energy to other people and couples, so that the energy on the dance floor builds and in turn, feeds the couple and the individual dancing. Stay tuned for Energy Vampires and Navigation!

Salem Beginner Tango class

Our new concept for this week was switching "lanes" from center to outside and from center to inside. Remember that changing lanes requires long diagonal steps (high school math version, more variations coming soon), with a crossing over/through step. The hips and toes define the direction of the couple, while the torso orientation defines the couple's placement on that traveling line (center, outside, inside, depending on the leader's and follower's position). Also, remember that the leader is not trying to get next to the follower, flattening the embrace, but rather is keeping the circle and connection of the embrace while moving to the outside or inside lane. We'll do more exercises to get used to rotating the hips or torso versus moving the entire body as a block.

Next week, we'll learn to walk to the cross, which requires using the center and inside lanes. As I mentioned in class, you can walk quickly (quick quick slow corridas) or pause in center, outside and inside orientations. Some of you found that it was easier to begin a turn from outside or inside orientation, rather than from a center orientation (hang in there, we'll learn "real" turns very soon). We will also start ochos (figure 8s) next week. See you then!

Salem Tango 2 class: paradas and ganchos

We reviewed front paradas and stepovers this week. Last week, we did these steps from a front ocho after walking to the cross. This week, we tried them from a turn. Stopping a turn is a bit harder than stopping an ocho, as there is more momentum usually in a turn.

For those of you who already felt comfortable with the front parada and stepover, remember that you can do the step using the leg/foot nearer your partner (i.e., leading a follower to your right and doing the parada with your right foot) or the leg/foot further from your partner (i.e., leading a follower to your right and doing the parada with your left leg, which requires you to "flip your hip" before the move). Take those two possibilities and try them to the other side as well; that gives you four versions of the move.

Adding the gancho (hook) only happens when your parada and stepover feel comfortable. Just as there are many kinds of paradas, there are tons of different ganchos. We only worked on one gancho this week: a step that rocked back towards the site of the stepover, creating a gancho for the follower through the leader's leg. This gancho then resolved in a forward step for the follower, continuing on in the dance.

Making space for the leading a follower's gancho

When you lead a gancho for the follower, it is always easier to get the follower closer to you, rather than trying to catch the follower's leg further from your own axis. I always try to set up a gancho on the step before the gancho, so that the actual step is near me and easy for me to reach. As I said earlier, because I am short, I can't do a good gancho if I let the follower get away from my center.

A long, narrow window of space works well for a gancho. It might look like a bigger space to make a wide, open-looking window for a gancho, but it does not work as well. For a real, snappy gancho that is led by the leader (rather than the follower taking over), you need height. By the way, that means that a tall follower will not get as dramatic a gancho from a short leader as a tall leader would provide. Still, we short leaders can lead nice snappy (if not dramatic) ganchos for everyone if we prepare the move correctly.

Please do not lean towards the follower to catch a gancho! This knocks the follower off-axis, preventing a gancho from happening. After all, most people can't fall sideways and let you have control over their "free" leg at the same time :-)  Let the follower's axis remain upright. Only intrude into the follower's space with enough of your foot and leg to allow the gancho to hook through your leg. Keep your body out of the way!

Free your leg, and the rest will follow: follower's tips for ganchos

My first tango teacher, Daniel Trenner, told me, "Never fish for ganchos!" As I understand that now, that means that the follower should not try to gancho when a gancho is not being led. In other words, WAIT! For the gancho we learned this week, that means assuming that a forward step is happening when led out of the stepover, rather than preparing for a gancho by stopping forward motion, grabbing in the quads, and crouching like a tennis player ready to change direction!

Stand up tall, balanced on your axis. Keep your center connected (by energy) with your leader. Assume nothing about the next step. Follow the leader's torso and torsion. If you keep your center pointing towards your leader, the leader's rotation around his/her axis will hook your free leg through the leader's leg, creating the gancho. After the gancho, there is usually a rebound. Therefore, if the gancho was a backwards movement, you rebound forward after it, guided by the leader.

The gesture, or free, leg is only about 20% of the effort for this move. 80% of your focus should be on your axis. The free leg is relaxed at the hip joint, but the hips are mostly stable, moving with the axis. In order to get nice, strong ganchos, the leader has to have the correct timing for the move AND you need to release your leg. If one of those things does not happen, the gancho doesn't work correctly. Please try not to "help" the leader by backleading ganchos: a gancho that is led is fabulous, snappy and organic--and the leader can direct it; a gancho that is self-led is heavy, tends to stop after the upswing, and the leader has to wait until it is done in order to find the follower's axis again. DO NOT fish for ganchos.

The other bit of gancho wisdom I have finally internalized comes both from Daniel Trenner and from Luciana Valle. Daniel looked at me one day, about three years into tango, and said, "If you want to get good, you are going to have to get sloppy." I HATED that, but he was right. I was not allowing the leader freedom over my leg; instead, I was controlling it. Once I actually released my leg, it didn't feel good, but it felt RIGHT, and eventually, it worked all the time. After that, I could start to sculpt the move a bit myself, making it more elegant.

Luciana gave the exercises I used to make my ganchos work. Especially, she made me focus on pointing my knee towards the floor, rather than pulling my ankle/knee up to make a hook. Letting the leg be heavy makes it respond with more snap to the leader, even though at first that feels just plain wierd. We'll do some of her drills, as well as some of Oscar and Georgina's drills, as we progress in class.

We'll continue making these moves parts of our dance in the coming weeks. In addition, folks have asked for boleos, volcadas and colgadas. We will do little baby versions of these, as we learn about the theory of each move, and prepare for Tangofest in Portland. After all, it will be too crowded to do big versions of anything!

GO TO TANGOFEST!!!!! I cannot stress how much "I'm going to do this if it kills me!" focus can come out of one weekend of dancing. Even if you forget every step you learned, even if you are so tired you can barely stand for the last tanda, even if your tango completely falls apart, you will learn something from Tangofest. The sheer numbers of new folks to dance with makes it worth going. If you are too intimidated to dance, go to one of the big milongas and watch the dancers. Watching feet is always an informative thing to do: one old milonguera told me, "Look at their feet and if you like what you see, look up. You will see good connection happening!" Go DANCE!!!!!

Also, my teachers Oscar Mandagaran and Georgina Vargas, are coming back. They are staying with me, and will probably teach at my house. I encourage you to come take a private lesson. They are inspiring. Although they are fabulous stage dancers, they know more about social dance tango and using energy in the body, than most dance teachers put together. Sign up early so that they have space for you (I think they are setting up their own schedule, but I can connect you with them if you want).

See you next week!

Paradas and pasadas (Salem intermediate class)

The term parada comes from the Spanish verb parar, or "stop." A parada is any step that blocks the follower's foot from doing the next step of the dance, creating a pause in motion for a variable amount of time. We worked on front paradas with pasadas (or stepovers).

The leader's job in a parada

There are MANY versions of paradas. For a front parada, the leader performs a parada during/after a follower's front step. We practiced doing this after walking the follower to the cross and leading a front cross step to the leader's right (as if we were doing a front ocho after the cross). After the parada, we led the follower to do a stepover. Then, maintaining the original axis placement, the leader collected both feet in place, finished the follower's step, and exited into other steps.

A VERY IMPORTANT part of the parada is the torso of the leader. This is another part of the parada lead: the foot and leg help and create the impression of a block, but without the "stop" of the torso torsion, no parada should happen. Think of leading front ochos with a stop of motion in the middle; this is pretty much what a parada is.

The foot and leg portion of the lead needs to be correctly placed in order to work well. The leader starts to place the foot as the follower steps forward, but then needs to adjust as the follower pivots to face the other direction. Make sure that the follower has room to completely pivot, rather than stopping with the support foot blocked on the ground.

I place only my little toe on the ground, as I curve my foot up over the follower's instep, around the follower's ankle. This takes quite a bit of rotation of the leg in the hip socket, and may be difficult at first. However, next week, you'll find that this creates a perfect setup to do a gancho without much more preparation. I call this the S-curve, as my upper leg in turned out, my ankle wraps around the follower's ankle, and then my foot curves out again in order to touch the ground.

The leader's torso leads the follower over into the stepover. For right now, the leader will return to the original spot before exiting, but later we will add a sacada here as a variation (more on that later, or check out my earlier blog posts on sacadas if you are feeling impatient).

The easiest way to do this parada is to use the leader's right leg/foot when the follower steps towards the leader's right. However, the leader may use either leg. Using the left leg here requires a very different setup (more on this next week when we add ganchos as well). We also tried the front parada in a turn to the left, with the leader catching the follower's front cross with the leader's left leg/foot. Again, either foot can be used to either side.

The follower's parada

The follower needs to be on axis for this step to work well. If the leader pushes too far forward, the follower cannot remain on balance. Followers: you can help with this by staying CLOSE to the leader. Make a beautiful step of a turn, following an arc around the leader, rather than stepping in a straight line (this takes the follower just a little away from the leader). If the follower stay close, the leader doesn't have to lunge towards the follower, which makes everyone fall over.

The follower needs to pay attention to collecting at the ankles. Before stepping over in the stepover, the follower needs to collect with both ankles together and both feet on the floor, even just for a moment. This cuts down on unattractive flailing legs at this point!

This is true even when the follower adds adornos (ornaments). A good leader will give a follower time to play and do adornos if the music supports that. As a follower, stick to adornos that do not trip couples nearby: darting motions ALONG the leader's floor placement (more on this in class next week), small circles, "clean your shoes" on the leader's ankle/leg, and other small, elegant shapes. Perhaps that is less dramatic than big, flashy adornos, but it doesn't look flashy when you trip other people :-)

Remember that a parada and stepover are very similar to ochos. Pay attention to keeping your center connected to your leader, taking even-sized steps, good balance, etc. And breathe!

Two new classes in Portland: beginning salsa and intermediate tango

My newest classes start on Monday evening:

6:30-7:30 PM: Intermediate tango
So far, the people signed up have six months to two years of experience. We will work on whatever steps students would like to master, as well as my focus on breath, energy, drills to improve posture and balance, connection with the partner, etc.

7:45-8:45 PM: Beginning salsa
Most of the people signed up have some dance experience, but not in salsa.  We will focus on steps based in the slot position as well as turns, so that dancers will have enough material to get out on the dance floor and have fun, as well as be able to navigate the dance floor and move to the music.

Both classes have room at this time.  The cost is $50/person for five weeks, and classes will be held at 4315 NE Garfield Ave. Please pre-register by responding to this post.

My advice to beginning Argentine tango dancers

Welcome, new dancers! I love the first day of class, watching people who come in saying, "Well, I've never danced before" or "I can't dance" go out there and DANCE! I've learned a lot about tango and about teaching tango in the thirteen years I have taught it. Here is what I would have focused on when I started if I had known then what I know now:

1. Have FUN! Many of you came to class with friends or a spouse. You came to enjoy being with other people and learning a new skill. This is not supposed to be the stressful part of your day. Don't worry if you don't have a step perfectly: are you smiling? Do you feel better after class? Did it feel fun, at least for a minute? Good!
   
2.  Make mistakes! Experiment! When I learned tango, I took it very seriously and did not have fun. I think I could have learned the same amount faster if I had just relaxed and let myself make mistakes. Tango attracts a lot of detail-oriented, intelligent professionals who are used to being very good at what they do. Learning something new as an adult can be difficult because we don't allow ourselves much space to make mistakes or experiment. You do not have to do tango perfectly in order to have a good dance.
   
3. Focus on the fundamentals of tango: breath, energy, connection to another person. The steps are secondary to the exquisiteness of taking another person into your arms, tuning into their breath and energy, and then moving together. Most dance partners do not care how many steps you know. When the dance is over, do you want them to say, "My, s/he knows a lot of steps!" or do you want them to say, "Oh my goodness, that was fabulous! That felt wonderful!" Learn the music. I play many different orchestras during class. When you hear something you really like, ask me what it was.
   
4. Listen to different orchestras. Pick one CD, or five songs from iTunes (or go crazy and buy everything in sight). Play that music while you drive, cook, get ready for bed, etc. When those songs are in your body, you will know how to move to them.
   
5. Practice! You are lucky to have a practica in Salem. I encourage you to go to practice even with one or two hours of dance under your belt. You will learn much more quickly if you take the risk to dance with other people who look much more advanced. They remember being beginners and would love to dance with you. Try to go at least once or twice during this class, and you will find that it really speeds up how quickly you learn.
   

THEN, after those things are working, worry about the steps. I will teach you the basic steps during this class. In six weeks, you will have enough to get around the dance floor and have other people know you are doing Argentine tango. You can stop there, or spend a year, five years, or the rest of your life learning tango. It's your choice--or is it? They say that "Tango te agarra o no te agarra" (Tango hooks you in, or it doesn't). See you next week!

Beginning milonga (Salem tango)

Great work tonight, folks!

Here are the new steps we learned tonight:

• stepping "side together" line-of-dance, either with leader facing the center of the room, or facing out.
• cuadrado (square): "side (like the salida) maybe no side together connect"--as in walking to the cross with a salida, leader steps to the left with left, walks to the "inside" of the follower ("maybe"), forward into the center track ("no"), to the right with right, step together (weight change to left foot in place), and (if desired) step backwards line-of-direction with the right, to start again. By the way, some folks would say that the back step is the first step in the sequence. Remember, the cuadrado can be done very square to line-of-dance, or can be more like a blob, rotating.
• cuadrado variation (step togethers--as desired--before completing the step backwards or walking forwards instead), add onto the "side together" component of the cuadrado. I often do three "side together" sequences here, but any number works.
• vai ven (go-come) step: 6-steps, 6 beats: "Forward in place in place, backwards in place in place"--remember to focus on this being three sets of duple beat (12 12 12) in order to combat the ballroom dancer folks' tendency to make this a waltz hesitation step. Also, although the energy of the move has a wave-like feeling, try not to rise and fall: keep it on an even keel!
• vai ven with traveling turn combination: My favorite way to use vai ven is to follow it with a traveling turn (I learned this from Daniel Trenner, way back in my tango Dark Ages!): After a full vai ven, the leader walks "forward maybe side step" to end facing out of the circle (follower is doing a side step facing into the circle); then flips to walk backwards BUT line-of-direction, leading the follower to do "forward maybe side step" before ending by walking forward line-of-dance again. The follower's steps during the second half copy the leader's steps during the first half of the turn.

The other thing we worked on tonight was a variation on a drill that Tete taught me in Buenos Aires in 2000. He had all the leaders walk in a circle around the room while he yelled "Turn! The other way! Half turn!" etc., and we practiced just changing our facing. Then, we tried to do the same things with a follower attached, without changing the drill to "help" our followers change direction. What I learned from both leading and following this drill was that the direction to move was clearer to the follower when the leader just faced a new direction, than when s/he "helped" the follower arrive in the right place.

I use Tete's drill as a jumping off point for more organic tango movement. Instead of figuring out what move to do, I can walk around the dance floor, facing into the circle or out (side together steps), switching from those to forward or back walks (1/4 turns or 1/2 turns if I am facing forward/back to start). Then, I make sure I am turning both clockwise and counterclockwise to gain proficiency in both directions. When I am really dancing, I let the music and the space dictate when I change orientation. I also add other steps into this pattern (like the vai ven and the traveling turn) as the music/space allow. Dancing this way, I KNOW that I can adjust to the space I have, so I let the dance happen and the steps occur in the moment, rather than planning ahead.

I find that this approach feels much freer and in the groove than: "OK, I walked to the cross. Now, I think I will set up a counter-clockwise traveling turn, and then I'll do a cuadrado." When you plan like that, you rarely have the space to follow your plan, and having a plan limits how you can adapt to the space you have. Try to just get out there, turn your brain off, and dance. I'm not saying you shouldn't think while doing tango; it's fine to enjoy an intellectual exercise in tango as well. However, for me, doing milonga is about cutting loose from that and grooving with the music and my partner!

Off to London!  See you for the next class on September 16th!

Vals musicality workshop (Salem tango)

Good work last night, folks!

Last night, we began class with a variation on Luciana Valle's drill that I call "Bim bam" (from the noises she uses for syncopation). There are several different ways to use the music:

• 1 2 3 1 2 3--move on count 1 of each measure
• 1 2 3 1 2 3--moving on counts 1 and 3 of the measure for a SLOW quick SLOW quick
• 1 2 3 1 2 3 --moving on counts  1 and 2 of the measure for a QUICK slow QUICK slow feeling 
• 1 2 3 1 2 3--moving on counts 1, 2 and 3 (please use this sparingly!) for QUICK QUICK QUICK slow
• using pauses (remember to begin on count 1 after a pause!)

Using those ideas, we did:

• the Blob: interacting with your group to make a "melody" of syncopation (think scat singing!)
• Backseat driver: leading your partner around, getting the hang of combining all the possibilities, without stepping on toes
• Dancing: here we go!

As you discovered, more people have trouble finding the 12.12. variation. However, by the end of the evening, some of you had it nicely!

Teaching (not so-) old dogs new tricks:
We then worked on variations of timing in steps that we already do; going to the cross and turns, in particular.

Turns: Using either counts 1 and 3, or counts 1 and 2, for the QUICK QUICK steps in the turn. In addition, you can slow everything down to using only count 1 per step, or speed up to all quicks, although your follower may not like you after that!

Going to the cross: The only way I can remember these when I am trying to do a bunch of different variations, is to sing them to myself. When I dance, I just do what feels right, but I may not be able to tell you which variation I did.

• MAYBE yes cross (in 1 2 3 1) timing
• MAYBE yes cross (in 1 2 3 1) timing
• maybe YES CROSS walk (in 1 2 3 1) timing
• maybe YES CROSS walk (in 1 2 3 1) timing
• Of course, all slows (1 2 3 1 2 3) timing is a nice standby

Rock steps: You can use all the timings in rock steps as well, either in place or to change direction. We played with these in the rock step turns that we learned a few weeks ago.

There are TONS more places to play with rhythm, and we'll learn some new moves next week for milonga, as well as in the new session in September, that you will be able to apply to vals as well.

Musicality: We mostly danced to Canaro's valses for this class. However, different orchestras have different flavors of vals. I like Tanturi, d'Arienzo, Biagi (hard but fun) and Laurenz as well, and recently have started to learn Lomuto and Donato's music.

Listen to a piece of music: what does it suggest that you do? Which syncopations are evident in the song? Do you want to play along and mirror those? Do you want to create a counterpoint of your own rhythms? Try different things!

See you next week for milonga!

Follower class in Portland on August 18th

Next Monday, I will be teaching a one-time follower's technique class at 7 PM.  Rachel, Yaju and Adrienne are coming from Eugene, and a bunch of Portlanders will be here.  Should be fun! I'll try to get to all of you separately, but if you read this, please bring heels and low shoes/socks with you.  Thanks!

This will be mostly work based on Oscar and Georgina's drills and concepts, but I have also learned a lot from Luciana Valle about follower's technique, so some of the work grows out of my studies with her as well.

If you have not yet signed up, I have four more slots available. Let me know at ewartluf@gmail.com, or reply to this blog entry. The aim is to all go out dancing after the class