You are my giro, Part 2 (Tango 2 notes)

Thanks for putting up with your low-blood-sugar teacher last night! I'll try to be clearer on paper ;-)
We worked on walkaround turns, "the Dan" and "the Stephen" last night. My notes on "the Dan" are in the last post.

Turns that travel, Part 2:
The Stephen (or loop-dee-loops):

• Stephen Payne is one of my favorite dancers, and this is a move that only he has led me to do. Again, like "the Dan" what I like best about it is how well he uses the music and syncopation to play within the music. However, the move is also really fun.
• This step can come back to the starting place or progress LOD a bit, depending on the placement.
• As I showed you last night, the basic move is to get your partner walking forward on the closed side of the embrace as you walk in a little circle counter-clockwise (CCW) before continuing line of dance (LOD). To make my partner get into position, I find it easiest to walk LOD forward on the outside (closed side), then LOD side step, and then LOD back step, pivoting my partner into walking forward. I then keep my torso twisted to the right AND basically body-block with my thigh so that the follower can't just step in front of me.
• I walk the circle until the follower is facing LOD, and lead the follower through with a forward cross. That puts the follower in front of me in terms of the LOD. I pivot the follower to face me and keep walking LOD.
• The many variations of Stephen: in my low-blood-sugar silliness, we discovered that you can do "the Stephen" CCW and clockwise (CW), to the inside of the embrace or on the leader's left, looping turns in towards the center of the room (safer) and outwards towards the walls, and with the follower walking forward or backwards. You tell me how many possibilities that makes in total!

Walkaround turns:

• This turn progresses one medium- to big-sized step LOD.
• In crossed system, leading the follower LOD (either in back ochos or in crossed-system walks), step forward on the left foot, leading the follower to also step on the left.
• Then, twist your torso CW, sending the follower into a back, overturned cross step. As the follower starts to take that back cross around the leader, the leader steps forward LOD with the right to stand where the follower had been.
• Keep turning until the leader can face LOD again, and exit. In general, the follower does three steps (back, side, forward) around the leader, but sometimes a fourth step (side) is needed to finish facing LOD. For the leader: if you are really on-axis, you can just spin on the right foot until exiting LOD. Other options: step each time the follower steps BUT STAY IN ONE PLACE, or any pattern of steps turning in place that works for you.
• It feels nice as the follower to pause for a moment at the end of the turn before walking LOD. This gives the follower time for an adorno.

Scoop turns (we did these last week):

• This turn progresses one big step LOD, but no more.
• In crossed system, walk to the closed side of the embrace (leader's right).
• After the follower takes a back step LOD with the right foot, the leader "accompanies" the next step just as if it were a back ocho in place. To clarify: the leader steps to the side IN LOD while leading the follower's back step (which becomes a back cross with the change in the leader's position). On this step, the leader MUST catch up with the follower so that they are parallel to the LOD, or this turn just becomes a rock step for the follower.
• The leader plants both feet and rotates CCW (left) to lead an overturned back cross for the follower.
• Follower's turn is usually three steps: back, side, front--just like the walkaround, but in the other direction. Almost never is the fourth step needed here.
• The leader needs to stay on-axis and on balance for this to work well. When it works, it has a WHEE! carnival-ride feeling for the follower.
• Again, there is a nice moment for a pause at the end of the turn before proceeding LOD.

Chain steps:

• I am not sure if we will get to these right away, so I'll deal with them in another blog.

OK, Tango 2, I THINK we are caught up. For Wednesday, come ready to play my strange tango games: the Fat Lady, Obstruction, Darth Vader and Solo-Couple are on the game plan.

You are my giro! (Turns from Tango 2)

The cafe's internet just kicked me out and ate 45 minutes of blogging. So, I will start over (sigh).

Turns are a key part of tango. When I start a new tango class, I tell them that tango is walking, turning and footplay. Turns are fun, but they are also very useful on a crowded dance floor, as they can either stay in place and use very little room to play a lot, or they can help you get down the line of dance (LOD) very quickly.

Things to keep in mind for all turns:

• Leaders: lead with the energy of the connection, from your center. Yes, the embrace helps, but only because it is connected to the center. Do not steer with the arms, or create a visual lead by pointing your nose where you want the follower to go.
• Followers: ACTIVELY participate in the turn and give the leader a lot of energy to use in the turn. I even think of myself as the motor of the turn. I don't take over, but I work hard on contributing to the movement.
• Leaders: Make sure your axis is planted over your feet, straight up and down. Use your breath to maintain this. The energy of the embrace smooths the turn and gives it force, but it won't work if you are off-balance.
• Followers: Keep a tight circle of even-sized steps unless requested to do otherwise. Especially before your back cross step, PIVOT your foot on the floor as far as you can before sending your leg/foot around the back. This conserves energy in the turn and lets the leader do many more potential moves from the turn.
• I am a firm believer in the follower also being on axis for turns. For those of you who are into extreme-lean tango, be aware that you will have to work even harder with your abs to protect your back as you lean and turn.

Turns that stay in one place:

• Right and left giros at the cross: At the cross, the leader unwinds the follower's feet by rotating left about 3 degrees (I mean it, this is almost undetectable). At that point, the leader can continue rotating left for a left giro, or rotate to the right to start a right giro. This turn can end on any step of the giro, but I usually stop the follower's turn when I am facing LOD and ready to progress down the floor.
• "Rock step and turn" (Turns from the side step): A lot of people think of this as a rock step turn, but in reality, it is a rock step which segues into a side-step turn. If you start a turn with a step to the side, I suggest turning that step so that the follower is already traveling around the leader's axis, rather than stepping into the next circle of dancers. OK, OK, I'll try to get around to making videos that go with these descriptions!!
• "Rock step and cross through" (Turns from a front cross step): I use these turns a lot, but do not often see other dancers using this. I think I learned them while dancing in Buenos Aires (rather than in a dance class), so I can't tell you where they originated. ANYWAY, these have a very small turning radius and a very small amount of space needed to initiate, so they work well in crowded conditions. Lead the follower LOD into a back step, then reverse them into a forward step (=rock step). On their next step (a forward step), lead the follower across your body into a turn. Thus, if the follower's right foot is free, this becomes a right turn, and vice versa.
• Turns from ochos, back and front: Turns from front ochos have a very soft, gentle feel to them. Simply redirect the front ocho into a curve, and keep going. Turns from back ochos have an amusement park ride feeling to them (WHEE!) that I really like, because the back ocho becomes and overturned back ocho to go into the curve of the turn. I suggest leading both of these after orienting the ochos LOD, instead of into the next line of traffic.
• Ocho cortado turns: While doing the ocho cortado, instead of resolving the follower's second rock step into the cross, rotate to the right, creating a right giro; after going all the way around, finish the ocho cortado as usual. Someone remind me to talk about ocho cortados some day on this blog!

Turns that travel:
Be aware that I often name turns after the person who led them on me a lot (or who does them exquisitely). Often, I have learned turns called, "Hey, try this one!" so I don't have a "correct" name for many moves.

• The Dan: Dan Boccia LOVES these turns. I especially like how he does two or three on QQS rhythms, and then wildly careens into one that is all QQQQQQ! I have a hard time explaining these turns, as I never learned them from anyone and just do them, so here goes. These are done in parallel system, and each iteration has four steps, with the leader going around the follower two steps and the follower going around the leader two steps (always progressing LOD). One the first iteration, the leader steps as if going to the cross: open or forward on the left, through to the inside on the right, and then turns in place for two steps (LR) while the follower turns past. On further iterations, the first step does travel LOD, but it often also has a feeling of catching one's breath/balance ;-) Sometimes, followers say it feels as if the lead is only really traveling on one big step with the right inside step. The follower should feel as if the steps are mostly traveling down the room, rotating on a line, rather than a lot of AROUND feeling.  Try that and let me know if this makes any sense, and I'll try to describe it again.
• The Stephen: More later, I have office hours.  Bye!
• Scoop turns
• Walkaround turns
• Chain steps

Gancho basics and deep sacadas

When ganchos go wrong (just kidding, you all did a great job!)
Tonight in Tango 3, we worked on basic follower ganchos. A gancho is a hook, where the leader creates a window and leads the follower to hook a leg through that space. Although there are several ways to classify ganchos, I usually think of how they touch the leader's leg as a defining point (inside of thigh, outside of thigh). Other systems are whether the step is parallel or crossed system, and I've heard a few other ones that I have blanked from my memory. The other two questions are: who is doing the gancho--leader or follower? And, is the movement circular or linear? We worked on follower ganchos that were all circular.

Versions we did:

• To the inside of the leader's leg in a R or L turn (on follower's back cross step)
• To the outside of the leader's leg in a R or L turn (on follower's back cross step)
• After a stepover (follower steps over, then is rocked back to a back cross, then ganchos)--both inside and outside ganchos are possible, depending on where the parada and stepover began

Leader tips:

• Stand up! Offer the follower a long, tall window of space for the gancho. Crouching down or bending your knees only cuts down on the gancho size.
• Prepare your step so that your feet are in a V for stability, and then lead the gancho with your torso rotation, keeping hips steady (same issues as we discussed for boleos).
• Use the embrace to provide stability for the follower--do NOT pull with your arm to create the gancho.
• On inside ganchos, turn leg out in hip socket and release your knee and ankle so that you can snake your ankle around the follower's axis. This provides more gancho space.
• On outside ganchos, turn leg IN in hip socket rather than in OUT.
• Remember, the follower's released leg depends on axis stability. Work hard to keep follower on balance. Don't lean towards the follower during the gancho!
• Place foot a microsecond after the follower's foot hits the ground. That way, you know where his/her axis will be and you won't crash to the ground.

Follower tips:

• Same as for the boleo, keep axis/balance with breath, being on your support leg, and giving energy to the embrace.
• Wait for the lead to create the gancho: don't make them up! If the gancho is not made by the leader rotating in the torso, it won't have a snappy feeling no matter what you do.
• Release your free leg and let the leader create the shape of the gancho.
• Keep your upper body in the circle of the embrace. If you pull your shoulders away to make the back cross step easier, you won't feel the gancho lead very well.

Deep sacadas
A sacada replaces one person with another, so in a literal sense, a deep sacada is not really a sacada. However, there are so many leg wraps running around that I don't really want to call it a leg wrap. My teacher who first taught me these (Jose Garafolo, a fabulous teacher!) called them deep sacadas, so I'll stick to that.

ANYWAY, a deep sacada occurs when the leader steps through the center of a follower's side step of a turn and then twists in the torso to create a boleo-like/gancho-like leg release from the follower. Because the leader has entered the follower's space (sharing axis for just a moment), the follower's leg wraps around the outside of the leader's leg and then releases.

We did the deep sacada CCW, or turning to the left. The leader stepped through with the right foot, paused for dramatic effect, and then exited in a walk to the cross. Most of you also automatically exited into a CCW circle, as that requires a bit less control than coming to a stop in space. Other exits suggested/shown by the class involved doing a calesita or a volcada after the step (both suggestions from folks who attended Tango 2 yesterday!--see previous post).

The most critical thing for the leader is to find the correct timing of entering the follower's side step and then twisting the torso to wrap the leg. The most critical aspect of the move for the follower is to release that leg, but after the wrap, to let the leg pass UNDER the axis (try not to fly it so that moving bodies are cleared from your path ;-)

That's it for now, folks. Sorry I didn't come dancing. I read my sister's email with the eulogy from my father's memorial service, and just didn't feel very joyful/social. I'll come dance next week. I promise!

Volcadas and calesitas (Tango 2 notes)

Volcadas
Every teacher I've ever had has, at some point, said, "OK, you are not ready for x, but since you insist on doing it anyway, I'm going to teach you how to do it." I feel that way about volcadas, especially with the current vogue for this move. The word volcada comes from the verb volcar --to tip or dump. In a volcada, the leader tips the follower off-axis and then resolves the movement by bringing the axis back to vertical.

In order to get the follower to tip over, rather than to travel, the leader needs to signal a difference in the step. As I prepare for the volcada, I lift the follower slightly. I describe this as "squeezing the toothpaste" because the leader is not actually picking the follower up, but creating a tension around the embrace that helps steady the follower as s/he tips. The follower responds by resisting that lift by anchoring the shoulder blades/torso muscles down and energizing the open side of the embrace. Most of the follower's energy should be on the support leg and the strength of the body (do that ab work!), with the loose leg relaxed.

At that point, I can move away from the follower's axis point, creating a tipping motion for the follower and freeing the loose leg to trace a path on the floor. Then, I move back towards the follower's axis to put him/her back on balance. Sometimes, it takes another step for the follower to completely return to vertical. Before asking the follower to take a traveling step, I relax the "lift" on the embrace. Depending on the move, this might happen BEFORE the follower's axis is completely on balance.

The volcada we did resolves by the leader leading the follower's left leg to fall forward and then back into the same position as going to the cross. The shape of a volcada is not set: you can design different shapes by the way that you move the follower. The first one we did last night in class is a very V-shaped volcada, with the follower's leg dropping straight towards the leader and then (led!) sharply back to the cross. The other one we did began with a small back boleo for the follower, curving into a round volcada, which also ended in the cross. Both volcadas freed the follower's left leg, but both can be led to the other side, freeing the other leg--we didn't try that ;-)

There are tons of other ways to play with the idea of the volcada, but let's leave that and move on.

Calesitas
The leader preps for the calesita and exits it in the same way as for a volcada: put the follower on axis, lift slightly, and remember to release the lift before exiting into a traveling step. In the middle, the step is different.

The word calesita means little carousel or merry-go-round (although my extensive Spanish dictionary does not show this as a word . . .), and the point of the move is to rotate the follower while the leader goes around the follower. This can include a tipping or leaning effect, but that is not the main element of this step.

The calesita that we learned was led after a side step to place the follower's axis over the foot. We led a step towards the open side of the embrace, and then rotated CCW (counter-clock-wise) with the follower on the right foot. Obviously, this can be reverse to the other side or rotated the other way (or both). To make the calesita tip over, the leader can either rotate around and then step back (for a sharp movement) or gradually spiral out until there is significant lean, before returning the follower to a vertical axis.

Note: Don't forget to release the follower and the slight lift BEFORE exiting into a traveling step!

Next class, turn-o-rama! We'll prepare for Tangofest by learning a bunch of things to do in place and/or traveling small distances.

Overturned ganchos 101

In Tango 3 tonight (see, I'm doing it before I forget!!), we worked on overturned ganchos. This builds on the con back boleos we did last week.  Of course, you can do con and contra overturned ganchos, but I think the con ones are easier. We worked on leading them from an open stance, or accompanying it with a step together step approach. I think the latter approach is easier, but there are more separate parts to screw up ;-)

Follower tips:

• Stay on axis until the way, way end of the step--at which point you can cheat a little to get a bigger gancho.
• Overturn on your support leg (not at the hip) until your support foot actually faces AWAY from the lead. You may end up with your butt against the belly or hip of the leader.
• Keep your embrace energized: even if you are in the right position, the gancho (like a boleo) won't have that SNAP! feeling if you have separated from the leader's embrace.
• Send your leg THROUGH, not up ('nough said!) in order to avoid groin injuries for the leader. On a good day, I have actually felt the small of the leader's back, or their belt, against my leg/heel.
• Collect as you overturn. DO NOT swing your leg through as a windup. The release of the step is a linear boleo-like movement. Not collecting results in leaders with ankle bruises.

Tips for leaders:

• On preparation step, usually a back cross for the follower, step a bit long and a bit towards the follower so that the follower's axis is between your feet and close enough to touch bodies at the end of the move.
• As the follower is sent into a back rotation, overturn with your chest as far as you can (not your shoulders, not your hips!) so that the follower gets the message to overturn immediately.
• After leading the overturn, you can rotate the follower a little bit on the Fl's axis, so that you can pick the right position for the step. This also gives the move a bit more momentum/snappiness.
• Only at the end of the step can you "cheat" around the follower by leaning a bit or applying some Body English to the move.  Don't count on stretching your arm out or tilting your body, etc. to actually lead the step!

Line of dance (LOD)
Remember that if you can't use this step on the dance floor, it is of little use. Figure out what direction you need to face in order to set up the move to either progress down the floor, or only go reverse line of dance (RLOD) one step. The unwind should progress down the floor as well.  Otherwise, you'll hold up traffic.

I suggest only using one back cross or an entire ocho to prepare for this move: you will keep doing them, holding up traffic, worrying that it's not QUITE the right one to try to overturn :-) Another useful entry into an overturned gancho is a front circular boleo: pick up the momentum of the unwind from that move, and add to it for overturning into the overturned gancho.

To exit, consider using a front con boleo, a Ld sacada through the follower's front step, or some such thing to diffuse the momentum and continue down the LOD.

Good luck!

We all need somebody to lean on (or do we?)

A lot of folks have commented on the fact that I dance close embrace in a very upright position.  Yes, I am not an extreme leaner type.  At the same time, I am not against leaning in tango. When done correctly, it can be fun AND good for the body. However, part of my job as a teacher is to facilitate tango that allows the dancer to keep dancing until they keel over at an advanced age, not until they end up in a wheelchair. I teach very upright tango because I feel it is important to learn about one's own balance, axis and movement before asking someone else to be responsible for one's back/feet/weight.

After you can hold your own body up and know where your axis is--and where your feet are--THEN you can contemplate finding a way to lean and achieve the same balance and control when off-axis. When you can do that, you have the tools to lean as far as you like without injuring your back or feeling like a Mack truck to the leader.

And then there is the element of surrendering to the dance: practice more upright, working on your technique, but in the moment, who cares? When you are dancing, all that melts into the background as you connect with another person and the music and just DANCE. When I dance, I hope to get "in the groove" and forget about standing up or breathing or releasing my legs because it just happens.

In Tango II, we are working on close embrace to get ready for the crowded dancing situation at Tangofest (http://www.claysdancestudio.com/portland_tangofest/index.shtml).This class is both fun and challenging to teach, as I have students who have danced for three months and others who have danced for 4-5 years in the same class. I run it like a one-room schoolhouse, sometimes dividing people into learning level groups, sometimes having the advanced students dance with the intermediate students to get everyone on the same page. But I digress as usual:-)

Drills & games for the week:

• Axis drill: standing with knees straight but unlocked, big toes touching, eyes closed, breath evenly. Imagine that you can pull air up through the bottoms of your feet, up inside your bones, all the way to your lungs. Then, when you exhale, imagine pushing the air back down through your legs & feet, going six inches through the floor (not just to your soles). Gradually include breathing out the top of your head AND through the floor at the same time. Think of a shower curtain rod: it has springs on both sides, bracing between two walls. Your body is doing the same thing, but sending energy out your feet to ground and out your head to align your axis.
• Force field (2 people): Stand facing each other in the same stance as for the axis drill. Breathe as for the axis drill, but on the exhale, direct all the energy of the breath towards and through your partner, starting at the toes and gradually building a rectangular force field all the way up your/their body. I picture little electrical waves going through my partner, but other folks have said they imagine light/a laser beam/a color/fire/water/bubbles--whatever image works for you.

More after this week's classes--I'm trying desperately to keep on top of reviewing for all of my classes, but it's hard to type when a toddler is "helping"!

Whips and chains (Boleos and crossed system grapevine combos)

We worked on circular boleos (whips) for Week II of Tango III, and then combined them with sacadas.

Con boleos are led by the leader rotating in the same direction as the follower's hips are turning. This is true for both front and back boleos. For me, these boleos have a kind of SSSwoosh feeling, very smooth.

Contra boleos are led by the leader moving around the follower in the opposite direction that the follower's hips are rotating, to create a more ssWOOSH! feeling, with a harder snap to the boleo at the end, but with a tiny bit longer buildup before the snap.

Boleo tips for followers:

• Be on your axis: with few exceptions, boleos work best on axis.
• 80% of the work is for your support leg and body: find a way to stabilize without tensing.
• The free leg MUST be relaxed in order to get a real boleo. You can fake them following a boleo lead, but the feeling for the leader--and for you--is not the same.  The leg is release in the hip socket, not in the lower back.
• Don't clench knees, hips, toes, in order to maintain your balance: use the floor/grounding.
• Stand tall and think of your rib cage lifting ALL AROUND so that your legs can fit under you easily.
• There is no one shape of boleo that is correct. The leader can shape your move, after you have learned to release your leg and stay connected/solid in your center.  The path of the leader's rotation determines the path of your leg.
• Your embrace needs to be strong at the moment of the boleo to help stabilize your body (except the loose leg), but don't clutch your partner! Think of two waves hitting and subsiding, rather than a death grip.

Boleo tips for leaders:

• This is a subtle lead. I know, it doesn't look like a subtle move, but the lead energy gets magnified as it travels down the follower's body to the free leg.  If you haul your partner into boleos, they can't release their leg without falling over.
• Find the rotation in your center, and keep it parallel to the ground unless you want to make strange, weird boleo shapes.
• Don't use your arms to twist the follower: use them to stabilize, not to pull!
• Plant your feet strongly. Many times, I find that both of my feet need to be solidly on the ground BEFORE I initiate the boleo lead. Yes, there are some boleos where you can't do that, but work on them after more simple ones work.
• For contra boleos, remember that you can travel with a side step (usually the easiest), a front cross, or a back cross.  Experiment!
• Lead the boleo as one move, not a twist and then an untwist: allow the follower's momentum to contribute to the unwinding.

Using boleo combinations on the dance floor

What's the point of knowing all these cool moves if you can't use them? We focused on leading con and contra boleos with a preparation set up along the LOD direction, and exiting LOD. The leader can face out of the circle or into the circle to do these.

Building on what we did last week, we played with adding steps to the boleos as they unwound, resolved into steps LOD.  You can use circular or linear sacadas after the boleos, but some moves remain in one place and cannot be done in a crowded space.

One last note: Don't lead high boleos (or backlead high boleos) in a crowded space! Although many boleo shapes curve around the follower's axis, thus making them compact enough for most dance spaces, if you are dancing with someone whose style you cannot predict, don't boleo.

I think that's it, unless you remember something I forgot to write down!  Good work, everyone!

Lead from your center, follow with energy! (Week I Ballroom I notes)

What is the most important element of ballroom dance for a beginner? To me, it is building communication between the leader and the follower. If you focus on leading from your center and communicating your movement to the follower--even if it is "wrong"--both people get to move together, to dance!

The leader's role is to make the follower feel secure, communicate moves to the follower, navigate without collisions, dance with the music, and decide what steps to do. That's a lot to do at the same time. However, if you concentrate on moving from your center, the follower can stay with you. Because you are making your movement requests clear, the follower feels more sure/secure, and allows you more control over the steps. Moving from your center allows you to stay more balanced, helping to avoid collisions and allowing you to move with the music more easily.

The follower's role is to give the leader energy, while following the lead (pretty obvious). The follower's role has fewer elements to juggle, but it is still not easy to follow. First, many people find it difficult to give up control, let the other person determine the course, and trust that all will be well.  Second, in a beginning class, all the people leading are new at leading and so require more attention on the part of the follower to understand what steps need to happen.

I make my students try both roles in order to better understand the structure of the dance.  Also, understanding the role of the other dancer makes most dancers more sympathetic when difficulties arise: each person knows that both roles present challenges, and can help each other with technique, steps, and keeping the dance together.

I try to balance my games/exercises to improve couple dancing in general, with steps :-)  We are starting with a traveling dance (foxtrot) to get used to moving around the space; and rumba, a mostly stationery dance, to practice holding a space on the floor.

Foxtrot has two rhythms in the dance: slow, slow, quick, quick (SSQQ)--6 counts--and slow-quick-quick (SQQ)--8 counts.  We started with the 6-count steps, practicing traveling around the room.

• Basic (SSQQ rhythm): Leader (Ld) starts forward (fd) on the left (L), fd on R, and steps side together (sd tog) on LR; Follower (Fl) starts back (bk) on R, bk on L, and sd tog (RL).
• Hesitation (SSQQ rhythm): Ld steps fd on L, bk on R, sd tog (LR); Fl: bk on R, fd on L, sd tog (RL). Turn counter-clockwise (CW) to rotate the step.

Rumba has an 8-count rhythm (QQS, QQS--or SQQ SQQ; as I explained in class, I am of the QQS school), and the steps are built off box steps. 

• Basic turning box (QQSQQS): Ld steps sd with L, tog with R, and fd with L; again side step to R, step tog with L, and step bk with R; Fl steps sd with R, tog with L, bk with R; and side with L, tog with R, and fd with L to complete the box.
• Long underarm turn (QQSQQS): The turn is completed using the time of an entire box, 8 counts. On the Ld's bk step, the Ld raises the left arm, starting to signal a turn. As a new box starts, the Fl moves under the raised arm to start a 6-step, 8-count circle.  The Fl's circle and the Ld's box resolve at the same time. (Note: we didn't get to finish the finer points of this yet. This week, we'll make the turn look great).

Tango 3: Weird, original moves

At the beginning of all of my classes (except my beginner class), I ask my students what they would like to get out of the class.  I then use that information to plan the class. C. asked for "weird, original moves" and "new ideas from normal places" to keep his followers from anticipating upcoming moves.  R. asked to work on gaining precision "on everything." M. wanted "body placement and loose legs."  G. wanted to do follower and leader sacadas--ah!  something easy!!!  As the rest of the class had not yet chosen goals, we started with the idea of sacadas, and quickly ended up at weird and original.

Basic Patterns
1. Leading the follower to do a front sacada through the leader's front cross.
2. Leading the follower to do a side step sacada through the leader's front cross.
3. Leading the follower to do a front sacada through the leader's back cross.

Focus: using these steps on the dance floor
Using Chicho's great cross-system grapevine exercises for moving around the room, we adapted it to the sacadas. This way, each sacada that happens moves the leader from the inside or outside track, to the other track around the room (think concentric circles). All three sacadas can be led with the leader starting with his/her back facing the center of the room, or facing out of the room, but ALWAYS continuing line of dance (LOD).

Weird and original: the variations
Once the basic patterns were working to some degree, we started messing around with my favorite question: what movements flow from this movement? what makes organic sense from this point?

1. (G's idea): adding a linear boleo immediately after the sacada is strange but fun. We worked on the quick timing needed for the leader to ground before the follower's leg goes past vertical, in order for a really nice, snappy linear boleo to happen. 
Note: If you do this variation, the rebound wants to go reverse line of dance (RLOD), which can be dangerous. In order to stay with the feeling of progressing around the room, the rebound needs to be shaped into an overturned back cross and sent LOD.
1a. C. and G. liked the possibility of recurring front sacadas for the lead after this.

2. (C's idea): adding a volcada.  This is much harder than 1., a bit weirder, but fun.  The important factors are: you must use the sacada to get closer together, lift the follower slightly to make them stay on the same foot & not travel, and then guide them in the volcada & reground them.  The only tricky part is convincing the follower to remain on the same foot!

Following tips:
It seems to me that many tango classes ignore the followers and focus on what the leader needs to do, and we didn't talk a lot about following in this session, BUT these crazy moves are a great place to work on your axis and using breath to balance/ground.  Because you don't know what is going to happen next, you must be ready for anything, and that requires pinpoint accuracy in technique.  M. found that, if she breathed and focused on staying on balance, all the moves became easier than when she tried to figure out what was happening ;-) More on following next week.

For those of you who didn't make it to class this week, don't worry: we're on to other, weird stuff!

What is important in a dance?

I thought choosing a title for my blog would be easy, but after an extended period of time poised at the "blog title" part of the registration process, I have realized how difficult I find it to condense all my beliefs about dance and teaching dance into one word or one phrase.  Why I dance and why I teach dance are subjects that I could fill pages discussing.  You would think that twenty years of teaching (and two theses of 100+ pages) would have forced me to distill this into a succinct phrase, but NO!

I learned to dance at nineteen, way past the age at which most professional dancers begin to dance.  I was told I was "too fat" and "too old" to learn to dance.  I was laughed at by a close relative who had danced since childhood: "You, dance?  That's the funniest thing I've ever heard!"   Later, when I told my family I wanted to pursue a master's degree in dance, widespread panic resulted: "That is an avocation, not a vocation!" my father insisted.  Still, the pull to dance won, over all the voiced displeasure at my choice of occupation.

My first winter in college, I signed up for social dance as a way to fulfill P.E. requirements.  My class was fun, but what really held my attention were the dance teachers and their friends, who stayed to dance after class until dinnertime.  They put on folk dance records, and whirled and twirled and squealed with delight until the last possible moment to get in the dinner line.  I stayed longer and longer, watching them dance, and after a few weeks, they invited me to dance; I was hooked.  I joined the folk dance troupe, kept doing ballroom dancing, and gradually took all the classes available in ballet, jazz and modern dance.  By my senior year, I was dancing twenty hours a week and teaching at school and in the community.

Why did I start dancing?  The intense joy I felt while dancing exceeded any other physical connection I had ever felt.  Moving to music, with other people, filled me with happiness and energy.  The people I met dancing understood my need to express myself physically, and honored that part of me.  When we joined hands to dance, we connected on levels of heart and soul as well.  Dance has provided me with balance in my life, adding flavor and texture to the other parts of my life.

Why did I start teaching?  I wanted other people to experience what I had experienced.  I also wanted more people with whom to dance!  I enjoy teaching adults to dance because I know how intimidating it can be to try something new as an adult.  Many of my students are professionals who excel at what they do in life.  When you are good at everything you do, it is doubly intimidating to try a new thing, something that you might not find easy--and couple dancing means you have to do that in public!  There is no way to avoid making mistakes in front of other people when learning social dance.  My job is to make that learning process rewarding, to create space where it is OK to make mistakes and to guide a new dancer into this adventure that is dance.

So, how do you say that in one word, or in one sentence?  I still don't know.