Pivots are a big part of tango. In real life, we do not pivot as much and so it makes sense that we struggle to find healthy ways to pivot. Over the past 30 years, I have explored the best ways to pivot to protect yourself. These are drills and exercises that I learned from different teachers, as well as exercises based on my anatomy studies or borrowed from my yoga teachers. I will use anything that seems useful!
Pivots and Pinot class
Sunday, November 17th (THIS Sunday), I am teaching a one-hour class to improve your pivots (leader, follower, advanced, beginner—you are all welcome), followed by a fellowship hour (bring a snack to share!) to chat and enjoy the company of other tango folks, off the dance floor. You can sign up here.
We will do exercises solo and in pairs to help each other up and encourage each other. You will be able to video the drills and exercises if you like. These are all techniques I use for my own tango practice, and the practice will improve your giros, ochos, and any spinning, pivoting moves you do as a leader or follower.
Please bring socks AND your dance shoes. Bring a snack to share or something to drink. It does not have to be alcoholic. You do not have to bring or drink pinot: I have had to explain this a lot, but the name was just for fun :-) Hmm, maybe I should rename boleos and bourbon?
Dancing tango if you cannot pivot
I have recently been collaborating with dancers who have injuries that do not allow them to pivot on one of their feet. All of them have a foot or an ankle that will not function consistently for assorted reasons. Here are some modifications we have worked on for basic moves:
Traspies and/or changing feet in place are a great cover for inability to do a front ocho. If you end up in the right place, on the correct foot, very few leaders will even know that you have changed the game plan.
For turns, you can choose to do a non-pivoting version of the giro. If you replace one thigh with the other thigh and stay on balance, again, most leaders will not be aware that you have adjusted the requested move.
For back ochos, using a traspie to get around the corner and adjust your angle will fix a multitude of issues. The back pivot is much harder on the body than the front pivot and takes hard work to hone a perfect pivot. Give yourself permission to try out variations that work for your ankles, feet, hips — whatever is giving you trouble.
Remember that it is better to modify the move and arrive at the location the leader requested than to do the move and not get to the specific place: navigation comes before fancy moves. If a leader needs you to only do the move they insist on, this is not a person for you to dance with today.
Other issues, such as recent back surgery, or recovering from a hip or knee replacement, etc. can cause issues with pivoting. For each person, I look at how they are using their body and make suggestions. Then we try out different modifications and experiment with personal style, musicality and cover-your-a** possibilities that work for their dance.
Leading someone who cannot pivot
There are many workarounds as a leader if I know that a follower cannot pivot on one foot: I need to focus to ensure that I do not revert to my regular patterns and ask for moves that the follower cannot do. I see this as an agreeable challenge, but a more beginner leader may find this untenable.
When injured myself, I rarely encountered a leader who could do this for me. I do tell the leader about my injury and request that they help me avoid steps I cannot do without pain. However, I assume the leader is going to forget that I need help, and I adjust for my own body health.