Skip to main content

Balmaceda y Vasconi Beginner Lesson Notes

Been having these notes stuck in my phone for over a month now, so here's to more practicing and remembering!

Basic Weight Transfer & Movement

- Transfer your weight wholly, visualise your hip as a cover for your leg so when you switch legs or move, the cover should always end up on top. Never leave weight behind or in between.
- When you move to the side, at the half way point you have to collect, and this has to be natural. Think of the landing point as where you want all your weight to ground down on and to be and lift the free foot to make sure that all weight is truly on the standing one.
- Keep the thoughts of the "hip as a cover", the hip is the motor that powers the movement, the chest acts as presence and intent and the leg ultimately is the resolution.

Finding your axis

- Think of four strings, one at the top at the head vertical, one from your chest forward, one from your hip backward to counter the chest, and one from the knee forward.
- To find your axis, this is therefore a forward pull from the chest, an upward pull from the head, a counter back pull from the hip and the knees are soft and springy.
- Another visual is to think of two walls surrounding your front and back, one in front of the chest and aligned with the toes and one at the back of your hip/butt aligned with your heels. You always try and keep this balance so you are not too far front or back.
- A tip to think of the movement is this, when you generate energy to step forward, you do not overcompensate by moving to the tips of your toes, because you will then pitch forward. Instead, try and move the weight to the heel to counter an extreme movement. Same goes for backward, do not start moving the weight toward the heel, move the weight to the front of the foot as a counter. This helps control the movement smoothly and stops the pitching back and forth.
- The size of the foot is a final estimation for how far forward and back you can rock your weight without being off balance. This is also a limit to your maximum movement.

Circles
- There is an orb of energy, like a DNA spiral up and then down in a mobius loop.
- To go right, the circles goes from the top to the left. To go forward, the orb is moving from the top, in front of you and past you.
- The human energy in the body is an 8, alternating swinging arms and legs, where if you see a monkey, it walks in an 0, with the same leg and same arm. .

Ochos
- The guys movement for Ochos requires a movement around with the hips and not the drop of the shoulder. The girls movement occurs where the hip arrives square above the foot then the rotation happens. This is what makes is seamless. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stages

It's funny how I often think of topics to write at moments where I have nothing to write them on, which results in me typing a one-liner in my sms column as a trigger which later when I go back to refer to tends to make absolutely no sense to me! But yes anyway, Tango stages! 1) You have entirely NO idea what the hell the dance is about and walking seems like the most impossible thing to do. You jump up and down inside when you finally manage 5 meters w/o crashing into each other and are elated when the instructor comes over and leads you in a way that you actually feel like you know what you doing. You go away completely and utterly motivated to want to know more. 2) Basics are handed to you, ochos! impossible things! Molinete's! wtf, my legs can do that....omg leader why are you a beginner too! 3)Sacadas and ganchos and all the other good stuff. Now we're talking. 4)After getting to know the community and everyone around (obviously Tango isn't just a dance,

My Tango Diaries: Lesson with Alejandro Gée and his partner, Joujou

My Tango Diaries: Lesson with Alejandro Gée and his partner, Joujou : From Alejandro Gée's studio - more pictures and info from his website here: http://tangoalejandrogee.com/ The Lesson with Alejan... 1.) Sink into the standing knee first instead of stepping/falling straight back into the back step. (I've heard that before - not sure why I can't seem to remember to do that.) According to Alejandro, basically the sequence would be: 1. Sink the weight into the floor through the standing leg (here’s where the knee bends slightly in order to be able to push the weight of the body back in the next step), while straight,   free leg extends backwards   caressing the floor with no weight on it and torso reaches towards the partner.   The standing hip is strong and grounded, the free hip is relaxed and opening backwards as a natural continuation of the leg. The knee is straight. 2.   Weight transfer: heel of the leg extended backwards goes into the floor and the sam

Tango oh Tango

I love you, I hate you, you make my feet hurt like shit and you give me so many bloody insecurities and bruised big toes I might as well hide in a corner and never emerge. I'll never conquer you and I'll spend my whole life (and too much money) trying to perfect you, before realizing what I needed was the very thing I started off with, but am slowly losing...rawness. I live you, I breathe you, you  brought  me in touch with so many people and a couple that are unforgettable...that's what you are. Maybe you'll end up being my bridge, my connector, in fact, you already are, to myself, to friends, to lovers, to memories, to a past to living in moments suspended together, to jealousy, envy, pride, embarassment, to futures and foreign places. To big old santa claus guys proclaiming tango as heroin, to musty May nights in Triangulo missing someone, to 24 hour flights and 4 day festivals, to reconnecting as never before, to La Cumparsitas x 10, to barefoot Tango in kitchen