September 17-23

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Maria Volonte Tango Passions Band Dance Party @ Coda. This was a really nice event. Maria and the Tango Passions Band have a very jazzy, modern sensibility to it, with their versions of Piazzolla and Gardel, among others, as well as original compositions. Maria is fluent in English, has a lovely stage presence, and is excellent with audience engagement. The 5-person band is comprised of a pianist, bassist, accordionist, drums, and harmonica player. The songs were not limited to Tango or Argentina. There was also a song in English (“Broken Dreams”), a Chacarera, and a song from Peru and one from Columbia, among the many diverse offerings. Their song dedicated to the San Francisco Bay Area tango community (called “SF Tango”) brought down the house. It was a highly entertaining night, with dance performance by Gustavo and Jesica Hornos. Maria and the band truly want dancers to dance while they perform; they do not just want to be admired and listened to. The dancers energize and inspire them as musicians, and they would like to see us all be free to be creative and musical as their music inspires us. The dance floor was weird in that it was extremely textured concrete, so it gave the sensation of dancing on sandpaper. One happy result of this was that it slowed everyone down, which made us all look a whole lot better as dancers, and made the floor craft on the small dance floor quite good. Parking near Coda was super easy on this Sunday night, and it’s right off of 101. Maria and the Tango Passions Band have one more gig in the Bay Area on October 1, @ 12:30 p.m. at Yerba Buena Gardens (745 Mission between 3rd & 4th) and it’s FREE. Then they go on tour to Argentina. They will be back in the Bay Area at the end of December.



Monday, September 21, 2009

Orange Practica at the Beat with lesson by Shorey Myers assisted by Soheil with exercises on Posture, Balance, Pivoting, and Disassociation and a Twisty Sacada Sequence.



We began with exercises to help us improve our posture and how we hold ourselves while walking and in turning.



First Exercise: The class was broken up into two lines, back to back in the middle of the room, each line facing the mirrors on the two sides of the room. We were to walk forward to the mirror and walk backwards away from the mirror. For our posture when walking, we were to be tall and vertical and stretch through the back of the neck. We were to stretch our legs and take big steps. We were also to walk with engagement and practice the dancing, focusing on pushing from the opposite leg to step. When walking back, we were to push from the front leg, and have straight extension in our back leg, keeping our head steady and even. When walking forward, we were to push from our back leg to propel ourselves forward, and not be afraid to step big. When stepping backward, the weight is into the ball of the foot and rolls through to transfer to the heel. When stepping forward, the weight goes into the heel and then gets transferred to the ball.



Second Exercise: This was an exercise on disassociation. In pairs of similar height dancers, we were to walk with the Leader pushing down with his hands on the Follower’s hips while the Follower tries to keep her ribs up as high as possible and really raise the back of her head, keeping her neck straight. Then the Leader would change his hands to raise her up by her lower ribs while she would walk trying to keep as grounded and weighted/heavy in her hips as much as possible as if they were filled with sand and water. The purpose of this exercise was to stretch the area between the ribs and hips as much as possible. One thing we can do to remind ourselves to do this is to use our hands with fingers together at the side of our waist, and then stretch them apart away from each other up and down in the same direction that we want our ribs and hips to go. Everyone tried both roles of leader and follower.



Third Exercise: Separately, we went back to the mirrors and tried to walk forward and back by ourselves, remembering the concept of trying to be as up as possible in the ribs, and as grounded as possible in the hips, maximizing the space in between.



Fourth Exercise: According to Maestra, the fastest way to get better at tango is to work on walking and molinete technique. So we brought out the chairs (the standard metal folding kind). Standing behind the chair at the back left corner, we were to do counterclockwise molinetes (side, forward, side, back, etc.). We were to pivot all the way around and take large steps so that we could get all the way around the chair in the four steps at the four corners of the chair. Our chest orientation should always be toward the middle of the chair as if it were our dance partner; we could use our arms to help with this concept. Having a large chair is more challenging, as it forces you to take large steps, be fully committed in the weight transfers, and have lots of pivot. We spent several minutes on this. Ideally, you’d also work on doing clockwise molinetes around the chair as well.



Next, once our posture, balance, disassociation and pivoting had improved, we went on to the figure, which involved a series of twisty sacadas.



The Leader steps forward with his right cross step and does a series of rock steps while leading the Follower to do back ochos. He then takes an open step to the right to lead the Follower to do an overturned back ocho so that her left leg back sacadas the Leader’s left leg. To lead this, the Leader leaves his foot, but turns his upper body.



To this we added the Leader back sacada of his left leg of the Follower’s back trailing right leg on her left foot forward step of the counterclockwise molinete.



For Follower back sacada technique, she needs to pivot a lot to be able to step straight back on her back sacada (it is not a cross step). She should pivot with her feet completely together, and then send the foot straight out back in the back sacada. If she does not keep her feet together on the pivot and pivots and tries to sacada with one of her foot already out, she will not have enough room and end up kicking him or being outside his leg. The Leader can adjust his arm left arm to give her right arm and body more space when she does her left foot back sacada. For the related molinete technique for this figure, on the Follower’s forward step, she should go a little farther away from the Leader, but on the back step, she needs to have lots of pivot so that she can come a little closer to stay near. This will help maintain the same distance from the Leader.



There is the changeability of the embrace in this figure, especially if dancers are of extremely dissimilar heights.



Next, we added to the figure, a switch/rebound/pivot back to a clockwise molinete to Follower back sacada of her right leg of the Leader’s left leg as he steps forward with his right leg. At this point the dancers’ bodies are angled somewhat away from each other \ / to give space to their legs and bodies to accommodate the sacada, although both dancers still need to be on axis. Balance is key.



We worked some more on the switch/rebound/pivot since that seemed to be where many students could use improvement. We practiced by doing Follower forward ochos with the Leader stopping her periodically to send her back the other way, but either increasing or decreasing pressure. The Leader avoids leading a boleo by stopping the Follower when her hips are slightly before being exactly in front of him. If he’s too late and her hips pass that point, he will get a boleo instead. After we improved our switch/rebound/pivots, we attempted to add to the figure.



Next, we attempted to add the Leader’s forward sacada of his left leg to Follower’s trailing right leg, but we didn’t have time to drill it or figure it out since our time was up.



I liked this class immensely since it began with work on something nearly all dancers need to improve, and Maestra gave us much instruction on specific things to do when “walking”, and included exercises that we can practice alone at home or nearly anywhere else. Maestra is a gifted teacher in that she started with some basic, fundamental exercises which eventually built us up/improved our technique enough so that we had the tools to look somewhat OK in our back sacadas. Assistant Soheil also gave some very good perspectives and individual feedback on Leader’s technique regarding back sacadas.



Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Followers’ Technique and Advanced / Production Classes @ CCSF with Chelsea Eng. The Followers’ Technique topic was turns (molinetes). After doing our essential walking, floor, and barre exercises to improve our rhythm, posture, core and foot strength, disassociation and flexibility, we spent time on turns (molinetes). For the turn, Maestra emphasized not to rush to collect on the side step, to leave the trailing step out a bit, and not rush it so that the Leader has time and room to play, like for sacadas. We practiced a little bit at the barres before pairing up. Maestra also taught the molinete embellishment of the beat back on the open step after the back cross step. This can be done on or off the floor. In Advanced, we reviewed the change of direction from last week, and we also added the change of direction on the other side of the embrace. The step was right foot forward, pivot to open side step, back right, back left. When we did this in partnership, it was a linear step with the dancers circling/swirling clockwise around each other, so we’d both be on our right feet and left feet at the same time. Then we were to link the two changes of direction together, which was done by the Leader doing a forward step in between. Then we added a step to this that we learned a while ago: from the Americana footing of Follower left foot forward to Leader’s right foot forward, he leads her to do clockwise molinete of back-side-forward, and then does a left leg sacada of her trailing left leg as she steps forward with her right leg. It was a good class, as usual.

Note on Notes

Recently, a fellow student complained to the organizer/host about my note taking. She said she found it distracting. I was directed to this particular workshop’s policies, which specifically states that notes are prohibited until the end of the class during the review. I was surprised and turned off by this policy, as in my opinion it seemed antithetical to encouraging learning by restricting the use of a tool employed by many.


My note taking began in August 2007, when I took classes in Buenos Aires with Los Dinzel. They encouraged note taking as a way to record and remember all that was taught in class, much more so than video, especially as their commentary related to technical points, or as we did various exercises in class which would translate quite bizarrely/boringly on video. Since August 2007, during many of the hundreds of workshops/classes I’ve attended in the United States and Buenos Aires, the maestros who have commented on my note taking have all been encouraging and pleased that I do it. Many of them view me as a “serious student” (their words, not mine), and it reminds them of their students in Buenos Aires, many more of whom take notes via paper and pen than students in the United States. In Buenos Aires, it isn’t uncommon when being invited to an aspiring tanguero or full-fledged maestro’s home to be proudly shown their stack of notebooks filled with notes in their own personalized tango shorthand. At Luciana Valle’s Intensivos, she gives every student a notebook and a pen and specific instructions to take notes during class. I take much comfort in the words of Los Dinzel, Luciana Valle, and the many other maestros who have encouraged my note taking (and were pleased with the results).


During 2008, which I spent unemployed, taking notes in class and then having ample time to transcribe them on computer gave me something to do, a goal, a structure, a deadline, and most importantly, a reason and way to keep my analytical thinking alive. Basically, it kept my brain from atrophying and my spirit from getting too depressed.


To me, taking notes has been a way to link my brain to what I was seeing, to really think about it and to try to capture it verbally in such a way that I could reproduce it again in the future, whether it was a step, a sequence, or something technical. Writing the notes down initially was one thing, but transcribing them later on was another way I reviewed what went on in class in my head and sometimes with my body. Reviewing the printed notes for publication was a third time I reviewed what I had written. Without a doubt, these second and third intellectual/physical reviews would never have occurred if I didn’t take notes in the first place.


My early notes were pretty sketchy, but I found over time it got easier to write them. I am not sure if that is because my eye/brain connection improved, or because I had gone to so many lessons/workshops where, after a while, I noticed that the fundamental basic technical concepts were repeated many times over, even among different teachers with different dance styles. I did find myself writing a lot of the same things over and over again. For a lot of these things, sometimes it wasn’t until much later that I could actually incorporate them into how I dance because I finally understood them intellectually or because my muscle memory had finally gotten to the point where my body caught up to where my brain wanted it to be. But my brain was the driver, because I knew from a verbal context what was needed in a visual/physical context. And sometimes it takes a lot verbal repetition to finally get our bodies to where we want them to be. There were plenty of things that were wrong with my dancing, that I needed to be told many, many times how to fix, before they actually got fixed. And since I wrote the problems and fixes down, there was no excuse for me to claim ignorance about the problems or how to fix them, and gave me a goal to work toward.


Some people in the United States who see me take notes sometimes comment about how strange (primitive) it is, and ask why I don’t take videos instead since it’s easier than doing something manually by hand. I just smile and say it’s my thing. My notes are not just descriptions of what the maestros do in their summary demo at the end of class. The notes include a lot of technical tips and sometimes really good nuggets for my brain to roll around as well as background info such as the fundamental precursor exercises we did and why we did them, what music we drilled to, and how we built a particular sequence by breaking down each individual step. Examples of the difference between note taking versus video can be seen at the tangostudent.blogspot. And in my opinion, the optimal educational vehicle to supplement live instruction includes both written notes and video, though I have no desire or inclination to take video myself (no time to take, edit and upload). I’ve gotten a lot of kudos from fellow students locally and internationally because of my notes, but I won’t bore you with the details.


Personally speaking, my notes / blog are a way to honor the wonderful teachers I’ve been able to learn from thus far, without whom my tango identity would not exist. Those maestros are:


Adam Hoopengardner & Ciko Tanik
Adolfo Caszarry
Adrian Veredice y Alejandra Hobert
Alejandra Gutty
Alejandro Biggo
Alejandro Hermida y Silvana Anfossi
Alex & Luz
Alex Krebs
Alicia Pons
Andrea Corea
Andres Amarillo y Meredith Klein
Anthony Blackwell & Ye Ling Chen
Ariadna Naveira
Arona Primalani
Aurora Lubiz
Brigitta Winkler
Bruno Tombari y Mariangeles Caamaño
Carlos y Maria Rivarola
Carolina Bonaventura y Francisco Forquera
Carolina del Rivero
Carolina Rozenstrozch
Cecilia Gonzalez (la famosa)
Cecilia Gonzalez (la otra)
Chelsea Eng
Chiche y Marta
Chicho Frumboli y Juana Sepulveda
Christy Cote
Claudio Asprea y Agustina Videla
Colette & Richard
Damian Essel y Nancy Louzan
Damian Rosenthal y Celine Ruiz
Dani Tuero
Daniel Peters
Daniel Trenner
David & Nancy Mendoza
David Cadiz
David Orly-Thompson & Mariana Ancarola
Debbie Goodwin
Demian Garcia y Laura De Altube
Diego Alvaro y Zoraida
Diego Di Falco & Carolina Zokalski
Diego Escobar & Angelina Staudinger
Donato Juarez
Eduardo Cappussi y Mariana Flores
Eduardo Saucedo y Marisa Quiroga
El Flaco Dany
El Pajaro y Belen
Ernest Williams
Fabian Salas
Facundo Gil Jauregui
Facundo Posadas
Federico Naveira y Inés Muzzopappa
Felipe Martinez & Rosa Corsico
Gabriela Elias
Gachi Fernandez
Gail Robinson
Gary Weinberg & Nirmala
George Garcia
Gigi & Warren Jensen
Giovanni Garcia
Glenn Corteza
Graciela Gonzalez
Guillermo Garcia
Guillermo Merlo y Fernanda Ghi
Gustavo & Jesica Hornos
Gustavo Benzecry Sabá y María Olivera
Gustavo Naveira y Giselle Anne
Gustavo Rosas y Gisela Natoli
Homer & Cristina Ladas
Hsueh-tze Lee
Hugo Daniel
Humberto Decima
Ivan Shvartz
Jesus Velazquez
Jonathan Yamauchi & Olivia Levitt
Jorge Firpo
Jorge Nel
Jorge Torres
Juan Miguel Exposito y Daniela Peez Klein
Judy & Jon
Julian Miller
Julio Balmaceda y Corina de la Rosa
Laura Collavini
Lisette Perelle
Los Dinzel
Los Hermanos Macana
Luciana Valle
Luis Bianchi & Daniela Pucci
Luiza Paes
Luna Palacios
Marcela Guevara y Stefano Giudice
Marcelo Solis y Romina Hahn
Maria Eugenia De La Latta
Maria Paz Giorgi
Mariana Gonzalo y Gustavo Funes
Mariana Mazzola
Mariela Franganillo & Cesar Andres Coelho
Marta Anton y “El Gallego” Manolo
Matt MaMoody & Shasha
Michelle & Murat Erdemsel
Natalia Hills
Negracha y Diego Lanau
Ney Melo & Jennifer Bratt
Nick Jones
Nito y Elba Garcia
Nora Dinzelbacher & Ed Neale
Norberto "El Pulpo" Esbrez
Olga Besio
Omar Vega
Orlando Paiva Jr. & Laura Tate
Oscar Mandagaran y Georgina Vargas
Pablo Nievas y Valeria Zunino
Pablo Pugliese y Noel Strazza
Pampa Cortez
Patricia Gomez
Patricia Hilliges & Matteo Panero
Pier Voulkos
Raul Bravo
Rina Gendelman
Robert Hauk
Roberto Riobo
Rodrigo Palacios y Agustina Berenstein
Rosalia y Alejandro Barrientos
Ruben Harymbat y Enriqueta Kleinman
Ruben Terbalca
Santiago Croce & Amy Lincoln
Sean Dockery
Sebastian Arce y Mariana Montes
Tete y Silvia
Vanesa Villalba y David Leguizamon
Veronica Alegre y Jose Luis Ferrar
Victoria Galoto y Juan Paulo Horvath
Vijay


Anyway, sorry to ramble. This was just something that weighed heavily on my mind, being the avid note taker that I am.


The student who complained about my note taking will probably never read this, but to her I write:

I am sincerely sorry for causing you to be so distracted by my note taking that it irritated you enough to complain about it. I am jealous that without notes your brain power, visual perception/recognition, analytical thinking and memory are enough for you to improve as much as you want and are capable of, and can get you to where you want to be, technically, musically and aesthetically. I only wish you the very best on your tango improvement journey. You just keep on rockin’ with your bad self. Peace out.


And to those maestros who have given me some really good nuggets, and those who have encouraged me and my note taking, either by verbally thanking me or saying a kind word about my blogs (or insisting I start them in the first place by setting them up for me), or by giving me some really fancy notebooks and pens, or by generously sponsoring my attendance at classes/workshops locally, domestically, and internationally (that would be Pablo), or by comping me in to your events: you all have my sincere, heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation. None of what I do in tango could have been possible without your support. Besos y abrazos a vos todos.

September 10-16

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Verdi Club Milonga with lesson beforehand by Jorge Torres. I got there late because of the traffic. They were doing a figure: Side step Leader left, Follower right. Leader does weight change, then back cross with his left foot, leads Follower to do forward ocho with her left foot. Leader leads Follower so that she steps forward into him with her right foot, to meet his right foot. Leader pivots, moving his torso to the left, then paradas the Follower’s feet as she pivots and collects as if for another ocho. Then he moves his right foot from the front of her feet where it had just parada’d, to behind her feet out of the way. She pivots. Then they step out to resolution. This is a circular move, like a snake. Then we did another figure, beginning again with side step Leader left, Follower right. The Leader is the center of the circle. Follower steps side left, to do a clockwise molinete while Leader does an enrosque. So for the Follower’s molinete steps, B-S-F-S-B-Side, on this side step the Leader does a forward right leg sacada of her right leg, sending it to back cross behind her left leg, which pops forward out as if for a back volcada (in this step showed by Maestro there was no off-axis element, though there could be depending on how much energy or circular torsion the Leader employs). It was an OK lesson. Pablo and I went to it to try to figure out if he should make the rather substantial financial investment for us to attend Maestro’s other workshops. We had been to a “semi-private” workshop the last time he was here and I was feeling a bit lukewarm, since I didn’t get that much out of it as a Follower. Still, it’s a wonderful blessing for the Bay Area tango community when a skilled a leader as Jorge Torres teaches, and as Pablo’s coach I have always strongly emphasized that he needed to especially learn from male teachers (not just teaching couples or female teachers teaching men how to lead, which are also a blessing as well). We decided to give the workshops the next day a go, and play things by ear regarding the other workshops (Sunday, Monday). The ball was in Pablo's court since in my opinion, Jorge Torres's workshops are desiged to teach leaders How to Lead, more than they are to teach followers How to Follow (or be pretty). The milonga itself had a weird vibe to it. The floorcraft on this particular night was oddly aggressive. Maybe everyone was so excited to be the in presence of such a show tango dance legend that it brought out their inner wanna-be-show-tango stars, even if their technical skills didn’t match their inner visions. I left early, declining to dance with several good leaders who asked (apologies to you if you are reading this… it wasn’t you… I just didn’t want to get jostled and bumped any more).



Friday, September 11, 2009

Jorge Torres Workshops: Theme: "Illusion & Magic"


Though the first class was all levels and the second class was intermediate, I found them both challenging because of Maestro’s teaching style for group classes, which has a very Socratic bent and obviously Leader orientation. I guess I am just too used to being spoon-fed and having every nuance of technique verbally spoken to me. I had to really pay attention visually since very little was said about the Follower’s side of things. Jorge’s focus is initially with the leader and so leading correctly becomes a ‘key element’. If the leaders don’t get it, then the Follower can only be expected to follow what the leaders in the workshop provide. If leaders and followers don’t use the opportunities to ask Jorge for assistance, or feedback, then they may not get the direct evaluation that would clarify whether they have achieved the objective.


6:00-7:30 pm "Deceiving Appearances" Illusions on the floor - parada, barrida, sacada (all)

Interestingly, Jorge Torres’s soles of his shoes are double rubber (not leather, not suede, not any other slick surface). He began with commenting that we shouldn’t take tango so seriously, otherwise it will kill you.



We began with dancing two songs with two different partners, trying to keep our feet on the floor as much as possible. Then, we went into the figure: Side step Leader left, Follower right. Leader steps forward with his right foot diagonally to catch her left foot as it steps back. He changes her torso so that she does a front cross of her right foot in front of her left foot, while the Leader does a back cross of his right foot behind his left foot, into a Follower counterclockwise molinete of B-S-F-S, where Leader does Left foot forward sacada of her left foot. In this figure there is a change of embrace, beginning in close embrace during the initial Leader and Follower cross steps, then opening up during the molinete, back into close embrace after the sacada. Next, we did the same figure, only going to the other side. The shape of the figure is circular, so turn the Follower INTO the circle. Bring her to you. The Leader should not go to her, otherwise he will push her out of the circle. Next, we built on the concept of having crossed steps, and did a figure with many Follower’s back cross steps with both her left foot and right foot, and Leader’s forward cross steps both with his left foot and right foot. It was an off night for Pablo, so he left early. I decided to sit out the rest of the lesson, and Chino came over to me and graciously emphasized that I was welcome to continue with the lesson even though it was now gender imbalanced with Pablo leaving. I thanked her, but sat out the rest of the lesson since I was OK with just watching.



7:30-9:00pm "Believe It or Not" Illusions on the fly - boleo, gancho, enganche (int)

Like the first lesson, we began with dancing two songs with two different partners, this time trying to keep things in the air as much as possible. First Illusion: Follower does forward ochos; when the Leader sends her forward and her weight is fully on the front leg so that her trailing leg is free, he lifts his right leg up in the air through her legs in between her steps, seemingly to flick her leaving foot, so it appears as though the Leader is causing her to do a circular boleo. During this, Leader needs to keep his thighs close together as if he has a secret. For the lift, the contact is at the bend of the foot (not at the shins or knees). For the Leader’s lift, his leg is making a type of reverse bicycle movement, or reverse horse movement. The key to this illusion is for the Leader to coordinate his feet with the torso lead for the ocho. Next Illusion: We began with an exercise of just the Follower walking forward counterclockwise, while the Leader does left leg back sacadas of her trailing leg. The Leader’s right hip touches the Follower’s left hip, though she should be a little behind the Leader so he does not have to torque so much (especially if he is not able to). The Leader moves his center. It’s important for his supporting right leg to be strong, stable, and a little bit bent, and his heel should not be weighted or stuck to the ground (weight should be on the ball of his foot) so that he can pivot around on it while his left leg is reaching to sacada. There is no transfer of weight and no shooting back with the heel as the Leader does not want to kick the Follower or do harm to her. The Leader can only do this (cause no harm) if his left sacada leg is unweighted, so he has the option to pull it back if he senses there is something wrong. The Leader also needs to have good posture and be upright, with head up. But for his head to be up, he needs to trust where his body is, and where her body is. Next, we combined these to a figure: Follower steps forward with her left foot, side with her right foot. Leader does right foot forward sacada of Follower’s left foot (almost like a slight colgada, sending out feeling while she is on her right foot), Follower steps left foot forward, side right, Leader does back sacada of Follower’s left foot. Follower steps forward, Follower steps side (outside, away oriented), Leader leads clockwise molinete while he is center of the circle and she moves from the left side of him to the right side of him, so Follower steps back, side, forward, to pivot to a forward ocho with her left foot. Here, the Leader leads the Follower to step forward in the forward ocho while he also steps forward; the Leader does a needle with his right foot reaching to point on the floor, which wraps his left leg into the needle as she continues to step forward in her ocho, and then he unwinds it out. As she continues to do her ochos, he can throw in an ocho leg flick with his right reverse bicycling/horse leg. It was a good class. I enjoyed the second class better than the first class.


The milonga afterwards was attended by all the attendees of the workshops, and by some more people who came just for the milonga. So it was full, but not overly crowded. In the beginning floorcraft was weird in that there would be bunches of couples dancing on one side of the dance floor while the other side was somewhat sparse. It evened out later on in the night. Though it started out slow for me, I had a good time at this milonga. I got to dance with the different leaders I rotated to during the workshop (several of whom are excellent dancers), and leaders who I have seen over the years, but who had never asked me to dance previously. I also danced with some visitors, so it was interesting to experience their particular styles. It was a very satisfying evening.



Saturday, September 12, 2009

Mat MaMoody and Shasha lessons @ Allegro. This was advertised in tangomango.org as a beginner lesson from 4-5 pm, followed by a performance tango class from 5-6 pm, both classes for $12 total. Pablo and I arrived late, and they were heavy on followers, so I decided to sit out the beginner lesson. There was no official break between the beginner and performance tango lessons, they just flowed into each other. The first figure was a Leader right leg sandwich of the Follower’s left leg, after which the Leader brings his left foot around. The Follower steps over with her right leg, and then ganchos the Leader’s right leg, to pivot, out to tango close. Next figure was a sweep of the Leader’s right foot of the Follower’s right foot from the back ocho. Next figure was the Leader’s right foot sweep of the Follower’s left foot on the outside left side of her left foot. Here, the Leader can take steps around the Follower with his left leg and do continuous right leg sweeps of the Follower’s left leg around in a circle. He can also stop the sweep, change his foot placement to be on the inside of her left foot, to flick her left foot/leg back the other way into a boleo. This was a very cute step. Next, we did ocho cortados with three different types of interruptions/endings: the regular ending, the one where the Leader interrupts her cross by inserting his right leg between her two legs, causing her left leg to gancho the outside of his right leg (and he can send her leg back out in a boleo), and one with the Americana cross. I found Maestro to be a very clear, articulate teacher with an excellent communication style, and what he taught simple but interesting and fun. The lessons exceeded my expectations, and delivered an excellent bang for the buck. The lessons took place in the medium-sized room next to El Garaje, so there was good cross ventilation since it opened out to the back. Maestro also gets bonus points for having a handout of the 50 steps he will attempt to teach.



La Milonga de Nora @ Allegro ballroom. I did not attend the lesson since I had a dinner engagement. The milonga itself was really nice. I had the best time there than I had in a long time, and a lot of other people said the same thing. The nearly surreal energy was very calm and elegant, and the floorcraft was quite good and respectful. Overall, people just seemed really happy. Even the spectators had no air of desperation or impatience, but seemed extremely content to just sit back and watch the lovely dancers go by.



Wednesday, September 16, 2009

CCSF Classes with Chelsea Eng. In Follower’s Technique, we began with a video clip of Florencia Taccetti on ochos. She said the technique was the same as for walking forward, you just add movement/turn of the hips. So, begin with feet together, knees relaxed (not locked), extend with toes, go forward with body, change weight to forward leg, collect with heel down and diaphragm up, rotate hips, repeat. Maestra noted that this video was different from what Rebecca Shulman said in last week’s video clip, and she also spoke about her own philosophy of ochos (collecting before pivoting is not always done depending on the dynamics and circular energy of how it is led). After our usual walking, floor, and barre exercises, we focused on ochos at the barre. We worked on the technique of the forward and back ochos, and then added the tuck embellishments (in front and behind), on the floor and off the floor (with knee down and foot up or with knee up and foot down). We also played with the back ocho back tuck off the floor, which looks like a rounded boleo. In Advanced, we worked on the change of direction from back to front. Here, we began with some footwork that both Leader and Follower does, only at different times. The step was left foot forward, pivot to open side step, back left, back right. When we did this in partnership, it was a linear step with the dancers circling/swirling counterclockwise around each other, so we’d both be on our left feet and right feet at the same time. To this we could add several Follower embellishments: the tuck on the floor or in the air of the left foot to the right side of the right foot after her back right step and before her forward left step, or the rulo embellishment on this same step before the forward left step around the Leader. Also, after the Follower two back steps and before the forward left foot step, the Leader can lead a carousel/calesita by not letter her transfer the weight (so she is still on her back leg, but her left leg is extended out in front). Here, she can also embellish with small rulos as he steps around counterclockwise while suspending her weight transfer. Next, we reviewed from last week the side volcada from the espejo/Americana, with Leader shift/pivot so that his left hip touches her left hip. Maestra reminded the Followers to not sickle their left volacada-ing foot. Then we put both steps together – first the change of direction, to the calesita, to the Leader hip pivot to lead the side volcada. It was a good class, as always.

September 3-9

Friday, September 4, 2009
Monte Cristo Milonga with lesson beforehand by Chelsea Eng and Gary Weinberg on Tiny Turns in Close Embrace. We began with an exercise to build the embrace: walking with just torso contact, no arms and no hands. We needed to come forward and toward each other and the Leader had three options: (1) weight shift; (2) walk forward; (3) side or open steps. We were to keep our sternums, our solar plexi up. One issues the dancers had was that they would pop apart at the stop. To remedy this, the Leader needs to pause with feet forward, and stand very straight up and be on his axis, not forwardly intended, otherwise he will send her forward and away from him. The Leader stops with his head over his feet, and is fully vertical. For the side steps, the Leader gives preparation to the Follower so she has time to join him in the movement. The Leader goes down a little, compresses a little (bends knee) before he takes steps side. If he doesn't give her warning by compressing, she will be late. Follower can go ahead and lean/put pressure on the Leader for the exercise. Next, we tried the same three options doing it with 1/2 embrace, just on the close side, Follower's left arm and Leader's right arm. We also added a fourth option, going to the cross. Next, we did these four options on the other side of the 1/2 embrace of Follower's right arm and Leader's left arm. Finally, we went on to the Full embrace. Then we added the turn. The Leader's steps are all curved as he steps forward with his right foot, to pivot (Follower back cross right), side left foot (Follower side left), back right foot (small tuck) (Follower forward right foot), side left foot (Follower side left), front right foot (Follower back into line of dance). Next, we added the ocho cortado. There are many possibilities for Leader's footwork in the ocho cortado, but we did it with the Leader taking every step with the Follower (no pivoting or being on two feet, embellishments, etc.). We were to do two ocho cortados to turn around each other, using the QQSS, QQSS for the BSFS, BSFS steps. The second back cross step is close, small and tight to stay with the Leader. Follower embellishment: amague of left foot across the right side of right foot on the Back - Side step. Or your can really stretch your toes like cat paws to add expression to your feet. Next pattern was the Follower's zesty forward walk around the Leader counterclockwise. Here, we did the ocho cortado into the Americana position / mirror / espejo, and to the rhythm SSQQS, Follower steps left foot forward (S), right foot forward (S), left foot forward (Q), right foot forward (Q), left foot forward to pivot (S), back step right out to line of dance. This is all done in close embrace. There is a change of embrace of Follower's left arm around the Leader's back, and the Leader's right arm around Follower's waist. The milonga was fun. It wasn't super crowded, but had just the right amount of people to make it fun and diverse, but not competitive or obnoxious floorcraftwise. The food was better than usual (and it's usually pretty good to begin with).

Sunday, September 6, 2009
Tango in the Square, Union Square San Francisco. This is a really nice event that the Bay Area Tango Association participates in to help grow the tango community and take the dance to people who aren't currently part of the local tango scene. Professional audio services are provided by Jewels in the Park from 2-4 pm, then the Bay Area Tango Association generously provides boom box audio 4-6 pm. The floor is textured granite, and it's all outdoors. So bring sunscreen and sunglasses/hat if you can/want to dance with them, bottles of water and something to nosh on if you plan to stay the whole time. The sun is obscured by the Westin to the west of the Square later on in the day, so bring a vest or wrap if you are prone to chill. Floorcraft is difficult, perhaps because of the sun getting in people's eyes, but I got the impression that some people were absolutely thrilled to be there since it gives them a venue and a captive audience to get their performance groove on. For me, it was amusing watching (but not dancing among) some of the dancers really playing it up on stage (there was more than one flying stiletto, and more than one pause-and-pose couple causing a backup of the dancers behind them). What made the afternoon fun for me was watching the lower dance floor where absolute beginners gave it a whirl, and the audience enthralled by what they were seeing on both dance floors. You could almost hear them thinking, "Hey, I want to do that...Maybe I can!" Be sure to put a dollar or ten in the donation box, since the Bay Area Tango Association has to pay for insurance to participate in this event. The next event is scheduled for October 4, and the Bay Area Tango Association needs volunteers: demo dancers, teachers, and tango helpers to get people up to dance, and take the time to help grow the tango community. Contact bayareatango@yahoo.com to volunteer, or just show up and dance with 10 new people (not just your favorite partners or seasoned dancers). Union Square is very easy to get to by BART Powell Station, and street parking on Mission/7thish or up on Bush is not bad. And of course there is the public lot directly under Union Square or the Sutter/Stockton garage. Afterwards, I highly recommend the food court at the Westfield Mall on Market, or if funds are tight, the daily slice at Blondie's on Powell.

Monday, September 7, 2009
La Cumparsita Milonga with lesson beforehand with Gary Weinberg and Carolina Rozensztroch on Leg Wraps. Unfortunately, I missed the lesson, but had a chance to be led the particulars on the milonga. I believe there were two leg wraps taught; I am just going by what I was led to do several times that night during the milonga. One involved the Follower's right leg wrap of the Leader's inside right leg, and the Follower's left leg wrap of the Leader's outside right leg (after he sweeps her right foot back with his right foot). Both of these wraps can be followed by a boleo. Pablo said there were lots of technical points taught (when to lower into the floor, how / where to break the plane, when the Leader crosses behind, etc.). I am sure it was an excellent class. The milonga was great fun. Many lovely people came out to celebrate the birthday of Maestra, a very lovely person. She had a birthday vals that was fantastic, with many local maestros taking her for a gentle spin on the dance floor.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
CCSF Classes with Chelsea Eng. In Follower's Technique, we began with a video of Rebecca Shulman on ochos. We began with our usual walking, floor and barre exercises to improve our walking/timing/rhythm skills, our core strength and disassociation, and our foot strength and articulation. At the barres, we focused on the forward ocho. Maestra emphasized the torso to the barre, and the spiral starting in the upper body, then the hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, and feet coming around sequentially and organically. When you take a step, it is a complete transfer of weight to be on top of the supporting, standing leg. Check your balance periodically by letting go of the barre. We were not to collapse the back of the knee, but keep the space generous. We also practiced some embellishments at the barre involving the cross (with our feet slightly turned out). Cross, release, forward ocho, into cross, release, forward ocho, into cross, etc. It was a good class, as always. What a treat that the lovely Miss Charlotte has decided to join us this semester. In Advanced/Production, we worked on the side Volcada. We got into this with side steps (Leader's left, Follower's right), into Americana / mirror / espejo forward steps (Leader's right foot, Follower's left foot). Then Leader does a pivot so that his left side of his body is toward the Follower, and he also sets her weight back so that her weight is on her back right foot, freeing her left leg to do a forward volcada to cross in front of her right leg. Her body must not break, so she needs to be mindful of keeping her core engaged. To this we added a Gustavo Naveira change of direction, where, from the Americana / mirror / espejo position of forward steps (Leader's right foot, Follower's left foot), the Follower does a clockwise molinete of back cross right foot, side step left, forward right foot, at which point the Leader does a left foot sacada of the Follower's trailing left leg. We did two of these in a row, and then the side volcada since they both began from the same Americana / mirror / espejo position. It was a challenging class, but fun and expanding.


What am I excited about?
Jorge Torres is doing a series of workshops on Tango illusions this weekend.
Luz and Alex are in town.
Negracha and Diego are coming back into town.
Gustavo & Maria are coming back to town.
Tomas Howlin workshops October 2-5
Graciela Gonzalez November 14 (she was my first Women's Technique teacher)

August 27 - September 2

Friday, August 28, 2009
St. Aiden’s Milonga with lesson beforehand by David Cadiz. Unfortunately, I missed the lesson, though it was probably great since he is an excellent teacher. It was a sweltering night, even in San Francisco, and only the die hards came out. I wanted to test out my Kool Tie and Cool Downz personal cooling bandanas. They worked beautifully, and I will be sure to use them when I am next at a sweltering lesson or milonga; I could pretend they are part of my gaucho costume. Though it was sparsely attended, I still had a good time at the milonga. The skill level was quite good, we were evenly matched in number, and so everyone got a chance to dance with everyone else. Oscar and Georgina made a visit, and what a treat it was to watch them social dance. I had been curious about the floor since it has been advertised as “FIXED.” My impression? It’s better, but there are still a few slick spots (which I suppose is better than having a lot of extremely slick spots interspersed with some sticky spots).

Saturday, August 29, 2009
Private house warming party for local tanguera. Many local tangueros came out to celebrate the new digs of one of our favorite tangueras; our communality stemmed from being in Maestra Chelsea Eng’s classes at CCSF at some point in our tango education. The food was divine, and the company marvelous (and not just made up of tangueros, but family and friends, too). We danced the night away in her enclosed back porch, which has a new tile floor a la Buenos Aires.


Monday, August 31, 2009
Orange Practica at the Beat, with lesson by Homer and Cristina Ladas: Milonga basic rhythm and phrasing. See the video at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

In this lesson we had two concepts: (1) Focus on the two strong beats in milonga, and (2) work on sentence structure / phrasing.

We began with a simple pattern: Side step to Leader’s left (Follower’s right), rock step of Leader’s right foot forward (Follower’s left foot back cross), to come up with weight change, side step to Leader’s right (Follower’s left). Within this pattern, we were to work on the subtle use of the height change: with the Leader using height change to signal stepping (down) or weight change (up). For the Follower, her challenge is to be able to sense the subtle height changes and step appropriately. The quality of the height change directly affects the quality of movement.

Next, we did the same simple pattern, only really focusing on the quality of the rock step, as the quality of the rock step affects the quality of the movement. In the rock step, the weight is in between. The Follower’s upper thighs are closed, as are the Leader’s. The dancers should try to maintain contact in the outside thighs of the Follower’s right thigh to Leader’s right thigh. Also, in the rock step it is important for the dancers to keep the relation to each other in their chest, with contra rotation, which helps their thighs stay together.

In the rock step, the Leader can turn to his left, or turn to his right, or do a crab walk to the left, or a crab walk to his right. The Follower copies the Leader’s legs, so keep the weight in the middle.

Next, we played with the musical phrasing by having the Leader walk forward around the Follower clockwise, either after the rock step or directly following the pattern. While the Leader walks forward around the Follower, she walks backward, with her outside leg doing back cross steps as for ochos.

To improve our musical phrasing, we danced much of the night to D’Arienzo’s Milonga Vieja Milonga, our goal of which was to hear the phrasing in the song and put our movement in it. Historically, milonga used to be danced on the strong beats: the 1 and the 2. To this song we were to dance, and pause on the really up, or the really down, but not in the middle with split weight. We drilled the dancing and pausing several times to this same song.

Then we changed the song to D’Arienzo’s Silueta Portena, and our goal was to identify which was the 1 beat and which was the 2 beat in milonga. First, we did an exercise where we just stepped on the 1 with our left foot (and on 2 with our right foot), and then switched it to step on the 1 with our right foot (and on 2 with our left foot). The 1 beat is the ultimate home base, ground zero. Rhythmically, the 2 is where you’d do traspie (assuming no melody in the milonga). To this song, we continued to dance, trying to work on the phrasing, breaks, and pauses.

Homework assignment: When not dancing (such as when we are in the car or in the kitchen washing dishes), play milongas, lots of them, and just try to figure out where the 1 is and where the 2 is. In milonga, we often don’t think about phrasing.

Maestros concluded with a demo to D’Arienzo’s Milonga Vieja Milonga.


Wednesday, September 2, 2009
CCSF classes with Chelsea Eng. In Follower’s Technique, we focused on posture and core strength. She had a handout, “Health and Fitness for Life” and showed a video clip of Rebecca Shulman on posture. Rebecca emphasized the rib cage: breathing into it to expand the ribs in three directions: out to the side, forward, and up. Do not collapse when exhaling, but keep lifted and expanded in the rib cage. This helps keep the belly in. Rebecca also talked about the use of breath to increase the space between the rib cage and the hipbones, which will make the hips move with more freedom. The rib cage and arms are related. Let the elbows hang, the tips pointing toward the floor. Someone in class asked about head positioning. Maestra said to dance with the head in a way where it is comfortable (as opposed to turning it to the Follower’s right or having it touch the Leader’s head if it is uncomfortable). In Advanced, we reviewed Volcadas, both the one from the Follower forward step on her right foot into the volcada, and the one with the ocho cortado timing. Next, we reviewed the walking left turn (counterclockwise) of forward, forward, side (open), back, back, for Leader (opposite for Follower). Then we tried to fit the volcada into that directly after the open step, when Follower steps forward on her right foot, to volcada with her left foot/leg. We also tried a new volcada where the Leader walks outside partner in cross system (so dancers’ inside legs are moving together), to lead a Follower contra back boleo of her right foot, to pivot to step forward on her right foot, into a volcada with her left foot/leg. It was a very good class, and we looked better as a group.