February 18-24

Friday, February 19, 2010

Monte Cristo Club Milonga with lesson beforehand by Gary Weinberg and Lisette Perelle. The lesson had a few extra followers, so I voluntarily sat out for a lot of it. The intermediate class built on what they learned in the beginner class, so the sequence included some back ochos, a change of direction, and a back boleo of the left leg while the right leg was the standing, supporting, strong one. It was a good lesson, with opportunity to delve a bit deeper into the technicality of leading and following the sequence. The milonga itself was just OK. It was sparsely attended, and there were several female tango hog ambushers who kept monopolizing the preferred leaders. Such a pity that dancing with these skilled leaders has not improved the ambushers’ dancing much if at all in the last several months. I guess they’d rather go the lazy route rather than work on their own technique and foot and ankle strength. But I suppose working on foot and ankle strength must be a scary proposition when the risk of fractures is so high because of extremely compromised bone density and long-term calcium deficiency (and at such a young age! tsk tsk). Still, I did manage to dance a couple of tandas with Milan, who is an outstanding dancer, so it made the night totally worth it.



Saturday, February 20, 2010

Homer and Cristina Ladas workshops at Stanford. I got to the place in record time, thanks to my handy dandy GPS (I don’t know how I ever got around without it), and so decided to make a quick run to Subway for fuel for the day. (They are having a special right now where their non-premium subs are all $5 footlongs. To optimize fueling, I load up on the veggies, sans the raw onions, and have them cut the footlong into three sandwiches.) I had time to snarfle down one of the 1/3 sandwich before class began.



At the break, Cheena and Cristobal of CCSF were in a bit of a pickle because they didn’t want to forage for food. So Cheena asked for the last third of my sandwich, which of course I gave to her, and which she shared with Cristobal. Then I spoke to Cristobal about the importance of fueling for the day for the body and for the brain when you plan to spend 5 hours at workshops. Normally, he knows this of course, but since we all had to head out for Stanford at 11:00 a.m. from our homes, lunch/food were not on the top of their list of things they thought about. I also told Cristobal about the stash of food I have in the trunk of my car (which he probably thought was a little strange), inspired by YouTube’s Scooby’s video. I don’t have all of Scooby’s recommended food items in my stash, but the concepts and ideas are what I applied based on my lifestyle, the goals of which are to prevent me from getting to the point of gnawing hunger or dehydration and to even out blood sugar fluctuations so that my brain function is not compromised. My stash isn’t appetizing from a culinary standpoint (whey protein shake, anyone?), but mentally it’s just a nicer place for me to be to not worry about food and when or where my next meal comes from.



The notes from the specific workshops, and eventually the videos (once the Mac conversion thing gets figured out by the real tangostudent) are at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com



Saturday, February 20, 2010

The Late Shift Milonga with lesson beforehand by Juan Cantone & Sol Orozco from Buenos Aires. Maestros are excellent teachers. They hail from Buenos Aires, but are both fluent in English. Their teaching style is clear and balanced with lots of technical detail on the both the Leader and Follower side. They also have excellent eyes for detail, and showed ample individual attention to the students in this group class. They are here for a week or so more, and it would be definitely worth it to go to more of their lessons. They are particularly excited about the workshops they are co-teaching with Santiago Croce and Amy Lincoln (see tangomango.org for date and details). The milonga was fun. El Russo is visiting from Portland, so we had a chance to catch up on our tango lives since Luciana Valle’s Intensivo. I asked him about Valentango, and he confirmed that there was indeed significantly more followers than leaders. It was great fun dancing with him. I had no idea he was such a good dancer, since at the Intensivo we only danced with the Maestra’s hand-picked student assistants. Later on, I had a chance to finally dance with several of the leaders I wanted to dance with the night before, and sure enough, they confirmed the hog ambushing behavior of several followers.



Sunday, February 21, 2010

Homer and Cristina Ladas workshops at Stanford. For some strange reason, on this day both lessons had twice as many leaders as followers, so we had to double up, two leaders to one follower, which actually worked out OK. (Though maybe leaders would have a different opinion on that.)



After the workshops, we had a chance to work on the material (or just dance) with our classmates at the practica. I must say, I had more fun at this practica than I have had at a lot of milongas I’ve attended. I was able to dance with some very skilled new-to-me leaders, which was a true pleasure, very refreshing and re-inspiring. There was plenty of space to do real-estate intensive dancing without disturbing others sharing the dance floor. We also had a chance to work out in our heads and bodies the material we learned in class. I had planned on going to a milonga later on that night, but was in such a happy place after the practica, that I decided not to push my tango luck.



These workshops organized and hosted by the Stanford Tango Club were great. The facility is new with maple hardwood floors, clean bathrooms, and a kitchen area with microwave, sink, and refrigerator. The most well-attended workshop had ~50 people (25 couples), and everyone behaved respectfully toward each other. Many of the attendees came from Santa Cruz and Monterey, so it was fun dancing with them as normally I don’t venture down south far enough for us to cross paths. On the weekend, there is ample, free lot parking within steps of the facility. Some might find it tricky to navigate the Stanford campus, so I was glad I had my GPS. The half hour breaks in between the 75-minute lessons were ample time to get food if necessary, or work on the material on the dance floor with guidance from Maestros, if requested.



The notes from the specific workshops, and eventually the videos (once the Mac conversion thing gets figured out by the real tangostudent) are at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com

February 11-17

Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Late Shift Milonga with lesson beforehand by Brigitta Winkler. As usual, this was a fantastic lesson. We began with posture exercises to get our cores up and forward. Then we worked on the embrace, while maintaining good tango posture. Next, we worked on pivoting, and then the Leader catching the Follower pivot to lead her to step back in ochos. Next, we practiced just walking with pivots and ochos. The figure was a simple one, based loosely on the ocho cortado, but instead of a forward left foot step for the Follower, it was more of an open side step (perhaps slightly diagonally forward) with her left foot. The way the Leader led this was to have a back cross step of his left leg, so that directionally, her movement was more to the side, rather than forward. After her left side step, she could go back into the cross. He could link this with right leg sacadas of her left leg. It was a very good lesson, where we really focused on some deep conceptual ideas and technique. The milonga itself was fun. It wasn’t too crowded, and so floor craft was good. I was asked more than once why I wasn’t in Portland (for Valentango). Since I had heard that there are usually more women than men at Valentango, it didn’t make sense to go. For the guys, however, it would have made perfect sense. :o) At this particular milonga, there were a few more men than women (which made for a great time for the Followers). I started out with my aurora borealis 9 cm CiF’s, but an hour later switched to lower 8 cm PH’s, which felt like slippers after that. It’s amazing how much pressure difference there can be in 1 cm heel height. Jr. Scout Extraordinaire was there, and is permanently for the most part going to lower heels to save on the natural foot aesthetics and health (so sensible, that JSE). (JSE has the exact same pair of aurora borealis 9 cm CiF’s I was wearing since we bought them on the same trip together, as did a bunch of other folks on that trip…we could have made a formation team based on that shoe alone!)

Sunday, February 14, 2010
Studio Gracia Milonga with lesson beforehand by Jorge Torres. I skipped the lesson; it was the most crowded that I have ever seen a pre-milonga lesson at Studio Gracia. And rumor has it that the 10-couple private later this week at Keiko’s studio was sold out way in advance. So apparently the San Francisco Bay Area continues its star-struck love affair with Jorge Torres. The milonga itself was also quite crowded. Thus, floor craft was as best as could be expected under those conditions, meaning that it was not the greatest, but decent enough, considering. Jorge and Chino danced a D’Arienzo vals for the performance, which was probably good; I did not actually see it because it was so crowded, and I did not want to stand up or sit on the floor. So I remained where I was, seated. Natasha did a great job with the Valentine’s day and Chinese New Year theme, with the biggest chocolate candy-filled heart I had ever seen in my life, a chocolate Valentine’s day cake, and Chinese New Year’s candies sprinkled throughout the food area, along with her usual ample food spread of sodas and wine, croissant sandwiches, bread and dip, fruit, etc. It had been a while since I had been to this milonga, and noticed that they changed things around a bit, with the food area now in the outside garage area where the two sofas used to be. Now one of those sofas is where the food used to be. They also got rid of the hairdryer seats and put in proper lounge chairs instead. This new food/seating orientation improved the traffic flow, especially in that corner where it used to get packed with people nibbling and noshing, and entering and exiting the dance floor. I had an OK time; there were more followers than leaders, so I sat out more than I liked. But it was still very nice dancing with friends, old and new. DJ Emilio did a fine job as usual, and played two versions of Poema (the first one early on was Juan Sanchez Gorio’s, and the second much later in the evening was the one we all love from Canaro).


And not tango-related, but here's an excellent article on how to Buzz Off: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10451703-2.html

February 4-10

Saturday, February 6, 2010
There are some days when you know you just shouldn’t go dancing, but you go ahead and do it anyway. :::sigh::: Saturday was such a day. I had turned my left ankle earlier in the day. It was quick, sharp turn, but I didn’t hear any tearing. So after getting home ASAP, I took some arnica and iced it, then compressed it, and then rested it (though I didn’t elevate it). Feeling no pain, I decided to go to the Late Shift.

The Late Shift Milonga with lesson beforehand by David and Mariana. The lesson began with some basic footwork, pivoting and balance exercises. Then since there were many beginners in the class, everyone – men and women - worked on forward ochos. After that, we did a simple sequence of the 8CB to 5 (cross), into two forward ochos. From here, we turned the second ocho into a regular Follower’s forward volcada of her left leg, as her right leg is the stable, strong, supporting leg. I was surprised that maestros decided to teach this concept to a class with so many beginners in it, but it seemed to go over OK well enough. The lesson itself was not that heavily attended, and like I said, had many beginners.

The milonga started out a bit slow with a few more leaders than Followers. It filled up as the night progressed, but still had more leaders than followers (which made for a great time for the followers, but perhaps not such a great time for the leaders). I got to dance with one leader who I hadn’t danced with in at least a year (not because we hadn’t seen each other at milongas, but because I just fell off his radar screen). We danced three tandas (but no two in a row). He will likely become one of my favorite vals dancers since he definitely gives his partner a feeling of flying, gliding, and spinning during valses. Up to this point, I was having a fun time.

11:30 p.m. rolled around, and I started to bonk. Then I had a tanda where a follower stepped directly back onto the top my left foot, nearly piercing it with her stiletto. I pulled my foot back quickly in pain, only to kick my right foot inner anklebone with my left stiletto. :::sigh::: I hung up my dancing shoes for the evening after that, as I was just in too much pain to dance, with a couple of large, purple and pink bruises and broken skin on my left foot and right ankle. Like I said, there are just some days where you get all these signs (in my case turning my ankle earlier in the day), and you push ahead anyway only to get injured even more.

After that, I sat for a while, happy to talk to some tanguero friends. A bunch of people came from CCSF as the after party to the semester milonga that same night.

Christy Cote and George Garcia did an impromptu performance of milonga that was quite fun. Since there were so many maestros at this milonga, I was thinking out loud to my buddy that it would have been nice for all of them to get up and a do a performance together like they do at festivals with all-maestros dances of tango, vals, and milonga. It would give our local maestros another platform to show off their expertise and perhaps pick up some more students (group and private) in the meantime (and what local teacher wouldn’t want that?). This could especially be done on a night when it was the usual local teachers/organizers David and Mariana teaching (instead of a guest teacher couple, who would usually do a performance).

Sunday, February 7, 2010
Outdoor Tango at Land’s End. It had been several years since I had been to Land’s End, and I could remember when it was just a gravel lot. Things have changed drastically for the better since then. The parking lot is now tiered and paved with spaces clearly marked, and there are port-o-potties (bring your own hand sanitizer!). The milonga takes place at the foot of the Land’s End trailhead at the far western part of the parking lot, just above the old Sutro Baths. The portable rolled linoleum floor, about 10 feet by 30 feet, is laid on top of the granite / cement tile floor. Being an outdoor milonga on a Sunday afternoon means that dresswise anything goes, though it behooves dancers to wear layers and definitely bring a jacket, sunscreen, sunglasses, and water / snacks if they are planning on staying the whole time. People are OK with wearing hats, though that means you will be dancing in open embrace. Personally, I would leave my stilettos and Sunday best at home, but that’s just me; I am sure there are lots of folks in the tango community who like to really dress up, anywhere, anyway, anyplace, anyhow and they are certainly welcome to. It is a beautiful spot above the beach and surf, surrounded by professionally maintained landscaping, though it can get very windy and chilly toward the end of the day as the sun goes down. On this particular Superbowl Sunday, there were only a few dancers. Still, I had a good time since I had a chance to dance a lot with the host, Maestro Ivan Shvartz. One of his other students was there, so we had time to play around experimenting (such as with Maestro leading the two of us at the same time, or all three of us dancing together). Many non-tango people in the area to hike or sightsee stopped to watch us and applaud, making it a good place for those who want to get their performance or practice groove on, or if they want to experiment being a DJ as attendees are encouraged to bring their own ipod/mp3s/tandas. It was a bit chilly on this day; I am sure it is a lovely place to go in the Fall or on an unseasonably warm Summer day. Afterwards, tangueros can grab a drink at the Cliff House or Beach Chalet. Public transitwise, the 38 Geary - Point Lobos gets you reasonably close. It’s a free parking lot, but can get crowded on popular sunny days. Still, there is street parking nearby or more free at the lot further down at Ocean beach (a 5-minute walk away).

January 14 - February 3

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Late Shift Milonga with lesson beforehand by Chelsea Eng and Luis Carpi (of Dallas). I like to support Maestra’s teaching gigs outside of CCSF, and I was curious as to who this “Luis” was since there was no elucidation on tangomango.org. I got there late for the lesson, so missed the beginning. Luis seemed familiar, but I could not place him. The figure they taught included a Follower clockwise molinete of back, side, forward from the promenade position with a Leader’s right leg pivot, and left leg is extended back. This Leader’s left leg back trailing extension is a result of the torsion in his upper body. From here, we can link this figure twice to the same promenade to Follower’s clockwise molinete to a Follower forward step to the outside of the Leader on the close side, then into a side step that pivots a lot on the Follower’s left leg, into a promenade. The point of this figure was to add dynamics and energy with the promenade, instead of making it a regular molinete or two linked molinetes. During class as Luis made his rounds, he remembered me from Fandango de Tango in Austin. Though the step was relatively simple, we had a chance to really drill and work on the finer points of technique, and hopefully apply these foundational building blocks to our overall tango development. It was an excellent lesson (Maestra was fantastic as always).



Luis was in San Francisco just for a visit, as his curiosity about our tango reputation got the better of him. He would also like to visit Portland at some point. As a teacher, Luis shows great promise and potential. During class, he was very concerned that he answered/clarified an important point about Leader’s technique and the wherefores and whys of the lead, and paid individual attention to the specific leader student who had a particular question, making sure he had answered the question sufficiently. I got a chance to speak with him later after the lesson, and got a few salient points about his development: his main teachers/influences are the fantastic George and Jairelbhi Furlong http://www.evolutiontango.com/ and Phyllis Williams (translator at Fandango for Nito y Elba) http://www.la-vida-es-una-milonga.com/index.html, all excellent Dallas teachers.



The milonga was fun, with dancer quality quite high, and though it was crowded, floor craft the best I’ve ever experienced (I never thought I’d ever write that!). Maestra’s and Luis’s performance was excellent-- very fun, very musical, very technically precise. I danced more than I had in a long time (and freely and joyfully), but bonked around midnight. Thankfully, Mariana put out some pinwheel/mini aram sandwiches that really hit the spot and kept me going for another 90 minutes. I also discovered the water fountain, which I had heard about but had never actually seen (after going here for years). What an eye-opener. There will be no more complaints from me about running out of water, though I will continue to bring my own water bottle. (Bargain tip of the week: Cost Plus has wide-mouth stainless steel water bottles in really nifty colors for a whopping $5). It was a really pleasant, fun night.



Sunday, January 31, 2010

Café Cocomo Milonga with lesson beforehand by Chelsea Eng and Luis Carpi. The Beginning lesson focused on Follower forward ochos with Leader matching her steps. She should reach with her toe, and the Leader should receive her step, but also determine how far the Follower goes. Follower should match Leader’s energy. They also added the Leader parada after the Follower’s pivot, to Follower pasada. I found the instruction very clear from both Maestra and Luis. Maestra made the distinction of the practica versus milonga, versus class, where we are always working toward the ideal. In the Intermediate lesson, Maestra and Luis taught the Leader back sacada of his left foot to Follower’s right foot from her left foot back ocho / back cross step to the open side of the embrace. The Leader rotates counter clockwise, then takes one back step, and then can do another Leader sacada. The Follower receives the sacada with her right leg, as her left leg is the supporting, standing one. To receive the sacada well, it is important that the Leader have enough room to do it. Here, the Follower needs to give him enough space by taking a big back cross step with her left leg so that it gives the Leader enough room. Her left leg also needs to be strong and stable, and her body upright on axis and balanced (it should not tilt or lean back). Her body needs to have strong abs, and soft supporting knees, with feet spread against the floor. The Leader’s right hand needs to be loose to let the Follower take a generous back cross step. The receipt of the sacada can be read off the floor, keeping it close to the body, and then down the left side of her left leg, in an out, up, in, down, forward sweeping movement. The Follower’s left leg is the standing, supporting leg, and its stability and strength are important with respect to how her right leg reads the receipt of the sacada. The Leader’s right arm should not be tense at the point of his back sacada. It needs to be relaxed so there is a change of embrace. The Follower’s left hand slides down the Leader’s arm toward his right elbow or mid arm at the point of his back sacada. After this Leader’s back sacada, the Leader grounds into the floor, lowering to be more grounded, then he steps back with his left leg while Follower simultaneously steps forward with her right leg. By grounding at this point, the Leader maintains the Follower’s weight in the split middle position, and he walks around her continuing with the back step he already took, to a side step, forward step, to a side step in a counterclockwise molinete, the next forward step of which turns into a parada of his left leg after the Follower pivots and the rest of her body comes around as a result of the torsion in her upper body as she maintains connection with the Leader’s chest as he goes around her in his molinete. Then we played with linking these moves, with the Follower pasada with her right leg over the Leader’s left foot, to pivot, then to do a back cross step with her left foot, into the Leader’s left leg back sacada of her right foot. For the Leader, he does a small step to the side to do a weight chance, then pivots, and then does his back sacada. The Follower can do a right foot boleo at the point of the parada/pasada if the energy is there and led by the Leader or with momentum. One beginner female student asked about the potential adornos that can be done during this figure. Maestra answered that our goal was in the beauty of the movement itself (my read: precision, fluidity, and grace, not tricking or blinging it out). Luis commented that this sequence required a lot of contra body movement, and included lots of dynamics to generate body fluidity. If we can master these concepts, other steps in tango become easier. It was an excellent lesson.


The milonga itself was OK. Unfortunately, Mimi was not there to keep us fueled for the evening, and I made the mistake of having an early dinner. So I found myself distracted by the lack of food more substantial than pretzels, veggie snaks, and cheese puffs. My bad. The dancing was good though; I had a very nice time. It wasn’t super crowded, but there were many reasonably or very skilled dancers, so I had a good time. Maestra’s and Luis’s performance was great.



SO WHAT AM I EXCITED ABOUT THESE DAYS?
Brigitta Winkler!!!
The Superbowl (GO Saints!!!)

Why I haven't been dancing as much

I was surprised when I first read in Gustavo Benzecry Saba’s book “Embracing Tango” that “Milongas are big centers for people with emotional conflicts…” Normally, I do not get involved in other people’s drama (I am not a gossip, and quite frankly, I am just really not interested in other people’s *stuff*). But recently, this particular concept has been unveiled to me in abundant clarity. It make me not want to be around the entire tango community as much.

December 31, 2009 - January 13, 2010

December 31, 2009-January 3, 2010

San Diego Tango Festival at the Kona Kai Hotel.



In a word, overall, for me, this festival lacked… and I will not be returning.



Homer and Cristina were great, as always. I went to their Pitter Patter workshop, and their workshop on Floorcrafting, both on Thursday, December 31, 2009. My notes on the Pitter Patter workshop are as follows:


Homer and Cristina Ladas workshop on “His and Her Pitter-Patter: Various techniques for playful interactions between leader and follower"

This workshop was for advanced dancers, but catered to everyone. The class would progressively become more complex.

Pitter-Patters are rhythmic syncopations, playful movements with the feet. First we focused on Leader’s Pitter-Patters and then Follower’s Pitter-Patters.

The music we used for the entire workshop was from Pedro Laurenz:
Amurado (tango)
De Puro Gaupo (tango)
Milonga Compadre (milonga)
Corazon de Artista (vals)

CHAPTER ONE: LEADER SNEAKY SANDWICH OF FOLLOWER’S FOOT

In our first exercise, we were to do a dance in open or close embrace. Leader would then throw in a surprise Pitter-Patter:

His first Pitter-Patter is a sneaky sandwich of the Follower’s right foot. The Pitter-Patter is the focus. The idea is to sandwich with Follower’s right foot, by quickly stepping next to it with his left foot, and then enclosing it in a sandwich with his right foot. Leader should keep his thighs together and try not to change height, and to accent the rhythm/melody of the music. The Leader starts the Pitter-Patter when the Follower’s right foot goes back, and when there is good synchronicity of movement. Though he is doing his Pitter-Patter, he must also still keep leading her to walk back. Don’t change the height; there is nothing going on in the Leader’s chest that encourages the Follower to do anything but walk back normally.

Key takeaways:
(1) The focus is on capturing the Follower’s foot.
(2) Lead her on the strong beat.
Doing this sneaky sandwich Pitter-Patter is more difficult in close embrace because there is no visual cue.

Next Exercise:
Try to capture the Follower’s left foot. Here, the Leader must tune in to how the Follower is moving and transferring weight. Follower needs to be on the music so that the catch is meaningful and accents the music.

Next Exercise:
We attempted to do this sneaky sandwich Pitter-Patter on double and double-double time during the bandoneon in one of Laurenz’s songs.

Truth: Not everyone likes to Pitter-Patter.

From this Truth, we discussed the concepts of minimalism and maximalism in tango, and extreme legato and extreme staccato movements. Bottom line: Take what you can.

CHAPTER TWO: LEADER’S SNAKE WALK

Here, the Leader snakes between the Follower’s legs as she walks back. This can be done in open embrace (which is easier) or close embrace (trickier). Leader needs to close his thighs so he can sneak in there. This snake walk is done in parallel system.

The Leader must isolate his feet, doing double time during the snake walk, while the Follower steps in single time. Here, the Leader’s hips move independently of his upper body. His chest is straight ahead, which is what makes the Follower walk back, straight and linear.

PART 2: GETTING INTO AND OUT OF THE SNAKE WALK
Leader does double time once in a while to get into and out of the snake walk. For example, he would be in it for two counts, and then out for two counts. He can get out of it with a Leader’s left foot back cross step behind his right foot, then take two steps, and get out of it again with a right foot back cross step behind his left foot.

We started this on the Leader’s left foot on the open side of the embrace. This switches from parallel to cross system with the Leader’s back cross steps of his left foot behind his right foot, and of his right foot behind his left foot. The walk is in cross system and the snake is in parallel system. It is important to not let the top of the body get too far ahead.

Next, with everyone side by side in circle formation, we did an exercise of moving forward to get to the center of the room using a series of back cross steps, trying to the be most elegant and poised, lifting our heels, and not worrying about being fast.

Next, again in circle formation, we did an exercise of moving backwards to get to the outer perimeter of the room using front cross steps, again trying to be the most elegant and poised, not just fast.

NEXT STEP (i.e., homework)
Once we’ve mastered Chapter 1 (sneaky sandwich) and Chapter 2 (snake walk), we need to be random and free with the movement as it’s a bit chaotic and the movements can work on top of each other.

CHAPTER 3: FOLLOWER’S BUTTERFLY STEPS
We got to promenade (Americana) of Follower’s left side to Leader’s right side. The Follower’s Pitter-Patter is a butterfly step: short, small, quick, and light. For the Follower, there is no need to match the Leader’s walking. Thus, her Pitter-Patter can be done in parallel or cross system. The Leader can turn it into a circle (not just having them walk straight). Follower needs to be in tune and on time with the music. We did this to a Laurenz’s “Milonga Compadre”.

The Follower needs to be on the balls of her feet, with bend/flex in the knees. The steps are small and quick, and she needs to keep her thighs together. The goal is to envision her steps as if she’s a butterfly, and thus not make any accenting noises (stomping) with her feet. In our class work, the Leader needed to be on milonga timing of the strong beat so that the Follower has to do her butterfly Pitter-Patter steps within the strong beats and be on the beats. The Follower can snake the Pitter-Patter around the Leader.

CHAPTER 4: LEADER AND FOLLOWER CAN PITTER-PATTER TOGETHER
There are two ways to lead the Pitter-Patter: psychologically and with physical assist.
(1) Psychological:
The Leader can’t lead the Follower to do double-double time. But he can start to do a Pitter-Patter during the promenade (Americana) and the Follower will follow it and match it with her same Pitter-Patter movements because she knows it’s coming. She might not get it the first time he does it, but she will likely get it the second or third time.

(2) Physical:
The Leader slightly lifts the Follower with his whole body, not just his arms, which is an extra physical lead to suggest a Pitter-Patter movement.


A didactic demo at this workshop was not filmed, but other YouTube videos illustrating this topic can be found at:

Snake Walk & Pitter-Patter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGdQoBEHlIE

Syncopated Pitter-Patter, Snake Walk, & Sustained Volcada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8LzGqvvMe0

Rhythmic Pitter-Patter in the milonga (lots of Follower’s Pitter-Patter in this video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5j9hVhv_wU

---------------------------------


James Fridgen and Christa Rodriguez were good. I wished Christa had a stronger, louder voice to balance out the teaching aspects of their workshops. Which is surprising, since their united voice as teachers advocates that Followers have a stronger voice in shaping the tango dance with their leaders. I went to their Single Axis Turn workshop, and they had some very good exercises to strengthen our feet, ankles, and calves, and improve our balance. I also went to their Milonguero Groove workshop, which focused on the ocho cortado and doing it to the music. Though this topic sounds very mundane, the class was extremely challenging in that we spent a lot of time working on the lead and follow with no arms, only the Leader’s body lead. Thus, we had to be crystal clear with our weight changes, and neither could compensate/cheat with arms. Maestros had a very interesting opinion on videos. In short, they do not like them to be taken. Instead, they want their students to really focus and pay attention in class, and be physically and consciously engaged. Basically, they want their students to “Focus on it like you will never be in this class again.”



Fabienne Bongard is a very lovely person, but definitely played second fiddle in the workshops she co-taught with Brigitta Winkler. I took Fabienne’s workshop that she co-taught with Brigitta on Subtle Ochos and other Friends, where we first worked a little bit on ochos, and then they taught a sequence with the corresponding mantra “I will go wherever you go, wherever you go.”



Brigitta Winkler, as always, was fantastic. I took both of her teacher training seminars on January 2 and January 3. Not because I want to be a teacher, but because I was curious as to what the new / next generation of teachers is being taught.



In the first teacher training seminar, Maestra discussed the belief systems underlying teaching methodologies:



(1) I am an expert and you know nothing.

(2) I am an expert and you know something.

(3) We both are experts and we both know everything.



Then she proceeded to split the class into those three groups with underlying belief system, and to teach the forward ocho based on those belief systems.



I chose the first group, “I am an expert and you know nothing.” This group was the smallest, even though I thought it would be the easiest to do this exercise with since that seems to be the belief system from which we get most of our instruction.



There were two other people in my group, one of whom is a male teacher (and excellent dancer), and the other….well, I am not sure where or if she actually teaches (but you can bet I will never take a lesson from her because it was clear at the milonga that she was not a particularly good dancer – she had very wide open, uncontrolled, unfluid, imprecise legs).



These other two “teachers” in my group had the opinion that when teaching forward ochos, the Leader basically leads and tells the class what he is doing, and the Follower follows. “But wait!!” I said. I couldn’t believe that the woman, the Follower teacher, did not say a word. But clearly in this group, my opinion was the minority. Both other “teachers” in my group DID NOT believe the woman teacher should say anything about Follower’s technique since it wasn’t a Follower’s Technique class. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. At that rather heated moment, when the male teacher suggested that I was “extremely opinionated”, Brigitta came up and asked how it was going. We gave her the run down. She said that since I had the differing opinion on how the follower’s part of the forward ocho should be taught, I should role play the teacher roll and teach the class as if both students were Followers. So I did, and both of my “students” seem to like and approve of my teaching.



Then it came time to teach the entire class. Since I was outranked, I played the role of Follower teacher, but in the way that they originally thought it should be, that is, with the Leader teacher being very strong and vocal, and the Follower teacher being relatively silent and just following the leader’s lead and not saying much about what she was doing. I really had to bite my tongue, because my own personal urge was to describe in excruciating detail every movement I was doing in the forward ocho.



Then it was the next group’s turn, who showed us that “They were the experts and we know something.” That group was OK, but again, it was dominated by one teacher (the woman, surprisingly), with very little said by her teaching companion (I don’t even know who he was). Then the third group went, where “we are all experts”, and they instructed us to do a forward ocho at every point of the eight count basic. I thought that was a pretty good way to teach with that underlying belief system, but I don’t think both teachers said an equal amount. Then again, since it was the students’ turn to figure it all out for themselves, not much instruction was required.



Needless to say, it was an extremely interesting class, albeit uncomfortable and disturbing at times, in my non-teacher opinion. Maestra concluded with passing out a handout showing what learners retain – which noted that What they read is very low, only 10%, What they hear 20%, What they see 30%, What they see and hear 50%, What they say 70%, and What they say and do 90%.



The next day at the Part II of the teacher training seminar, the first thing we did was get into Study Circle (group therapy?) formation and share with a partner what happened yesterday at the prior workshop. Needless to say, I gave my partner an earful. He was very thoughtful and wise, and gave me some good feedback on his opinion on why things shook down the way they did. And then the kicker is we all shared with the group, what our partners said. So my partner, who had a very good memory, repeated pretty much what I had said to the entire group. The male teacher in my group from yesterday was there, and he did not meet my eye. The female teacher from my group yesterday was not at this workshop (even though it was strongly emphasized that the attendees of the first workshop also go to the second). When the male teacher’s turn came around (toward the end), he shared that his recall partner commented that the teaching from the “I know everything and you know nothing group” was not very instructive, and that she didn’t learn anything from it.



The next part of the seminar we came up with words and ideas as to how we would teach if we came from the belief system of “we are all experts and we all know everything.” This touched on the type of words we would use, and the type of feelings/behaviors we would want to inspire in our students and have them actively engaged – physically and verbally -- in the learning process. Our goal was to get to the higher percentage of the “What Learners Retain” chart, utilizing the learners doing, hearing, saying, and seeing all at once. Some phrases we came up with: “I believe you can.” “Enjoy being in the moment.” “ What else?” “What do you want?” “Do with me.” “Illustrate the…” “ Let them show.” “Let them speak.” “Describe…” “Do” “Have questions rather than answers.” “Why are you here?”



Then we got together into three groups, and physically organized and addressed the groups in any way we saw fit as its teacher. Then each teaching couple in the group was to teach the forward ocho, based on the underlying belief of “If we tell them, they will fall asleep. If we make them do, they will build.” It was pretty interesting to see the vastly different teaching styles in every group.



We concluded the class with our own little graduation ceremony, which I thought was really cute.



The whole Study Circle / sharing and discussing with our partner is, I believe, a hallmark of the Brigitta Winkler teaching style, whereby we can feel comfortable that “we all know a lot and are experts” and can share what we know with each other so that we as are comfortable sharing in such a democratic environment and respectfully learn together as a group. This was a very fun class, and Maestra is very excited that she will be co-teaching a teachers festival in 2011 in Hawaii with Tomas Howlin. And just for the record, the brilliant Brigitta Winkler is in favor of note taking during class. :o)



The San Diego Tango Festival milongas were OK. The conditions were quite crowded with a high proportion of tables (arranged in classroom formation) to dance floor space, which ensured tight conditions, even though it didn’t have to be that way. Fortunately, there were two workshops on floor crafting, which served to keep everyone a little more in line. There weren’t too many flying stilettos, and the ones that occurred came from beginners (who thought they were advanced) or those obviously in dire need of attention.



The personal highlight for me was when Laura Tate showed up on Saturday night. Toward the end of the night, I got up the nerve to go over to her and personally thank her for the strong influence she had over my dance development. I explained that though I only took two lessons from her, and pre-milonga beginner and intermediate ones at that, she gave me, in one sentence, one extremely important nugget that completely changed how I danced up to that point, and really took things to the next level. I told her what that nugget was, and she smiled. She is a really classy person, super nice and approachable. I am sure she is also a fantastic wordsmith. :o)



It was great fun seeing the truly musically gifted, amazing Meng Wang live and in person. I really wanted to ask him to dance, but being pretena, that wouldn’t have been very proper. He had plenty of admirers and local friends there, so he certainly did not lack potential partners (many of whom were superlative dancers).



So why was the festival lacking for me? I don’t know. Maybe I am tainted by Austin (Fandango ROCKS!!). It wasn’t as well organized (with a huge backlog of people on the first day). Since this festival was advertised as for intermediate and advanced dancers, many people at the workshops did not switch, and dare I say thought they were much better than they actually were. The seating at the milongas (classroom table setup) did not make for a friendly, social cabaceoing environment. The hotel, while nice, is way the heck out there, and the hotel restaurant food was not the greatest. Upon checking into the hotel, we were handed a sheet that politely requested that “no outside food or beverages be brought into the ballrooms at any time—during workshops or milongas” – meaning no water bottles with electrolyte powder, no yogurt/bananas/cliff bars and the like, which was incongruent with my athletic sensibility of having continuous nutritious fuel for my brain and body to get through the day. Though I found the policy annoying, I complied with it. There was also an imbalance at the milongas of more Followers, and since I do not ask leaders to dance, I sat out a fair bit.



-----------



TETE



It was with great sadness that I learned last week that Tete Rusconi died. I had a chance to take several workshops (not enough!) with Tete y Silvia during CITA 2008, and also when they came to the SF Bay Area in August 2008 (organized by Dorcas). Actually, I had the supreme honor of accompanying them on the drive down to their workshops in Mountain View from San Francisco, and have dinner with them and Omar Vega afterwards (you can read about my experience in the blog from that time). I found them all to be extremely lovely, kind, fun people. There are no words I can say or write to express the tremendous loss to the worldwide tango community. Tete is a tango legend, a tango icon. I can still hear him admonish us in class, “Con la musica! La musica!”



During CITA 2008, I was extremely touched that he acknowledged me as I was leaving and he was entering one of the CITA night social milongas (he had way more energy than I did, despite being 30+ years older), and astounded that Silvia greeted me so warmly at the night they had the CITA milonga with performances by the milongueros at Confiteria Ideal. They made me feel special, recognized, even though I was just one of their hundreds of students at CITA 2008, and thousands of students worldwide.



Tete is in a class all by himself.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCqBW9wv3RE&feature=related

December 24-31

Friday, December 25, 2009
Marcelo Solis's milonga at the Lafayette Dance Center. No lesson on this night, it was just all milonga. This milonga occurred because Maestro's regular students asked for it, and he graciously complied. This was my first time here. It was easy to get to and there is ample parking. The facility is a storefront dance studio (dance floor is 20 x 50 feet perhaps?), with a small seating area at the front desk, which got quite cluttered with shoes and coats. The floor is rolled linoleum (not linoleum square tile), with two seams and some sticky spots, over something quite hard, not sprung. Needless to say, dancing on such a texture was a bit physically demanding (at least to my fifth decade bones) and pivotally challenging (no matter how hard I tried to channel Luciana Valle). However, it also slowed us down a little bit, and we all looked a lot more elegant and musical because of it; floorcraft was the best I have ever experienced at any milonga in the SF Bay Area. Many of the attendees were Maestro's regular students, and the rest were tango die hards, some of whom came from as far as Sacramento just for the event! Thought it wasn't a very large crowd, the skill level was good, and the gender balanced. It was an extremely friendly crowd, and everyone respected the milonga codigos of leaving the dance floor during the cortina and not dancing or standing through it, and not dancing more than one tanda at a time with anyone (including the couples who came together). So everyone got to dance with everyone else, including Maestro, which made for a very social, welcoming, inclusive environment. The food was ample as several of the regulars made it a potluck event, and snacky in nature (trail mix, baby satsumas, grapes, gourmet chocolate, baklava, veggie stix, home baked cookies). Several people also brought wine and champagne to supplement the water (from an excellent, large, sturdy, non-leaking water cooler) and apple juice. All in all, it was a very fun, excellent night.

Saturday, December 26, 2009
Late Shift Milonga at Cheryl Burke Dance. I didn't make it for the lesson, taught by David and Mariana, but was told it was on side volcadas (linked). The milonga was lightly attended, likely because of the competing milongas (the very popular All-Nighter at the Beat, and Gustavo & Jesica's Sausalito Milonga) and the holiday weekend. Still, like yesterday, I had a good time. Skill level was good, gender was reasonably balanced, though skewed on the Leader side. I got to dance with several local maestros, so that was a nerve-wracking surprise, but definitely a treat. Floorcraft was pretty good and generally not an issue, though oddly we did get bunched up on the dance floor at times. Pretty much every follower danced the entire time, with only a few rotating leaders and the spectator non-dancers sitting things out. It was a very pleasant evening.

Sunday, December 27, 2009
Muscality class with Glenn Corteza at Bollyhood Cafe. I decided to pop in to the Musicality class and skip the first fundamentals class since I am keeping an eye on the budget. The class on this day was follower-heavy, and since followers also had to lead as well as follow, I decided to sit the class out. Also, the Musicality part of the class never started, it just continued with fundamentals, with a focus on the cross system walk and ochos. Maestro had some good commentary on Follower's technique, with specifics on how the Follower's (erroneous) technique can knock a leader off balance, or how she can be better balanced by having good technique. One of the best things Maestro said that all that we learn about technique, we should use and apply it immediately in our dance, since these nuggets are like food. We do not go shopping and buy food to put in the fridge for six weeks and take it out six weeks later to cook and eat. We use it right away. That's the way tango technique nuggets should be, used and applied right away (not six weeks later). Maestro didn't charge me at all for the lesson since I sat it out and didn't physically participate in it, and hence I won't convey the detailed specifics of what he taught. The facility has a nice wood floor, though it is a space where it is two rooms made into one, and where the two rooms meet, there is a threshold in the floor where the structural support beams are, which made for some challenging spatial awareness/footwork issues. The Bollyhood Cafe is a beer and wine place, though they also serve Soju-based cocktails ($7). The bartender was super nice, and after he realized he made my Soju Margarita wrong (he added cranberry, so turned it into a Soju Margarita Cosmo), he offered to make me another, gratis, the way it should have been made. I thanked him but declined since I wanted to dance. I also ordered the Chicken Sandwich, and I was favorably impressed by the down-home spin using gourmet ingredients. My chicken sandwich came with real chopped chicken meat on whole wheat bread, with avocado, capers, and cucumber, with a side of baby lettuce, all lightly dressed, for a bargain $6. Parking is not super easy, so allow for some time to hunt for a street spot, which on Sundays are free and without time limits. It was a very relaxing way to while away a Sunday afternoon, and a fun place to go if you need to get more mileage on the milonga dance floor or want to work things out at the practica. The practica is guided with Maestro going around and helping students improve whatever they are working on.

Monday, December 28, 2009
Orange Practica at the Beat with lesson beforehand by Homer and Cristina Ladas on "Why We Love D'Arienzo"

This is an intuitive movement class, as well as a class where we explore phrasing and rhythm, and how they are connected, focusing on the music of D'Arienzo.

Exercise 1:
We were to dance using only:
(1) weight change movement
(2) rock steps
(3) walking
as the building blocks for class. We were not to use any ochos or molinetes (turns).

Exercise 2:
The song for the exercise was Pensalo Bien.
The class was divided into two groups: (A) and (B).
Large phrase = paragraph.
During the first paragraph of the song, the first group (A), was to move around by themselves, using only (1) weight changes, (2) rock steps, or (3) walking.
During the second paragraph of the song, the second group (B), was to move around by themselves, using only (1) weight changes, (2) rock steps, or (3) walking.
During the next paragraph, group (A) would move around by themselves.
During the next paragraph, group (B) would move around by themselves.
The song Pensalo Bien was chosen because it has good structure and tight phrasing, as is typical with D'Arienzo, and on an overall paragraph level, he tells a good story.

Exercise 3:
The song for this exercise was also Pensalo Bien.
In the same group divisions, (A) and (B), each group would dance just the sentences.
Here, the point was not to count the beats. The goal was to intuitively feel where the sentence begins and ends.

Exercise 4:
Continuing our work with Pensalo Bien, we worked on microphrasing. Here, we broke up the sentence structure even further. Leaders would use one tool (weight change, rock steps, walking) for the whole sentence, working with the strong beat. That is, he would lead 1 sentence of walking only, 1 sentence of weight changes only, and 1 sentence of rock steps only. We attempted to dance this only on single time during the whole song, and noticed that for some moves, such as the rock step, it was very difficult to do in single time. The natural inclination is to do the rock step in double time. However, if we do it in single time, it enables us to pivot more.

Exercise 5:
Subdividing the Rhythm:
(1) Minimalism
(2) Maximalism

The idea behind Maximalism is to throw everything in there, and do it on the beat, including all the beats, if possible.
The idea behind Minimalism is to be restrained and let some beats go by without stepping on them.

To help us understand this difference, we danced to Pensalo Bien doing double time in most of our steps.

Exercise 6:
The song for this exercise was El Flete.
The class was divided into three groups: (A), (B), and (C).
During the first paragraph of the song, the first group (A), was to move around by themselves, using only (1) weight changes, (2) rock step, or (3) walking.
During the second paragraph of the song, the second group (B), was to move around by themselves, using only (1) weight changes, (2) rock step, or (3) walking.
During the third paragraph, the third group (C), was to move around by themselves, using only (1) weight changes, (2) rock step, or (3) walking.
During the next paragraph, group (A) would move around by themselves, etc.
For this song, it was noted that at the end, sometimes the sections overlap, so groups (A) and (C) could both be moving at the same time.

The Variacion:
A discussion followed on the "Variacion", which is the crazy part of the song at the end where typically the bandoneons do their solo in double time or double-double time or double-double-double time -- "almost" 1/16 time. Here is where the concept of Minimalism can be applied in our dancing, where the dancers can do something the exact opposite of what the music is doing. For example in this case during the variacion, the dancers can step emphasizing only the strong beat or step on every other beat, as opposed to Maximalism, where they would try to step on every beat during the variacion, in "almost" 1/16 time.

Chaos Factor:
A discussion followed on the Chaos Factor, where we could dance in single time, and throw in a double time when you feel like it, and it will likely work if you are dancing to D'Arienzo. This is because there is always the double time undertone of "chaka chaka chaka" in D'Arienzo's songs. That is why he is called "El Rey del Compas" -- the King of Rhythm. The train is always rolling underneath.

Switching from Single Time to Double Time
The question came up of how can/do Leaders prepare to switch from single to double time.
The answer was that they need to prepare a step before the switch actually occurs.
Sometimes they can lift, and take shorter steps, especially for double-double-double time ("almost" 1/16 time).
There is a very distinctive change of flavor, change of embrace to have more elasticity or breathing.
It helps if the Leader stays on the same flavor for a little bit (at least two steps) before changing.
It can be like a calm before the storm, with a pause or slowing down to build up, then an accelerating, then a stop, then a pause.
It also helps if the Leader knows the song well. The same goes for the Follower.

Exercise 7:
We were to dance the last song with no restrictions, but make clean phrasing. So we could do ochos, ganchos, boleos, etc., or keep the same movement if we choose.

Maestros concluded with a demo to D'Arienzo's Pensalo Bien, which can be seen at www.tangostudent.blogspot.com.

The lesson and practica both were very crowded; skill level was good to excellent. Overall, it was a fun night.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Lesson at Cheryl Burke Dance taught by Pier Voulkos and Daniel Peters on Barridas and Colgadas. I dropped in on the last class of a four-week class on Barridas and Colgadas. The sequence taught was from the molinete, where the Leader does a right foot barrida of Follower's right foot. Then he lets her out in colgada, and she steps over with her left foot counterclockwise. For the Colgada technique of the Leader, he needs to let the Follower out with his right arm; it is fully extended, his arm is straight but his wrist is bent and still provides support and connection with the Follower. The Follower's right arm should be straight also. The Leader needs to invade the Follower's space forward so that she has reason to go back in colgada. Follower should also not make the Leader pull her back in onto vertical axis. She should come back to axis naturally as a consequence of the circular impulse of the colgada coming to completion. Next sequence was a Leader right leg barrida of Follower's right leg, to reverse sweep of Follower's right leg barrida to Leader's right leg, back to another sweep of Leader's right leg to Follower's right leg. This was done with weight changes. Next, we did the 8CB to 5 (cross) to Follower right foot forward cross step clockwise, to Leader's right foot stop, to Leader's right foot barrida of Follower's right foot. Next, he could turn his right foot, and the bring her around clockwise to sandwich his right foot to Colgada around in a shared axis turn. Note that there is a Leader change of embrace where his fingers go from pointing toward 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock. The Follower steps out of this colgada shared axis turn with her left foot forward (Leader right step back). Notice that any colgada shared axis turn can be done on any forward cross / forward ocho step. We backed up a little so Leader's and Follower's could work on the colgada feeling/body technique with Leader stepping forward with his left leg and letting the Follower out in colgada, and then stepping back with his same left leg and then bringing Follower back to axis. Then we went onto link things in a Leader right leg barrida of Follower's right leg, to her colgada stepover of her left leg to a forward ocho to a right leg sandwich to a colgada shared axis turn. Then the class reviewed a colgada learned last week of Follower reverse barrida to Follower colgada. Overall, I thought the lesson was pretty good. It was held in the ballroom above World Gym, which can be a bit stuffy, and which has a peculiar tasting water fountain, so I would strongly recommend bringing your own water bottle. That said, it was still fun to dance with some of the leaders that I haven't danced with in over a year (why aren't y'all at milongas???!)

Scouting tour continues in the next few days from the San Diego Tango Festival.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! BE SAFE!!!

(AND THANK GOD 2009 IS OVER!!!!)