Scouting Tour Notes (June 5-11)

Saturday, June 7 Arona Primalani & Rosa Corisco women's technique workshop on expressive feet. We began the day with floor exercises to increase the range of motion in our ankles and feet, as well as coordination exercises linking our feet with our pelvis and our hands. Some exercises were tricky (like matching the outsides of our feet with the insides of our hands, or turning our hands in while our feet were turned out, or tilting our pelvis up with our heels off the ground, or tilting our pelvis down when our toes were up). We then worked on concepts related to improving expression in our dance: Passive weight (limp or heavy), Active weight (light [on metatarsal] or strong [on heel]), Time (sustained or sudden), and Flow (bound or free). With respect to synchronicity, try to match leader's energy, but don't lose who you are. Honor the music. We finished with working on our alignment in our entire bodies, starting from the feet up-- feet, ankles, hip (pull down), rib cage, arms, shoulders, neck, head. It was an excellent class (much of it like a guided body work/yoga/imagery class), with ample time to experiment, play and understand the concepts. Parking near the studio is easier Saturday afternoons than during weeknights.

Gustavo & Jesica Hornos intermediate class and practica in San Rafael. The class was held at a different facility, the Marin Masonic Building Association (1010 Lootens Place) in San Rafael. The building has a large ballroom with a very nice oak hardwood floor. The sequence taught was a typical walk back for Follower with weight change for Leader to get her into a wide cross, after which he leads her to do a large rounded pivoted turn counterclockwise around him. Technical point: Leader has to lift her at the pivot to get her all the way around him. Then, he can do a normal resolution or can reverse the direction in a small boleo, then get her a little off axis as if for volcada, but lead it into an enganche bounce of her left leg of his right leg, then out to resolution. It was a great class, as usual. EXCITING NEWS: Gustavo & Jesica will hold Friday classes (+milongas?) here going forward, likely every other Fridays on alternating weekends with their Saturday milongas in Sausalito, with the first date being this Friday, June 13. Parking is easy.

Sunday, June 8 Cafe Cocomo milonga and lesson with Polo & Diana. I got there late, so missed the lesson. There was very little commentary from the DJ regarding the orchestras, time periods, etc., like he has done in the past. The milonga was OK, not overly crowded, so it was possible to do more showy moves without getting the hairy eyeball from other social dancers, especially in the beginning of the night.

Monday, June 9 La Cumparsita milonga and lesson with Pampa Cortez with assistance from Gigi Jensen. The extremely well-attended lesson was a sequence going from the 8CB to 5 (cross), whereby Leader sacadas Follower's clockwise molinete on both her forward and side steps, then leads her to do a back ocho. He can either do a regular resolution here, or take it a step further, and do another molinete to ocho cortado with leader sacada, to a stop and a change of direction into another molinete. As usual, I had a good time at the milonga.

Thursday, June 12 maybe La Pista milonga with lesson by Homer and Christina

Friday, June 13 Gustavo & Jesica Hornos milonga and lesson (topic: sacadas, boleos, and volcadas).

Saturday, June 14 maybe Omar Vega Milonga workshops? and maybe La Milonga de Nora with lesson by Pampa Cortez? or the Late shift?

Sunday, June 15 maybe Omar Vega tango workshops followed by milonga? or Studio Gracia Milonga with lesson by Pampa Cortez?

Monday, June 16 La Cumparsita milonga @ Slovenian Hall with lesson by Pampa Cortez

Wednesday, June 18 Tango Lesson with Carolina @ Slovenian Hall (topic: Volcadas)