Skip to main content

Tangueras!

Wednesday session with a flood of women, something around the ratio of 1:3 minimum so the female leads decided to take matters into their own hands. Beautifully fun though, I often feel that women have innately a greater sense of musicality because they are not worried about doing multiple fancy moves (mainly because they haven't been taught it). There's also something very nice about a woman's embrace-and a lot of boob wars going on- which lets you feel for an instant what you might actually feel like to a guy.

Still trying to sort out my own lead though, I feel somewhat limited in the movements and there are so many I would like to do, but I don't have the tools or the language to do it. It's also potentially because I'm treating leading as a 'self-learning' thing, thinking that since I already know it's counter move that I can deduce the lead. Unfortunately this doesn't occur a lot of times. There's also this abject panic of knowing that "shit, shit, that beat is coming up and it would be great for a molinete!" then panicking, overdoing it and executing too early.

There's also this dichotomy of walk walk, ocho, walk, ocho that I seem to be trapped in. I really do wonder what it's like dancing with me as a lead and I also don't know whether it's fun as a follower to execute on this dual track anyway. Hmmm, time for more experimentation...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020

Ah 2020. You have been upended in the most ridiculous way possible by a virus that has destroyed every single activity we do for fun, leisure, pleasure, necessity, survival. Because, humans. Was so looking forward to a year of dancing starting with the Taiwan Valentine's Tango Marathon, leading into STM v5, London, Portugal and maybe BA by the end of the year. Guess what! ALL GONE, DESTROYED. It has been a year since I went to a marathon/event. I am probably the saddest I have been when it comes to the dance front. 11 years ago I made it such a part of my identity that it has accompanied me through the years of visiting different cities for work, for holiday, for weddings, for connections, for reunions with exes, for meeting new interests. Shaped my 20's like nothing else has and only grows stronger year after year. 2020 was the reset required. Mentally, emotionally. This relationship with Tango remains my strongest and most developed of my many relationships with many a...
Post a Comment
Read more

I cannot meet you at this point right now...

I've always had the notion that Tango was about being able to dance with anyone. Granted, the abstractness and lead-follow of the dance, often means that you are able to match most people as long as you are of a certain level. But sometimes, even if you are able to follow them, their styles might just not match yours...for now. Recently had a dance with a new visiting lead, first tanda was a lower energy Tango, where I thought, "OK, not bad, but nothing out of the ordinary". Then he asked me to dance a milonga, and that was where I was truly mind blown. Apparently, his language was speed and dynamic, not melodic and languorous, no pauses here! But it was exactly what I needed at that point in time. This was confirmed again by an energetic D'Arienzo on the final milonga night, matching energies, matching intentions, a similar way of hearing the beats, the syncopation and the lead/follow. Beautiful! Reminds me, again and again why Tango is so addictive. Akin to an unexp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simple

After the countless videos, watching the performances by passing Tango teachers, performances by stage Tango dancers, sitting and absorbing Milongas, the one couple that sticks in my mind has to be T and his fiance who met through Tango in Argentina. Their seamless blending, the fact that she didn't even need to be wearing shoes and their swapping of roles. Even though I was exposed to this early on the clueless beginnings of Tango, you could already appreciate the intimacy between the two. In hindsight after a bit more experience, it becomes even clearer that, that would be the ultimate Tango experience. It's like staring at something without the tools to understand it, then later when you come back with the tools in hand, it hits you, "ah hah!" that's what it is! It's like being told, "this will be useful in life later, trust me", and staring at math sets that have no correlation with your life, until later when you're facing a job assessme...
2 comments
Read more