Beginners I like, beginners I don't

I have written here how I like to dance with beginners. But I should have written SOME beginners. I like to dance with beginners that have a positive approach. When dancing, I want to dance with someone that can connect with me, with my dance. And for as much as it is difficult to do that when you're a beginner, any little bit will please me. And I am not expecting a beginner to do the same as an intermediate or advance dancer. I am expecting a beginner to do simple stuff and to make an effort in order to make it correctly. In essence, when dancing with beginners the attitude counts a lot.
I don't like to dance with other kind of beginners. These usually called themselves advanced and think that time (on itself) dictates your level of mastery. Dancing with them is like dancing with a broomstick. They're just interested in not staying sat (because that is a waste of time and it looks bad). They're not interested in putting anything into the dance. They are not interested into learning, challenging themselves, put a sparkle in the dance. They're just there because they just got used to go to milongas, to pretend they dance tango and to tell their non-tango friends that they're fantastic dancers.
There is the third type of beginners. The ones that are not beginners but that have the attitude of beginners. Those of have been learning for quite some time, have mastered quite a lot of principles but still persevere in the quest to become better. Other people called them advanced. The truly advanced dancer is the one who realises that he/she will always be a beginner.

Tango and injury

If you're one of these people that has never stopped dancing because of an injury (tango or non-tango related) then you should be glad that you're in a very restricted club. And you should read this post with much attention.
For the first few years of tango I spent a third of the time not dancing. Not because I didn't want it, not because I didn't feel like it, simply because I couldn't bear the pain anymore. I tango limped, which did not help my knee, my head or my confidence, let alone my tango.
The first thing that I advice is not to lose contact with the music. Listening to the music will let you know about what's coming next and that gives you an invaluable advantage when improvising.
Second thing is, don't be passive about your injury. If only one bit of your body is hurt try to maintain the other bits active. Even the little bit that is hurt can move most times but check with a physiotherapist first.
Third, try to get basic concepts in your head. Basic concepts such as line of walk, bringing feet together... Everytime I was injured for two months I came back to my first milonga and people would ask me if I had been hacing lessons with someone else. When I told them that I hadn't danced for months they wouldn't believe me. But it was all down to organising tango within my head, rather than in my chest or my feet. There is lots of good stuff to read (and lots of crap stuff). I can advise Tao of Tango and (online) Tango and Chaos.
Fourth, get some inspiration. If youtube gives you inspiration, wonder around it. If watching ballet gives you inpiration why not buying some tickets for the show that is just coming around to your town? Keep your brain flooded with ideas, whether they are tango, or non-tango related.
Fifth, and perhaps most important. When you come back, PLEASE, start by doing simple stuff. Even a short time such as 3 weeks can leave you completely out of fluidity. "Less is more". Although this is the motto for tango generally, here it is an obligation. You'll see that after 3 or 4 milongas/praticas you'll feel much better and much more fluent. Like riding a bike, it all comes back, but takes some time and to paraphrase my tango mentor, "it also takes some tango mileage"

Heavyness and being grounded - two completely different things!

This post is born out of the discussion of a post in Alex's blog. I am sure this has been discussed around in a blog somewhere but I can't remember where. Anyway, what we're talking about is if weight matters.
By self experience I say that I have danced with some heavy followers that were light as a plume and with some (misleadingly) skinny followers that were has heavy has a lorry (or truck, if you're on the other side of the Atlantic ;o) So, weight on itself has absolutely no influence on the dance. If you can hold your weight, if you can be strong enough to carry all your package on your own, then you'll be light as a feather. In other words, you'll be as heavy as how much you ask your partner to carry.
Being grounded is something completely different. You can be obese and still not being close to be grounded. You can be slim and fit and yet drill down into the floor without passing the weight to your partner. Juana Sepulveda is a very good example. Slim, beautiful, gracious. But you'll notice that when she takes a step, especially in pivots she drills into the floor but she holds her own weight.
One my early teachers once told me "In tango, try to step the underfloor and never the floor". it makes absolute sense. To be decisive and to make your movements as clear as water you have to put all your weight into the floor (action) and transform the upward motion (reaction) into whatever you want to do.

Dancing with beginners

I remember a few years ago, when I imagined the day that I would be able to invite the best dancers to dance with me. And that day arrived much quicker than I thought! In fact, what i thought it was an event only to be achieved on my "advanced graduation" (whatever that is) it was kind of a non-existent myth. I was only a beginner but it felt so different to dance with my teacher that I was wondering if it was myself leading her. My rustique techniques fitted absolutely well, I became more confident and those dances taught me more than many whole milongas.
And because of that, I think it's only fair to make sure you dance with beginners on a regular basis. To bring them up, teach them, show them what all these tango secrets are all about, give them a taste on what's to come with their dancing. Tango padawan has a very nice post about this, which I totally subscribe. But I find it difficult that some more advanced people in the world of tango never bother to come down of their pedestral to dance with the common people. I have noticed that in most communities is like this. The advanced people in the usual table and all the rest of the crowd dreaming on...
I know that tango is to taught in classes and milongas but you can teach a lot to someone in a milonga without saying a word or uttering an explanation. Just show them the way, so that they can do that in a few years time.

3 2 tango

Nancy and Damian were in the last weekend at the I Edinburgh International Tango Festival. I was told by a few tangologuers that they did a very nice performance. But no other performance beats this one. Not because it's Di Sarli on piano and not because it's my tango crush singing (for those who don't yet know it's Podestá) but because there are actually three people dancing. And no cheezyness!

Dynamic fun

A few posts back, when supantheress was talking about dynamic fun, I had (other than my attempts to do everytime I dance) a few tango clips in my mind. Murat and Michelle's clip of Re Fa Si at the MIT milonga is a great example that tango CAN and SHOULD be fun and dynamic.

What do you think of it?

Taxi driver

I stood before this video trying to absorb as much as I could. It's not a pretty video of Geraldine, it's not an interview to Zotto... Is simply the real tango shown by a taxi driver from BsAs. The backdoor milongas, the bar, the intrinsic tango that lives under the skin of these people... We have to look for it, dance it, go to classes, get better, be nerdy and learn all the music titles and orchestras... But these people live with it. They always had!



Morreré en Buenos Aires, en la madrugada, a la hora que mueren los que saben murrir. - Fantastic!

Tango is alive in the midlands!

The midlands are the bit of land in England that are, as it says on the tin, in the middle. North of London and south of Manchester/Liverpool and Yorkshire. It has the second biggest city in the UK, Birmingham and a cluster of important cities such as Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. But despite a rsident population of over 10 million people, the tango population was minute, and there was the idea that the midlands were a pretty sterile land, in terms of tango.

But the winds have changed! There are lots of events with professional teachers going on. If you're a tangologuer from the midlands you may want to check this out, it may interest you!

8th June - A Sunday of Argentine Tango organised by Birmingham University Tango
with Marcelo Almirón and Maria Solero (Bs As)

14th June - one day of workshops in Market Harborough
with Octavian Janner (London)

20th-22nd June - Tango Spa - Warwickshire Tango Festival v1.0, organised by TangoWarwick
with Jenny Frances and Ricardo Oria (Edinburgh/BsAs)

7th - 13th July - Birmingham Univeristy Tango organises "Austria Summer Tango training camp"

26th-27th July - El 13 - Tango Salon weekend Villa Urquiza style organised by Tango in Brum (Birmingham)
with Roberto Bolletin and Mariana Bocallate (Italy)

Who dares to say that tango in the midlands is not alive?

Would you?

Mariana Flores and Eduardo Capussi are visiting the UK for the first time as part of the London Tango Festival. They are a quite odd couple - theatrical, fun and out of borders - Johanna even suggested where they may have got an influence from in her seminal blog.
Now, the question that I ask you is. After having seen this clip would you be swayed to do a workshop with them?

Grounded

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!

Why do days only have 24 hours?

Sorry for those of you, regular tangologuers who have had nothing to read in the last week. My exams are coming at an extraordinary pace and the tango event I am organising is consuming all my remaining time! Well, now that I mentioned it, for those of you who live in this side of the Ocean, check it out, it may interest you! ;o)


TANGO SPA
Warwickshire Tango Festival v1.0
Royal Leamington Spa
20th-22nd June 2008

Soak yourself in tango!

private scenarios

Let's think about the following scenario.

A woman goes in a practice studio. The setting is empty, the floor is wooden and shiny, there is a huge mirror covering one wall and there are holding poles around the room. A very fit Young Woman is standing at the far corner, changing shoes. Woman A approaches Young Woman, in a scouting manner, looking around slowly and with embarrashment. There is awkwardness in the air, the two women look at each other, they measure each other's presence in the room. Woman A is off base. Young Woman asks the question:
"What do you want to learn today?"

****

The scenario could go on and on and a great story could be written, but I'd rather stop here: at the moment before the beginning of a private class. It's the moment when a feel like a rookie again. Standing next to a good dancer, whose technique and movement I've been admiring, I suddenly feel too small and inexperienced. In a moment's time, in my head, I question my skill and my ability and I'm at a loss: What can she teach me today? Which moves, which decorations, what secrets, what movement? There is a sea of knowledge out there and I have to narrow it down to one thing. What can be taught in an hour?

I want to say - "take my body and transform my movement. I want to move like you for just one hour." (I don't want to freak Young Woman out - I don't say this out loud).

Of course, soon after a decision is made; Woman A replies "I have trouble doing this feagure" or "I love the way you do boleos, please tell me what's wrong with mine" or "show me how to do A or B". For me what is practiced is not as much as practicing next to a dancer whose style I admire, seeing how she moves and learning from that.

Yesterday I had a private class with Nayla Vacca at the event we organised at the Uni of Birmingham. I could spend 3 hours talking about all the new things I learnt in an hour with her. But what counts more, for me, is that after the class, when I started dancing in the milonga, I felt more plastic, like there was no tension in my body obscuring my movement. In the milonga I didn't practice what we did in class, yet my dancing has been affected already.

What do you get out of private classes?

Good teaching

Leandro Palou and Romina Godoy

I took a workshop with them last December in Bailongo! and the only thing I knew about Leandro was that he had been a partner of Andrea Missé and that he was the dancer in the Haagen Dazs Dolce de Leche advert. I knew nothing about Romina.
It took me only a few minutes to become a fan of these two. They're precision with technique allied to a fabulous musicality and search for perfection was evident from the first minute and I bonded with their teaching style right from the start.
Hopefully, I'll have more classes with them very soon. For those of you who are kicking around London and are looking for good tuition they are in central London (but beware as they will be touring - again - with tangox2).
Here it is a video that Supantheress shot after one of the workshops when they did a completely improvised demonstration (he wanted to put another music to do the demo but couldn't find it) of what they taught us (the movement is the one from 0:50 to 1:05, with variations). The orchestra is "Enrique Rodriguez" and the title of the music is "No te quiero mas"

The wrong message

This is probably true to most people reading this but I feel really really uncomfortable when I am dancing with someone and I feel that she is not enjoying the dance. It happened to me this sunday. From the start of the tanda, I felt she was bored, unchallenged, waiting for the end of the tanda, just wishing it ended. Needless to say that I went back to my seat (after escorting her to her seat) with a low moral... The milonga went past and I was just dragging myself on the dancefloor. Then I had a dance with someone I love to dance with and my energy came back to me - we danced three tandas. I had a few more dances that brought my self confidence up. Towards the very end of the milonga, when there were only a handful of people on the floor she was seating and I gathered courage and thought, "I'm going to make up for it". I cabeceoed her. When I went to meet her she told me "I thought you would never ask me for another tanda! The previous one was great!"
Does this happen to you very often?

MOVES

"Moves"
a.k.a. It-Which-Must-Not-Be-Encouraged

The thing that tango intellects & enthusiasts seem to despise talking about.

What is it that this word repels many of us?

> You are right, I would rather dance with people who have connection with me than with those who just want to try reckless moves.

> You are right, I would rather dance with people who have musicality than with those who just want to try reckless moves.

> You are right, I would rather dance with people who put emotion into their dance than with those who just want to try reckless moves.

> You are right, I would rather dance with people who have the right techniques and do what they know properly than with those who just want to try reckless moves.

But I want MORE! I want to have dynamic fun!

Is there anything wrong with wanting to dance with those who try moves that are new, adventurous, ambitious, creative and playful (of course they have to be considerate of their surrounding and safety)?

Is there anything wrong in wanting to learn "moves" for a change? To pursue those quirky yet elegant "moves"? Are techniques, musicality and connection the only things I am allowed to cultivate?

Am I greedy?

Am I shallow?

Am I not a proper tanguera?

Should I be condemned, persecuted and exiled to the planet of exhibitionists, salseros and acrobatics?

Give me your verdict.

Tango, Porto de Honra

Why is Port called Port? Supposedly, Port can only be called to the fortified wine whose grapes have been grown in the Douro Valley (in the northwest of Portugal) and whose wines have been stored in Porto, the city at the end of the river Douro.
Anyway, I have wrote a wee chronicle about SOME of the tango that goes on over there. But we all might be glad to know that that there is real tango being danced there.
Porto de Honra means Port of honour, and when in a group people raise their glasses to drink they drink to their honour.
Today it's the start of a wonderful chapter in Porto (and northern Portugal's) tango scene. I just thought I could drop a line here, just in case you're around the area...

The healing powers of tango help Parkinson sufferers!

It's not an anecdotal report, it's not a beautiful life story, it's pure science, but it's music to my ears!
According to a study published in a scientific journal, tango improved balanced, mobility and obvioulsy, quality of life in Parkinson's disease sufferers.
The authors compared the effects of Argentine tango dance classes to exercise classes on functional mobility in 19 patients with Parkinson's disease. The participants in the dance program showed significant improvement in several standard tests for patients with Parkinson's disease - the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UP-DRS) and the Berg Balance Scale.
The study is going to be continued for further assessments and, if it proves that tango is better than standard exercises it's another challenge for tango teachers. Only they MUST be prepared!

Thanks to Fishnets and Fedoras for bringing this report to my attention

Argentine Milonga - The New Salsa

I am not claiming it, it's written in this dance school's website! Some people shouldn't be allowed a computer in front of them!
To teach tango, first, understand what tango is. Then perfect. Then devise a way of teaching it. Then teach it. Some people forget to do the first. What happens? Tango Lego happens.

Tango Spell

I was in the big hall with my partner waiting for them to come. I was talking to my good friend who was organising the event but the anticipation was too great. Suddently, she walks in. Much prettier than I thought she was in the thousands of videos I had seen her dancing in. Dressed in black with heavy leather boots. She said "Hola!" and ice was broken, I was just about to have a private class with Natacha Poberaj, if you haven't heard of her then you should really review what you've been doing in youtube all these years.
Eduardo "El gaucho" Villegas was very concentrated making his coffee but had to hurry into the class. A shirt stating "De Puta Madre" and a very amicable smile. we can't forget the tango dancer.
Shoes on, black Matrix cape off, hair loose, she asked me to lead her. Chest to chest, no tango embrace. She corrected me here and there, told me to stretch my legs. We started again. I could only smile to her "Esso! Esso!".
Natacha reminded me of something that I hadn't been paying attention for years. Breathing. It's amazing how a deep breath can add SO much to your tango. The intention becomes bigger, the suspense immense and the momentum sky rockets into another galaxy. But what made me happy for the rest of the day was something that she told me in my ear while we were dancing , "Your embrace is beautiful. Don't lose it!". I will never forget this class.

Tango game

Artur is probably one of the only few people from my hometown that has surrendered to Argentinian Tango. He writes in a really nice blog, Tango Atlântico, which is written in Portuguese and as such, inaccessible to most of you. I have the pleasure of having him as a guest tangologuer. I hope you like it!

I believe there are more blacks and whites on the rules in the milonga rather than grays. I do have a lot of sympathy for women who walk alone in milonga and patiently wait to be invited to dance. Lets be clear in this game that the role of the leader is easier, by the simple fact he dances whenever he wants. If followers are available he always dances his favorite music. For women this is not exactly true. Men normally find that a good milonga it is a milonga where the number of women it is higher than men. Leaders like to choose and followers like to be chosen. Women have to play the game of making the men invite her to dance. The women have to be shown for the first time to be invited again. For women, high mood and great self-esteem helps a lot, as weel as being sighted in a visible position in the room. Especially in US and Europe, no one gets upset if women go and ask the men to dance. Cabeceo is something that it is only fully understood after being in Buenos Aires. Just in a few milongas in France/Spain, the cabeceo is done, but nothing like in Buenos Aires. If you go with your partner, you have to step-away from your partner if both of you want to dance with others. Never dance more than one tanda in a row (or 3 tangos) with you partner. Then step aside, go to fetch a drink, go to toilet or invite immediately after other partner. If you stay chatting no one comes to interrupt your conversation if you are in an alien place. I do this with my wife and it works. Both of us dance, and normally she dances more than me.