Try out different styles to find your own!

Exploring different styles helps you find YOUR style

One of the reasons that I am excited that Jose Garofalo arrives in Portland TODAY is that we will be working with historical and modern forms of tango this week. I feel that I improve my dance the most when I try new things.

As a social dancer, I like to have the ability to dance with all styles of tango. As a dance performer, I like trying out different versions of moves to see what I like best. As a dance historian, I love to learn vocabulary that dates back to famous teachers and eras of tango.

Jose and I have cooked up a series of classes that will give you a chance to experiment on each day of workshops.

Salon and Del Centro styles of tango

Come explore the world of turns Thursday 2/27 @ Om Studio, 14 NE 10th Ave. We will be doing a class on Salon style turns with sacadas at 7 PM. Then, we will do a contrasting style, Del Centro, looking at turns with enrosques and sacadas around 8:30 PM.

Most people in North America have learned from teachers of one of these traditional styles. A lot of you call the Del Centro style “milonguero” which means someone who dances in the milongas. “Del Centro” means the style that was prevalent in the center of town/downtown, and is a more accurate term :-) Salon style was danced outside of downtown.

Come expand your dance!

Milonga candombe vs. lisa and traspie

Saturday, 2/29 @ Shabu Studio, 6055 NE Glisan, at noon, we will explore milonga candombe! I am SUPER excited about this, as I love this and first studied with with Jose in Buenos Aires in 1999! Woohoo!

The next class, at 1:30 PM, will look at milonga lisa and milonga traspie. Don’t be afraid of these milonga styles: they are ALL fun, and Jose is fun, so YOU will have fun! It’s a chance to get more groovy and comfortable with your milonga. In my book, more milonga = better!

Vals on Sunday, then back to tango

3/1 @ Shabu Studio, 6055 NE Glisan, at noon, we will look at the Old Masters and vals. There is so much good “swing” in vals—come get your vals to really feel lovely and get in touch with the Old Masters. There are decades and decades of vals expertise for us to mine!

At 1:30 PM, we will have a class to look at creating your own dance. No, you don’t have to have come to all the classes to put together your own dance. If you have taken all the classes, you will have a lot more to play with, but this is for everyone. Come spend a chunk of time looking at your personal dance and what you want to incorporate into it, and why!

Come enjoy Jose at Las Naifas!

Las Naifas Milonga 2/28 Friday, 326 SW Broadway, Jose will be guest teaching and then revving up our party with his outgoing, party spirit! The lesson at 5:30 PM will be: Making cool moves fit on the dance floor. There is no need to not dance well just because a space is small! The cost for the lesson + milonga + 1st drink + snacks is $20—you can’t beat that!

Prices

Workshops: $30/1, $55/2, $80/3, $100/4, $115/5, $120/6 (The Las Naifas class is separate from the pricing; please pay at the door)

Privates: $120/hr or $550/5 (to schedule, 541-914-4812/ewartluf@gmail.com) **There are discounts on the private lesson price if you take the workshops!

Register for group classes: At the door or here.

Guest blog: Miguelon on street art and Buenos Aires

We had two Michaels on our tour to Buenos Aires in December 2019. Both use their full name, so we needed a way to tell them apart. We ended up with a Miguelito (little Michael) and a Miguelon (big Michael). Miguelon took to the streets with his camera, and here is guest blog.

Miguelon’s Buenos Aires

Our first day was a pleasant surprise, even after the seemingly endless flight. We were warmly greeted by our driver, Luis, who serenaded us during our ride with tango songs crooned in an astonishing voice. Everyone should experience the taxi tango!

Our new home was just across the street from a wonderful coffee roaster and brewery, akin to PDX.  My initial impression of our neighborhood, Palermo, was that it was a quaint, friendly, painted village.  I later realized that the architecture as well as the street art, are expressions of the Argentine soul, not held to our small corner of the city.

I realized that I had a ‘problem’ with Buenos Aires on our second day. I crossed the street in the morning for coffee, then stepped outside to take a photo. Another immediately caught my eye and my imagination, and then and again and again, after that. This went on for about three hours, before I decided that I should eat. By then, I was miles from home and each direction looked the same. The Argentine soul captured my eyes and attention so much so, that I was thoroughly disoriented.  (Thanks be to the techs, for GPS.)

I discovered a free-flowing expression of the heart and soul of the community and culture of Buenos Aires, entwined and painted everywhere. The passion of Argentina flows throughout the veins of the city and seems to find expression in every aspect of their lives. I believe that this is the same passion and need for expression, which gave birth to the music, the movement, the expression, and the beauty of Tango.

Thank you, Argentina; Let’s dance.

The importance of good teachers: Jose Garofalo is coming back!

I am very excited to announce that Jose Garofalo will be back in Portland soon! I worked with him while I was in Buenos Aires in December, and we have cooked up some fun for all of you! Registration will be open soon, but in the meantime, here is the schedule so you can block out time to come to group classes and private lessons. There will be a progressive discount on private lessons, based on the number of group lessons you attend, too!

More info very soon!

Musicality questions

When I teach tango, I ask people to let go of the idea of stepping on the beat. Moving with the music is SO much more than being on the beat. Connecting with the music asks you to step outside the box and look at the whole thing that is tango, including the music; but not just the beat.

Flavors of the dance

Each song has it’s own flavor. It is unique—or else why would we have another song? Like ice cream, vanilla is great, but it can only go so far! “What flavor does this song have?” I ask students. Some answer with musical terms (staccato, legato), some answer in less musical ways (stretchy, sharp, smooth), and some have their own, culinary approach: “Lemon curd!” exclaimed my 11-year-old student! “Because you have to stir it slowly, and then it has a sharp taste!”

I think it is more important to explore that “flavor” than to dance on the beat. How YOU express the tango through your interpretation, it always going to be more interesting than thump-thump-thump for three minutes.

Musical choices

“But Elizabeth,” you say, “Do you remember x who can’t dance on the beat and how annoying that is????” Yes, of course I remember. It’s not that I am saying dancing to the beat is not important; it is just much less important than a lot of other elements of dancing. First, you insist your partner dance around for years, stepping on the beat, and then you complain to me that his dance is boring! Let’s look at ways to make our dances more fun!

What can I do with tango music?

• Tiempo (dancing on the beat)

• Dobletiempo (double time, like “Quick Quick Slow”)

• Half time (step, pause, step pause; like the graduation walk)

• Pausas (pauses, let’s say 1-8 seconds)

• Slow motion (as slow as you can go/as slow as the music goes)

All of these elements are in all tango songs if you listen for them. Try paying attention to the melody instead of the beat. How does it make you feel? There is no wrong way to interpret the music! YOU are feeling the music and moving to it, so that is YOUR interpretation!

Some songs have more of less of one aspect of what can happen; some songs scream what to do “SLOW! NOW FAST!” and others whisper ideas to you. None of them are just about pounding around on the beat.

Help the song stay alive!

Just stepping on the beat makes the song flatline and die. Any time you explore the other musical options, even for a step or two, returning to dancing “tiempo” (on the beat) suddenly feels exciting! Experiment! Be brave! Play!

I would rather dance with someone trying out the feeling of the dance and failing, than dancing the whole tanda on each beat. One of the best feelings in the world is to dance with someone and find something new in a song I think I know well. They heard something I didn’t, and offered it to me! That is exciting. Even after almost 25 years of tango, there are songs I don’t know well. Even after almost 25 years of tango, I don’t know everything about a song from someone else’s point of view. Sometimes I think, “Wow…that’s int-er-est-ing….” but usually we can work out the musicality between us.

Let the follower have a say in musicality

The follower can make or break a dance. As a follower, I try to stay with the leader, tuned into their intentions and suggestions re: musicality. However, I also adjust the dance to make it as rich as I can. One of my former teachers said it was “inspiring the leader” to do a move. I CAN drop my chi and make the leader do what I want most of the time, but I only use it to give a slight spin to what the leader suggested, unless their suggestion was dangerous. I am playing along, suggesting ideas, following up on the leader’s suggestions—it’s a musical conversation with give and take on both sides.

Most people name adornos as the place where the follower gets their say. To me, the adorno is another place where a conversation is going on. I like having moments where the leader basically says, “What do YOU think?” and gives me room to play; but that can happen on every move of the dance :-)

What do YOU do?

Comment and let me know how YOU let your leader or follower interact with you and the music! I am sure there are tons of great ideas out there.

Guest blog: Tanya's take on Buenos Aires

So much more than tango…

The initial draw to Buenos Aires for me was of course…Argentine Tango.  Although we are "Tango-toddlers" as Elizabeth sometimes would say, my husband, Michael, and I thought the exposure to Tango where it all started would be an incredibly interesting experience.

Of the ten days in Buenos Aires, Michael and I were physically able to only attend 4 or 5 milongas (exhaustion from other activities overtook us)!  All the milongas were different and provided wonderful observations, experiences and introspection.  Not all were positive, but even then, they provided great learning moments for me.  These milongas were so much more than fancy moves and complex sequences. They gave me an opportunity to understand and appreciate the true meaning of what a great tango can possibly look/feel like.  Even the simplest of dancers were an awe to watch because of their connections to their partners and the music.  It's all about the connection!

However, Buenos Aires is so much more than just tango.  I found the people so incredibly genuine, helpful, nice, friendly and unpretentious.  Everywhere we went, be it the Padres Café, the ice cream shop, La Boca, San Telmo Street Fair, Recoleta cemetery, the milongas – everyone was ready and willing to help us even with our next-to-none Spanish skills!  (Google Translate was our close companion with a few memorable and comical moments.)  Michael and I spent many of our non-scheduled tours/dance time wandering Palermo and the Buenos Aires surrounding area enjoying the sights, sounds, and scenes.  As much as my senses could bear, I breathed in all that was Buenos Aires.

Elizabeth was so great providing much needed information, knowledge, guidance, friendship and support.  The group Elizabeth put together was incredibly laid-back, self-sufficient, and cohesive.  There was such a great balance between doing things with the group and doing things by ourselves.  We started the trip as 'acquaintances' with the people in the group, but we left as friends.  These friends added so much more to our entire experience in Buenos Aires.

Michael and I did so much in our ten days there, and yet we felt like there was still so much we didn't get to do.  We left vowing to ourselves that we WILL be back.  Next time we will arm ourselves with some passable Spanish to make our trip that much better! 

San Telmo street fair

Caminito in La Boca

Dancing at El Beso

Recoleta Cemetary

Milonga review: Nuevo Gricel and Peleando Variaciones competition (La Rioja 1180)

This was not a regular night at Gricel, so I am not sure how much Gricel has changed from before. In the past, I danced at Gricel several times each visit to Buenos Aires, but I never stay in that neighborhood and it’s not my favorite milonga. The lighting and the long, narrow room, can make cabeceo tricky. Also, people sit in long tables, so many couples sit together, or groups of friends. If you are a new dancer, it could be a light night of dancing.

My happy moment: when someone who looked vaguely familiar asked me to dance. We did one dance and he said, “Wow! You have onda!” and I told him I was sure we had danced before. He told me his name—Juan—and I suddenly knew: La Nacional in 2010, 2011, 2012! He was a perfume salesman, and he had a huge fan that he flirted and used to cabeceo. I told him about a discussion we had on the dance floor about how life is a road with huge boulders on it, and he said, “You remember that??” and we danced two more tandas. It was a joy to reconnect after all these years. The sad moment: he told me he is almost 80, and I hope he’s still there when I go back to dance again.

The night we attended, there was a live band, Romantica Milonguera, and a competition. Oliver Kolker organized the Peleando Variacion competition, which features very short choreographies for the last burst of music/energy at the end of a tango. You don’t dance the entire tango: just those few seconds of a dance. It’s like watching fireworks. There were two or three couples who were really connected, giving a great dance as well as the more typical gymnastic, high-speed (tango?) routine. In particular, there was a male-male couple who were really THERE. I tried to find names and who won on Oliver’s page, but it’s not there yet.

The band was great, but we left after the first set because it was VERY late, and we were all very tired. Check out their music on Spotify: it’s very dance-worthy!

Milonga review: El Obelisco (Entre Rios 1056)

Senor Kent on the dance floor!

I had never been to El Obelisco before, but it’s a favorite place to dance for some of my friends, so I tried it out. I really like it (I went three times in two weeks). I would recommend it to anyone who likes more traditional style milongas.

Try out the zamba class! I am a big fan of Argentine folk dancing, and I was happy to find a very good teacher, Juan Enriquez, running the class. It was fun to practice a dance I’ve been doing for twenty years. I got to dance with the teacher in the zamba set during the milonga, and it was my best tanda of the entire trip! I promised Peter Esser that I will teach a zamba class in Portland, so stay tuned!

El Obelisco is very friendly, relaxed and laid back. I was happy to see a lot of my friends from Los Consagrados, plus some folks I had never met before. One of my favorite new dancers was here. He is very shy, so I won’t name him, but the most musical, tuned-in-to-his-partner new favorite to add to my dance card—is here.

My students did not have a hard time dancing here, apart from adjusting to working their cabeceo :-) The distance between sides of the room made it easier to cabeceo than in the bigger venues like Los Consagrados.

Another plus: it’s less than two blocks from the subway, so it’s very easy and cheap to get there!

Milonga review: Los Consagrados (Humberto Primo 1462)

I have danced with the guys who go to Los Consagrados /Saturday evenings for up to 20 years (the venues have changed over the years), and I go there because I know so many of them. It’s not the highest level of dancing, and one of my teachers criticized it as conservative and boring, but I love it anyway.

Everyone in the tour group danced the night we went. For many, it was their first traditional milonga, where the men sit apart from the women. I think that makes it much easier to cabeceo, and I prefer it. Our couples chose to sit at couple tables, but they still managed to dance because my Argentine friends looked after them!

One of my favorite things about Los Consagrados is that I can dance a set of chacareras and paso doble (see below with my friend, Eugenio); a set of tropical (cumbias and merengues); rock ‘n roll (swing), as well as milonga, vals and tango. The little breaks make coming back to dance tango a real pleasure, hour after hour. I went both Saturdays that I was in Buenos Aires, as the Gran Milonga Nacional in the streets was postponed due to the threat of rain.

Dancing the chacarera set with Eugenio

Not very crowded, but still fun!

On our way out to dinner after the milonga!

Heidi dancing with my friend Luis

Milonga review: El Beso in the afternoon (Riobamba 416)

My students went to El Beso several times for the afternoon milongas, and had a good time. The crowd is definitely smaller than three years ago: the economic downturn was most evident at milongas.

However, that meant that there was a friendly atmosphere, as everyone danced with everyone. I saw more people taking risks and asking new people to dance.

I found it interesting to see how cabeceo is disintegrating as a custom at tourist milongas. The locals understand that the foreigners don’t get the rules. One lady even asked my friend Nilande for permission to dance with her partner!

The impressive person of one afternoon: a lady done up in makeup, nice outfit and great attitude who danced and chatted and made my students feel at home. She had to be helped down the stairs (no elevator) because she was frail, but being over 80 was not going to stop her from coming dancing!

Bike and kayak tour to Tigre: a high point of my trip

When I saw this new tour from Biking Buenos Aires, I knew I wanted to book it. I LOVE Tigre, and I’ve been there a few times to visit friends of friends in the river delta. However, I had never been to San Isidro and had not kayaked for many, many years.

We woke to a gorgeous, sunny summer day. Olaf our guide got us on bikes, and we navigated out of the busy streets into the parks on the way to the station. The entire trip went at a slow pace, so this is a do-able trip for most people—maybe 30 km of biking, and the kayak part felt like a good workout, but wasn’t actually very far. Just right!

We had lunch at Recreo El Alcazar, which I also recommend. We had a big salad, cold beers, and a huge plate of meat with fries.

This was my most relaxed day while in Buenos Aires. I came back to the city with a sunburn, but feeling really great and ready to jump back into the tango whirl.

Tanya, Santiago, Miguelon, Elizabeth and Olaf, ready to roll!

Ready to go!

On the way back to Tigre

Catedral in San Isidro

Lunch!

Quinta las Ombues in San Isidro

Santiago gets the gourd!

The well in the courtyard at Quinta Los Ombues

Biking Buenos Aires: Heart of the City

The weather was perfect for the tour: sunny and not super hot. We took taxis to San Telmo, and had breakfast across the street from the bike place at Le Blé (Carlos Calvo 601).

Olaf and Ricardo were our tour guides. We learned how to prepare mate and ate alfajores; visited Caminito and the res of La Boca; ate homemade empanadas on the street; tooled through the nature reserve; passed through Puerto Madero, the Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada, and then back to the bike place.

When I found out that Ricardo danced tango, I turned on Spotify right there in the Plaza de Mayo and auditioned him—good dancer! I don’t have any footage because I was dancing, but he moonlights as a tango tour guide for tourists

Empanadas made while you wait

Boca Jrs stadium

Stately old buildings around the Plaza de Mayo

Reminders of history

Caminito in La Boca!

The dream of football

The Casa Rosada

BO and bad breath: tactful approaches to embarrassing problems

Last week, the acro-yoga people who have class before my tango class left, but their odor stayed. I had people decide to leave class for the day rather wait for the fans to move the air out. I had to email the managers of the studio to ask them to speak to the group. After all, I don’ t know these people, and they only started using the space two weeks ago. Luckily, the studio manager spoke to them for me and the situation should be resolved.

But what do you do when it’s the person dancing with you that is the problem? Tango dancers dance VERY close to one another. If someone has strong body odor, or has bad breath, it affects the dance partner. Extra perfume, heavy pot smoke (this IS Oregon), a couple martinis on the breath—sometimes it is overpowering.

Addressing these problems can be tricky. How can we help each other out without deeply embarrassing the other person?

The difficult conversation that didn’t work

One time, I had a student with very strong body odor. Several students talked to me about it; some refused to dance with the person; some threatened to skip class unless I did something about the issue. Even with all that pressure, I avoided the situation for several weeks, as I had no idea what to say to someone that would not be taken in a bad way.

I took the student aside after class, when everyone else had left, and talked face-to-face about the situation. I told him that some people had asked me to talk to him, and stressed that they wanted him to be in class: no one wanted him to leave. He thanked me for bringing up the subject gently, and we discussed it a bit. However, he never came back to class after that. I felt badly, because I wondered if there could have been a way to resolve the situation where he did not feel embarrassed.

The tactful spouse/friend

I love to eat garlicky foods. I also get bad breath when I am stressed out. I depend on my husband for tactful feedback. He will say, “After this tanda, you may want to get some water at the fountain.” That means, “Go wash out your mouth! You have bad breath!” but in a very kind, helpful way. I know that he will tell me the truth about my breath or my body odor in the same way that he helps me with fashion decisions: kind, but truthful.

I would appreciate this also from a stranger, but I think that comes from living with a very direct person with Aspergers. I don’t think most people would take bad breath feedback from anyone but a close friend.

Would you like a mint?

Another good approach for bad breath is to pull out your mints and take one, offering them to the other person. There is no deep message of bad breath—and the sugar does not help long-term—but it will make that tanda go better.

The winning approach

I told my husband I was writing about this, and he told me that the best way anyone ever approached this subject with him was by tactfully mentioning herself, and hoping he might get the message: “Oh, I ate a lot of garlic tonight. I hope that my breath isn’t very bad.” She said it in a way that he knew she was trying to tell him about his bad breath, but it was gentle and polite.

This is a great approach! I vote yes!

What’s the best way you have heard?

Tell me about the times people have helped you about with potentially bad situations (“Excuse me, I think you have toilet paper on your shoe!”). What did they do that worked well? Share it with me!

Tips for regulating social anxiety while dancing tango

For those of you who don’t know, I have a “twice-gifted” child. He is very, very smart—and is diagnosed with high-functioning autism, formerly called Asperger’s syndrome; as well as anxiety disorder and ADHD. In the pursuit of good parenting and fighting the school system, I feel I have read enough for a third master’s degree! A lot of the literature on neurobiology, self-regulation, anxiety disorder—all seems to cross-pollinate with my tango teaching.

For those of you who are introverted and/or suffer from social anxiety, here are a few tips from my reading for helping navigate the choppy waters of Argentine tango dancing.

Breathing to reset the vagus nerve

The body responds to the mind, but the mind also responds to the body. This is not a one-way road! The vagus nerve connects the brain to most of the organs in the body. This nerve communicates both in- and out-going communication to/from the brain. In a nutshell, if the brain evaluates a situation as safe, stress hormone levels are affected, and the entire body relaxes. However, we can trick the brain into relaxing by starting with the body.

In order to reduce anxiety, we need to breathe a specific way. Exhale ALL THE WAY until you reach apnea. You can tell if you have exhaled all the way because you can no longer make noise if you try to talk. The brain interprets this body feeling to mean that no danger is nearby, and subsequently, lowers the level of anxiety in the body. If you would like the 300-page version of this, Stephen W. Porges’ book, The Polyvagal Theory, is a great read, but takes a while as it is very dense.

When you work on reducing anxiety at tango events, consider taking a moment between tandas to breathe. After all, having someone exhale strongly and then hold that for a few counts, could make your partner panic! Try doing your vagus nerve reset before you leave the house; in the car before you enter the milonga; while you change your shoes; or in emergency trips to the restroom to refocus yourself.

An added bonus to breathing this way: you access your deepest core muscles, which makes you dance better!

Find your anti-panic button

For a lot of us, making mistakes while dancing causes us to freeze up and panic. Our bodies have an older survival mechanism than fight or flight: it’s immobility. Think of a lizard frozen, not moving, trying to avoid the notice of a snake! We go to this place under stress.

It’s not that tango creates all the trauma, but we store trauma in our bodies, and tango uses our body—in close proximity to other people, and so can trigger body memories. Also, the wish to dance perfectly can get in the way and make us panic as well. In order to get better at tango, we have to work through these panic moments, rather than running away.

What’s your silver bullet?

What is the sense that helps you relax the most? Smell? Taste? Sight? Feel? Sound? Pick something that you REALLY like, so that you have that ready to help you relax. For example, I have a friend who loves the color of lavender flowers. It would help her to just think of lavender flowers to relax in the moment. Perhaps you have a favorite scent? Mmm, chocolate! Whatever works for you as an instant relaxing cue will work.

There are a lot of useful ideas in Trauma-Proofing Your Kids by Peter Levine and Maggie Cline. You can trauma-proof yourself! Also, The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process by Devid Berceli is an interesting read.

Wiggle your toes!

Being present in your body is a real gift. It can be hard to just stay present and “be with that” if what we feel is uncomfortable/panicky/freaking out. What I do is get into my body, balance, and into my grounding, is: I wiggle my toes. That helps me relax, gets me on balance, and reminds me I am moving in my body even when not traveling around the room. It’s my shorthand to get me back dancing instead of freaking out or processing what I just did wrong. It doesn’t matter: we are on to the next move. Time to enjoy being able-bodied and present!

How do YOU stay present, in your body, in a relaxed state? Other people might benefit from your suggestions! Comment on the blog so that folks can try YOUR ideas!

Weighlifting for the toes

I asked my Pilates teacher what else we could do to strengthen our feet and toes to improve our tango technique—and Heidi suggested this Pilates exercise she calls weightlifting for the toes! At the end of the video is a stretch for the arches of the feet to add to what you already do to keep your feet in prime tango shape!

If you are in Portland, Oregon, I suggest that you schedule a session or two with Heidi to identify what YOU need to strengthen your tango body. She is also a nutritionist, so you can work on your muscles and your diet to help you maintain the best health that you can (and that’s not just for tango). You can reach her at her studio to make appointments.

Enjoy the video!

Foot and ankle exercises to help your tango

Strong feet and ankles are a must for good balance in both tango and life in general. Many of us sit all day at work and have not built up our standing/walking muscles as much as we think. In my Tango, Toning and Technique class, we spend a lot of time working on improving how we use our feet and ankles—and the improvement always accompanies a boost in tango level. Plus, working on your feet and ankles helps you dance longer when you are out dancing, and cuts down on foot discomfort during and after dancing.

My Pilates teacher, Heidi Weiss, also dances tango. She graduated from Reed College, and has moved back to the area to open her business. If you haven’t introduced yourself to her on the dance floor, you should!

Heidi is the owner of Portland Pilates Collective and is a Pilates teacher as well as a nutritionist. I work with her privately to improve my full body strength and muscle efficiency. I appreciate her eye for detail and her calm teaching approach. My own goals for 2019 are to do a pushup and a pull-up (yes, one of each, don’t laugh).

I asked Heidi to talk about what exercises and stretches she needed to add to her regime when she started tango. Here are some suggestions from her about exercising and stretching that will improve your tango and your foot health.

Pilates foot exercises and stretching tips for Argentine Tango

Adornos, Part I

“Pretty feet!”

That’s the second-best compliment I ever received while dancing. A woman I didn’t know tapped me on the arm as I left the dance floor at La Nacional when I passed her table. She smiled at me, nodded in approval and told me, “Lindos pies.” I almost fell over! I was not used to compliments from Argentine women on my dancing.

“You adorn with your soul”

A few years after that other compliment, I was dancing at Los Consagrados with someone I didn’t know, and even the first dance was amazing. I forget what orchestra was playing, but I was really enjoying the music as well as the leader, and my feet just did their thing as part of my dance. When we finished the first song, he accused me, “Hey, you are a teacher!” And I replied, “And so are you!”

After the second dance, he told me, “You don’t just adorn with your feet, you adorn with your soul!” That is the best compliment I have ever received on the dance floor in Buenos Aires, and I treasure it. I don’t think of adornos as a separate part of my dance: they are integral to my body and to my tango. I loved it that someone noticed.

I didn’t think adornos were important

I didn’t work on adding adornos to my tango for a long time. I started tango in 1995. There were very few tango teachers around, and if I wanted people to dance with in Eugene, I was going to have to teach them. I already had an M.A. in Dance and was teaching ballroom and folk dancing at University of Oregon. I jumped into tango, and most of my time was spent ensuring that I understood the lead and follow parts of each step I learned, so that I could teach it correctly.

Eventually, I realized that my feet were the part of my tango that needed the most work. I focused on my adornos, foot strength and elastic use of my legs for the next few years, and it paid off with those compliments about my feet.

Adornos are functional

I have come to understand that adornos are a functional part of my dance. They allow me to keep my body relaxed and ready for any movement the leader might suggest. They help me keep a dynamic balance, rather than trying to lock into a complete stop. They use the natural margin of error that we have for balance (the amount our feet and ankles can adjust to help us maintain balance) as an inspiration for small, but full-body, movement.

These days, I teach beginners adornos from their first day in tango. I find that people who learn this way feel more empowered to express themselves in the dance. They are more relaxed because their body is moving, which makes them breathe more fully. They understand that balance is dynamic, and that they don’t have to have a perfect dance.

I encourage people to use “too many” adornos in class to explore what a good level of movement would be. If someone is worried about movement being “wrong” they will dance more stiffly. If dancers are afraid to adorn, they struggle to find a comfortable balance between doing what the leader asks and what they hear in the music themselves. Finding a good balance and understanding that each dance and each partner will differ, is a huge relief to most learners: it’s ok to experiment! Plus, it’s fun to play with your feet and the music, and learning should be fun!

What adorno should I do?

This is the question most learners ask me. There is no should in adornos. I tell my beginners to write their name in the sand. Put energy into the big toes, but don’t spend a lot of time thinking of what to “write” or your time in the pause will be over.

Adornos are filigree to fill in and beautify the dance, commenting on the music/mood/partnership that is happening at that moment. We learn specific adornos in order to train our legs so that we can improvise in the moment.

What is in the video?

This video reviews the adornos we have been doing in my Tango: Toning and Technique class. So far, we have done linea (line), lapiz (pencil), front and back crosses (which I was taught as “amagues” but I just argued about this with a friend, so we will just call them whatever and move on; and an adorno I call “the elevator” because no one ever told me a name for it. When I say elevator, everybody gets the right idea :-)

Improving your axis awareness by working with dowels

Shameless stealing of ideas

My chiropractor (who is also a personal trainer) was demonstrating how to correctly lift kettlebells while I watched and took notes. I had a moment of brilliance and noticed that the exercise could help my tango students use their gluts better to maintain balance and alignment. I showed him my idea, and he agreed that the alignment was solid. Here is the tango version of the exercise!

Core and leg exercises for more elegant tango

I use a lot of different approaches to improve my tango technique and that of my students. For a lot of people, the wish to move quickly overrides paying attention to how the body actually wants to move. I think it’s important to take time to train your body to feel how the muscles, bones and connective tissue are constructed. If you use your body in an organic manner, the movement will look more elegant and smooth.

The video version

Chair drill: connect the core and upper leg

The chair version of this drill allows you to focus on using the deep core to work your legs, rather than the quadriceps. Yes, the quads are still working, but we want to see the long line of the entire leg for tango. That means the core needs to work a bit harder than we are used to in our sedentary lives :-)

Note: Assume that you are cheating on the drill, and reset each time you complete a leg movement. Eventually, you will start to be able to maintain your alignment for the entire drill. At that point, add the standing version to your tango workout.

Standing chair drill: adding balance to core strength

If you can do the chair drill, move up to the standing drill. It takes more focus and balance, but the concept is the same: trace the connections from the deep core out and down to the foot. Allow time for each movement signal to travel down the body!

Note: Be careful with your back. Make sure your core, not your lower back, is doing the main lifting work for this drill. If you can’t do it correctly yet, do the chair drill until you have more core strength.

Idea clouds, drop-down menus and leading tango

So many moves, so little memory

One of my students asked me, “Why can you remember to do so many more moves than my husband can when we dance?”

The question made me pause, as I had just been reading about how people retain information. I knew that my short-term memory did not have more storage space than another person, so why DID I remember more moves while dancing?

Short-term memory

Most of the research I have read suggests we have five to seven slots for short-term memory. A good leader uses several of those for more than just moves:

1. Make your follower feel secure: NAVIGATION is most important.

2. Where is YOUR body? Make sure you are on balance, ready to move.

3. Where is your follower? Make sure they are on balance, ready to move!

4. Musicality (some people put this higher on the list, but as a follower, I would rather that both of us are on balance than off-balance but on the music).

5. Room for a move

6. Room for a move

7. Room for a move

Chunks, not items

I remember more information because I chunk vocabulary into categories, and each short-term memory slot holds a category, not just one move. As I learn new moves, I figure out where they fit in my move storage, and then it’s easier to find and use those moves.

Idea clouds

Some people think better in idea clouds, where the information is chunked, but perhaps not in a completely systematic way. For a relatively new tango dancer, we might start with the categories of: traveling, turning, other things; or something like that. Here is an example from yesterday for one student:

For him, that is the sum of the moves he knows. He knows the concepts of volcadas, ganchos, etc., but doesn’t know how to lead them yet. I introduced the idea of categories so that, as he learns moves, he can figure out how HE thinks of the moves, and use his own categories to store and retrieve information.

Drop-down menus

Other students prefer a drop-down menu approach to storing information. That way, as more and more variations are learned, they are simply plugged into the existing system further down the menu. That way, the leader can think “ocho cortado” and choose “linear” and THEN choose “multiple traspies/rebound” and then pick “lateral cross” as the exit move. Each part of the process is ONE decision at a time, working down the menu, choosing each part of the move.

Here is an example of one category (traveling) from a student who is just figuring out how his categories work (rather than mine).

The advantage of the drop-down menu is that our brains use these every day on our computers, and we are already trained to look for information this way.

Make your categories/method work for you!

Everyone has a different approach to how they classify tango moves. There is not one right way: grab a piece of paper, or a thought-cloud app, or a white board and markers, and see how YOU chunk the information. I have found that some of my students categorize the way I do, and some of my students have very different thoughts about what fits together; give yourself time to develop your own system.

Remember: Try to limit yourself to 4-5 categories, as you will always need to prioritize navigation/safety and musicality over moves. Once you know where your body is, and where your partner is, you don’t have to spend so much energy and time on that, and you can expand your movement list a bit.

Does this work for everyone?

In the course of 23 years of teaching tango, I have only met two students who did not categorize information easily. For both of them, each separate move was a separate thing. An example: for most people, Phillips screwdrivers are in the same family as a regular screwdriver. For these people, there is no “screwdriver” category, and each tool goes into a separate box or drawer, unrelated to the other tools.

If this describes how you approach category-making, be comforted that these guys did manage to learn tango and did manage to dance more than five moves; but it was a struggle. Be kind to yourself! Be patient with yourself! Sigue luchando! (Keep fighting!)

Jose Garofalo is back in PDX 12-20 March 2019!

I am very pleased to announce that Jose will be back in Portland NEXT MONTH! He is one of my favorite teachers because he has a huge vocabulary from the Old Masters with whom he studied; and as one of the people exploring tango in the 1990s, he was part of the creation of tango nuevo as well. 30+ years of tango in one person—let’s take advantage of his presence in our community!

The other thing about Jose is that he is FUN! Performing with him is a joy: I never know what is coming next, but he always takes care of me as his follower, and makes me feel secure. After 30 years, he is still exploring, looking for new information and open to new ideas.

Workshop Topics

Investigation of Roles for Tango Dancers (Friday & Saturday)

We will work on the idea of tango role (leader/follower) as a dialogue of movements between people. These classes are not about learning the “other” role, but rather to generate a more playful communication. Register for classes!

3 Sequences, 3 styles (Thursday & Sunday)

We will explore several different styles of Argentine Tango, using sequences from the Old Masters, as well as elements from non-traditional and stage tango, that have been incorporated into current-day tango. We experiment with different types of: embrace; axes; music, etc. Register for classes!

The details

Private lessons

Jose is available for private lessons from the evening of March 12th, to March 20th (I don’t have his plane times for his departure, but I will know soon). The cost is $120/hr or $550/5 lessons. If you take the weekend workshops, there will be a discount on the lesson price and the 5-lesson block price. Private lessons will be at 4315 NE Garfield Ave. in Portland. Contact me to schedule!

EXCITED!!!!!