For info on the upcoming dances we'll be teaching and other administrative information, please click on Taking Care of Business
During Class:
For general information on what an isometric exercise is and the general method of doing them, see class five notes. When you do these daily, start with the lower back isometric. Having done that (twice), then do it for the upper back. The idea here is to arch the upper back, while maintaining a straight, (relatively) unarched, lower back. You want to arch the upper back horizontally, from shoulder to shoulder, bringing the shoulders back and down. Then you want simultaneously to arch the upper back vertically along the spine, bringing the head back and breatbone forward. Do this to the extreme (this is an exercise, not how you normally stand or dance), then relax, then do it again, according to the same timetable and principles we used in doing the lower back and other isometrics from last week. As in previous isometric exercises, you want to isolate and use just the muscles necessary to get the job done while relaxing everything else. It may help to think of your back shaped like a kite, being bowed (inward, the opposite of being hunched or rounded) in both directions. Keep your lower back in a relaxed straightened, stretched out position as you do the isometric for your upper back. You'll experience a certain logic, and connection focusing on both lower and upper back at the same time, that arching your upper back helps you to straighten and stretch your lower back, and vice versa. Think of a cat stretching. You can even try actually doing both (lower and upper back) isometrics at the same time, though I suspect you'll have better luck, and generate more intensity, doing them one at a time.
The isometrics we do are so you have good posture naturally without having to try to fake it during the dance. We are not looking for that ramrod stiff, ten tooth smile, "Ron Montez" look you see on "ballroom championships" (but that some people do swoon over). We want posture that is solid, strong, but that happens naturally, not something you are concentrating on every moment while dancing. In Argentine tango there is great emphasis on the chest being forward and lifted (but the shoulders being simultaneously relaxed, down and back), for the follower, but especially for the leader. Doing this isometric (every day) along with the others we've taught will go a long way toward attaining that. They'll tend to give you some extra overall muscle tone and shape--an "edge". Posture is an integral part of the foundation. Technique, and even a lot of the mental aspects of the dance, will be positively affected by good posture. You'll stand a little straighter, move easier and with a little more authority, look a few years younger, and generally look better and more like a dancer. Posture alone can distinguish between a "pretty good" dancer and an excellent one. A well toned body is a relaxed body, a poorly toned body is alternately tense and flacid. These exercises do, when practiced, also make a real difference in how you feel and in how much you enjoy the dance. They are extraordinarily efficient time and effort-wise, and can take you places dancewise that might otherwise take years. Of course, a good general workout routine, including lifting weights or some other form of resistance training, won't hurt. For aerobics for dancers, I recommend bicycling or swimming. Diet is also important, but, at least for now, beyond the scope of this class and these notes.
Fortunately or unfortunately it is simply a fact of life that someone with a well toned, slim, body is much easier and more fun to dance with, to lead or follow, than is someone out of shape and overweight. I have enjoyed dancing with some overweight and out of shape people who were very good, very talented dancers, but being overweight, especially, imposes a monstrous handicap, hence they were very good in spite of their physical reality, not because of it. Had they also been physically fit, there is no telling how good, how much better, they might have been. If you are overweight (for instance) please realize that losing weight happens gradually over time and involves long term stratagies like lifestyle change and not just diet. This is especially true when you just want to lose "that last ten pounds". The good news is that once you establish and get into a routine of regular exercise and eating well, it's then just a matter of time, of "set it and forget it", before you are lookin' and feeling good, in shape, and at your ideal weight. For those of you who might be interested, I'll include a brief discussion, offering some opinions, about diet in the next installment of these notes.
We changed the format of the "warmup" this time. Instead of lining you up behind me, I had you in a circle and asked you to focus on someone across from you and facing you in that circle. The idea was to try to identify with that person, which should not be too hard being that you are both supposed to be doing the same thing. This is a game that you can practice with a partner, taking turns "leading" and "following". This anticipates a theme (and exercises) we'll be emphasizing in the near future to specifically address issues of empathy with, and awareness of, ones partner.
We reviewed the media vuelta. See previous class notes for a step by step description.
We had distinguished briefly between "cross pattern" and "parallel pattern" footwork by introducing some variations on the "salida" ending at the cruzada in the previous class and class notes. To refresh your memory, "cross pattern" footwork is when the leader and follower are both stepping on the same feet simultaneously. Facing each other it feels "funny" because we are used to stepping on opposite feet, like in most of the figures we've learned thus far. "Parallel footwork" is the "normal" way people dance, stepping on opposite feet (e.g. man's left, lady's right). This is the mode for most social dancing, like waltz, polka, fox trot, two step, etc., and the the only mode most people even know. There is a definite difference in how each mode "feels". At first cross pattern feels strange, the dymanics of balance with your partner being in many respects opposite of what you're used to in parallel pattern. But once you do get used to it you realize it opens up a whole new universe of figures and possibilities, and is actually easier in many respects. For one, it makes it a little easier to identify with your partner knowing she is stepping onto the same foot that you're stepping onto. In practicing the grapevine ocho exercise (and improvising), initially try to stay just in one mode or the other. When you get good at that, you can then practice consciously and deliberately going from one mode to the other until you can transition effortlessly and unconsciously. You'll discover possibilities in the going back and forth, in the interface, that are not present in either mode by itself. Cross/parallel stepping is just one aspect of Argentine tango that makes it such a powerful and versatile dance. I should mention that there is a third possibility, of being in neither mode, e.g. when the leader is not stepping in synch his partner or even deliberatately stepping out of synch with her. There are some additional interesting possibilities here as well, to be taken up at a later time.
A basic step, too short to even be catagorized a "figure", but extremely important and useful nonetheless, is what I'll call, for lack of a better term a "droh". (I'm obviously not very imaginative, and I don't speak spanish). Anyway, this is simply, in cross pattern, following her left foot with your left foot as she steps back and you step forward into her space by kind of going "around" her. Initially she is positioned slightly to the leader's left. You want your left foot to land near, and at the same time as (or maybe even before, but not after), her left foot. This sounds easy and, indeed, is once you get the feel of it, but for most people the trick is getting the feel of it. The subtlety is in both the timing, the foot placement, and in how the leader shifts his weight and balance in relation to that of his partner. The leader needs to be more precise a perhaps a bit more controlling in leading the timing of her step than is usually the case. Prerequisite to doing any step well is for the leader to lead and know precisely what his follower is doing. This is the first step or figure we've encountered that absolutely requires it. To experience doing this figure well is pure satisfaction, doing it poorly is sheer frustration. An apt comparison in international folk dancing is the feeling you experience in learning to do the Swedish hambo. It looks very easy, isn't, (until you get the knack) and is difficult to teach, much less to describe verbally, so I think I'll stop here. We did two exercises. We simply tried it sequentially, over and over, the follower doing back ochos, and the leader doing a forward ocho followed by a side step, both partners rotating to the left in cross pattern footwork. And we tried it with a calesita, which gives the leader a little extra time mentally prepare for the critical move. Practice it regularly, at least for a week or two, even if you feel like you're not making much progress. When you do "get it" it'll most likely be a "breakthru", seeming to happen all at once. But it won't happen without what seems at the time like a lot of pointless practice.
I do need to come clean about one thing, and this may come as a shock to some of you: Argentine tango does sometimes involve a little physical contact with your partner. One person mentioned last night that there can be some "thigh contact" (I think her point, and a good one, was that it would help in executing the step if there was some some thigh contact, in this instance to help guide the leaders leg and foot to where it should go), and yeah, although I didn't want to go there at the time, she's right. If avoidance of body contact is a priority with you, you might want to consider tennis. You'd certainly want to avoid football, hockey and wrestling along with most forms of couple dancing. I think to some degree (to some degree not) tango gets a bad rap. First, any body contact doesn't have to be excessive (unless of course you (both) want it to be), and second, as pointed out in the first class notes, tango, being basically a language, a medium, is not in itself the message; people can and do use it to say whatever it is they want to say (you don't have to agree with them). That being said, one could also point out that tango, being the "dance of love", is designed to say certain things exceedingly well. So there is probably enough ammunition on both sides to continue the conversation--one probably well worth having-- at Kelly's some evening after dance. Richard Powers, formerly one of my favorite teachers, says that a couple should "dance no closer that the woman desires". Fine, but what if she wants to dance close and the guy doesn't. As for the "Golden Rule", which in this case might read "Do unto her as you'd have her do unto you" (or vise versa), doesn't seem to exactly apply either. The best rule in my opinion is simply to be sensitive, keep a sense of humor, try to identify with your partner (you're supposed to do that anyway), and be considerate. And consider, after all, it is tango!
When learning a figure, it's not a bad idea to learn several different but similar figures that all start out in the same way from the same point, like maybe the first two or three steps are the same, but then everything diverges from there. That helps to keep you from becoming "hard wired" into just one sequence of steps from a given position. It also offers a little variety and contrast in technique necessary to distinguish one figure from another, and even though we are learning choreography, it to some degree makes it necessary for the leader to lead and the follower to follow. Too many (most) dancers are way too predictable. Of course practicing doing variations on the "grapevine ocho" exercise is a good antidote, as well as is simply practicing moving to the music, which is why we preach you should give at least equal time to improv practice as you do to everything else (technique, figures, etc.) combined.
The figure I taught tonight was a variant of the media vuelta which we learned the previous week. The first four steps (or step zero thru step four) are the same and are included here for your convenience (and dancing pleasure):
Notes: Steps 9, 10, 11: Are identical to what we practiced doing in the cross step salida in class number five. This figure is excellent for focusing on the chest/hip relationship in the lead/follow of each of her ochos (or "closed" steps, which I'll explain in the next class). It is always useful, in all the figures we teach, for each person to learn his/her partners steps and to practice them (but note caution in class five notes about follower learning to lead). Also, it's always worth trying to do the mirror image and inverse of any taught figure. It doesn't always work, but it does sometimes, and you always learn something.
You'll be shocked and saddened to learn this is the end of this weeks notes. Happy tangoing.
Gary Diggs