Tangodurians

Hello 2022! Is this the year that we have finally recovered from COVID? At least I've stopped freaking out about being in a crowded space without the semblance of a shield called a facemask, just as I have mysteriously also never tested positive for COVID yet having the classic symptoms of its later manifestation. All that is to say, it's back to milongas and lessons in somewhat full force and having amnesia for the last 2 years. In the middle of Embrace Berlin right now which is an interesting coalition of turbocharged Tango milongas happening throughout the week, primarily enjoyed by the local community and feeling more of a home-turf Tango situation vs. an international weekend of cross country travelling. First ever lessons with Horacio Godoy y Maricel Giacomini and what a trove of historical/musical facts - musicality at its finest. 1930's Milonguero - 1920's and earlier music rhythm was based off a habanero rhythm with the melody line emphasising the beat on 1 and...

Off the back of a weekend that required me to leave work early and sleep cray hours to finally get back into a semi-human mode of work and sleep. Thoughts? When I first started tango, I jumped straight into a Fire & Ice festival in Ann Arbor January of 2010. That was my first taste of a tango festival which was relatively social and a good scene in hindsight. Coming back to Malaysia I've participated in the KL Festival every single year, Singapore festival twice, Taiwan festival once (24 hour on a whim - fuck it all flight), Shanghai festival once. Other than that the flavour of the day nowadays is definitely geared more toward marathons/encuentros, and for a good reason. Festivals in this part of the world are seriously so tipped toward a certain "type" that it is far more worth my money and sanity to go for the social dancing rather than the festival format. Granted, lessons were good, always learning, picking up new things. Competition was, so-so for me, was...

I've been mulling over a couple of topics in my head recently as the list of things to explore keeps growing and growing. It's not like these topics have not been covered before by any other Tango blogger, rather, I'd like to think this is an interpretation which best suits me, much like understanding math equation or concepts... The recent one revolves around why I want to improve. Certainly, as we progress in this dance, do we believe we reach a 'plateau', whether this be limited by our physicality, our understanding, or expectations, or judgement against one another. As a follower, my moves are limited in the sense of a structure and phrasing to what the lead is suggesting and obviously if the dictionary which the lead is reading from is only this big, so will I be mirroring it, no matter how nice my own collection, stability, axis, or stretch may be. So yes, the maturity of a community does determine how far we can reach both individually and as a collect...

It's always interesting dropping in on beginners classes because with far more expanded vocabulary, a key understanding of what works and what wasn't and all the sufferings and experiences you've gone through in crafting the final, somewhat balanced you for now, you can see how trying to transmit this to fresh slates reflects on a teachers craft. What better way to test your own understanding then in trying to teach? A far more technical class than I have ever encountered on the fine art of presenting an intent and where to put your arms. Take all the rules, learn them. Then break them all. As long as it works :). On the Beat - Movement is required to arrive to a place, if you want to get to your right leg by the fourth beat, you already have to start the momentum moving BEFORE the fourth beat. If you are still thinking about this concept by the third beat, you're probably too late. The Compression - Send the intent forward, followers will have to respond by ex...

To go forward you go back, to go left, you go right. Yes, sounds a lot like mumbo jumbo but its mumbo jumbo that works. Newton's 3rd law never came so much into play like it does with this level of teaching. CC 6 years ago loved new age stuff, seeked alternative tandas and poo-pooed MATC's stringent DJ-ing codes and way of teaching. Little would I know that this dichotomy continues and permeates through most of the world, especially in these surrounding areas, these surrounding countries. Re-discovering that taste buds have changed and much as like nuevo has become incorporated in some of the stuff we do, so has my taste veered back to danceable, dramatic but still traditional (read 1950's) music. Eeps. Tips to take away: - Embrace by sending out the chest, seeking for the other person's heart, everything should be led by the chest. Everything. - The arms then become a comfort blanket, changing and ebbing with the flow, but the heart is always connected. This ...

The more I learn things about this dance the more I do find myself getting frustrated. Yes I can move better, yes I can hold my own weight, yes I can do about 99% of moves but can I do it in a way that is beautiful, inspiring, musical, effortless? Likely not. The body is the tool, we receive the energy and direction through the chest, telling us: - Speed - Time - Direction - Force which translates from top to toe. Energy received up top, sends down all the way to the toes and that is why you never look at the feet, because it will tell you nothing. Everything is a movement generated from the chest. Everything. And yet again you hear, disassociate, disassociate, disassociate. Truly, this is the core of it, because if you can't do that, then everything will be reactionary and lag, rather than being complementary and together. Privates with Ariadna & Fernando, truly one of the first great couples that I encountered by hearsay in 2010 and then again with lessons in 2011....

Yup this! http://gancho.info/why-we-sometimes-fly-and-sometimes-crawl/ Syncopation is AMAZEBALLS.

Chalk up another Tango memory for the ages. Dancing. In the Rain. On Pavement. And a Speedbump. With a Crowd. The rain was the best part even though we all looked like drowned rats by the end with broken ankles and destroyed shoes, but wow. Gave life to the saying "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain." Been immersing myself in the Sg scene since I'm down and I must say that it's different and much as I'm missing home, so am I missing the KL scene with my wonderful female followers and crazy banter and milongas with S. Sigh. Truly home. But it's refreshing not quite knowing anyone and being surprised in this dance again. That has been nice. That and the mamak sessions post Tango where I pay 2.6x more the price of KL and have seemingly MSG-less maggi mee goreng (NOOOO). Healthier I guess and a lot orangier for some strange reason! I like this plateau I'm on. Granted my feet still aren'...

Tangoblitz wrapping up this weekend with Alejandra Hobart and Adrian Veredice, good sessions, always refreshing to see the level that professionals get up to. Notes, notes, notes! Parallel vs Cross Systems The L shaped lead-linear - Leader leads on dual track system (to the left and to the right of him) -Follower crosses across this track using a back step, side step and a cross over front ocho-forming L shapes zig-zagging back and forth -Leader strides forward on the beat while follower is on a 1+, 2 beat-option to twist the hip into a front boleo for the follower, leader must change weight with every 1-2 step -Leader starts on right foot and follower on left foot   which is the foot further away-Mirror start=parallel system-sacada happens to the cross over track (guy left, girl right) -Variation is to have leader start on left foot and follower on left foot-non-mirror=cross system-sacada happens on the parallel track (guy right, girl right) The L shaped lead-circu...

I remember reading about the stages of Tango Understanding we go through-(see http://www.tejastango.com/effortless_mastery.html) 1) Unconscious incompetence 2) Conscious incompetence 3) Conscious competence 4) Unconscious competence These definitions definitely hit the spot for describing how tango progresses. Point is this-the more I slip into the leader role the more I realise I have absolutely no idea how to recreate whatever moves I did at whatever point in time. No choreography because half the time I have no inkling of what made me do a move in the first place...except the music. It's all down to the music. So beautiful it hurts! :') Blitzing this weekend! WOOHOO.

Been putting on the hat of a leader over this past week and enjoying it even more. Yeah I have no idea how to do giros or sacadas, and don't talk about ganchos either, but what I've figured is that as long as musicality is there, as long as connection exists, both parties enjoy it. This has made me wonder about something though-I always thought that leaders were having all the fun at the start-in the sense that the steps that are taken in this dance are dependent on the leaders to have trained and learnt them-as a follower you can follow even if you don't know much about what you are doing, as long as the leader does. All the classes then seem to be about the leader's steps. But then I've also come to realise that, as a leader, you are expected to craft the dance to understand the steps through the viewpoint of the lady, and maybe this is where many teachers don't emphasize enough. That every step you take, you have to realise what signals you are giving ou...

So, the conversation has shifted. It's shifted away from the basics, from figuring out what is an ocho, or what is a molinete, or what is a giro, deep deep into the movements. It's moved from the tip to the iceberg and has just begun it's descent past the break of chilly water and down into the depths of the unknown. This is where the true teachers separate naturally from those who don't quite yet know what they are talking about. The conversations I've been having (with myself sometimes) has moved to the point of, how do you angle your ribs within the movement of the side step to set yourself up for the back cross? How do you receive the energy within the collection? How do you transfer the points of receptivity from chest to hips in a colgada? How do you slice through the air like hot butter through knife? How do you hold your own weight? How do you ground, connect, yet play as though you're a butterfly flitting through the air? Paradoxes, all over the pl...

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 tha...

Besides, most of us come to tango after having had a largely intellectual education. We live in our heads and our computers, not our bodies.   We try to process intellectually what is happening to us. This is not effective when learning movement. Your body works in ways you cannot fully fathom, let alone fully control by your mind. Do you control your digestion? Do you activate your heartbeat? Do you consciously push the blood through your veins? In your brain there are more neural connections than there are stars in our galaxy, and this is a fact, not a figure of speech. Are you controlling them? Or are they controlling you?  Stiffness in a dancer is often the result of his or her conscious mind trying to understand and control every movement BEFORE it happens, which is simply not possible. Your mind is not running the show, it only helps you to understand the intention and the mechanics of the movement. This is why leaders implore their followers: “Please stop thinking!...

It's been a good year for dancing if not for every other aspect of my life. 2 travels to Shanghai and Singapore, 1 homegrown festival and on a smaller scale Tangoblitz and other lessons with visiting teachers. New tango venues in town and the community continues to attract people on mid-length stints in Malaysia, providing a base for these expats. Started DJ-ing a couple of times. 3 more pairs of shoes. Oops. Above all shifting my POA yet again. This time into more stable dancing and translating this into being more grounded and collecting better. I think I've figured my lag between learning something and putting it into action is about 8 months... Been a good year, will spend next year continually honing the skills even more and being exposed to even more variety of dancing globally.

I'm always thankful for new people on the scene because it always brings me back to the beginning. It's like being able to return temporarily to breaking down the dance again and again and viewing it through the lens of someone who is noticing things for the first time. Where answers and opinions have not been formed and set in stone through old habits which seriously bring new meaning to the expression, 'old habits die hard'. Also forces us to revisit our 'answers' that we've picked up through the years and see whether our points of awareness have changed or not. Sometimes I think I'm on my way to being a very confused zen-tango-taoist-master...tango is tango....tango is the silence...tango is in the in-betweens...of course the problem with enlightenment is bringing people with you because you can be enlightened all you want but what's the good in that if you can't teach it? Sometimes I wish we all sat around more with mate under a willow tre...

Came and went in a flash of an eye, 1:30 am rock n roll dances and DJ-ing. It's been some time since I've been in a group setting, and short of being back in Ann Arbor with the initiating crew, I don't particularly like group lessons at this stage in which I'm in. I do miss the community effort of teaching, it's harder with maestros because all you want to do is impress them (and screw up instead), rather than really having fun with the learning. Key tips from this round... Women's Technique (Laila Rezk y Tamara Bisceglia) Short, slight, razor cheekboned Laila and Tall, curvy, Ankle-fied Tamara. What a pairing. Good session there doing a crash course in position, weight change, ochos and molinetes. First exercise was to stay on one foot on tip toes. Owch. Hardest things in the world these yoga-like positioning, I honestly think Tango needs a ballerinas background what with all the weight holding positions we end up doing. Things to remember: (Weight p...

From the very beginning of learning this dance, back, back, way back to the fundamentals of walking backward (in flipflops no less), I've heard it said again and again and having espoused it myself, that if you can walk, you can Tango. Makes it sound so easy until you're grappling with music, space, embrace, another person, arms, legs, timing, tangled. ARGH. But it's true isn't it? Lead comes from the top. I've been having trouble describing the difference between Tango and Salsa to people who don't really know either dance. Calling Salsa showy and loud soon begged to be re-assessed when you think of the pained and contorted expressions that often end up on our face in Tango (sometimes...sometimes it's really an uninhibited expression of what we were feeling at that time). But I think I've found it. You dance Salsa with your legs, you dance Tango with your chest. That's it really, that's how it's so different. You learn Salsa with ...

Who are we when we dance? When do we embody the little quavers, the running trills, the long sweep of a bow, the staccatoed steps of a quick beat and weight change, the spiralling ochos and giros leaning upon a centered foot and a delicate balance of weight? We start a story everytime we enter a dance situation, a strung together version of a longer epic Homer-type story that continues through the ages, forges through and chases each other like white sea-foam horses gallop and dissipate across a vast ocean. Nothing but a drop. This dance is music personified, it is a cloak we wear, which is why music is fundamental, THE core to everything. The puppet-master.

The best tango dances are things you don't go searching for. They come out of nowhere, like 80 year old dancers in the hot environment of a Tango school in New York asking you to dance, you in your flats. You in your flats compared to the 4-inch CIF's whizzing past you. You in your flats, only a few months into this dance...yet knowing a bit more of your surroundings, being aware of the hierarchy, but not of how to handle yourself in this particular hierarchy. It's like your body is doing one thing while your mind is doing another. The best dances are not anticipated, because the more your anticipate, the more it becomes a struggle. The best dances come and make you feel like a comet whizzing through the night sky, like each of you is a twirling star in this galaxy of ours, and you're charting your own set course, never bumping into each other. Dance. Dance. Dance as though no one is watching you. Because in that moment you're in your own little universe and ...