Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
June 1, 2013, Homer & Cristina Workshops in Hove at Ralli Hall, Denmark Villas
Video Courtesy of Tim Sharp
Our milonga class consisted of four chapters.
Chapter 1: The Strong Beat and How We Play with the
Strong Beat
We began with an individual exercise randomly walking around
the room and imagining puddles on the floor.
We would walk around the room randomly and try to splash the other
dancers, trying to step on the strong beat.
We would try to make little splashes or medium splashes, but not big
splashes (so no hard stomping). In
milonga there are two beats that are fundamental walking beats. The purpose of this exercise is that when we do
the splash, we can be a little more down, and have a little bit of height
change. We were to walk in a more
grounded manner, and to create emphasis in our dance. We were to try to show level changes and
quality of walking differences in our dance.
In partnership, we danced to a milonga, just walking on the
strong beat, with no syncopation, no double time. Our goal was to practice our walking on the
walking beat, with puddle emphasis in our steps when appropriate. We did this to Canaro’s Milonga
Sentimental for half a song (a slow milonga), and then to Canaro’s La
Milonga De Mis Tiempos for half a song (a medium fast milonga).
Chapter 2: Being Grounded
In partnership, we did an exercise where the Follower takes
holds of the Leader’s hips and pulls down, but she keeps a straight spine. The
Leader leads the Follower to dance while he feels the heaviness in his hips,
stepping on the strong beat and creating little splashes or medium splashes
with his steps. The Leader can tell the
Follower to press down more on his hips if he feels she is not doing
enough. The Follower should push more than
she thinks she should, all the while keeping her torso straight and long.
The Leader and Follower change their holds on each others’
hips, but the Leader still leads. Both
dancers do not compromise the length and straightness of their spines. The Follower pushes down on the Leader’s
hips. Then the Leader pushes down on the
Follower’s hips. The Leader leads the
whole time. The Followers should use the energy of the floor into her legs,
into her body. Dancers still dance on
the strong beat. We drilled this to
Canaro’s Milonga Sentimental.
Then still in partnership, we alternated from holding down
the hips into the normal embrace, back to holding down the hips, etc., with the
Leader focusing on just walking. The Follower pushes on the Leader’s hips, and
then they go into the embrace. This helped
us explore the sensation changes and qualities we should get comfortable with:
qualities of groundedness coming from our cores into the floor and to be “up”
but into the ground. We should put our
energy into the floor. With hands
pushing down on the other person’s hips, we dance more slowly, and everything
is more deliberate. Just because it’s
milonga music doesn’t mean you have to dance fast.
What does being grounded mean? Grounded is the act of not falling. We need to be over our selves, over our
support leg. We should not dance milonga
by falling into the movement. Grounded
means stable, not falling, whether you are up, tilted, or on two feet.
Chapter 3:
Phrasing
To understand phrasing, we did the Tango Chacarera. In Chacarera formation,
with the Leaders all in one line and the Followers facing them all in one line,
we made eye contact with each other, and raised our arms in the air, as if we
were doing the Chacarera. We then took four steps forward, where we met in the
middle, and then took four steps back, signifying one phrase in the music. Our goal was to always be back where we
started at the end of a phrase. We did
this to D’Arienzo’s Milonga Vieja Milonga because it is a very regular
song, phrasewise.
We started the Tango Chacarera just walking to the beat to get our ears
used to finding the beginning of the phrase, which would help us to achieve our
goal of getting back to our starting place at the end of the phrase. Building on this, we then danced more freely,
still doing four steps forward and four steps back so we could end up at the
same place where we started at the end of the phrase.
Next, we danced to D’Arienzo’s Milonga Vieja
Milonga doing no syncopation, just doing walking, weight changes and rock
steps; no ochos or sacadas. For the Follower, it is important to really hear
the music and have control over her body so that she is more responsible for
the musicality and musical interpretation of the dance and has better control/expression
over how she steps.
Maestros demo’d dancing to the phrase by doing one thing per phrase, such
as walking for the 8 counts of the phrase, doing weight changes for the 8
counts, doing rock steps for the 8 counts, etc.
The idea was to not change the idea too much while we dance. We were to
be grounded when we make our steps.
Every song has a melody, sometimes lyrics too. You can still hear the phrasing inside the
lyrics.
Next, we tried dancing to a different song, Emilio Pelejero’s Mi Mieja
Linda. We were to walk on the strong
beat and pause at the end of a phrase using either a splash or by being
emphatically up.
Chapter 4: Rhythmic Syncopation
The Butterfly Effect is when we want to syncopate everywhere, and we fly
everywhere in our dance, like butterflies.
This is also called Schmeddling.
We went back to our first song, Canaro’s Milonga
Sentimental, where we were to examine/train our ears to hear the words “San
Francisco” (“San” “Fran” “Cis” “Co”) in the beats, and to step on the strong
beats, the “San” and “Cis” beats of San Francisco. “San” stands alone, but “Cis” has neighbors
“Co” and “Fran”. How do we define the
rhythmic syncopation? We practiced by
doing a regular box step of forward, side, together, weight change, back, side,
together, weight change. We do our
initial step, the forward step or the back step, on the “San” and “Cis” beats.
For the Leader’s technique, he can use a little bit of
rocking the baby, almost imperceptibly to help lead the weight change. The
Follower always copies the Leader’s level.
Finally, in our dancing, we were to integrate all 4
chapters: making medium splashes and small splashes, having groundedness in our
dance with heavy hips, and doing the box step with rhythmic syncopation of
doing the forward or back step on the “San” or “Cis” all within the musical
phrases of the song.
What happens if we want to syncopate around “Cis”? That’s
where the rhythmic change of weight (double time) goes. But “San” is the home/anchor. Underneath it, the rhythmic syncopation, if
you can lock onto it, your milonga will be stronger. While butterflying is OK, if you do rhythmic
syncopation around “Cis” it is better.
Maestros showed us what they meant by dancing to
Canaro’s Silueta Portena.
For our dancing exercise, we were to:
Go on walking steps.
Take smaller steps.
The faster the music, the quieter our upper bodies
have to be.
How to get into and out of the box step just by
knowing where the “San” is (Leader’s left foot forward step)
We tried drilling to a different song: Donato’s Ella
Es Asi.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
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