The sun is shining outside but I am grounded in my room. I took the weekend for tango and now I have to catch up with revision. But being grounded is not always bad. Juana Sepulveda, Chico's most recent partner, just proves that point in this (or in fact in any other) video. The "floating" skirty dress helps but it is just amazing how she seems to float in the air and yet at the same time drill the balls of the feet in the floor like if she wants to make a hole in it.
Let's be honest, Chicho helps (quite a lot). When talking to another tanguero (a Chichophiliac) the other day he told me he didn't like Juana because she is nothing like Eugenia Parilla. Well, number 1 Eugenia is Eugenia and number 2, Chicho and her danced for a long time together! Give Juana some time!
PS - It's really nice to see Chicho dancing D'Arienzo. It adds another dimension to the music. From a genius, I couldn't expect less!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Grounded
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11 comments:
Awesome. Really good.
Something to note... I am finding that there are two knee-ists in this tango world.
1> "Straightkneeists"
2> "Bendkneeists"
Some professional followers like straightened legs. Others like them bent. I like straight legs (probably due to my synchronized swimming past), I always have, but then in recent years I have come to appreciate the importance of bent legs for the sake of balance and elasticity.
I do think though, that bent legs, or alternatively, to be less extremist, 'relaxed' legs are important for maintaining balance and alertness, and most importantly for groundedness (if that's a word...?). In this case, you can see that Juana has her legs bent most of the time.
Are flexed legs found more frequently in nuevo than in traditional...?
Are flexed legs found more frequently in nuevo than in traditional...?
I think so!
Anyway, I get really confused with leg bendiness...
Hi anonymous, do you then consider Chicho and Juana two spiders fighting? Because they both bend their knees...
Or half a spider fighting because there are only 4 legs...
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.... CHICHO
YES I,M A FAN.
I THINK I HAVE ALL THE VIDEOS OF CHICHO IN THE NET.
I TOOK CLASSES WITH CHICHO AND I HAVE TO SAY JUST THIS WORD " GENIUS ".
I LIKE CHICHO A LOT THE WAY THAT HE ALWAIS TRY TO TAKE TANGO A STEP FORWARD.
I SEE LIVE AND IN VIDEOS SEVERAL DIFERENT WOMENS DANCING (MARIANA, EUGENIA, MARIANA MONTES,JUANA, CECILIA)WITH CHICHO.
BUT ALWAIS THE SAME RESULT GENIUS, KING OF IMPROVISATION
IN RELATION WITH THE LEGS THEME, IN NUEVO TANGO YOU HAVE ALWAIS A STRONG FLOOR CONEXION, AND THE LEGS HAVE TO BE ALWAIS A LITTLE BEND, TO
TRANSFER THE WEIGHT FAST
I believe that there are cases where the bent-effect works. When for example it is used for a different interpretation of the music, as it is done in the video I have posted in March of Horacio y Cecilia dancing a milonga.
I try to avoid it, because us followers have the **terrible** tendency to bend our knees in between a move although it hasn't been led and mainly in order to keep balance.
I don't have an objection to bending the knees, unless is an impediment to the dance.
ps. Comparing dancers who bend their legs with spiders dancing was a bit far fetched maybe, but extremely funny!
Some controversy perhaps... I do not like chicho: I think he's over rated, although I admit he does dance very effortlessly but with only moderate intensity to my eye, he does do some cool things... in workshops I took with him he broke down steps in a very strait forward manner and I can see how it leads to his style of dance, but he put very little into the workshops, I didn't like them much. He was also quite grumpy which was also the impression I got seeing him in Paris a couple of times, grumpy and self important. In terms of his dance, I think his posture is not that nice and he dances in a somewhat brutal manner, effective, and mostly effortless, but also, to me, with a dullness like his passion is without love; and with heavy clashing steps; and I never get the feeling of sparks when he dances. I do with many other dancers, such as Los Dinzels.
As for the legs debate - I think locked legs are a bad idea because they inhibit movement, and they look and feel stiff; overly bent legs tend to clash and look lazy to me; natural extension comes to mind. :)
Regardless of what I think about Chicho, I know that there are phenomenal dancers who are completely s**t at teaching. Meanwhile there are mediocre dancers, or those that have not yet broken that international barrier or reached the celebrity status that are superb at teaching... I think that you have to be selective about selecting dancers for 1)performance and 2)workshops...
I had one workshop with Chicho and I swore it was the first and the last! He was obviously hung-over, had not thought what he was going to teach previously (you could see him trying to teach the step to poor Mariana Dragoner while we were practising what he taught us before) and was probably wondering what had he done wrong last night that he couldn't remember... (you that weird feeling when you've had too much of a drink, did something stupid but don't really know what it is)
However, I like his dancing. He is one of the few maestros that actually comes up with something new, not just a sequence of steps but a whole move, a different approach, another dimension...
I do acknowledge that I felt that feeling of "self-importantness" and I hated it. Usually tango maestros are quite approacheable and he was just... distant.
He is a genious, nevertheless. And maybe that is why that's how he comes across...
I totally disagree about Chicho being self-important. I've been to a lot of festivals where he was the only one of the maestros actually dancing at the milongas alongside us mortals. And I've taken a fair few classes and workshops with him, and he's always been brilliant, so generous, going round to everyone, really taking the time to help. He's a little reserved sometimes, sure, but so would you be if you had as many people want a piece of you as he does.
Juana is incredible. Tiny as she is, she completely matches his power, and he has a *lot* of power. On the moves where you need to actively hold onto the embrace, you just fly across the floor, it's like riding a rollercoaster. Juana has the most amazing control over her own axis - few can rival her in that department, I reckon. Eugenia is astonishing, one of a kind, but they're totally different dancers, apples and oranges.
Bent legs vs straight: for me, you dance with your legs as bent or as straight as they need to be for whatever you're doing. Just as when you walk your legs are relatively straight, and when you run they're more bent. The crucial thing for me is to extend your legs as you step. Not stiffly, but naturally, just as when you walk or run your leg flies out before you, completely relaxed, in order to reach the next step. And in between it bends in order to move through vertical. When I see someone whose bent legs look awkward and scarecrowy, for me it's always because their leg *never* extends - their leg is bent right up to the point at which they step onto it. This is awkward, unnatural, and causes you to fall. If you watch Eugenia, or Juana, you'll see what I mean. Look at 1.17 in this video - she takes a front cross with her left leg - as her left leg comes forward it extends all the way out, as far as it can go without locking, just before she places her foot, and then as her weight comes forward onto that leg, then of course she has to bend it in order to make the transfer, it would be physically impossible to do otherwise, and her right leg extends behind her as her weight leaves it. If she took the step in reverse you'd see the same thing - her right leg would extend backwards just before she placed her foot, with her left leg bent as her weight was over it, then as she transfered her weight backwards her left leg would straighten and her right leg bend. Inexperienced followers sometimes try to take these steps without extend their legs at all, and that's when they look scarecrowy.
My, I am chatty tonight.
Wow, psyche!
Let's go part by part.
I am really glad that you know a Chicho that I don't. Unfortunately, when I met him as a teacher he proved to be one of the worst teachers I ever had. He was clearly hungover, hadn't prepared the lesson (he was explaining what he was going to do next to Mariana Dragone, while we were doing what he had shown) and everytime we didn't get something he would get irritated. You talk about him dancing amongst mere mortals. Well, he did, but always with another teacher, in this case, Mariana Montes. I am more than happy to give him a second chance but I won't go out of my way for him.
As for your explanation on bent or straight knees, I understand totally what you're saying. The movement comes from the back leg which has to entend but if legs are extended all the time you may look like a gingerbread biscuit. I couldn't agree anymore!
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