Class 1 Chicho/Juana
moving in different directions
- leading follower to go one way while leader goes another
- basic elements: follower straight back South while leader goes diagonal to SE, bring follower SE and leader back sacada, both going back step with elasticity, into a turn, into a leg wrap gancho, into leading her behind and stopping her on the front step of molinete, then bringing her back behind and meeting her.
Class 3 Chicho/Juana
colgadas
- from side step sandwich, back colgada to a side colgada then back step for leader (front for follower)
- front step for follower on right foot, leader steps past her foot behind her leg, into a forward colgada to a side turned pivot colgada
- sending the follower behind (making sure she grabs the shoulder) to a back colgada behind the leader
- forward ocho to a half turn, leader hold on to follower's arms and leads a front colgada. Follower should stay with leader when she is facing forward.
Showing posts with label tango. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tango. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Tango Element Saturday
Class 1 Arce/Montes
Turns
- Ex. 1 walking in a circular motion, thinking enveloping partners both cross system and parallel
- Ex. 2 leading a follower's half molinete circularly on both sides both cross and parallel
The main idea is to keep the turning feeling, not "turn, walk, turn, walk"
Class 2 Sidrid/Yanick
Rebounds
Class 3 Chicho/Juana
Turns
- Ex. 1 walking in a circular motion, thinking enveloping partners both cross system and parallel
- Ex. 2 leading a follower's half molinete circularly on both sides both cross and parallel
The main idea is to keep the turning feeling, not "turn, walk, turn, walk"
Class 2 Sidrid/Yanick
Rebounds
Class 3 Chicho/Juana
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Tango Element Friday
Spent a good chunk of the day hanging out by the pool, sunbathing, taking quick dips, working on the paper, taking a trip to the sauna, working, taking a dip, repeat... It was great! I think I get way more work done this way.
Class 1 Chicho/Juana
Ganchos
1 We worked on leaders gancho. Leading the follower to a forward open step and the leader stepping back at the same time in a line with the follower's feet. Leader keeps upper body turned to follower but rotates hips away to make the gancho easier.
2 Now a follower's gancho. From a forward cross, send the follower away and release her right hand. Use a rebound to keep the follower from collecting. Follower should be holding on to leader's elbow with her left hand. Then leader changes weight to right leg and brings follower back for a rotational gancho.
3. Leader gancho. From back crosses, lead follower to a side step that is almost behind the leader. Position hips away from the follower for the gancho.
Then the sequence was 1, 3, 2. But the main take away from this class is that the couple is dancing as a UNIT so the leader needs to know and be acutely aware of where all the legs, bodies, arms, etc of the UNIT are in space. If the leader feels that two of the legs of the unit are not in a comofortable place for a gancho then a gancho should not be attempted.
The thing that really impresses me about Chicho is his Zen-like approach to dancing. When he comes around to help people he really just takes his time to feel what it's like dancing with them and moving with them, trying tiny baby step by baby step, playing with the follower, seeing how any small body movement is interpreted by the follower's body. He doesn't just come over and wham bam the sequence and to show that of course it can be done. He takes all the time in the world. He suggested in one class that people who are practicing or trying to learn something new in tango to ask themselves 10 questions and try to answer those 10 questions before coming to him for help. It's not that he doesn't want to help, but that it takes time to understand how two bodies work together, especially if they are not already familiar with each other, and that you should take time to understand how this particular dancing unit works together.
The classes I've taken with Chicho are perhaps my favorite so far. He builds each class in such a simple easy way that makes hard material easy to understand. He also impresses me with how deeply he thinks about tango. I feel like he's taken apart the dance, focused on various pieces, put them back together in a completely different way, taken it apart again, and so forth. He's like an engineer or a scientist! The main thing is that he is constantly creating, not just recreating. He's writing the word, not just following the word.
Class 2 Arce/Montes
Changing dynamics - playing with time, distance, length
1. Slowing down a step way down with a feeling of lift and then a rebound back in "normal" time.
2. Leader's little steps while keeping follower stepping normal sized steps. In this exercise, it was leaders stepping double time and surrounding the follower to lead her to an ocho cortado. Leader takes steps A-G, follower A-C.
3. Playing with height in boleos, either spiraling up or down. We did a spiral down boleo to a pasada.
Class 3
Volcadas
1. Leading follower to a cross behind (not a back volcada). Then leading the followers weight shift then into a volcada, using elastic compression in the embrace to rebound the follower out. Stopping the follower on two feet using right arm (left hand has been released), then bringing her back in for a follower 180 pivot, keeping the hand low and giving her the pivot with the hand. The hand also stops her pivot. Follower is facing away from leader, in the crook of the arm Then one step together and the leader takes an extra step to lead a side volcada into a forward step for the follower away from the leader. Then rebound back in to face leader and immediately to another forward volcada.
Class 1 Chicho/Juana
Ganchos
1 We worked on leaders gancho. Leading the follower to a forward open step and the leader stepping back at the same time in a line with the follower's feet. Leader keeps upper body turned to follower but rotates hips away to make the gancho easier.
2 Now a follower's gancho. From a forward cross, send the follower away and release her right hand. Use a rebound to keep the follower from collecting. Follower should be holding on to leader's elbow with her left hand. Then leader changes weight to right leg and brings follower back for a rotational gancho.
3. Leader gancho. From back crosses, lead follower to a side step that is almost behind the leader. Position hips away from the follower for the gancho.
Then the sequence was 1, 3, 2. But the main take away from this class is that the couple is dancing as a UNIT so the leader needs to know and be acutely aware of where all the legs, bodies, arms, etc of the UNIT are in space. If the leader feels that two of the legs of the unit are not in a comofortable place for a gancho then a gancho should not be attempted.
The thing that really impresses me about Chicho is his Zen-like approach to dancing. When he comes around to help people he really just takes his time to feel what it's like dancing with them and moving with them, trying tiny baby step by baby step, playing with the follower, seeing how any small body movement is interpreted by the follower's body. He doesn't just come over and wham bam the sequence and to show that of course it can be done. He takes all the time in the world. He suggested in one class that people who are practicing or trying to learn something new in tango to ask themselves 10 questions and try to answer those 10 questions before coming to him for help. It's not that he doesn't want to help, but that it takes time to understand how two bodies work together, especially if they are not already familiar with each other, and that you should take time to understand how this particular dancing unit works together.
The classes I've taken with Chicho are perhaps my favorite so far. He builds each class in such a simple easy way that makes hard material easy to understand. He also impresses me with how deeply he thinks about tango. I feel like he's taken apart the dance, focused on various pieces, put them back together in a completely different way, taken it apart again, and so forth. He's like an engineer or a scientist! The main thing is that he is constantly creating, not just recreating. He's writing the word, not just following the word.
Class 2 Arce/Montes
Changing dynamics - playing with time, distance, length
1. Slowing down a step way down with a feeling of lift and then a rebound back in "normal" time.
2. Leader's little steps while keeping follower stepping normal sized steps. In this exercise, it was leaders stepping double time and surrounding the follower to lead her to an ocho cortado. Leader takes steps A-G, follower A-C.
3. Playing with height in boleos, either spiraling up or down. We did a spiral down boleo to a pasada.
Class 3
Volcadas
1. Leading follower to a cross behind (not a back volcada). Then leading the followers weight shift then into a volcada, using elastic compression in the embrace to rebound the follower out. Stopping the follower on two feet using right arm (left hand has been released), then bringing her back in for a follower 180 pivot, keeping the hand low and giving her the pivot with the hand. The hand also stops her pivot. Follower is facing away from leader, in the crook of the arm Then one step together and the leader takes an extra step to lead a side volcada into a forward step for the follower away from the leader. Then rebound back in to face leader and immediately to another forward volcada.
Friday, August 7, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Milonga/Practica Roundup 1
Tango Soho (Thursday night at Villa Malcolm)
- Candles and red table cloths transforms the space at Villa Malcolm into romantic milonga-land. The stone floor is big but can get crowded. The crowd is a good mix of ages, dancing styles and levels. People seem to be friendly here.
Tango Cool (Friday at Villa Malcolm)
- Younger nuevo crowd at this no frills milonga. Every once in a while, they'll throw in a tanda of alternative.
Parakultural Friday (Salon Canning)
- Old school milonga. Beautiful space. The dance floor is nice but small and crowded until after 2am or so. The cabacea is definitely employed here. Music is strictly traditional. Pulpo showed up as I was leaving.
La Viruta (Sunday at Armenia Social Club)
- A strange mix of tango, swing and salsa with the circles not necessarily intersecting. The DJ will play 30 mins of swing followed by 1 hour of tango followed by 30 minutes of salsa followed by 1 hour of tango and so on. The best time to go is after 1 am, when the swing crowd thins out a bit and more tango folk show up. This is the milonga where the up and coming dancers go to hang out and dance with their friends.
El Motivo (Monday at Villa Malcolm)
- A fun practica. There's room on the dance floor to try your new moves and it's the same crowd that shows up to all the other Villa Malcolm events.
Parakultural Monday (Salon Canning)
- When El Motivo ends at 1am, everyone walks over to Canning to finish the night. It's basically a repeat of the Parakultural Friday.
Practica X (Medrano 476)
- the level of the dancing here is through the roof and leans towards nuevo style. The room is somewhat awkward - chairs lining the walls (which makes the cabaceo hard to do) and then a large area tucked waaaay back with tables that no one sits at because it would mean tango suicide. There were twice as many followers here than leaders. The floor was large but horrendously gravelly. I was wincing every time I had to pivot.
Buenos Aires Club (Saturday night at Peru 571)
- I saw Tanghetto here! It's a small space but the dance floor is nice and generally spacious. The milonga doesn't get started until 12:30 am. I tried to get there early to get a table and was gently turned away at the door because the club was hosting a rock concert right then and they didn't want me to have to sit through that. How did they know I was there to tango and not rock out?
- Candles and red table cloths transforms the space at Villa Malcolm into romantic milonga-land. The stone floor is big but can get crowded. The crowd is a good mix of ages, dancing styles and levels. People seem to be friendly here.
Tango Cool (Friday at Villa Malcolm)
- Younger nuevo crowd at this no frills milonga. Every once in a while, they'll throw in a tanda of alternative.
Parakultural Friday (Salon Canning)
- Old school milonga. Beautiful space. The dance floor is nice but small and crowded until after 2am or so. The cabacea is definitely employed here. Music is strictly traditional. Pulpo showed up as I was leaving.
La Viruta (Sunday at Armenia Social Club)
- A strange mix of tango, swing and salsa with the circles not necessarily intersecting. The DJ will play 30 mins of swing followed by 1 hour of tango followed by 30 minutes of salsa followed by 1 hour of tango and so on. The best time to go is after 1 am, when the swing crowd thins out a bit and more tango folk show up. This is the milonga where the up and coming dancers go to hang out and dance with their friends.
El Motivo (Monday at Villa Malcolm)
- A fun practica. There's room on the dance floor to try your new moves and it's the same crowd that shows up to all the other Villa Malcolm events.
Parakultural Monday (Salon Canning)
- When El Motivo ends at 1am, everyone walks over to Canning to finish the night. It's basically a repeat of the Parakultural Friday.
Practica X (Medrano 476)
- the level of the dancing here is through the roof and leans towards nuevo style. The room is somewhat awkward - chairs lining the walls (which makes the cabaceo hard to do) and then a large area tucked waaaay back with tables that no one sits at because it would mean tango suicide. There were twice as many followers here than leaders. The floor was large but horrendously gravelly. I was wincing every time I had to pivot.
Buenos Aires Club (Saturday night at Peru 571)
- I saw Tanghetto here! It's a small space but the dance floor is nice and generally spacious. The milonga doesn't get started until 12:30 am. I tried to get there early to get a table and was gently turned away at the door because the club was hosting a rock concert right then and they didn't want me to have to sit through that. How did they know I was there to tango and not rock out?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Packing for BA
Yes, it's only a day away. I started packing and someone decided he wants to come with:
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Tango Orchestra Notes
Patcho: folksy, simple, no melody, flutes
Canaro: simple, sweet violins, introduced double bass, if you can't place it then it might be Canaro
Firpo: introduced piano, early, carnival?
Fresedo: trained diSarli and Canaro, had classical training
deCaro: simple but every phrase has a different character and style, element of suspense throughout song, mood keeps changing, wound up like spring
Biagi: crisp piano, pianist for D'Arienzo, strong emphasis on upbeats
Canaro: simple, sweet violins, introduced double bass, if you can't place it then it might be Canaro
Firpo: introduced piano, early, carnival?
Fresedo: trained diSarli and Canaro, had classical training
deCaro: simple but every phrase has a different character and style, element of suspense throughout song, mood keeps changing, wound up like spring
Biagi: crisp piano, pianist for D'Arienzo, strong emphasis on upbeats
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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.
- 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.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Comme Il Faut Disastor!
The heel tips on my cute CIL's were getting worn down and uneven so I thought I would take them to a local shoe repair shop (Abbott's Shoe Repair in Newark, Delaware) to have them changed. Mistake, mistake, mistake! I got the shoes back and the heels were so ugly! They had scratched up and dented the end of the heel, put on heels tips that were too big so the line of the heel was broken and did not put the heel tip on all the way so that there is a big gap between the heel and the tip. I'll post pictures later when I've stopped crying. From now on, I'll only replace my heel tips at a store that has high satisfaction with many tangueras. This might mean going to NYC or B.A. Ugh. So mad at Abbott's!!!
***Update*** Armed with a tough looking male friend, I went back to Abbots to tell them about their shoddy work and ask for a refund. When I showed them the heels, they started to take them to the back while shouting "These shoes are real problems for us," as if it were the stupid shoe's fault not theirs. We prevented them from doing more work, they got super angry at us for telling them that they scratched up the heel (as if it weren't true and right before their eyes), some money was thrown at us and basically we were told to leave the store. Yeah, they could work on their customer service...
***Update*** Armed with a tough looking male friend, I went back to Abbots to tell them about their shoddy work and ask for a refund. When I showed them the heels, they started to take them to the back while shouting "These shoes are real problems for us," as if it were the stupid shoe's fault not theirs. We prevented them from doing more work, they got super angry at us for telling them that they scratched up the heel (as if it weren't true and right before their eyes), some money was thrown at us and basically we were told to leave the store. Yeah, they could work on their customer service...
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