May 20-26

Friday, May 21, 2010
Monte Cristo Milonga with lesson beforehand by Carolina del Rivero y Donato Juarez on barridas, paradas, and pasadas. The lesson began with a simple exercise beginning with a cross system walk, where the Leader stopped on his right foot and the Follower stopped on her left foot. Then she does an open step and then a forward step of the counterclockwise molinete, then a back cross step and side step in the clockwise molinete. The Leader changes weight to his left foot on the Follower open step of the molinete (there is no back step for the Leader). The Leader opens his chest to lead this. The Follower goes around the Leader, but not too close or too far, and always collects at each point of the molinete. The leaders don't pivot. They just disassociate with their bodies and keep their hips forward.

Next, in the open embrace, we did the same walk, with the Leader leading the Follower to step side, forward, back, side in the molinete. The Follower needs to feel the lead from the Leader, and the Leader needs to send the Follower. We were to feel and follow the lead. The Leader relaxes the embrace a little. The Follower's left hand slides down his right arm, which permits her to easily walk on the open side of the embrace. We were to come back close on the close side.

The Leader changes weight.

The Leader does a right foot stop of the Follower's left foot on her open step, accompanying/matching it as her left foot goes forward cross. Also, he can step around with the same foot. The Leader needs to pivot to turn on his supporting standing foot/leg. He should send the Follower around on her open step after the barrida. Follower does right foot side step, pivots on right foot, to step out to resolution.

Next figure involved doing the 8CB to 5 (the cross). The Leader meets the Follower's left foot with his right foot to the Follower's right foot side step, accompanying her left foot forward cross step in a barrida. Then the Leader steps around the Follower as she pivots on her right foot.

Since the class was extremely crowded, and tensions were rising because of the crowded conditions and the need for dance floor space for this particular sequence, Maestros spoke about dance lesson and milonga courtesy. Basically, always work in the line of dance because it is really crowded. To generate a good atmosphere, when you bump into each other, apologize to the other couple, even if you do not believe it was your fault or you believe it was their fault. The goal is to make milongas and tango lessons good, happy places. If we can dance happily, then everyone is happy. We all want to enjoy the dance.

The Leaders always need to lead all the time. Be present, and do not dance alone and leave her behind.

Barridas are optical illusions.

Followers need to think about the turn. Do not try to drag the Leader's foot, otherwise it looks like you are fighting.

The Leader can switch these Follower barridas into Leader barridas by simply changing his foot to the outside position, enabling him to drag her foot. This is our homework, to figure out how to do this at home.

Next figure, on the open side of the embrace, the Leader sends the Follower into a counterclockwise molinete. The left foot back cross step curves it to the open side. Then he turns and grabs her right foot on her side step, and accompanies it with his right foot in a barrida.

To conclude, we combined them all: the 8CB to 5 (cross) barrida of the Follower's left foot with Leader's right foot, to Follower's back cross step, to catch the Leader's right foot with her right foot. The Leader has to relax the embrace so that the Follower can take a good back cross step.

El Russo was there, and I was lucky enough to be partnered with him at that point. Since the conditions were so crowded, he decided to try to make these barridas small and tight for crowded conditions. I thought they looked and worked spectacularly well in these close conditions, as they didn't look so slow and exaggerated, but more spontaneous.

It was a great lesson. I really like them as teachers.

The milonga was also quite fun. It was very crowded, but floorcraft was OK despite the challenges. The dancers were all of a social bent, so even though there were a few extra followers, I think most people had a good time. I danced almost every tanda, just stopping long enough to talk to Handsome about the dinner going on that night, which piqued my curiosity. It was men's dinner night. The food portion usually lasts from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., but the fellas usually start arriving at 5 p.m. to have cocktails. In a couple of weeks they are going to have another dinner with risotto and osso bucco. Lucky men of the Monte Cristo!!!! Grrrr...

The performance was, in one word, spectacular. It had lots of complicated soltada/colgada sequences, and even had a couple of lifts. Maestra had on the most tasteful, well-cut dress, and Maestro looked delightfully dapper in his tails. They cut a truly elegant, sophisticated profile. I don't recall ever seeing a performance of this caliber ever, and apparently neither did most people. Their three-song performance was rewarded with a standing ovation in an overflowing room.

All in all, it was a great night.

Saturday, May 22, 2010
Carolina del Rivero and Donato Juarez workshops:
(1) Sacadas
(2) Volacadas
(3) Colgadas

In the Sacada class, we worked on Leader and Follower back sacadas. The weird thing is that I hardly took any notes during this class. We worked on the whole sacada family, not just one sacada. We were to use the floor, not the leg, and to push more into the floor. The Follower needs to project into the floor. The Leader's contact is outside the leg, outside the thighs, and the Leader also projects into the floor. The sacada movement is exactly when the Follower is transferring her weight back, so it's just a touch. The dancers should not compromise their upper bodies by leaning forward or leaning back because of what their feet are doing. They should always remain on axis. Collect your feet before extending it in a step back in the sacada.

In the Volcada class, we worked on three volcadas:
(1) Regular linear straight forward and straight back volcada. We did this to work on the technique, trust building, and to get the feel of the weight of the Follower. There was to be no torsion or rotation; we were just looking for the Leader to control the Follower's tilt. The movement and intention is in a line.
(2) The regular volcada initiated from the Follower left foot floor boleo. The goal of this volcada was to get more momentum, with the left foot winding up in the back floor boleo beforehand, so that it has more natural circularity as it comes around in the volcada. The Leader changes weight and steps diagonally around and toward the Follower.
(3) This last one was a bit strange with the Leader and Follower perpendicular to each other. It began with freeing up of the Follower right foot, as if doing a linear boleo straight out in front. However, she keeps her foot on the floor, and he drives it back to front cross to the left side of her left foot. For the (3) volcada, the Follower does forward ochos. Then the Leader steps side left foot, as he sends her forward in colgada energy, and then back into a diagonal cross for the Follower volcada. The Leader blocks the step of the Follower by being a little bit on front of her (it's not just a side step). He has to position his body in front of the Follower. His step is diagonally forward to put the Follower back on axis.

Adding it all together, we can do this last volcada (3), which puts the Follower's feet in perfect position for the Leader to lead her directly into volcada #2 since her left foot is already crossed behind her right foot.

For Leader's technique, the Leader collects with his right foot to his left back stepping foot. He should not cross his feet because the figure turns. He should go back, and then toward the Follower. He should move with his whole body, not just with his feet. Don't step too far back, otherwise she will step.

For Follower's technique, she should be like a board and not break her body in any way. If she breaks in her body, she will either fall or the Volcada will not work.

With respect to the embrace, the point of connection depends on the relative height of the dancers. It will be at the shoulders if the Leader is taller. It will be at the chest or top of the shoulder if the Leader is shorter. In any case, find a good point of contact. Be comfortable, be relaxed. For the Follower, don't be too heavy, and don't push with your right hand, you should be without tension and without pushing the arms.

In the Colgada class, we worked on .....
an exercise first, of Follower back ochos while Leader does side steps. On the close side of the embrace, when the Follower is perpendicular to the Leader, the Leader steps closer to incline the Follower's axis away , sending her outside, holding her position, and then bringing her back in back to axis. Then the Follower does forward ochos. The idea when the leader comes in close embrace, he needs to have an open position of his legs.

For Follower's technique, she should go out from her center, not backward or forward, but out to the side. To get the Follower back to axis, the Leader needs to counterbalance the Follower. He sends her out by going back himself at the same time. He should not push her out from his arms. He needs to move his body so she understands that she needs to go out.

As the Leader sends her to a right foot back cross step toward the close side of the embrace, he meets her right foot with his out turned right foot. Then he sends the Follower to axis as she steps back through with her left foot in a reverse pasada to sandwich his right foot. As she is collected with her right foot, he inclines/sends her out in colgada into a shared axis turn clockwise. The Leader steps around with his left foot. At the point of the Leader right foot with Follower's right foot, his weight should be back on his left leg, because he needs to be able to step with his left foot, but transfer weight to his right. The Follower back cross should be out turned so that the dancers remain closer so that it's easier for the Leader to send the Follower out.

For the Follower, her hips are back and out, but her upper body is upright, not leaning away or back. At the point of the shared axis turn, she should give the Leader all her weight. The Leader's hand moves from the right side of her back to the center of her back as she goes around in the shared axis turn.

Next exercise: From the Follower back ocho, the Leader should lead her with more impulse of the right foot on the close side of her back cross step so that it generates a Follower left foot boleo against the right side of the right leg. It is a true, strong circular cross body boleo. The goal is to generate some tension. The Leader should keep his weight on the right, without any change of weight.

Finally, we put it all together, the cross body boleo of Follower's left foot against her right leg, out to a colgada, and then back in to a Follower shared axis turn.

Sunday, May 23, 2010
(1) Off-Axis Ganchos
(2) Boleos with Changes of Direction
(3) Musicality -- Fitting Advanced Combinations to the Music

We began the Off-Axis Ganchos with a series of exercises that we eventually combined to get a very interesting off-axis gancho.

Exercise 1: In cross foot system, the Follower does forward ochos while the Leader makes side steps. On the open side of the embrace, the Follower steps with her left foot forward. The Leader sends her out diagonally away in a colgada, so her right foot will go out to approximately the 2:00 o'clock position. The Leader needs to come closer to the Follower, but not too close. He should not touch her feet. He also needs to turn her a little bit, about a 50-60% angle. When he sends her out, he sends her as if he wants her to step, but he needs to hold his position and go a bit back with his body. The Leader's weight is on his left foot. He collects with his right foot, but the heel is up and the foot is weightless. The Follower should go out from the center / hips. The hip has to go out. She should not hold onto the Leader; the Leader should hold on to her. The Leader should always bring the Follower back to axis before going into another move. The Follower should keep her shoulders down and feel her back to be relaxed. The Leader compensates for the weight of the Follower's body by going backward. He sends her outside first, and then returns her back to axis. For the Follower, this is not a pose (otherwise you would be on axis the whole time). The Leader should not open up the arm or twist it up, otherwise he will break the position of the arm. He should be relaxed, but forward, not back.

Exercise 2: We did a gancho from the Follower left foot back cross step of the counterclockwise molinete to a gancho using the Follower's right foot against the Leader's left leg. The Leader sends the Follower close to his body on the Follower left foot back cross step to get his leg into position easier. The Follower should feel the contact first in the thighs and hips before going into the gancho. The gancho does not go from the knee down. It is a whole leg movement that starts in the hip joint.

Exercise 3: The Follower does forward ochos while the Leader does side steps. Then he leads her to do a overturned forward ocho.

Then we combined these three exercises in reverse order to get a really cool, complicated off-axis gancho.

The Leader leads the Follower to do an overturned forward ocho. On her left foot forward step, he steps simultaneously with her, parallel to her foot. Then he straddles around behind her on her right side with his right foot in a triangle frame of reference (point on the bottom) to her left foot. The feet should not be too close. 6 inches is good. Then he turns her chest and sends her upper body out in colgada, which causes her right leg to back gancho his right leg. The Follower's left foot of her standing supporting leg pivots a little as he sends her out. Her right leg is the ganchoing leg. The Leader keeps weight on his left foot, just like in exercise (1), and his right heel remains up. He pivots her a little, and then he sends her out in colgada. Then her right leg goes up in a gancho. She continues to pivot on her left foot as her right leg ganchos. The Leader turns his left heel a little at the point of colgada to accommodate the situation.

The exit is a Follower left foot back step, to pivot, out to resolution.

In the Boleos with Changes of Direction Class, it was exactly that, which was kind of weird. Like the previous class, we started with some simple exercises and then combined it to be a boleo with a change of direction.

Exercise 1: In practice embrace, Follower does back ochos while Leader does side steps. The Leader leads the Follower to pivot, then stops her on axis, practicing on both sides. This is so that Followers get used to turning on axis. Then in regular embrace, the Leader gave the Follower more impulse to the open side during her left foot back cross step, leading her to pivot, to get a boleo of her right foot.

Exercise 2: We then changed the exercise, getting rid of the change of direction. This way, the Follower does a linear back boleo of her right foot. The Leader takes the step there, and uses the impulse and cuts the impulse by keeping his position. The Follower should keep her hips level and not open them up. She should keep the leg direction straight back (not up and rounded). She should feel the tension, with the movement starting at the hip fold, and then the whole leg moves all the way up so the knee will bend, even at least a little. We tried these with both legs in the two directions.

Follower's boleo technique: When you are walking normally, you have some space between the two knees as you move forward. Boleos are based on the same idea, so there will be some opening between the legs. Some movements will be easier for some people than others. You should work with your own time and body mechanics, and be relaxed. Do not try to copy the teacher in terms of leg height. Don't force it around. Don't lose your axis. Don't tilt forward. It doesn't matter if your boleo is big or small. What matters is that it has good quality.

Exercise 3: Very simple exercise of walking forward, perpendicular to each other. Follower does forward cross step to open side of the embrace, and then a back step pivot out to resolution.

Exercise 4: Alteration/change of direction. We worked on the change of direction with the Leader overstepping the Follower, meeting her forward cross step, to pivot both, to change direction so she steps back. The Leader sends her out first, then steps by crossing the line of the Follower.

Next, we combined all these three of: A change of direction with a boleo at the point of the Follower's back step of the change of direction. The Follower's supporting foot needs to pivot before the boleo. This was a weird feeling boleo.

To finish this, our goal was to keep it in the line of dance. We did the 8CB to 5 (cross), with Follower right foot forward cross step to the close side of the embrace, then a Follower forward cross step with her left foot. The Leader oversteps and pivots around the Follower to pivot to get in front of the Follower. She does a right foot back boleo.

A comment about boleos: Boleos should always be pointed at the outside of the dance floor because it's safer for other dancers. If you do a boleo to the outside, if you do kick something, it will be a table or wall and not other dancers.

In the Musicality class, we learned some simple sequences, and worked on fitting them to the music, only on the 1, on the 1-4-1, on the 1-3-1, and the 1-2-1. The musicality instruction was very similar to how Ney Melo teaches it. For me, this was not a challenging class, but I thought it was very good, nonetheless. I wonder if they taught us this because they think the SF Bay Area tango musicality generally sucks (my conjecture), since it seemed to me to be a very basic lesson. One kind of weird thing they showed us was on the 1-4-1 one syncopation with both the Leader and Follower legs open on the side step. That's not really my favorite position, but I can see how it would be an interesting stylistic syncopation.

Follower should collect at each step. For quality of movement, the Leader needs to remain calm. You have to feel each movement.

They've definitely changed their teaching style from the last time they were here. They had a lot of very simple exercises on technique which broke down to minute components, which they then combined in the end, to show us that we could do these rather complicated moves that require a lot of technique related to several different aspects. They were great workshops; maestros are wonderful, excellent, caring teachers.

Line of Dance at the milonga and in the classroom.
One of the great things about them as teachers was they made it a point to talk about the importance of keeping these figures in the line of dance, and illustrated to us exactly how to do that with respect to the amount of pivoting and turning. In addition, when the class got a bit unruly trying out some of the more space-demanding figures, with couples weaving in and out on the dance floor to places where they perceived there was more space, Donato took time out to show us a visual depiction of what the milonga dance floor should look like. Basically, it should look like a race track with three or four lanes. Each couple should remain in their own lane and continue to dance in position with the same couple in front of and behind them. When we weave in and out of the tracks, we risk kicking each other, crashing into each other or getting into other accidents, which is disruptive to the entire dance floor and upsets the couples we crash into. It also ruins the circular motion of the dance floor when couples weave in and out. We are not just dancing with the partner we are embracing; we are dancing together with all the couples on the dance floor at that particular moment.

Do Not Step Backwards
Maestros also reiterated that there is no need or functional purpose for Leaders to step back when initiating a step or sequence. That is something bizarrely local (portenos do not walk backwards in milongas in Buenos Aires)... perhaps it is a throwback from when we learned to dance Argentine Tango at the ballroom with the 8CB beginning with a back step. It was noted that Leaders should not step backwards because they cannot see the couple behind them, and more often than not, there is someone behind them, which they will walk right into when that couple is dancing forward and not expecting it. This situation is made even worse if the couple behind them has led the Follower to do a high boleo. A Leader walking backward would walk directly into that and risks getting pierced/scraped with a stiletto, possibly in a very unfortunate spot on his body.

Monday, May 24, 2010
La Cumparsita Milonga with lesson beforehand by Rachel Greenberg "Surprise Variations on the Cross" This lesson was similar to what was taught at the Late Shift premilonga lesson on May 1, 2010, but the surprising thing for me was that Maestra remembered me. I think I made the sartorial faux pas of wearing the same outfit that I wore to the Late Shift, although my notebook and pen were different colors at least. ;o)

We began the lesson with doing the 8CB to 5 (cross), into a sudden pivot while the Leader keeps the Follower on her left foot of her crossed position, to do a right foot back cross step to the close side of the embrace while the Leader makes a side step with his right foot. It is important on these simultaneous right foot steps of the Leader and Follower that they both be accurate. The lead has to be precise. For the Follower, her heels must be down at the point of the cross, truly meeting the floor. Then she pivots a little (obviously with heels now off the floor) before her right foot back cross step to the close side of the embrace. We were to exaggerate this with bigger steps, especially into the cross (5), and into the back cross step of the Follower. To make that Follower right foot back cross step big and exaggerated, her whole foot including the heel needs to be on the floor so that her left knee can bend and she can get good extension in her right leg. With respect to musicality, we use the breathing of the music to do the big moves, the slow moves. The Leader needs to make the Follower understand the pivot with his torsion and frame.

Next, we worked on the Americana surprise similar to what was taught on May 1. From the 8CB to 4, the Leader leads the Follower to pivot, so as her feet go into the cross, they are in Americana position. The Follower needs to maintain connection with the Leader by looking at him, keeping her upper chest slightly oriented to him even though her hips are straight forward as they are in Americana position. The Follower should always try to step close to the Leader's body. The Leader sends the Follower to do a big step before the cross pivot to the Americana.

A general comment at the end: The most common Follower error is to fall into their steps, like after a parada. To prevent this from happening, she needs to extend her leg first, and then make the step. First move the leg, and then move the body. For the Leader, he needs to think about her first. First signal to her, then you go as a Leader. Always be a gentleman.

I went to this lesson because I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. While I thought Maestra was an excellent teacher based on my limited exposure to her at the Late Shift, I believe there are other equally excellent teachers who have visited or who live here, but who do not garner the same level of admiration. In watching the class dynamics, it is clear she has very strong opinions on the proper technique for everything (of course...she is a tango teacher!). I think we all got very specific corrections from her. These corrections were instantaneous, blunt, and direct. They were not sugar coated. Her teaching style is not designed to boost our self esteem or encourage us to take additional lessons with her since she does not stroke our egos or blow smoke up our @$$e$. And at the end of the day, I think it's wonderful that we have someone so refreshingly honest with us about the areas in which our dancing sucks we could improve.

The milonga was fun. It wasn't super crowded, but wasn't empty either. The gender was pretty well balanced, so we all got to dance with each other. Negracha and Diego came by later on, and it was fun seeing all the Maestros enjoy their own practilonga together. Rachel and Diego did a two-song performance which was good.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

CellSpace Milonga with lesson beforehand by Rachel Greenberg on Boleos. I got there late for the lesson. I jumped right in. The Leader was supposed to lead a back boleo and then a front cross boleo, really working on getting the timing right and the step and body rotation right. We did this on both sides with both legs. Then we linked them, doing a back boleo and front cross boleo twice on the same side, then a Follower back ocho, then a back boleo and front cross boleo on the other side. Leader steps outside Follower both times.

For Follower's technique, it is important when going from the back boleo immediately into the forward boleo that her foot go to the ground, collecting, and then afterwards pivot and do the front boleo. It is important to go to the ground first before pivoting (otherwise you might knee the Leader as your leg comes around as you pivot). Complete the pivot with your legs down. Follower should always be ready for changes and surprises. She should always be attentive to the dynamics and direction the Leader is leading her. Boleos are done because of a change of dynamics, and changing the weight.

Timing should be perfect on the Leader's part to give the Follower the lead for the Boleo. The Leader has lots of rotation/lead in his right hand on the left side of the Follower's ribs when leading boleos.

To build on our boleos, we did them from back ochos, leading a back boleo and then a forward boleo. The Leader steps around the Follower as if for a molinete, but just doing the forward cross step, and then a side step, followed by more forward and side steps (no back steps). The side step pivots around the Follower. He should turn the Follower first, and then step. Then we worked on this some more by doing them continuously from the Follower back ocho to back boleo and front cross boleo, while Leader does forward step and side step clockwise around the Follower. Here he should get used to the feeling of leading a constant change of direction. We can also do this using the same principals on the other side, with Leader walking counterclockwise.

It is important to do the boleos with the music. We worked with a slow but highly accented song, DiSarli's Don Juan.

It was a good lesson with Maestra giving lots of individual feedback, and dancing with many of the leaders to back-lead them to show them how the Follower's body should feel if he is leading her to do boleos properly. She also led many of the Followers to feel what they were doing wrong (lack of stability/balance or bad posture/legs).

The milonga was OK. It was very crowded, so floorcraft wasn't always the greatest, but thankfully it wasn't horrendous either. They played a lot more alt than I enjoy, and it took forever for the first milonga tanda to come on.

May 13-19

Friday, May 14, 2010

Private party with a dozen or so Chelsea CCSF students/alumni. We were celebrating la jubilación de Jorge y el bano nuevo de la casa. Newly engaged Miranda and Lars were there, as were the usual cast of characters (Cristobal, Wah, El Jefe, Milan, Irina, Jose, Darryl and Mrs. Darryl, la hermana de Jorge, Rosalinda of course, a new student who I don’t know since I didn’t take classes this semester). We had the legendary paella I had heard so much about, and it was as delicious as everyone raved. The rest of the food was also divine. There was a luscious white bean and sausage soup, a salad, and peach cobbler. Someone also brought the very trendy red velvet cake from Costco, which tasted fine, but whose color was more on the brown side than red. The most popular libation of the night (in addition to the usual wine and sangria, and beating out ron de Cuba) was a bottle of Absinthe from France, which most everyone got to taste, either straight or cut with some lemon water. After we had our fill of food and delicious conversation, the living room furniture was moved aside, the carpet rolled up, the stereo cranked up, and we danced the night away to some mighty fine tango tunes spun by El Jefe. It’s funny, he played the Amalie song that we use in Follower’s Technique, only he played the whole thing. Many of us had never heard the entire song, so we were a bit lost when the parts of the song that we weren’t accustomed to came on. It was a very pleasant night and a huge blessing to be in such a warm, supportive, drama-free, friendly, loving environment.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Oscar Mandagaran and Georgina Vargas workshops at La Pista.

1:00-2:30pm Molinetes, giros and enrosque: technique, connection and lead

3:00-4:30pm Complex Tango Figures

These workshops had a shocking amount of Leaders and substantially fewer Followers. Maybe that is because Oscar cuts such an exciting, passionate figure that captivates the imagination of so many aspiring tangueros. However, Georgina is an absolutely fantastic maestra of Followers’ Technique, with an eagle eye toward safety and physical deficiencies (and how to correct them), and a kind, supportive demeanor in her feedback, so it was a pity that more women weren’t in the class to appreciate her tutelage. They were strong advocates of taking classes in heels so that we can have the proper balance and rely on our whole foot for power and energy, not just the soles of our feet, which makes us much too focused on maintaining our balance if we dance on our soles while we wear sneakers, or if we wear sneakers, we might have too much sinking down to the floor as our heels anchor for balance during important lessons like the ones for ganchos, where you need to have weight on the whole foot, including the heel.

The underlying themes of what they taught include pushing into the floor, and using the floor for energy/power and push. Have lots of contra motion in the body. Keep the energy of the feet in the big toe or toward the inner ankle (do not roll out or supinate). Be really up, project up in our steps, have rise, and then be relaxed. Use the elasticity in your body and always maintain magnetism with your partner. Do not let the energy die or dampen when in neutral position. Keep the suspension and elasticity.

The Leader’s left hand is where his elegance is. Do not use it to push the Follower into a back ocho. Follower, do not use your right arm to get leverage from the Leader to pivot your hips around. The Leader should use his right arm’s hand and fingers to get the Follower around to do a back ocho. The Leaders hips creates his space. Feel the rebound in the floor. For a lot of the figures they teach, the secret to keeping them in the line of dance is to aim it away from the line of dance, and use lots of contra body rotation. This creates the illusion of the figure going straight forward, even though it is slightly curved.

For the second workshop, the figure included arrastres and barridas, and our focus was to work on our technique. What I really loved about maestros was that they are strong, strong advocates of working on technique. The figure included barridas and ganchos. For the Leader, there is no need to lead extra energy in the gancho. The gancho was created for the show/stage. At the point of the gancho, the Leader’s leg is turned out and his heel is off the ground. During this workshop, maestros recommended the Followers wear heels so that they remain up and in balance, rather than sinking down substantially or fighting for their balance if they were wearing low-heeled shoes or dance sneakers. There was also a part of the sequence that involved Leader embellishment of lapis, cross back, to enroseque, enrosque, enrosque during the Follower counterclockwise molinete.

These were both great workshops.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

1:00-2:15pm The Close Embrace: The Buenos Aires Style

2:45-4:00pm Sacadas: technique, connection, impulse and lead

The first workshop focused on the Close Embrace. We began with technique exercises, focusing on transferring our weight and having contra body rotation as we step (initiating before we step). We were to walk using all three tracks. The magnet, the energy to create, comes from the floor. As with magnets, we should resist it a little. We were to practice keeping the energy where it is comfortable to embrace our partner. We practiced just walking, having a nice embrace, nice contact, and use good technique for walking, all the while focusing on the magnetic energy. The Leader has connect in his chest, but his hips are inside. The Follower should keep the energy of the ankle inside (do not roll out). The Leader’s forearm should be flexible, as there is rotation, north and south, as he leads the changes in height, the changes in direction, and the chances in the line of dance. The Leader forearm rotation happens during the salida and the resolution. The Follower lifts the Leader’s shoulder blade.

Since it was a small class, almost like a group private, with twice as many Leaders as Followers, we worked the embrace part of the material quite quickly.

Then the class broke up into a technique class, with the Leaders spending time with Oscar while the Followers spent time with Georgina. This was an excellent technique class, and though it was listed as a “close embrace” class, I am thrilled that we spent so much time on technique.

For the technique side of the instruction, the Followers began with walking exercises, paying attention to getting good weight transfer (with movement in our hips), and contra body rotation, and the energy and power from the floor to keep the magnet, and to really push off with the whole foot including the heel (not just the sole) to get power and energy. We walked forward and back trying to get good power and energy, and also good turnout.

Then we went to onto ochos, with much focus on getting good pivot (but not too much pivot), while maintaining good connection in our upper body to our Leader. Maestra clarified that having the chest be in front of the Leader during the pivot does not mean just the absolute center of the chest, but also means the side of the chest. We also practiced having more flexibility in our left arm socket as we pivot from one side to another so that we do not block our own hip range of motion while we pivot. We should keep our upper arm socket disassociated so we don’t lock in the embrace, especially for forward and back ochos so that we can get the maximum range of motion. Maestra reiterated the importance of the Follower’s left arm/hand having flexibility to move up and down the Leader’s back and arm from open to close embrace, and from the close side to the open side of the embrace during pivots. Follower’s also need to really arrive on our full step, including heel, when doing our forward ochos. Followers should also really turn out their whole leg when taking the forward step (not just the foot). Again, we were to focus on keeping the energy on the inside of the ankle. For turnout, we should aim with our heels now with our toes. Heels!

Maestra also emphasized that we should not overpivot in our ochos, but use our whole foot to push onto the next step.

Next, joy of joys, we pulled out the chairs and practiced our molinetes. Maestra suggested that we practice the molinete in two distinct parts. The first part is the side step to the back step, paying attention to having complete weight transfer on the side step, to pivot a lot to the back step, and having good turnout in the foot during the back step, and be precise in the foot placement of the back step, all the while keeping our solar plexus up (substantially more up than you think it needs to be). We practiced these two steps on one side and the other, trying to get an even range of motion / torsion on both sides during the back step. The second part is the forward step, to pivot, and then the side step. This forward step should be made with a lot of turnout in our leg so that our foot can step around in toward the Leader. We should have good pivot so that we remain in front of the Leader, and a good side step with complete weight transfer. We should always collect in the middle, but immediately go into a pivot and then the side step for smoothness. There is always a pivot before the forward step. It could be small, but there is always a point of adjustment/pivot, so that we can maintain circularity in our step around the Leader. It was fun. I really like it when teachers pull out the chairs and insist that we do molinetes around them.

The Sacada workshop was a good one as well. For sacadas, we need to use the floor, not the leg, and push more into the floor. Both the Leader and Follower project into the floor. The figure began with a regular sacada of the Follower’s right leg by the Leader’s left leg. It was noted that the Sacada is a really a gentle move where the Leader displaces the Follower’s leg as her other leg is already stepping back and transferring weight to the back leg. It is not a violent knocking away of the Follower’s leg; it is just a touch. The Follower answers the sacada with a right foot back cross, which puts her left leg in perfect position to embellish with a beat back of her left foot against her right ankle. They step out, then he pivot’s her around and does another sacada of her left foot with his right foot while they are in Americanaish position, to pivot her around to step front cross with her right leg, to a side step with her left leg, whereby the Leader does a sacada of her right trailing foot with his left foot. It was an interesting figure with lots of different sacada and unexpected changes of direction, so it involved a lot of nimble thinking on the part of the Leader.

These were really great lessons from maestros, as usual. It is wonderful that they come every year, sometimes several times a year, so that we can all have the extraordinary blessing of learning regularly from them. Georgina strikes me as a profoundly polite lady-like portena. I also got the distinct impression that they both care passionately about their students understanding the concepts and feeling them in their bodies as they both personally danced with everyone in their workshops, on both the Leader and Follower side of the equation, on top of giving us all individual feedback and attention, despite the rather large number of students and crowded conditions on Saturday. To find that much care from teachers of their superstar stature is truly humbling.

Random thoughts about class imbalance.

As I think about some of the extremely imbalanced classes I’ve been to recently, I think that having a “combined technique class” of boleos (where there are always way too many followers) and sacadas (where there are always way too many leaders) makes sense. I wonder if people would be open to such a class, say of approximately 3 hours and double the price of a normal 75-90 minute workshop.

I feel the same way when I go to festivals and they have a Follower’s Technique class, which pretty much drains all the other classes during the same time period of Followers and causes a huge imbalance. Why not also have a Leader’s Technique class at the same time? Kudos to the Chicago Tango Festival organizers this year who have done exactly that. Actually, they went a bit further and are having all of the teaching couples teach at least one Followers’ or Leaders’ Technique class. Now THAT, in my opinion, is absolutely brilliant.

So what am I excited about these days?

Carolina Del Rivero and Donato Juarez coming to town. They are truly awesome teachers. I love especially learning colgadas and volcadas from Carolina. When I first started learning from them, they were both with other more famous partners. Now together, their dancing is joyful, inspired and fun.

Fabian Salas and Lola Diaz coming to town. Fabian is really a genius when it comes to volcadas and colgadas.

I’ve taken many colgada and volcada workshops from Carolina and Fabian, and their technical breakdown of both is superb. Now if I could only get the physiokinetics in my muscle memory, that would be awesome.

May 5-12

Friday, May 7, 2010

Palo Alto Milonga at All Saint’s Episcopal Church with lesson beforehand by Adolfo Caszarry on the Ocho Cortado. The lesson was basic but good. I sat it out since there were a few more Followers, and I was comfortable with where my Ocho Cortado was. They started with the regular ocho cortado. Then they added the Leader’s right foot stop of Follower’s right foot on her left foot side step before the cross. Then they did a variation which involved no return to a cross, but a paired Americana step, to a Follower pivot, to step forward cross step outside Leader with her right leg, back out to resolution. It was a good lesson. Before the lesson, we spent a few minutes on a Leader Technique thing: From the tight front cross, pivoting all the way around 360 degrees, to be crossed again, with our feet the other way. Maestro gave subtle tips about this: how the feet when they are crossed, should actually have the crossing foot slightly ahead of the straight foot, so that when you pivot around, you also transfer weight to the heel, and then back into crossed the other way, but in a far more elegant and tight manner than if your feet were equal and you had the weight on the balls of your feet the entire time. We all tried this, even though we were not all Leaders.

The milonga itself was surprisingly super fun. The Leader quality was very good (some were excellent, highly skilled), and they were social. So most people got to dance with a variety of people. It was a luxury to be able to dance so freely since there was ample space on the dance floor. Generally, floor craft was not a problem, with only a few light bumps followed by immediate acknowledgement/apologies. The food was paired down to just cheese and crackers and grapes. Interestingly, a hot pot of coffee was available all night. That was the first time I had seen coffee at a milonga on the west coast! There was a birthday vals with cheesecake. I stayed until the end, and had a very good time the entire time.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Gustavo Benzecry Sabá & María Olivera workshop: “Rhythm v. Musicality” We began with walking on a single beat, forward and backward to a Canaro song. We used Canaro because he was among the first composers to have the marked idea of the strong beat. Next, we added syncopation (QQ), forward and back. Music is like a poem with phrases. The phrases are repeated. You will recognize the phrases because they are repeated.

Pugliese is more dramatic. Here, we tried to step only on the 8^th beat, our feet moving during the other seven beats, but not stepping until the 8^th beat, trying to express what’s between every step. In Pugliese, there are strong and melodic moments, such as with the violin. We tried to move our leg for as long as the violin is playing, to slow down our movements more. An example of the simple strong beat is Canaro, the extreme of which is D’Arienzo. In the 1920’s Julio De Caro introduced the idea of strong melodies and harmonies, and the extreme of that is Pugliese. The extreme extreme of that is Piazzolla.

In our class, we changed the music, going from the beat, to feeling more harmonies and melodies and trying to express them in our dance. We were to listen. We were not just to follow the beat. We don’t need to step on the beat, but can let them go by. We danced to the same Pugliese song twice, and then a different Pugliese song once. In Pugliese, instead of regular beats (as in Canaro) the music goes in waves, and there are pauses. The length of the music/sounds are longer than in Canaro (which has shorter lengths). During these long lengths of music, we should stretch our legs to express the music.

Then we changed the music to Canaro’s Poema. First, we danced the way we wanted to dance to it. Then, we played with the different layers of music, isolating the different tracks: piano, violin, lyrics, etc. The music of Poema does not invite you to do ganchos because ganchos were invented later. The music of Poema is made for intimate, close embrace dancing. The violin is the woman. The bass is the step of the man/leader. The piano is the couple walking in the park. We were to dance to Poema, paying attention to the 5 possibilities of what we can emphasize: the rhythm, the harmony/melody, the singer, the accent/effect (piano/bandoneon), or the silence (pause). We then danced, with Leader paying attention to dance only during the violin. Then only during the singer. Then only on the beat. We were to adjust the step accordingly to the partners height, shorter or taller/longer. The Follower was to stay with the Leader and put attitude in her steps, and to add effects to express the music. To improve our musicality, we should listen to different songs, play different types of music all the time.

One web site that Maestros are excited about is Poesia De Gotan, a web site that has English translations of tango lyrics. http://poesiadegotan.wordpress.com/ It is important to know the lyrics of the songs so that we can express them more appropriately. Sometimes people dance to Poema with a look of absolute joy or impishness in their steps, when the lyrics are actually sad. Our feet are paintbrushes. The floor is the canvas. Don’t be worried about your feet. You will dance if the music is in your heart. All the rest will come.

This was a great lesson. Gustavo and Maria were one of my first visiting Maestros. They are friends of Roberto’s, and Roberto strongly recommended them, since Gustavo is a fellow Dinzelito. I had forgotten how beautifully poetic his use of language was, and I had forgotten how precise Maria’s translation was in her extreme fluency. They were a pleasure to learn from again. During the class I had the most amazing dance with Gerry to a Nuevo milonga. I was astounded that his milonga is so great, since he does not dance milonga much at milongas (at least I don’t notice that he does). I asked him who he is learning from right now since Ney and Jennifer are gone. He said no one; he just works from his notes (his notebooks are much bigger than mine). He remarked on what a magical time that was for us when Ney and Jennifer were here, and I agreed wistfully. The practica afterwards was fun.

El Russo de Portland was here in town, to be honored at his employer for being the rock star that he is. I was supposed to meet up with him so that we could burn the floor, but though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak. I was too pooped, so I didn’t dance on Saturday or Sunday night. El Russo did manage to do an admirable job scouting out the local tango scene on his own. He ran into three fellow Intensivo graduates at Monte Cristo on Friday. On Saturday, the legendary Graciela Gonzalez popped into the Allegro for a visit. Sunday’s workshops with Gustavo and Maria were good, and he had a nice time at Studio Gracia Sunday night, where dancer quality was fine. He had an excellent time here overall, despite us missing each other.

Monday, May 10, 2010

La Cumparista Milonga

I skipped the lesson beforehand. The milonga was fun. I danced with several new people, who turned out to be excellent dancers.

April 22-May 5

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Late Shift Milonga. I missed the lesson. The milonga itself was lightly attended. I didn’t stay very long, but what I found striking was how the food on that particular night was significantly different, better than usual.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Diego and Negracha Lanau milonga at Lake Merritt Dance Center, upstairs ballroom #2. I missed the lesson. This ballroom is the smaller ballroom on the second floor, with textured pergo floor. Seating is on the two opposite sides of the wall, almost militaristic style. Ventilation wasn’t the greatest, but was much better once the windows were open to let in the cool night breeze. Maestros are incredibly warm, charming, inclusive hosts, and they make everyone feel extremely welcome at their milongas, and so they have more of a family party vibe to them rather than commercial endeavors. There were ample and delicious drinks and food, some of which was cooked personally by Maestra, and some of which was potluck. Diego did a find job spinning the tunes. There was a raffle; the four separate prizes were two private lessons and two TangoZapa magazines, generously donated by publisher Tammy as she walked in. During the show portion of the evening, Negracha sang two tangos, and one simple, regular chacarera, all accompanied by Trio Garufa’s Guillermo Garcia on guitar. We danced the chacarera respectably enough, though oddly, the person I was partnered up with in line very publicly walked away, ditching me before the song actually began…what was up with that?! Rather than slink back to my seat, tail tucked between my legs and face burning in embarrassment, I went ahead and danced to it by myself anyway, with only my ideal invisible partner, who as it turned out since I made him up in my head, was incredibly charming and understanding at my being slightly rusty. Maestros’ buddies maestros Andrea Monti y Gato Valdez did a fine show tango performance of two songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfTx2OzH3lw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK23mvAYJ9E Andrea has incredible strength, agility, and technical precision, so it was very inspiring to watch her. Gato, of course, is a great leader. Rachel Greenberg came by just in time to do a performance without warming up with Diego. It was great. You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0nUKEgPxS8 The milonga got somewhat crowded since several of the other usual Friday tango events were cancelled (no free tango movie night and no St. Aiden’s milonga. :o( ), but not so much that floor craft ever got obnoxious. All in all, it was a pleasant night.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Late Shift Milonga with lesson beforehand by Rachel Greenberg. I was planning on going to the Free TangoRevolution Concert and Milonga since the price was right, but at the milonga the night before, two local tangueros, whose opinions I respect, made it a point to let me know that Rachel Greenberg was an excellent teacher. Since I had not yet been blessed with experiencing her teaching, the pull was too great to ignore, though I knew it was extremely likely that there would be more followers than leaders at the milonga that night. If that turned out to the case, I figured I could make my way over to the TangoRevolution milonga easily enough, thanks to my handy dandy GPS.

The lesson focused on playing with the Follower’s cross and the Americana. We began with a figure that was the 8CB to the cross, followed by a Follower forward ocho to the Leader’s outside right while the Leader steps back. Then he pivots her bigger than usual to do another forward ocho into the Americana. When the Leader leads the Follower into the Americana, his arm should slide around her, or he should relax his elbow so that they can get closer to each other.

For Follower’s technique, she should always face the Leader’s torso, even during the Americana. She also needs to be complete with her weight changes and pivot a lot into the Americana.

After the Americana, both dancers can walk forward, but eventually the Leader brings the Follower back to be in front of him, and she continues to walk back two steps. Then the Leader can accompany the Follower as he leads her to do back ochos.

In the Americana, the Leader needs to coordinate the transfer of weight of both dancers simultaneously. The Leader transfers the weight forward as he brings the Follower around to do a small right foot side step returning in front of him. Then the Follower steps back with her left foot, with her chest always facing the Leader’s chest.

Sometimes the Follower will do contra tiempo (QQS) while the Leader does tiempo (SS). The Follower should always try to be close to the Leader in this sequence and not float away.

Next, we played with the sequence, with the Leader pivoting the Follower at the point of the cross (8CB to cross), so that they come into the Americana position, and she steps forward with her left foot out. The Leader needs to transfer the Follower’s weight and make her turn forward in the Americana as she goes into the cross.

For the Follower, when the Leader changes her direction, she needs to keep her torso toward the Leader and her feet crossed and collected before she steps out with her left foot.

Next, we played some more with this, pivoting her QQ without the cross. This is a surprising change of direction for the Follower.

Finally, we mixed everything up: The cross to Americana, to back ocho, to cross, to Americana, to pivoted Americana with no cross.

The Leader can add a boleo lead as he takes a right side step with Follower on her right foot back step to lead her to do a boleo with her left foot.

The lesson was good and confirmed that Maestra is an excellent teacher. There was clear explanation and ample time to drill with lots of instructor individual feedback to everyone.

At the lesson, I heard from another two local tangueros, whose opinions I respect, that Rachel Greenberg was an excellent teacher, and they strongly recommended that I go to her workshops the next day. This was kind of strange and surprising in that I had never been told quite so fervently from so many different people – all leaders -- that I should go to a lesson taught by a specific teacher. It made me think that we’ve been visited by La Bruja and she has cast a spell upon the entire Bay Area tango community, from the looks of how many avid fans she has.

The milonga was pretty good. I danced with a lot of my favorite leaders, and some newish-to-me ones, who are beginners but with a lot of potential and no horrendously bad habits/bad posture at this point, and one specifically with a shockingly delicious embrace. Dale & Cathy did a fine job spinning the tunes, and I think they were particularly inspired by milonga that night since there were no fewer than four milonga tandas! The milonga had a very nice vibe to it. As expected, there were more Followers than Leaders, but the crowd was good and most people were very social. So we all got to dance, we all got to rest, and there was no frenzied competitiveness of fighting for the “good dancers” by the tango ambushers trying to rack up mileage on the dance floor at the expense of others.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Afternoon Practilonga at La Pista. This practilonga happened in the downstairs ballroom right after Rachel Greenberg’s workshops that day, which I unfortunately missed. The first one was on the Ocho Cortado (which I was OK skipping since I have had many, many lessons on the ocho cortado), and the second one was on Boleos, which I had wanted to take. Since many of the workshop students stayed for the practilonga, it was clear that the boleo workshop had more followers than leaders. No surprise there, but it was a shame that it was as imbalanced as it was. When I arrived at the practilonga, there seemed to be a ratio of 1:5 leaders to followers. It never quite evened out at the practica, but the leaders who were there were social and danced with all the patiently waiting followers, who seemed happy enough to chat among themselves or watch the other dancers. One of the Leaders led me in the boleo class work, which was a series of 4 Follower boleos, alternating back, then front, then back, then front, out to a back ocho for Follower or forward front cross step for Follower, all while the Leader walked around her. This Leader was pleased that I could execute this, even though I was not in the class. Then I verbally guided one other Leader who was leading me into a back boleo. I just told him to lead me into a back boleo, immediately into a front boleo, and then to keep doing them as he walked around me clockwise. He got carried away and did 6, 8, 10 then 12 boleos while walking around me. That’s when I told him it was enough and that he was backing up traffic behind us. I speculate there was much time spent on Follower boleo technique during the workshop since the mirrors had plenty of fingerprints on them. And I am sure Maestra was very good at explaining the Leader’s side of the intricacies of leading boleos and their timing.

At the practilonga, I decided to give myself a swift kick in the pants, put my money where my mouth was, and actually practice a lesson I took in November 2009 that I wanted to work on. It was an extremely technical colgada that Fabian Salas and Lola taught at Fandango de Tango 2009, and I brought my class notes to the practica. I think I got it back reasonably well, and I think other dancers at the practilonga were inspired to work on their colagadas too, even though it was not what I would consider a Nuevo crowd. I had a surprisingly very good time and was totally OK with not dancing the entire time. It was very freeing to be experimental and creative and work on new material without feeling like a doofus if it didn’t work out. The leaders who danced were all good to excellent, social, creative, and polite, so I imagine all the followers had a decent time, despite the substantial bench warming.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Cellspace Alt Milonga. I didn’t catch the lesson. The milonga itself was just OK for me. Not magic, not tragic. I got to dance with some new-to-me leaders, and several of my usual favorites.