Tango Class VIII Notes

I went over to Lloyd Shaw yesterday and the smell I thought wasn't that bad.  They did put Tung (tongue?) Oil on the floor which should help the wood.  Eventually it'll make it a better floor.  I do wish they'd taken the time and trouble to sand the floor first, but they didn't.  I would've, but I'm grateful just to have such a nice floor to dance on.  Anyway the smell isn't bad--I will take fans down and kind of fill that back door with them, and open the front door, to keep the air changing in the dance room, but I don't think it'll be a problem.  The problem may be that the floor is a bit "sticky".  It'll take a couple weeks for the finish to reach it's maximum hardness.  In the meantime, wear your slickest shoes; I'd suggest bringing a couple different pairs to try.  You could even bring a pair of socks you don't mind dancing in if your shoes are still too sticky.  Thank you Georgena for emailing and making me aware of this issue.  I did a few pirouettes while I was down there, but had on my running shoes so I couldn't really tell how slick it'd be in dance shoes.

I'll try to keep this short so I can get it out to you; I'm sorry to be so late. 

During Class:

Two weeks ago we started with a review of the five different isometric exercises I've shown you.  These include exercises for the lower back, for the upper back, for the shoulders, and twisting exercises starting either to the left or to the right.  I've make my case previously about how much these can do for your flexibility and posture, especially for the time required doing them.

We reviewed a variation on the media vuelta which appears in class #6 notes.  We then reviewed a variation on that variation, which is notated below.  The only difference in the two latter figures is in steps (as they appear here) numbers 5 and 6.

Variation on the variation:

This figure is both easier and more interesting, in my opinion, than it's parent figure (#6 notes).  You should play around with both and see what you can come up with. 

We reviewed the grapevine/ocho exercise introduced in lesson #7 (#7 notes) wherein the follower does (is led to do) "quicks" when not changing direction, and slow steps otherwise.  The overall tempo should be slow with an emphasis of her waiting for the lead, yet being responsive to that same lead, i.e. without being sluggish.  Reread #7 notes on this for more direction and ideas.

The "Anne-Marie" push (I learned this from a woman from Montreal named Anne-Marie) Either I drempt it or we really did do a figure wherein the leader steps in and pushes the follower into doing a 180 degree turn CCW, she pivoting on her right.  Briefly (this is easy to demo and difficult to describe verbally): 

Finally we may have, I'm a bit hazy on this, talked and worked a bit on checks and fakes.  I'm not sure if we ever got around to that.  In any case we'll "review" those tonight.

A mid-term strategy:

Every once in a while, we need to step back, see the forest for the trees, take a look at what we've accomplished, and try to consolidate, to combine all we know and all we can do, into doing a dance of sorts.  Eventually we want to arrive at the point of "just dancing" and "not thinking", just focus on the music, on our partner, and enjoy the experience.  In the meantime, and in order to arrive at that wonderful destination, we'll employ an intermediate strategy.  We've practiced doing variations on the "ocho-grapevine" exercise.  We've learned various figures, like "the box" which includes a salida progressing to the cruzada, then a tango close, with a possible pivot to the left coming out of the cruzada and entering the tango close, ending with a step back (for the leader, forward for the follower). We've learned both a right and left sandwich, along with some accompanying embellishments or "adornments".  Last week we learned the "media vuelta" ("half turn").  We practiced some "cross step" salidas leading into the cruzada. Most of you have picked up on some simpler things we did in the very first class, like simply rocking back and forth with your partner, or the leader leading her toward himself into a "dip" before reversing direction. The idea in this exercise is to combine everything in a certain way as to create something resembling a dance.  We'll call this strategy the "bricks and mortar" approach.  I think I may have described this briefly in previous notes.  The "mortar" in this case will be the leader improvisationally, appropriately, and simply leading the follower in ochos and side steps as he would during a grapevine ocho exercise (see class four notes).  Laying a "brick" would then be to lead into and complete some figure that we've learned, followed by more of "grapevine ocho"-ing, another "brick", more of "grapeving-ocho", etc.  While perhaps slightly contrived and not full fledged Argentine tango, it is about as good as it gets for most people, in fact for many would probably be a step up. It is much better than merely leading a succession of figures, and it is more fun, more comprehensive, and uses more vocabulary than just doing a grapevine ocho exercise by itself.  In any case, it is a good exercise and a good "half-way" point. It will give you an opportunity to build your confidence and to eventually and safely arrive in "tango heaven", all the while helping you to enjoy the process getting there.  We'll call it "tango purgatory". 

Love,

Gary Diggs