Tangodurians

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 fin...

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...

Was having an interesting conversation the other day about being critical. Someone was entirely shocked when she got pulled aside by a lead and got a thorough 'lesson' on following. I'm sorry, until you spent more time following than leading do you have a right to criticise someone for your perception of them not 'pivoting' their hips enough to chase your stupid chest around a molinete. Gosh. Especially when I know that follow, and she's a marvelously fine follow the way she is.... Which got me thinking again of what it means to be in someone's shoes. Especially being a lead and crossing over the roles. I think some criticism may be justified, such as if the follow is being heavy, or if they really are not holding their own weight, but that should really be the crux of it. Don't say that you can do a step better than I can, and if I can't read a complex move, then don't try it. I think this sums it up quite well really. "I welcome co...

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...

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...

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...