January 29-February 4

Friday, January 30, 2009
Soad Kader's art opening and reception at TangoVida. It was great to see so many of the local tango community come out and support one of our fellow dancers and artists, Soad Kader (www.studiosoad.com). Ney and Jennifer did a fine job hosting, with a yummy assortment of wines, cheeses, crackers and chocolates. The minimilonga was fun, took up half the space, and was enjoyed by 3-4 couples at a time throughout the night.

Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Late Shift Milonga with performance by Tango Con*Fusion. The milonga was fun, and quite well attended. Floorcraft was a tiny bit of an issue, but overall was pretty good. Food was as it usually is, supplemented with a chocolate cake to celebrate Tango Con*Fusion's 5-year anniversary. The water ran out, so I will have to make a mental note to bring my own Nalgene, just like I do at Allegro. Tango Con*Fusion's performance was wonderful, as usual, and the boutique great fun to shop at.

Sunday, February 1, 2009
Ushering at Burn the Floor (playing at the Post Street Theatre through March 2009). While not Argentine Tango, it was a wonderful Latin ballroom show (that inspires me to go back to the ballroom). Strikingly, I noticed that all the dancers had hyperextended knees, which a surf on the 'net revealed is quite common among dancers, and is considered beautiful even though it can be dangerous. The dancing in the show was terrific, and I could see how a lot of the technique employed could be applicable and usable by Argentine Tango dancers. RECOMMENDED!

Wednesday, February 3, 2009
CCSF Classes. In Follower's Technique, the topic was ochos. The video clip was of Rebecca Shulman discussing three different ways to do ochos (with weight back, with weight centered, and with weight forward). After our usual walking and floor exercises, we worked at the barres on forward ochos, paying attention to starting the movement in our torsos and our hips and legs coming around as a consequence. We also worked on embellishing the forward ocho with tucks and amagues, also trying this later on in partnered exercises across the floor. Maestra reiterated the technical points of no sickled feet on the back foot coming around, and keeping the thighs zipped up together in the movement, like a pair of scissors; having legs that look like scissor tongs (with knees and thighs open and apart) is not good (read: vulgar and inelegant).

In Advanced/Production, we continued our work on the walking right turn, and learned a new sequence that was ocho cortado like with the Follower on the outside, and then the Leader turns her in to do check steps forward and back in Americana position (her left leg mirroring his right leg), playing with the QQ rhythm.