Tango Element Thursday

In sunny Baltimore! I'm not kidding. It was a dreary drizzly day when I left Delaware and the sun was just peeking out when I got into the hotel. The Tremont is amazing! It's a tiny narrow hotel but with 37 floors. The hallway looks like it was made for dwarves (of the Snow White variety). Surprisingly, the rooms are large, there's a hang out nook, a kitchenette, a walkin closet that leads to the bathroom and the little toiletries are soooo cute! There are two huge windows looking over Baltimore and let the sun in. Hung out by the tiny outdoor pool for a bit and went for a quick dip gazing up at the towering hotel windows and the whitewashed wall hung with geraniums of the apartment next door. Met a beautiful girl from Norway on the elevator ride back to my room. Then off to the first classes with Sebastien Arce & Mariana Montes and Chicho & Juana.

Class 1 with Arce/Montes
- worked on taking advantage of torsion instead of initiating torsion. We walked in close embrace in circles both ways around the clock. Then learned how important it is how we place our foot on the ground because it determines the length of our steps. We moved on to movements where the leader and follower take turns orbiting each other, focusing on the surrounding each other and paying attention to rythm and timing.
- the first step is going clockwise. First leader surrounds, then follower surrounds in a half molinete, during this time the leader has changed feet and as the follower takes the forward step, he goes for her back foot and surrounds again which leads to a whooshy feeling of a turn before the leader takes a back step and follower takes a forward step together.
- then we did it on the other side but ended in a opened embrace that somehow turned into a circle around the follower that ended in a leader's back sacada.

Class 2 with Chicho/Juana
- we did an exercise where the followers did forward and back ochos/crosses with the leader changing her dircection once in a while. The change should happen when her hips have pivoted as far as they can
- then we worked exclusively with forward boleos. The leaders trying to make the mark clear and slighly more apparent. The followers keeping their supporting leg flexed and letting the free leg come up and down again at the end of the pivot and not while you're turning. I kept tightening up my thighs which made the boleo hard to do so Juana came over and told me to relax the legs and gave me an enlightening demo of how it's done. Think elephant trunk swinging and wrapping around a tree.
- we switched directions and worked on back boleos. the main thing here is to let the free leg fully go instead of keeping the boleo below the knee. So instead of keeping the legs together and just bending the knee, let the thighs relax and really open up the legs.
- what we were building up to is a colgada boleo where the circular nature is formed parallel to the floor in the follower's body rather than perpendicular to the floor around the follower's body and the idea of rebound is important. Basically the follower has to have a good grip on the leader to be able to receive the boleo.


Btw, whole world, I'm in love with Juana. She is so gracious and just had an amused smile during the whole class and had really great insights into the material. She seemed to have fun and was comfortable coming around to help everyone. She didn't get frustrated with leaders who were having trouble. She just kept laughing and encouranging them and helping them get the feeling in their body. All the teachers have been excellent so far. They are working their butt off! They come around and help everyone and are eager to explain the material clearly so that we can understand. Mariana is an outstanding dancer. She has such control of her body with a superb balance of tension/control with relaxed ability to follow improvisation and changes in dynamics. Sebastian is so precise and you don't realize how complex his dancing is until you're analyzing the details of those "simple" five steps he just did and you can't for the life of you figure it out. Chicho is just, um, legendary. I really don't need to say any of this since they already have their following for good reason but I just am super impressed so far.

Baltimore Tango Festival Notes

Super convoluted notes that ran through my head after classes. These were made for the sake of jogging my memory later. I'll probably still think "WTF?" when I read them later.


Classe 1: Altas - High sacadas

- contrabody
- practicing having weight stable on one foot.
- practicing contrabody torsion in chest both rotationally and linearly
- practicing swinging free foot without affecting balance
- having partner swing your foot up with momentum and releasing
- gyros around each other with sacadas feeling the rounded motion
- gyros with sacadaing foot aimed more towards follower's stable leg and high on her thigh

Class 2. Hooks and catches

- rounded movement
- as follower takes front step of gyros, leader hooks her foot with his back foot
- hooked ankles should be very tight together.
- keep pivoting follower until her hips are facing away from you
- straighten hook leg for a leg wrap while moving circularly
- can also do a hook and then a circular side step

Sat Class 1: Movement by induction
- two step gyro
leader:
- first take a side step with toes pointed in direction that you want to go
- bring back foot to front foot, change weight, change weight again and back cross
- pivot follower (notice how the level of your hips affect this)
- lead a circular side step

- circular side step involves moving butt in an arc but keeping your upper body stable on your hips and keeping your spine straight as you twist your torso around it.
- sacadas in the two step gyro

Class 2: Boleos from nowhere

- start a circular movement around follower like you are stalking her but keep her from stepping at all. she should look like she is on two feet. however, the direction that you go around her will dictate which foot/leg she'll have more weight on (again contrabody feeling). When going around her, drop hip of free leg and face her. Turn her upper body without her stepping by leaving her where she is or grounding her. There should be no tension created between you.


Class 3: dynamics

- adornment for followers. 'tak' (quick foot in front before linear steps)
- going to cross -> instead of crossing normally, open away from leader and cross. tap floor, step step 'tak' in front... god this doesn't make any sense. anyways this class had lots of great exercises.

Sunday
Class 1: enrosques

one major idea: in tango you walk and pivot. when walking you are pushing of the ground. grounding feet, pushing with feet against ground but extending upper body. all of upper body should be sitting straight on top of your hips. in the contrabody, there is stretching along diagonal from bottom of ribs to opposite hip. Think of taking a shot in the bottom of your ribs.

for the enrosque, lead the follower around you and build torsion (contrabody). Then move from one diagonal to the other by pivoting your hips.

Class 2: turns in close embrace

again contrabody. when stepping back for follower, keep sacrum and pubic bone perpendicular to the ground. For leader to start the turn, there needs to be induction or contrabody. M and C teach not the A frame but that each person is perpendicular to ground so back isn't bent.

Stepping on the half beat

Class 3: Leg wraps

- relaxed and lazy
- standing at bus stop
- recoiling away from an enemy --> idea of contrabody
- when sweeping foot for leg wrap, think circular, not linear
- when there is contact and understanding between points of contact, in this case the ankles, then can move that point wherever you like/is possible.

Contrabody workout

Last night in class we went over many exercises to improve awareness of the contrabody movement in tango. Some good tips were:

- standing with feet shoulder width apart, rotate torso around spine, keeping the torso in one complete block (ie. not pushing shoulders, keeping shoulders same distance from each other, not bending at the waist). Repeat with feet and lower body by sliding one foot past the other one like a scissor.

- take one half step back and look at the back foot over the opposite shoulder. Repeat without looking but with the same contrabody feel. Repeat with both forward and backward steps.

- feel contrabody while walking backwards, remembering to keep the side of the hip that is connected to the foot going backwards level with the direction you are facing. In other words, don't let your hips swivel when reaching back with your leg. Also, imagine that the ball of the foot is always in contact with the floor when you are reaching backwards. To do this, you need to not bend from the waist but rather swoop down with your whole body (bending your knee and reaching with the leg).

- with a partner, not in any particular embrace, take slow steps back and forth while being aware of the contrabodiness.

- step, collect, step, collect, repeat ad infinitum.

- to make a good connection, expand chest and then keep chest expanded by breathing with the diaphram and belly rather than your upper lungs.