Tango Student: Class Notes and Clips

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II (Master)

2011-11-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Providence, Rhode Island
October 30, 2011

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The Providence Tango Tricks and Treats Weekend with Homer & Cristina Ladas

Friday, October 28, 2011

Something Scary Spins This Way (Int)

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Art of Surprise - Part I (Int)

The Art of Surprise - Part II (Int/Adv)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I (Advanced)

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II (Master)

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Video Courtesy of Steven Spura

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II (Master)

This master class expanded upon the Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado to look at the possibilities for the Follower after she crosses behind herself. First, we investigated the Felix Back Sacada, connecting it to the Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado.

THE FELIX BACK SACADA (named after noted DJ and creative dancer Felix Naschke of Berlin)

This is a series of continuous Follower back sacadas (walks back) to the back of the Leader’s right foot as he kicks the heel around to turn, paddling or kick standing around as he pivots on his left foot.

This is more of a dessert move of continuous Follower back sacadas.

For the Leaders, we focused on how to lead it. His right hand opens up and the Follower uses the other two points of contact with the Leader (her left and right hands).

Why does the Follower not do a turn/hiro/molinete? The Leader’s extended leg prevents the Follower from doing a side step. The Follower feels the presence of the Leader’s hips, which blocks her hips from opening and prevents her from going into a hiro/turn/molinete/grapevine.

The Leader steps on his right, pivots back as she pivots, changes weight to his left foot, and his right foot paddles around, staying out for the Follower to back sacada it as she walks backward counterclockwise.

Homer’s secret is to envision an imaginary box, going from a right foot side step to pivot 180 degrees to be on the other side of the box. The Leader’s goal is to get to the edge of the box by his own pivot, which will also lead the Follower to pivot, being mindful of releasing his right hand. His right foot step around is a little bit away from the Follower so he doesn’t jam her, and with this step he should attack the floor to give Follower a lot of energy to help her pivot a lot.

The Follower should collect her feet before she steps in the back sacada, so that she pivots first all the way, collects, and then steps in the sacada. She needs to pivot a lot, putting fire in her hips, but having ice in her reaching step back in the sacada (no kerplunking). The Follower does the left foot back sacada first and then the right foot, left foot, right foot, etc, all around the Leader counterclockwise. When the Leader stops blocking the Follower with his hip, that’s when she should do the side step.

ADDING THE FELIPE REVERSE OCHO CORTADO TO THE FELIX BACK SACADA

We can go directly from the Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado into a Follower right foot back sacada, to do a wrap (gancho):

-regular, between the Leader’s thighs

-low wrap outside the Leader’s left leg

-high wrap (piernazo) outside the Leader’s left hip

We worked on doing all these wraps/ganchos.

The easiest wrap/gancho is where the Leader places his left foot behind the Follower as she arrives, turns to his left counterclockwise so she does a Follower left foot wrap.

ROBERTO VARIATION (named after a student in class)

This is even easier.

She is on her left foot, and does wrap/gancho with her right foot after he immediately gets into position.

MILTON VARIATION (named after a student in class)

The Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado into a Follower right foot reverse volcada into a Follower left foot wrap/gancho between his legs.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE LOW AND HIGH LEG WRAPS

The Leader needs to make it very obvious where he wants her to wrap, giving her low or high energy.

LOW: Leader’s knee is down, calf is in her way, near her, with a little bit of rotation.

HIGH: Leader really gets behind Follower. His rib cage is really behind her. He gets his hip lower, as if he is presenting his back.

4TH/CUARTO/AGAINST SACADAS

When the Follower’s and Leader’s hips go in opposite direction (clockwise + counterclockwise or counterclockwise + clockwise), it is an “Against” Sacada. An example is where the Follower’s hips turn counterclockwise, while the Leader steps clockwise. The Fourth/Cuarto Sacada is one of these, with the Leader stepping counterclockwise (right foot open side step), while the Follower does a clockwise hip turn with a right foot back sacada between Leader’s legs. The 4th/Cuarto/Against Sacada is more dynamic and energetic than other sacadas.

We drilled, trying to do “With” and “Against” sacadas, and we also added low wraps afterwards.

OCHO VERSUS GANCHO

The difference in leading an Ocho versus a Gancho is that in the Gancho, there is a circular, and then a blocking energy. In the Ocho or Felix Sacada, there is a smooth, circular energy with no blocking.

We can add the Felix Back Sacada anywhere where there is the Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado. Maestros left it up to the students to figure it out in 2-3 songs.

The pattern isn’t the important part: the important part is exploring the road to get there. We were to look at the sum of the parts to try to figure out how things flow together.

The Leader needs to fish for feet positioning, derived from tiny details from hours of practice. It takes 10,000 hours to master something.

This master class expanded upon the Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado to look at the possibilities for the Follower after she crosses behind herself:

Follower back sacada

-with

-against

To Receive the Sacada, don’t get too close, especially when doing the “Against” sacada. Options:

-wrap/gancho with options in:

--position (low or high)

--energy (low or high)

--Felix Back Sacada

During the review, some major concepts that the students felt were the backbone of our work:

Follower collects before stepping back

Follower defaults:

-pivot a lot

-major spiral

Leader creates spiral and gives energy to the Follower to help release her spiral. Every Follower has different pivot energy/capability/potential. The Leader needs to tap into it as much as he can.

Telescoping arms can be used.

After our class review, Maestros demo’d to Cirque Du Soleil’s Pearl.

A similar lesson was taught at the Yale Tango Festival on 10 April 2011, and the summary video can be found at:

Annotations of that video are as follows:

0:00 to 0:07 Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado

0:18 to 0:23 Follower's Swivel Shimmy

0:30 to 0:34 Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado

0:48 to 0:55 Exaggerated Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado

1:00 to 1:03 Follower's Swivel Shimmy

1:25 to 1:32 Felix Back Sacada

1:47 to 1:54 Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado to Follower's Right Foot Back Sacada to Follower's Left foot Low Wrap of Leader's Left Leg

2:03 to 2:09 Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado

2:17 to 2:23 Felix Back Sacada

2:35 to 2:39 Felix Back Sacada on the other side

2:40 to 2:43 Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado to Follower's Right Foot Back Sacada

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I (Advanced)

2011-11-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Providence, Rhode Island
October 30, 2011

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

The Providence Tango Tricks and Treats Weekend with Homer & Cristina Ladas

Friday, October 28, 2011

Something Scary Spins This Way (Int)

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Art of Surprise - Part I (Int)

The Art of Surprise - Part II (Int/Adv)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I (Advanced)

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II (Master)

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Video Courtesy of Steven Spura

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I (Advanced)

This advanced class both grounds us and expands our horizons. We began by refining the circular ocho cortado, including lead/follow variations. From there, “The Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado” and its variations were introduced.

CIRCULAR OCHO CORTADO

We began with a warm-up dance working on the ocho cortado, doing it linearly or making it as circular as possible. When doing the Circular Ocho Cortado, we need to be aware of where we are facing (opposite Line of Dance).

In the Circular Ocho Cortado, the Leader’s hips face the Follower’s hips, and he should keep his heels together, even if he “V’s with his feet. The Leader pivots on his left foot to open his hips.

IMPORTANT OCHO CORTADO CONCEPT: LEAD/CONTROL FOLLOWER AT SPLIT WEIGHT

The Leader has the option to really lead a split weight on the open step, or to transfer the Follower’s weight fully to her left foot before leading her back around into the cross. It is important that the Follower take long steps around the Leader, unless the Leader constrains or cuts her step. The Leader needs to be able to control this side step of the Follower, so that he can maintain it at split weight, and neither dancer should overrotate. We drilled this concept, really working on trying to control the Follower’s side step with split weight.

AMERICAN TWIST SHIMMY SWIVEL

We worked on the American Twist Shimmy, where the Follower’s hips are in the middle with weight split, and then she pivots on the balls of both feet, as her knees turn one way and then the other (a la Elvis).

For the Leader, he leads the ocho cortado, stopping the Follower in the middle, making her stay there. He then communicates with his spine/torso to lead the Follower to do her Twist Shimmy Swivel. We did this in QQS-QQS-S rhythm. The Leader needs to get in touch with his hips and how they communicate. They hips are the motor that can drive the movement in the chest. It’s a knees, feet, hips pumping into the ground sensation.

The Follower knows the Leader is moving her into compression through:

-the use of the embrace

-the direction of the hips rotate to the left (counterclockwise) to move her into the cross

-the Shimmy movement is more compact

We drilled this with our usual partner, then tried with another different partner for one song.

BEYOND THE OCHO CORTADO: FOUNDATION WORK OF FELIPE REVERSE OCHO CORTADO

We worked on this in close embrace, so it becomes a surprise.

The Leader’s right hand lets go, and the Leader twists his body as much as possible and Leader twists Follower as much as he can (she is mostly on her left foot), rotating her hips as much as possible so that they become perpendicular.

The Leader needs to rotate the Follower, without her collecting. The Follower needs to be on axis, not tilted, and her weight is split about 60/40 or 70/30, but not more than that, otherwise she will collect. She is also not sitting back on her left foot. Being in the middle has to really resonate with her.

THE FELIPE REVERSE OCHO CORTADO (named after Felipe Martinez)

From the perpendicular position, in the Felipe Reverse Ocho Cortado, the Follower’s cross is a left foot back cross tuck (not a left foot front cross tuck in front of her pivoted right foot), to a right foot forward step, to a right foot pivot counterclockwise back into a normal left foot front cross tuck.

The Leader leads the left foot back cross tuck by circular rotation and linear energy to get the Follower to do a back cross tuck of her left foot behind her right foot. The Leader can add a little bit of telescoping in his arms to lead the Follower to get her to her back cross tuck. He also needs to turn and tilt the axis a little to create space for the Follower. He needs to transfer weight onto his right, and pull his left foot back so she has room.

The Follower’s left foot side step before her left foot back cross tuck needs to be really circular and around the Leader so she can end up perpendicular to him. She also needs to accept the transition from close to open embrace.

ROBERTO VARIATION (named after a student in class who came up with this during our exploration)

Left foot back cross, to come back out to uncross in a rock step back, into regular front cross. The Leader holding the Follower up is what makes the Follower’s weight change when she crosses back.

EXIT

The Leader pivots on his right foot, pulls his left foot in to get it out of her way to create space for the Follower to step around the Leader and cross in front of him, and the Follower walks around the Leader in a counterclockwise turn/hiro/molinete.

ANOTHER EXIT

To right foot unwind while she is on her weighted standing left foot to right foot back ocho (clockwise).

We drilled the various exits with the goal to try to figure out how to get back to close embrace smoothly and elegantly.

After the class review, Maestros demo’d to D’Arienzo’s El Flete.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Art of Surprise - Part II (Int/Adv) (Focus on Telescoping)

2011-11-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

The Art of Surprise - Part I (Intermediate)

2011-11-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Providence, Rhode Island
October 29, 2011

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The Providence Tango Tricks and Treats Weekend with Homer & Cristina Ladas

Friday, October 28, 2011

Something Scary Spins This Way (Int)

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Art of Surprise - Part I (Int)

The Art of Surprise - Part II (Int/Adv)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I (Advanced)

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II (Master)

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Video Courtesy of Steven Spura and Bill Pease

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Art of Surprise - Part I (Intermediate)

This Intermediate class lays down the groundwork for good vs. bad surprises in tango. We played a few fun games to get warmed up for various fundamental surprises.

TANGO HIP CHECK

Walking in partnership in promenade, the Leader bumps the Follower with his hip periodically. He should not hurt his partner, but let her know that he is there. The bump is done inside leg to inside leg. The Follower can do this joke back to the Leader.

TO WORK ON THE FOUNDATION OF SURPRISES, WE DID THE

MICHAEL JACKSON THRILLER EXERCISE (PART 1)

This was an independent exercise where we all walked around in random directions, and we went up to someone and scared them with hands up, but only stepping on the strong beat. We were not to run or do double time, or walk in the line of dance. This built up to the:

D’ARIENZO SURPRISE (PART 2)

To D’Arienzo’s Nada Mas, we worked on the concept of surprise. Everyone was to walk around the room, in any/all directions, always stepping on the strong beat to accent it in our walk, with energy going into the floor. Every once in a while, we were to surprise someone by touching them appropriately with both our hands at two points on their body (arms, shoulders, hips), always staying on the strong beat.

The purpose of this game was to get us used to the element of surprise as a musical tool, coordinating our dancing with the music. Every strong beat is a potential surprise. The Follower needs to feel safe and comfortable before she is surprised.

TAI CHI TANGO

Next, we did the Tai Chi Tango exercise, which is an exercise to help us work on our connection, really mirror and match our partner’s energy, and feeling compression. Leader and Follower face each other and are hand to hand (or palm to palm). The Leader does a big, flowy circular motion with each of his hands with big range of motion, releasing his shoulder joints, and his arms going into his body, engaging strongly or subtly and using his breath. At some point, he stops and gives compression. The Follower's response needs to be immediate to mirror and match the circular motion and to give resistance when she feels the Leader compress, giving the Leader the same mount of energy that he gives her. This was first done with no music.

Then we added music. So with Tai Chi hands, we were to focus on the music, giving compression at the accent points in the music, with the Follower waiting for the Leader to initiate the compression. Follower’s eyes are closed for this exercise. We can change the flavor of the embrace with compression to create a surprise with music.

SURPRISE 1: FREEZING

We were to dance, doing just walks, and then freezing for a moment. The Follower should always feel safe. To freeze, the Leader’s embrace changes, with compression energy to firm/tighten up/jolt/get more rigid, as his steps have more down energy into the floor. After a moment of freezing, he then keeps going by releasing the embrace into the normal, non-compressed close embrace.

The Leader should wait for an appropriate strong beat, freeze for a moment, and the ease back out of it to normal dancing. He needs to actually stop before the midpoint, compress the embrace a little, being subtle or dramatic, to play with the music. The Leader creates the Freeze by using compression and being very grounded, and maintaining the compression the whole time, sticking to the moment even though the music continues. The Follower needs to respond to the change of energy.

SURPRISE 2: LEADER’S FOOT CATCH/THIGH GRAB

FOOT CATCH:

Leader tries to trap Follower’s foot in a quick sandwich without stepping on her foot. It is easier to trap the Follower’s right foot, by the Leader approaching with his right foot first, and then completing the quick sandwich with his left foot. For this, the Leader needs to be snappy to catch the surprise to stop the Follower in the middle of her weight so that she doesn’t collect. The Leader’s heels stay together in the sandwich so that he doesn’t go too deep. The Leader should keep his thighs together and try not to change height, and to accent the rhythm/melody of the music.

THIGH GRAB:

Here, it is important to be appropriate; otherwise this surprise could be taken the wrong way. It should be comfortable and not at all inappropriate, but the move is somewhat “PG” rated. It is a gentle squeeze, with contact in the thighs, not the feet. It’s a very quick move and should not linger. It is a “hello and go” movement. Don’t sandwich too long, otherwise it’s not “PG” anymore. Like the Foot Catch, there is an easy side and a hard side. The exit is to release the thigh easily and loosen up the embrace.

CAN ADD LEADER’S PITTER-PATTER BEFORE THE FOOT CATCH

The Leader’s Pitter-Patter are small, short quick baby steps. Though the Leader does his Pitter-Patter, he must also keep leading the Follower to walk back normally, stepping on the strong beat. He should not change the height; there should be nothing going on in the Leader’s chest that encourages the Follower to do anything but walk back normally. The Leader starts the Pitter-Patter when the Follower’s right foot goes back, and when there is good synchronicity of movement.

SURPRISE 3: LEADER’S LEFT FOOT CROSS-BODY SOCCER CATCH IN FRONT WITH SWEEP

Leader does rock step to turn to the right (clockwise), and his left foot crosses in front of his body to catch the Follower’s right foot forward (front cross) step on the clockwise hiro/turn/molinete, to sweep it back. Note that both dancers’ sweeping/swept feet need to be unweighted (weight is on the back, standing supporting leg/foot). We practiced this in Sugar Bowl or Teapot Embrace. The Leader’s right foot cross behind after his rock step is very important for stability and to open up his right hip for maximum range of motion for his left foot to cross in front to catch the Follower, who should be taking a long, reaching step.

It is important for the Follower to have a good embrace and give horizontal energy. The Leader’s lead is the turn/hiro/molinete. The Follower’s default step should be long and around the Leader. She should take long steps, reaching first, and then transferring the weight smoothly. The Leader leads the turn and also leads her to stop. The two exits are:

(1) The Parada/Pasada by leading a turn to the left (counterclockwise), or

(2) A mini colgada, doing a rock step around and paying attention to the Line of Dance.

ADVANCED OPTION: Instead of a front catch, he can do a back catch with his left foot crossing behind and across his body to trap in the back, into a drag and sacada.

After the class review, Maestros demo’d the surprises to Rodriguez’s A Mal Tiempo Buena Cara.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Something Scary Spins This Way (Intermediate)

2011-11-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Providence, Rhode Island
October 28, 2011

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The Providence Tango Tricks and Treats Weekend with Homer & Cristina Ladas

Friday, October 28, 2011

Something Scary Spins This Way (Int)

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Art of Surprise - Part I (Int)

The Art of Surprise - Part II (Int/Adv)

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts I (Advanced)

Cool Tricks and Traps for the Social Dance Floor - Parts II (Master)

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Video Courtesy of Steven Spura

Friday, October 28, 2011

Something Scary Spins This Way (Int)

In this intermediate class we worked on developing a “single-axis turn” or “colgada spin” of various speeds and durations (from almost “not there” to “hurricane force”). These movements are great social techniques to help navigate, be musical and dynamic in small spaces, or to outright “scare” your partner (ie, the roller coaster ride of tango).

We began with a warm-up dance with the goal of the Leader spinning the Follower around, with the loose instruction to have the Follower on one axis, left or right leg, and to find a way to walk around her axis. It is like a calesita (where there is a little lean).

Colgadas showed up around 2000, as a way to hang away from each other that is more stable and can be very fast.

We worked on a lot of fundamental Colgada concepts, illustrated by a simple pattern:

Leader side step left, with a right foot sandwich of the Follower’s feet. The Leader takes baby steps around the Follower as she pivots on the ball of her right foot. The exit is the Leader right step back or to the side.

BASIC CONCEPT: HOW TO KNOCK SOMEONE OFF THEIR AXIS

The Leader walks into the Follower’s space, knocking her body off axis with direct body contact, gently, and she falls back into the Leader’s hands. Follower’s feet remain in the same spot. There are three levels to this exercise:

(1) Follower and Leader catch each other.

(2) Leader catches Follower (Follower’s arms and hands do nothing; they do not hang onto or catch the Leader).

(3) Follower catches Leader (Leader’s arms and hands do nothing; they do not hang onto or catch the Follower).

In this exercise, the Leader needs to physically knock the Follower off axis with his whole center, displacing the Follower’s space. She needs to wait for the Leader to do this, not anticipate and not go back too soon automatically with no initial contact from the Leader.

What is the parachute for the Follower? If she feels the Leader is not catching her, she can step back with the unweighted free leg/foot to survive to stop herself from falling.

BASIC CONCEPT: HIP UNDER COLGADA POSTURE AND COUNTERBALACING EACH OTHER

In the Hip Under Colgada Posture, hips are under our rib cage. Spine is straight. Hips go back. We are not sitting down. We were to engage our cores, and our hips were to be under our rib cages. We were to use our backs and our hips, and not overuse or overcompensate with our arms and our shoulders.

The Leader sandwiches (his feet are in a “V” shape) the Follower’s feet (which are in parallel). He then sends the Follower back and sends himself back to counterbalance her. Knees are soft and slightly bent.

Leader and Follower hang onto each other’s wrists, and then move their cores/centers back, counterbalancing each other, using the power of their backs and core muscles (not their arm/shoulder muscles). We worked on this by going out a little first, and then more farther out, working on the posture in an extreme position.

We drilled this for a while, practicing with several different partners (tall, short, fat, thin), to work on being able to counterbalance different body shapes, weights, and muscle compositions.

GOING BACK TO THE PATTERN:

The Line of Dance is toward the open side. The Leader steps into the line of dance, and sandwiches the Follower’s feet. Leader engages the embrace and steps forward a little. The Leader doesn’t have to do any turn. As soon as the Leader goes around, physics will take over. The Leader can do minimum sendout and still get centrifugal acceleration. The Leader’s right arm becomes fixed to support the Follower.

The Follower needs to have confidence in her Leader, and she needs to really send back her hips so that the Leader can fully counterbalance her.

COLGADA KILLERS:

How can the Follower kill the Colgada either on purpose or by accident?

(1) Put her free leg down.

(2) Sit down and change leverage and Leader is unprepared for this.

(3) Push the pelvis in.

(4) Foot clamp.

When the Leader sends the Follower out in Colgada, he becomes like a Wall for the Follower to hang on to, supported by the Follower’s hips and back.

In teapot embrace, with the Leader’s right arm behind him as the handle and his left arm up as the fixed spout, we were to lead the single-axis turn with the Leader stepping around the Follower with his left foot and coming around with right foot. The Leader’s feet need to go where they need to go. He first pigeon toes in with his left foot, so it sickles, and then his right foot turns out. It’s as if the toes say “Hello!” to each other, and then the heels say “Hello!” to each other. The Leader needs to stay equidistant around the Follower’s axis.

We backed up a little to a brief exercise:

EXERCISE: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HUGGING/SPINNING

In partnership face to face, we were to imagine that we were back in elementary school, giving the person a nice hug. We got into this by stepping to the side, and the hugging person (usually the Leader) doing waddle footwork around the hugged person (usually the Follower), slightly lifting while whirling the hugged person around as fast as he can. The goal was to spin crazy and fast in both directions, with Follower on her left foot or right foot, so there were four possibilities:

(1) Spin left with Follower on left foot.

(2) Spin right with Follower on left foot.

(3) Spin left with Follower on right foot.

(4) Spin right with Follower on right foot.

ANOTHER PATTERN:

Getting into it via the rock step.

Follower does right foot forward step around the Leader, Leader does right foot catch of Follower’s right foot with his weight back on his left foot, but he leads the Follower to transfer weight to get her into Colgada. Leader rocks forward with his left foot, Follower rocks back with her right foot.

For the Leader to quick weight change to his left foot, he crosses behind and does a weight change to get the right foot out fast enough to catch the Follower. The exit: Leader steps back or to the side in the Line of Dance. He should send the Follower out as she is transferring weight so that the transfer from axis to off-axis is seamless.

We tried doing this in open embrace and close embrace. The Colgada does not mean we need to spin or turn.

THREE POINTS OF CONNECTION IN COLGADAS

Note that in the colgada there are three points of connection:

Follower’s right hand in Leader’s left hand

Leader’s right hand on Follower’s back

Follower’s right hand on Leader’s right arm

Maestros concluded with a demo to Laurentz’s Amurado, which has a lot of crazy variaciones in it, perfect for doing this hurricane colgada. The demo illustrates that Homer still gets dizzy when doing too many of these.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Embrace (Int/Adv)

2011-10-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Northampton, MA
October 23, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in Northampton, MA

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Tango Body

The Feet (All Levels)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Workshop 1 – Int/Adv – The Legs

Workshop 2 – Int/Adv – The Hips

Premilonga Lesson: Floorcraft, Navigation and Etiquette

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Workshop 3 – Int/Adv – The Upper Body

Workshop 4 – Int/Adv – The Embrace

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Video Courtesy of Kristin Balmer & Mariano Sana

Workshop 4 - The Embrace (Int/Adv)

Maestros gave us a choice of 4 things to work on:

(1) The Colgada-Volcada Connection

(2) Boleos – Forward and Backward

(3) Sacadas – Follower and Leader, but mostly Follower

(4) Changes of Embrace

The class chose to work on (1) The Colgada-Volcada Connection

We began with a trust exercise:

TRUST EXERCISE: LEADER KNOCKS FOLLOWER OFF AXIS

Here, the Follower has her feet hip-width apart. The Leader walks into her, knocking her off axis. The Leader enters her space, displacing the Follower. Then he/she/they catch each other.

Level 1: Both catch each other

Level 2: Leader catches Follower

Level 3: Follower catches Leader

We could do this from different angles: facing each other, or from the side. The Leader needs to knock the Follower off axis before he catches her, because falling needs to be involved.

Next, we played a:

VOLCADA GAME

There are three levels to this game:

(1) We hold each other

(2) Leader holds Follower

(3) Follower holds Leader

The Leader takes three small steps back, and then three small steps forward. The Follower’s feet remain fixed, so only her body tilts forward as the Leader steps back, and then he puts her back to axis as he steps forward.

From here, we worked on a simple pattern:

SIMPLE PATTERN:

Leader left foot side step to sandwich the Follower’s right foot, then he

Expands the embrace in colgada energy, displacing her and sending her out, and then he brings her back in in a Collapsible Volcada of the Follower’s left foot.

We were to keep our movements small so that this is manageable.

Working on the individual pieces:

In the Volcada, in open embrace, the Leader side left foot finds symmetry in the Follower’s axis. His right foot steps around the Follower. He turns his body around the Follower’s center as a foundation to get it all together. The Leader’s left foot steps on the diagonal back, then he steps 2-3 times on the diagonal back to lead a small Volcada, and then he steps forward with his right foot.

Both Leader and Follower are compressing into each other, and there is a 1-to-1 exchange of energy in this compression, with Follower matching Leader’s energy. The Follower needs to have good tone in her core and imagine getting out of a swimming pool: pushing down to pull herself up, a she also needs to have the Leader’s support right away. The Follower should always try to face the Leader.

The Leader should be elegant in body position, turning his body toward the Follower to prevent mudslides (the Follower sliding away). The Leader turns his body as he leads the Follower into the concluding cross. This is a true Leader lead to the cross; Follower should not go into the cross on her own.

The shape of the Follower’s volcadaing foot is that of a half-moon or half-circle, where the Follower lets her left leg go out, then up and back in. Followers can practice making this shape without a partner against any wall to get the up, out and open footwork.

For the Follower’s volcada footwork, she can do it either Ballet style (with toe to floor) or Sassy style (with heel to floor). Note that in Sassy style, the hip drops a little, so she should be sure to have lift.

TWO LINKED VOLCADAS – THE WINDSHIELD WIPER

Here, the Leader does a windshield wiper lead, starting on the easy side first (Follower’s left foot volcada with weighted supporting right foot/leg). The Leader’s right foot drives toward the Follower’s axis. Follower does volcada with left foot, then right foot and the Leader leads the volcada on one side and then the other.

COLGADA:

How to make the transition to close embrace? The Leader transfers the weight from his left to his right, then he sends the Follower out in the line of power. He should add a little bit of turn to get circularity in the subsequent Volcada. There are lots of things going on.

In the collapsible Volcada, the Leader takes his left foot back and leads the Volcada with his right foot driving the Follower back into a cross. The Collapsible volcada happens because the Leader can collapse the embrace in the volcada.

The Volcada is not so big because it initiates from the Colgada. The Follower still compresses into the Leader.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Agnes Obell’s Just So.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Upper Body (Int/Adv)

2011-10-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Northampton, MA
October 23, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in Northampton, MA

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Tango Body

The Feet (All Levels)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Workshop 1 – Int/Adv – The Legs

Workshop 2 – Int/Adv – The Hips

Premilonga Lesson: Floorcraft, Navigation and Etiquette

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Workshop 3 – Int/Adv – The Upper Body

Workshop 4 – Int/Adv – The Embrace

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Video Courtesy of Kristin Balmer & Mariano Sana

Workshop 3 - The Upper Body (Int/Adv)

Close Embrace turns in vals (full turns to the left and to the right)

We began in a special embrace, with Leader using no arms and Follower using any arms and flat chest-to-chest connection and the Follower giving light, medium, or strong energy. The Leader tries to lead what he can, always trying not to lose the connection at all.

We were to have good posture, with our chests lifted and heads floating (and no head connection, as we did the entire weekend).

The focus of our work would be on Relative versus Absolute Turns.

We began with a review of our first exercise on Friday: Holding an imaginary fishbowl with sleeping fish, crossing behind while walking forward, and crossing in front while walking back. Do not change height, keep chest up, be elegant. In our crossed feet, our feet form the “A” shape. In regular feet, our feet form the “V” shape with slight turnout. We were to caress the floor with our big toe to know where our feet are.

WASHING MACHINE EXERCISE

We began with the Washing Machine Exercise to help improve our disassociation (give us super association). This is called the Washing Machine exercise because it mimics the spin cycle of a washing machine. It is a good oblique workout.

Here, we turn our bodies to our left and then release the right foot, pivoting on our left foot. Our hips catch up with our chest.

The goal was to do a 90-degree (quarter) turn with our chest, with everything else following, and then do a 180-degree (half) turn with our chest, with everything else following. Then if we could master that, we could try doing a 360-degree (full) turn, with everything else following.

The motion is:
(1) Turn
(2) Release hips
(3) Get all the way around

We were to try this on both sides (turning to our left and turning to our right), engaging and then releasing.

We were also to try this on each foot, in each direction, for four possibilities:
(1) Pivot on left foot while turning to left
(2) Pivot on left foot while turning to right
(3) Pivot on right foot while turning to right
(4) Pivot on right foot while turning to left

For this exercise, or goal is to have the hips go past the shoulders/chest so that we could feel what it is like to have dissonance between our hips and chest.

Level 2 of this exercise is to imagine that we have a partner and need to keep our chest as even and smooth as possible so that we can do it slowly and continuously.

BLOCK TURNS: On this turn, we are on one foot and kick the heel around as our bodies do not disassociate (moves in a block).

PADDLE TURN: Here, we stepped to the side, and with our other free foot, paddle ourselves around, touching the floor as we paddled, using small steps, not big steps. The Paddle keeps the Leader over his axis (like a kickstand for a bicycle) and the function of the free leg helps maintain stability of the standing, supporting leg and gives power.

TWO-FOOT SPLIT-WEIGHT PIVOTED TURN:

With our feet crossed as in the cross walk exercise, we turn by sharing the weight between our feet. Here we can go into another cross, turn out of it, and then turn into another cross, etc. Tight crosses help keep a tight center.

THE SEQUENCE (TURN TO THE LEFT [counterclockwise]):

Leader side step left

Leader side step right

Weight change

Turn counterclockwise

Leader right foot sacada of Follower’s left foot into a tight back cross step into a

Leader’s front cross of his left foot in front of his right foot as Follower does counterclockwise molinete (turn) around him. The Follower’s crosses are tight on the forward and back cross steps. She should not open her hip that’s doing the cross, especially during the back cross step.

Unwind out to resolution.

We were to be flat in our connection with chest-to-chest connection. We did this so that we can work on the black side of the equation (100% connection, appilado style) versus the white side of the equation (open embrace). If we can master the turn in chest-to-chest 100% connection, it will make doing it in V embrace or open embrace easier. Leader needs to be consistent in his connection to the Follower.

To get out from the Leader’s right foot sacada into the left foot front cross, he can do the washing machine disassociation and kick the heel around (pivoting on his left foot).

Follower: side steps of the molinete (turn) need to be long and around the Leader. She needs to keep her belly back, and envision that her legs start fro her rib cage, not her waist.

RELATIVE VS ABSOLUTE TURNS

An Absolute Turn is where either the Leader or Follower is the center of the circle with their partner going around and axis remains fixed.

A Relative Turn is where the axis moves. As the Leader does his sacada, he moves the axis. Every step the Leader makes, he can control it, moving the turn to where he wants to move it. This is a relative turn.

CLEAR TURN VS DIRTY TURN

Dirty relative turns are where the Leader goes every which way from place to place to place.

Dirty absolute turns are where the Leader shifts the tilt of the axis forward, back, sideways, every which way.

TIMING OF THE TURN

Next, we worked on the timing of the turn:

Follower: QQS on the back, side, forward steps

Leader: SSS throughout

TURN TO THE RIGHT (clockwise):

When Leader goes to the right in a clockwise turn, nothing changes in the Leader’s footwork. He still sacadas with his right foot/leg, and does the forward enrosque from this sacada. There is no sneak attack weight change. For the Follower, her right foot forward step is a full forward step (not a truncated front cross step) because her right hip has room.

Maestros concluded with a demo to D’Arienzo’s Hotel Victoria.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Hips (Int/Adv)

2011-10-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Legs (Int/Adv)

2011-10-26T14:36:00.001-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Northampton, MA
October 22, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in Northampton, MA

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Tango Body

The Feet (All Levels)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Workshop 1 – Int/Adv – The Legs

Workshop 2 – Int/Adv – The Hips

Premilonga Lesson: Floorcraft, Navigation and Etiquette

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Workshop 3 – Int/Adv – The Upper Body

Workshop 4 – Int/Adv – The Embrace

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Video Courtesy of Kristin Balmer & Mariano Sana

Workshop 1 - The Legs (Int/Adv)

We began with removing our shoes.

With our feet hip-width apart, there was about 6-8 inches between our two feet.

We were to look down and consider them as if they looked like the letter H.

We were to distribute the weight evenly between our two feet, backward and forward, and side to side. We were stand up as straight as we can, and envision a line going down from the top of the center of our heads going through the middle of our bodies. We were to push from the waist down, and also push from the ribcage up. This creates more room in our torso. We should keep our knees soft. Then we had flexion in our ankles, moving our weight toward the ball of our feet, and then back up to axis to the sweet spot. We should imagine a hanger pulling our chest up and slightly forward. Then again we go back to axis.

Curling the toes creates a gap in the arch, which is bad for stability, so we should not do it. It’s important that we spread our toes, and imagine that our feet have four corners (where the pinky toe is, and where the future or current bunion is, and at the left and right sides of the heel). In standing, we should press the four corners of our feet into the floor and lift up the inside parts of our legs, lifting the inner thighs. Here, we can feel more strength in our arch. In dancing, we should be on all four corners, the front two corners or three corners (two front corners and inside back corner), but not on the two outside corners.

Standing with our weight on the right foot, we put our left foot beside it so that only one foot has weight on it. We were to try to push down on the four corners of our right foot, but lift up in the body, lifting the inner thigh. We should not have any tension in our butt. Here, we are creating length as we ground ourselves.

End of Exercise.

NO HEAD TOUCHING IN CLASS

Our homework assignment and goal for our exercises in class was to work the material in close embrace, but to not have our heads touch. After our class work was done, we could dance like we usually do, likely with heads touching. We would ponder whether it felt different and whether we could switch back and forth.

It is not wrong to touch heads, but there is a good way to do it and a bad way to do it (pushing your head into each other or when the head becomes distracting). The class rule we would employ for our workshops is to not touch heads. This would give us a greater sense of control, and will help us be OK with coming off each other as needed.

Our topic for this workshop is the Legs, and our focus would be amplifying the lead with our legs.

LEADER LEADS FOLLOWER BACK STEP

In a partnered exercise, the Leader tries to lead the Follower do step back by using just the flexion in his ankles. The Follower has her hands on the front of the Leader’s rib cage below his chest or at the tops of his hips. As the Leader tires to move the Follower’s leg, their point of contact is through the Follower’s arms at the Leader’s lower ribs or top of his hips. The Follower needs to have tone in her arms, and they should be like Spaghetti Al Dente, not too soft and not too firm, and her arms should be connected to her back. The Leader feels a bit of Follower resistance so that he knows her body is behind.

THE PATTERN

Next, we went onto a simple pattern.

Leader does side step, weight change, snakes outside of Follower’s feet without moving Follower at all (sneak attack), flex at ankle, whereby Follower does a small step back, and then Leader makes a big/giant forward step, driving Follower to do a big step into the cross.

The Follower needs to maintain compression energy the entire time, otherwise the Leader will get the sensation that he is falling forward. She should be consistent in her embrace/compression energy so that there are no bubbles/hiccups. To do this, the Follower puts pressure into the floor to put energy into her back and body into the embrace. Both dancers should keep their heads upright and floating, and Follower’s steps should glide into the floor. She should also not rush her cross, but do it slowly.

The Leader’s surprise step of his left foot does not have any weight to it. The tilt of the Leader’s body is what causes the Follower to step back. He should not rotate his chest/shoulders at all. As he puts weight on his left foot, he has a small rotation in his shoulders. On his right foot step forward, there is a big rotation on his big forward step to drive Follower into the cross.

The Follower’s biggest challenge is knowing where to land the first short step (and when to put weight fully on that step). This all depends on how far the Leader’s body comes forward. If the Follower is unsure, she should make the step a little shorter. She should not lose compression, and really pay attention to how the Leader moves his center.

Note that the compression does not stay the same throughout. It builds. In compression, the Follower should focus on horizontal energy (not vertical energy).

PART B VARIATON

The Leader does one or a few side step left touch steps, then he twists going into a split pivot 90 degrees counterclockwise while at the same time slightly hugging and lifting the Follower to control her weight change. The Follower needs to wait and stay with the Leader, and then they step out with the Follower taking a step back with her left foot.

CONCEPTS

Legs are connected to our feet, which should be connected to the floor. We build energy through the floor up, not through the embrace.

Four corners of the feet

The Leader’s cheat steps helps to develop compression because to add more tilt and so that we can support each other more.

Engage the floor with the feet and legs.

PET PEEVES

(1) Touching heads. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it, which will give us a headache or crick in our neck. We should let our heads float.

(2) Bending our knees and changing height unnecessarily; not staying level

(3) Controlling our lines when we step (when we step back, it should be straight).

Maestros also demonstrated Pattern C, to show us the easiest way to get into the material. Here, the Leader steps around the Follower with his right foot, then splits the weight, then gets into the 8CB.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Demare’s No Te Apures Carablanca

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Feet (All Levels)

2011-10-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Northampton, MA
October 21, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in Northampton, MA

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Tango Body

The Feet (All Levels)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Workshop 1 – Int/Adv – The Legs

Workshop 2 – Int/Adv – The Hips

Premilonga Lesson: Floorcraft, Navigation and Etiquette

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Workshop 3 – Int/Adv – The Upper Body

Workshop 4 – Int/Adv – The Embrace

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Video Courtesy of Kristin Balmer & Mariano Sana

Friday

THE FEET

Today our work would be fun, and tomorrow we would focus on more serious topics.

CROSSING BEHIND WHILE WALKING FORWARD; CROSSING IN FRONT WHILE WALKING BACK

We began with a warm-up exercise done in circle formation, individually crossing behind and trying to walk forward. We were to be elegant with our chests lifted, not sloppy, and don’t fall into our steps. This exercise is not a race. In our arms, we were to imagine holding a big fish bowl filled with sleeping fish, so our upper bodies needed to be as quiet as possible to not disturb them or wake them up. We should also not tilt from side to side or forward to back, but keep even.

Then we did this same exercise, only in reverse: crossing in front while trying to walk back.

Our feet should touch when we walk back, and our knees should be soft.

We should look across the circle to the person on the opposite side, keeping our head up and floating.

When in regular feet forward position, we should have a slight bit of turnout so our feet look like a “V”. When we cross behind or cross forward, our feet should look like an “A”.

On the forward cross step, we bend the receiving knees without height change, picking up our heels and using our whole leg. We should keep our thighs together and caress the floor with our feet.

SNAKE WALK

In a partnered drill in close embrace, the Leader snake walks in a crossed way while the Follower walks back in a straight line. We should take equal, long steps. In the snake walk, the Leader takes a left foot forward step toward the Follower’s left foot as she takes a back step, and a right foot forward step toward the Follower’s right foot as she takes a back step. He gets into it by doing a left foot side step, to quick weight change, and then steps forward with his left foot.

The look of the snake walk is very similar to the look of runway models, walking in a straight line on a balance beam, but weaving and keeping (really pulling) the thighs together (“I have to pee”), so in this walk the Leader’s spiral all happens below the waist. His upper body should be quiet and straight as he is only leading the Follower to walk straight back.

Snake walking is basically cross system walking.

The Leader needs to keep his chest lifted, tilt forward at the ankles but keep his belly back. There is a world of space at your feet.

Some details to think about:

Leaders: practice walking down a hallway with weaving legwork and “I have to pee” thighs. Keep the chest square. Do not sickle or twist the feet.

Followers: Collect at the inner thighs and ankles when the opportunity arises. Put more attention on the ankle down to the toe. Be a little outturned in your straight back steps to be a little more solid. Do not pronate. Shape your collections with flexion in your ankles. Think about how you use the distribution of weight, from back to front, and how you land heel to toe, and how you use pressure on the floor to control the progression of your body.

GETTING INTO THE SNAKE WALK

The Leader makes a back cross, then walks forward, alternating in regular walk or crossed (snake) walk. The Follower walks smoothly on the strong beat, placing feet elegantly, and keeping steady. She should not transfer weight too fast, and be consistent with how she connects in close embrace. She should not float away or pull away from the Leader.

For the Leader, it is important for him to know how to walk in parallel and then into and out of the snake walk (cross system walk). In the Leader’s back cross, his feet need to be tight and deep, otherwise the Follower will go away in the embrace.

For our drill, we did:

Snake walk two steps

Back cross (left foot cross behind right foot)

Parallel walk two steps

Back cross

Snake walk two steps

Back cross

Etc.

The QQS rhythm fits in well with the back cross, which we tried to do musically. The Leader’s easiest foot to start the QQ on is the left foot forward, right foot back cross. So the Leader has to plan ahead when he’s stepping on his right, so that he really projects himself on his left foot forward step. In the Leader’s back cross, he should go deep and tight.

Maestros then did a short demo in vals of the forward step, cross behind, at the boom-chick-boom points in the music.

As always, the Follower should not push her head into the Leader, and keep her chest up.

Next, things were made more complicated in the context of our foot pattern in vals:

L Forward step

R Back cross step (tight and snug)

L Side step

Or

R Forward step

L Back cross step (tight and snug)

R Side step

Here, with this additional step but still keeping within the same music, the step size needs to be as small as possible to hit the two chicks (the Boom-Chick-Chick in vals music). This footwork changes the quality of movement, fitting in a nice sway forward with a little backward to vals music.

Maestros concluded with a class review and demo to Canaro’s Vibraciones Del Alma.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Premilonga Lesson on Navigation, Floor Craft and Etiquette

2011-10-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Northampton, MA
October 22, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in Northampton, MA

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Tango Body

The Feet (All Levels)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Workshop 1 – Int/Adv – The Legs

Workshop 2 – Int/Adv – The Hips

Premilonga Lesson: Floorcraft, Navigation and Etiquette

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Workshop 3 – Int/Adv – The Upper Body

Workshop 4 – Int/Adv – The Embrace

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Premilonga Lesson on Navigation, Floor Craft and Etiquette

It was noted that sometimes people who should be here the most, are not.

We began with a warm-up dance made in an artificially smaller space, the goal of which was to touch all four corners of the space at which chairs were placed.

GAME 1: MONSTER WALK

Walk across the dance floor, in a random direction, either across or diagonally, but not counterclockwise or in the line of dance, to get to the other side of the dance floor. Do not run. First, walk slow. Then go faster. Then faster. The point of this game is:

(1) to watch where you are going

(2) to make adjustments

(3) to increase your sense of awareness and vision

On the milonga dance floor, it is OK to dance in the middle or outside, but do not weave or zig zag between couples.

GAME 2: TOUCH THE CORNERS

In partnership, we danced in the line of dance, specifically touching the four corners of the dance floor with one foot of the Follower, where chairs were set up to clearly delineate what the corners were. We were to try to touch the chairs with the Follower’s feet to make sure we actually went all the way to the four corners. The point of this game is:

(1) to be aware of how much space we have behind us and in front of us

(2) to keep the line of dance moving (do not slow it down or speed it up)

(3) increase our sense of awareness (to ourselves, to our partner, to the music, and to surroundings)

GAME 3: BLIND TANGO

We built on Game 2, Touch the Corners, with the eyes of both the Leader and Follower closed. We were to dance with our eyes closed, in the line of dance, and touching the four corners with the Follower’s foot. We were to do simple things, small movements, and nothing complicated. The point of this game is:

(1) to sense other people around us

(2) to keep the line of dance moving

What helped us? Lots of people, so that we could hear and feel them. No hard elbows, so no one got hurt even if there were little bumps. The bumps, if any, were soft. Soft bumps/taps are important. We need each other on the dance floor and can use each other as markers. For any bumps, they should be soft love bumps. No elbows up, no defensive arms/tactics. Use all of your senses to be aware of where you are on the dance floor, and where others are. Allow touch to be a nice part of the dance (not a bad one).

The song for this exercise was Tom Waits’s Blind Love.

GAME 4: CHAOTIC MOLECULES

There are three types of molecules that make the milonga dance floor chaotic:

(1) Random/Rogue Molecule

(2) Space Hog: Leaving lots of space in front of you and backing up everyone else behind you

(3) Space Jammer: A tailgater, dancing right up to the couple in front of you

Three couples were assigned the molecule roles and were to dance to disrupt the milonga dance floor. All other couples were to dance in the line of dance and not cut each other, but remain in line and flowing with the rest. We were to try to dance this way anyway, even with the Rogue Molecule, Space Jammer, and Space Hog. Our goal was to try to make things work no matter what.

Next, the concept of the Tango Train was introduced

GAME 5: CHAOTIC MOLECULES AND TANGO TRAINS

All dance couples were formed into dance trains of 3 couples, each train having one couple as the front engine, one as the back caboose, and one in the middle. The goal of the engine is to keep going and not let the line get jammed up into the train in front of them. The goal of the caboose is to keep the train moving, protecting the middle segment. The goal of the middle is to keep with the engine. Our goal was to keep the line of dance moving, but not move too fast or too slow. If we move too fast, we end up jamming the people in front of us. If we move too slow, we end up being a space hog.

To our trains, the Rogue Molecule couple was let loose with its goal to try to break into a train.

The trains’ goal was to not let the Rogue Molecule break any train. How was this done? By closing the space so that the Rogue Molecule could not get in.

How to form a train: This is a tool the Follower can implement, and you do not have to know another couple to make a train. When coming into the dance floor, make eye contact with the couples on the dance floor. The one who acknowledges you and lets you in makes it a tacit agreement to take care of each other. If there is no eye contact and they do not acknowledge you, you should not enter there. Eye contact with another couple suggests “You take care of me and I will take care of you.”

CABACEO ETIQUETTE

For the Etiquette portion of our class focused on the cabaceo.

Follower should sit upright and attentively, looking ready and enthusiastic to dance. She is presenting herself, and should not sit back and slouch. She should look like she is ready to dance.

Leaders and Followers look at each other, make eye contact, nod to each other. Leader walks to Follower (the Walk of Pride), then verbally asks to confirm/verify the cabaceo.

When entering line of dance, make eye contact with the couple you are going in front of.

After the dance, the Leader should walk the Follower off the dance floor and back to where he got her.

There was no didactic demo due to the nature of the class.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Exploring Stylistic and Functional Use of Colgadas (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

2011-10-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Song: Anibal Troilo by Julio De Caro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
New York City
October 16, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in New York City:

Weekend Theme: The Body-Spiral and Body-Axis

2.30pm: Building One Social Dance Step-Over Colgada (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

4.30pm: Exploring Stylistic and Functional Use of Colgadas (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

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Exploring Stylistic and Functional Use of Colgadas (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

Video Courtesy of Luis Campos

Since this was an advanced, exploration class, it went very quickly with Maestros demonstrating the colgada, and then the students trying to replicate it or just play with it and explore it to see how to Lead/Follower it and get used to the muscle memory, physical feeling of executing it.

Two new Back Step-Over Colgadas were introduced:

1) Left-Left-Left: Leader’s Left Foot traps Follower’s back cross Left foot and they turn to the Left with She Goes, He Goes exit

2) Right-Right-Right: Leader’s Right foot traps Follower’s back cross Right foot and they turn to the Right with Spin exit

LEFT-LEFT-LEFT

The Leader’s left foot traps the Follower’s left foot back cross step of the turn (molinete), and she steps over behind. He should not put weight on his left foot, until he intentionally transfers it, which will get the colgada.

The Leader’s right foot traps the Follower’s right foot back cross step of the turn (molinete), and she steps over behind.

SHE GOES, HE GOES EXIT

We worked on a She Goes, He Goes colgada to the left, where the Leader leads a full turn first, then catches her left foot back cross step, and as she goes out in her back step-over colgada, he pivots a little, and steps through with his right foot, while she does a long side step simultaneously with his right foot step through.

On the Left-Left-Left Back Step-Over Colgada, if the Leader’s thigh is too high, the Follower may do a gancho. He can close the space by keeping the thigh low and his weight on his right leg.

Contact in the thighs/leg would lead to a gancho/wrap and start and stop energy.

We can add a barrida after on the left foot back step-over colgada. The Leader needs to gently lead the Follower through by rotating his torso and providing continuous energy.

We also tried boy ganchos after his step through, he can pivot a little to do a gancho.

In the Left-Left-Left back step-over colgada, the Follower step-over is her right foot up and collected back down, then her right leg goes down and out to the side.

RIGHT-RIGHT-RIGHT

On the Right-Right-Right back step-over colgada, there is a spin exit where the Follower pivots on her right foot and the Leader goes around her as much as he wants, knowing as always that he should keep it in the line of dance.

COLGADA WRAPS

In our work with the functional use of colgadas, we did the 8CB to 5 (cross), then the Leader places his left foot or right foot next to the Follower’s left foot, sends her back in the line of power, and then brings her back in to wrap around either his left or right leg. This is more of a linear wrap, not a circular one. This works if the Follower knows how to do a wrap/gancho. The Leader stops the Follower as she is over her axis to do the gancho/wrap. If she is off axis, this will be a volcada.

The Follower compresses.

The Leader has forward-oriented Captain Morgan legwork, so he opens up his thighs and knees, with a little bit of weight on it, forward orientation, so that the Follower has space to wrap around his leg and is mentally comfortable to do so.

The exit is simple and elegant: The Leader goes a little to the right so that she does a right foot tight back cross against her left foot. This can also be done from the ocho cortado, especially during fun rhythmic tandas (Rodriguez, D’Arienzo).

As always, we should try to be aesthetic, musical, and creatively based in our dance, and to have graceful exits.

Maestros concluded with a class review and demo to Julio De Caro’s Anibal Troilo

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Building One Social Dance Step-Over Colgada (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

2011-10-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

Song: La Capilla Blanca by Francisco Canaro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
New York City
October 16, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in New York City:

Weekend Theme: The Body-Spiral and Body-Axis

2.30pm: Building One Social Dance Step-Over Colgada (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

4.30pm: Exploring Stylistic and Functional Use of Colgadas (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

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Building One Social Dance Step-Over Colgada (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

Video Courtesy of Luis Campos

Our music for the class was DiSarli with Podesta on vocals.

We began the class immediately with Maestros showing us the step, and then us trying to replicate it.

From the rock step, the Leader steps left foot side step to trap the Follower’s right foot side step, sending her out, and then she steps over with her left foot out and around the Leader counterclockwise.

For the Leader to keep this in the line of dance, he can keep turning the Follower.

After we drilled this for a little while, we went on to clean up the technical details of the step.

For the Leader rock step, in the middle he can pivot 90 degrees on his right foot, so that his left foot trap of Follower's right foot is not in the Line of Dance when he traps the Follower’s right foot (Leader puts weight on his right foot). This pivot will enable the Follower to make a long step around him. Leader sends her out. Leader puts his weight on his left foot at the same time Follower transfers her weight to her right foot to send her out. Leader does right foot cheat step up to a quarter turn around Follower (Leader can be on his heel to do this) to provide support as she hangs and steps around with her left foot Leader and Follower both keep their chests up. Follower steps long and around Leader as she goes over in her colgada, and as she passes through, the Leader puts his weight on his left foot, then changes his weight to the right foot, to then walk off with his left foot.

For the Follower, the beginning right foot rock step back is not weighted. She need to pivot 90 degrees on her right foot so that it makes it easier for her to make a long, reaching left foot front cross step around the Leader. Note that her step is unweighted (weight is on her standing, supporting right leg). As the Leader leads the transfer of weight to his right is where the colgada starts and she is sent out off axis. After the Follower’s side step around the Leader, she pivots on her left foot and they walk out (she with her right foot back step).

After drilling this for a while, we then went on to some deeper concepts:

1) Understanding initiation: when, how?

To get an idea, we did the step-over colgada in teapot embrace with the Leader’s right hand at the small of his back and elbows out (the handle), and left arm up (the proper angle of the left arm is to measure with his right hand where the thumb and pinky fingers go from his bicep to his wrist). His left arm remains fixed (as a teapot’s spout would be). The Follower embraces the Leader at his spout and handle, engaging both her left and right arms/hands so that she can hang on to the Leader. The Follower should have equal stability on both sides of her embrace/arm tone. Both dancers need to be connected to their cores so that the whole body is behind their arms. In the teapot embrace, the Leader’s right hand is taken away so that he doesn’t overuse it and so that the Follower uses both sides of her embrace to hang onto the Leader.

THE LINE OF POWER: The "Line of Power" was introduced. Two points of the Leader’s feet are in a line in the direction of where the Follower's hips are going to go. The Follower's hips go out straight: that's the line of power.

A more advanced level of this is to do it in Sugar Bowl embrace where the Follower needs to hang onto both sides of the Leader with her hands/arms only and he does not hold onto her at all, but only lead with his chest/torso rotation and is tested to see if he can lead any Colgada.

In this same step-over colgada, we drilled in Sugar Bowl embrace to work on timing, using the floor, the line of power, having more finesse, and being comfortable with throwing our weight around. The Sugar Bowl embrace also makes the Follower smarter and responsive about the embrace and hanging onto the Leader and using his body as a wall.

Next, we went on to a foundational drill to develop trust in a playful way.

TRUST EXERCISE: LEADER KNOCKS FOLLOWER OFF AXIS

Here, the Follower has her feet hip-width apart. The Leader walks into her, knocking her off axis. The Leader enters her space, displacing the Follower. Then he/she/they catch each other.

Level 1: Both catch each other

Level 2: Leader catches Follower

Level 3: Follower catches Leader

Next, we went onto a social colgada posture/counterbalance exercise.

SOCIAL COLGADA POSTURE/COUNTERBALANCE EXERCISE

Holding at the wrists, we were in hip under position, with our hips lined up with our rib cages. The Leader's feet, which can be in a "V" position, were outside the Follower's feet, sandwiching them. Elbows have 90 degree bend to them. We were to squeeze our transverse muscles, using our center mass in our backs and cores, keeping our chest open, and pushing our shoulder blades down. We were to hang from the hips and counterbalance each other. We were not to crunch our shoulders. We could move our belly out back a little. We were not to use our upper backs, but just use our mid/lower backs and power of our hips/legs and our core muscles. Our back and leg muscles are engaged. Our backsides were such that there is a high bar back stool behind us and we were reaching back to get up into to the chair (so it is not sitting down on a low chair).

Leader initiates the send out and controls how far the Follower goes out. The Leaders tried with different Followers to feel the height and weight differences, and how he had to change his counterbalancing efforts depending on the Follower's height and weight. This exercise was the most important five minutes of class so that we could understand the concept of counterbalancing each other.

Next, after these drills, the goals of which were to improve our Colgada technique, we went back to doing the step-over Colgada in Sugar Bowl Embrace. Only this time, the Leader sends her out and then freezes, and then sends her over, pulling her through with his left shoulder rotation counterclockwise.

Note that during the Colgada the Follower’s hips are almost perpendicular to the Leader’s.

In the freeze, the Follower starts stepping over when the Leader starts turning. The Follower’s colgada ends when she steps down and touches the floor and transfers weight.

The Follower's embrace becomes elastic first, stretching first and then start engaging it when the movement starts. The Leader’s left arm should remain fixed and stable at all times, and not telescope out or forward.

The challenge portion of the class was to work on the back step-over colgada. Or to control the timing (fast or slow) of the regular step-over colgada.

In doing the Colgada it is important for the Follower not to do any height changes because that adds another level of complexity to all that the Leader has to think about (on top of counterbalancing her weight, sending her out, and leading the turn).

Maestros concluded with a class review and demo to Canaro’s La Capilla Blanca.

During our half-hour break, Maestros generously gave us the option of using that time as a guided practica, which most students enthusiastically took advantage of.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Odyssey (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

2011-10-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

Song: El Rey de Bosque by Francisco Canaro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
New York City
October 15, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in New York City:

Weekend Theme: The Body-Spiral and Body-Axis

Saturday Theme: "Exploring the Body-Spiral"

2.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Experience Made Easy (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

4.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Odyssey (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

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4.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Odyssey (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

Video Courtesy of Luis Campos

This was an exploratory class that built on the first class.

We would work on two musical ideas:

Repeat the movement (i.e., doing double ganchos)

Change the speed (doing it really fast or really slow)

Communication is key.

We were to explore the mechanics of slow versus fast (slow can be more difficult) and repeating the movement. Here, the Leader has to lead the first gancho. The second gancho can be led by the Leader or stolen by the Follower.

Again, in the gancho it was reiterated that the Follower needs to really let her leg swing so that the Leader can know clearly where he needs to be. The Follower should not change height: she should stay tall whether she is short or tall. She should really go for the chicken thigh when she ganchos (don’t hold back or be timid about the gancho). In leading the double gancho, the movement is shorter, with a shorter movement in the Leader's torso.

NEW CONCEPT:

WHEREVER THERE IS A BACK SACADA (LEADER OR FOLLOWER), IT CAN ALSO BE A GANCHO (LEADER OR FOLLOWER).

Next, we worked on a very simple sequence of the Follower's back sacada.

The Leader's footwork: side step left, right foot forward, to pivot 90 degrees into a left foot side step continuing in the line of previous the right foot forward step.

Here, Follower does a right foot back sacada of the Leader's trailing right foot on his left foot side step.

For the Leader, it is important that he continuously moves his torso so that the Follower does a 100% pivot/spiral with her legs/feet collected before stepping back in a back sacada.

Since the Follower needs to pivot so much (100%), she needs to wake up her ocho factory (her hips).

We worked on this concept by going from close embrace to open embrace, while waking up and firing up the Follower's ocho factory. For the Follower, there should be fire in her hips, but ice in her back/back ocho step as if there was an egg underneath her heel. She should transfer the weight nice and easy, as if letting the air out of a tire.

We began with close embrace no-pivot ochos, to close embrace pivoted ochos, to open embrace pivoted ochos, with the sacada from the open embrace back ocho transition.

Are exploratory phase of the class also included experimenting with leading Follower's gancho or Follower's back sacada using the footwork above. The difference in the two came from the spiral energy and the lead energy. For the back sacada, the rotation has to be continuous to finish before transferring the weight or stepping. Regarding the Leader's footwork, on the last step, if the Leader makes his left foot side step closer to the Follower, he leads a gancho. If his left foot side step is in line or slightly away from the Follower, it is a sacada.

The secret for the Leader helping the Follower get more out of her ocho factory (hip momentum and foot pivot), is that he attacks the floor with his foot to tap into the Follower's spiral energy to get her to pivot more dynamically. Here, she will feel more connection and energy. This is called impulse leading (or impulse ochos). The Leader should not and cannot force the Follower to do more pivoting.

To work on getting more pivot and spiral, the Follower can work on her ochos at home against the wall. In partnership, she can do forward ochos and back ochos in open hand in hand embrace with no leader and follower role, twisting her upper body and make the disassociation more extreme so that she can coax 100% spiral.

After the class review, Maestros demo'd the material.

Nocturne Milonga @ Dancesport, with premilonga lesson taught by Homer & Cristina Ladas.

Video Courtesy of Luis Campos

Our lesson focused on primarily fun and something you could do at the milonga that night. We would work on the fundamental concepts. Our music for the evening was Canaro.

First, Maestros showed us a pattern to see how we would deal with it. It is a nice tango surprise that can be done in close embrace.

In close embrace, rock step of Leader’s left foot forward (Follower’s right step back), to his right foot cross behind, to catch the Follower’s right foot forward outside step with his left foot front cross foot to the right side of his right foot.

So the Leader steps left foot forward into her, his right foot crosses behind, the weight goes to his right foot, he pivots on his right foot, the left foot is the trap foot that stretches a little across the front of his right foot to catch her right foot, (he can pivot a little to catch her more easily) to left foot exit, collect and go out.

For the Follower, her right foot goes back without weight during the rock step. As the Leader pivots, her right foot extends and reaches in a right foot front cross step to the outside of the close side of the embrace, reaching around the Leader with no weight on her foot so he can drag her foot to a side step, and then pivot. When she makes her right foot extension and reach it should be around the Leader, and it should be long and reaching, unweighted step.

To really test our leading with the chest ability, we did this simple sequence in Sugar Bowl Embrace, to get in touch with how the Leader uses his body to lead the turn. He needs to open up his hips/shoulders/chest. This embrace helps to develop the Leader’s body lead.

The Leader should also pay attention to his footwork, making it as pretty as possible with no sickling feet.

The Leader should not tilt, but keep things straight and horizontal as he rotates counterclockwise.

The fundamental technique behind the lead for this sequence is the turn (molinete).

We worked on matching the timing of this step to the QQS rhythm, and taking the Follower out on the next strong beat.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Canaro’s El Rey de Bosque

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Experience Made Easy (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

2011-10-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

Song: Patotero Sentimental by Carlos Di Sarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
New York City
October 15, 2011

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Homer & Cristina Ladas Workshops in New York City:

Weekend Theme: The Body-Spiral and Body-Axis

Saturday Theme: "Exploring the Body-Spiral"

2.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Experience Made Easy (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

4.30pm: The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Odyssey (Advanced "Exploration" Class)

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The Overturned Gancho/Sacada Experience Made Easy (Intermediate "Foundation" Class)

Video Courtesy of Luis Campos

The purpose of this class was for the Leader and Follower to get in touch with our inner spiral. The music for our class was DiSarli with Rufino on vocals.

It began with Maestros showing us a simple pattern, and then breaking down each element. The simple pattern was the 8CB to 5 (Follower's cross), to a Follower's big clockwise pivot on her left foot, to do a Follower right leg back gancho through the Leader's legs.

GETTING TO THE CROSS

Our work first involved cleaning up the lines of the Leader leading the Follower to the cross. We should be very compact in the space when walking forward, on two tracks or one.

Leader: should not drift when leading the Follower into the cross. He should be close to the Follower, perhaps with his thighs touching hers as he walks forward. From the close embrace, on the Leader's left foot forward step, his thigh can touch the Follower's thigh and he walks forward on one track, one foot in front of the other.

Follower: when she does her back steps, one foot should be behind the other foot.

The Leader's side step is a straight step to the side, not slightly diagonally forward, as some Leaders were doing.

The Leader leads the cross by a little bit of twisting in his torso, with his left shoulder going forward clockwise on the Follower's right foot back step (4 of the 8CB). Here, the Follower needs to be attentive to have spiral and if the Leader is really leading the weight change after the cross.

For the Leader and Follower, as they both arrive to the cross, the Leader releases his right arm so that the Follower can return to axis as she completes the cross. The Follower returns to axis as she arrives to the cross, and is completely on axis when the cross is completed.

GETTING TO THE GANCHO

The Leader needs to give good energy for the Follower pivot, and a good block for the Follower to do a good gancho.

The Follower might not get enough disassociation and her left shoulder and arm might get in the way and block the range of motion, so she needs to soften her left shoulder a bit and allow it to open up.

At the point of the gancho after the big pivot, her belly button faces away from the Leader while she tries to maintain connection to him at the top of her body. She should not tilt forward or bend over to create range for the ganchoing leg.

The Leader puts his own energy in the gancho, but it's up to the Follower to answer, even though the Leader proposes. The Follower, when she ganchos, should move such that her leg starts at the top of her hip bone. She should not do a “knee gancho”, where only the calf of the leg goes back.

PENDULUM EXERCISE

Level 1: Follower and Leader eyes are open

Level 2: Follower closes eyes

Level 3: Leader and Follower close eyes to develop Leader's sense of feeling.

The Follower should imagine that the four corners of her right foot are connected to the floor. Her leg is like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. She should keep her chest up, and have her leg swing start from the top of her hip. Her arms and hands should be such that they are holding an imaginary large fish bowl filled with sleeping fish. Again, it was emphasized that the movement is not done from just the knee, but starts at the top of the hip joint and involves the entire leg.

In partnership, we did the pendulum Exercise, and the Follower’s goal was to be consistent in the speed and motion of her leg swing so that the Leader could predict where he needs to put his leg to receive her gancho leg (swinging pendulum leg). He had the option of placing his gancho’d leg’s foot in front of or behind her standing, supporting foot to set up the gancho so that she comes through the center of his legs.

The Leader assumes the Captain Morgan (of rum fame) position, with heel off the ground and ball of foot in the ground. His hip opens up, and he offers the fleshy part of the thigh (chicken leg), so that the Follower can wrap around it. The other standing, supporting leg is the elevator leg, which by bending the knee, the Leader can change the elevation and length of the space should he need to for a taller or shorter Follower. The Leader needs to be perfect in timing and movement of getting into the Captain Morgan stance.

The Follower should watch the shape of her foot, and not sickle or twist it, and not flex the angle. She should have the intention to have a little bit of turnout and not pronate or twist the foot in. She should point the toe at the end of the pendulum leg swing.

The Follower should keep her pelvic floor equal in the gancho. She should not go down, or to the side, or look for the gancho.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

The details are where it's at because these foundational elements appear in many places over and over.

The Leader’s Captain Morgan leg is weightless, except if the Follower is off balance. Then he might need to have a little bit of weight on the Captain Morgan leg. We did a muscle memory Captain Morgan footwork exercise where we stepped with our left foot forward, transferred the weight and pivoted and rotated our chests clockwise, with our right foot going into the Captain Morgan position. The Captain Morgan leg position is key for the Leader giving the Follower enough space to do the gancho. The Leader can flex his standing supporting anchoring leg or move his whole leg if she needs the room.

MOVING ON

The Follower’s back pivot is more than a back ocho. She needs to keep her feet together until the last moment of when the gancho is beginning. She needs to wait for the Leader's blocking energy so that he actually leads the gancho (instead of her doing it on her own).

For the Follower, she needs to let her hand/arm slide to let her left shoulder open up so that she can pivot more and gancho more fully and easily.

The Leader's right hand should not squeeze and hold the Follower. If he does, he would not be helping her. He can keep the Follower on axis by not doing too much. Here, less is more. If he has a problem with his right arm clenching her or pressing her into him, he should practice leading this in the teapot embrace, where his right arm his behind his back like the handle, and his left arm is up and wrist is fixed like the spout. He should then lead our simple gancho pattern in this embrace.

The Leader should not unwind the Follower from the cross because then it will take more work for her to do the gancho. At the point of the gancho, the Leader can exaggerate the opening of the embrace to let her know that's what he wants.

We also tried double ganchos.

SINCE CLASS SPACE WAS TIGHT, IT WAS EMPHASIZED THAT WE WORK COOPERATIVELY, JUST LIKE ON THE SOCIAL DANCE FLOOR.

We also tried to do ganchos from a circular ocho cortado.

OVERTURNED GANCHOS VERSUS BACK SACADAS

Then we tried mixing them up, overturned ganchos versus back sacadas. The difference between the two are that axis (center of the circle) is the key. In the overturned gancho, the Follower is the axis (center of the circle). In the Follower's back sacada the Leader is the axis (center of the circle).

In receiving the Follower back sacada, the Leader lets his right leg go and can kick the heel around to pivot without any spiral in the body as the Follower does her clockwise molinete around him. His goal is to have a smooth and continuous energy and she goes around him.

After the class review, Maestros demo'd the material to DiSarli's Patotero Sentimental.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Transition from Close Embrace Back Ochos to Open Embrace Back Ochos

2011-10-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

Song: Din Don by Lucio Demare
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
Dancesport, New York City
October 14, 2011

Video Courtesy of Florin Oprisa

This lesson would serve as a precursor/springboard lesson as a teaser for tomorrow's workshop topics, sacadas. The focus of the class is the transition from close embrace back ochos to open embrace back ochos. The sacada workshops are predicated upon going from open embrace back ochos into sacadas. Our orchestra for the evening was Demare.

Open Embrace No-Pivot Ochos

We began with working on open embrace no-pivot ochos.

Leader: Upper body remains stable and straight forward. He does not turn his ribcage or spine, and keeps his core engaged so that his upper body is quiet. His footwork is rollerblading footwork.

Follower: Does not pivot in her hips. She creates a long step by keeping the knees soft, connecting her feet to the floor, and pushing off the floor to create a long step. In making her step, she first opens hip, so that her leg can reach across behind herself with her foot slightly outturned so that her hips don’t pivot as she reaches. She should not change height in her steps. Her feet are icing on the cake. Her strength comes from her connection to the floor. She should be aware of how she is using her feet. She should not pigeon toe. Again, it was emphasized that her hip should open up, and then the foot follows this opening by being slightly outturned. The Follower squeezes thighs together to collect. Her hip and footwork are the same for both sides, left and right.

We began with a footwork exercise, with everyone in class in one large circle formation, and then we all did the Leader’s footwork of rollerblading into the middle of the dance floor, while keeping our upper bodies straight with no torsion.

When we got to the center of the circle, we did the Follower’s footwork on the way back out, whereby we open our hips, so that our leg could reach across behind ourselves with our feet slightly outturned so that our hips didn’t pivot as we reached with our legs, walking out to the outside of the circle and doing the same hip/footwork for both our left and right legs.

The Leader’s goal is to be symmetrical in his foot movements, with the angle and length of both his left and right steps being the same. He will notice that the right side is harder. He should also have a longer moment of collecting, really bringing his body weight over to one side or the other so that the Follower has time to collect as well and not rush through her collection.

The Follower needs to be consistent and maintain pressure/consistency in her embrace, and not allow bubbles or hiccups in the embrace. She should also not bounce, go down, or pull away.

Both Leader and Follower need to keep their chests up in the embrace.

Our homework is to practice doing this close embrace no-pivot ocho in single time and double time (QQS), all in close embrace.

Next, we moved to pivoted ochos with the embrace opening up.

Pivoted Ochos without Chest-to-Chest Fixed Position

Follower: She collects faster but reaches slower to get the thighs out of the way.

Leader: instead of his upper body remaining fixed as in the no-pivot ocho, he lets his chest go so that it can rotate contra body. He also releases the right hand of the embrace a little to let the Follower pivot and her body rotate inside the cradle of his arm. (It was emphasized that the Leader should not squeeze her and ask her to pivot as this annoys most Followers.) He can maintain his connection with her by remaining in contact with the back of her clothes, but he should not clamp down on her back or keep her fixed with his right hand. In the pivoted ocho, she needs to be able to slide while she is in the cradle (not coffin) of the Leader’s arm.

It is important to maintain good posture during our work, whether it is in close embrace or open embrace ochos. Here, Alexander Technique can help so that our necks are long and chests are up.

In the double time (QQS) pivoted ocho, the steps are shorter so that the Leader creates a clear perimeter and the Follower swivels her hips.

Next, we did a partnered exercise with no Leader and no Follower, both dancers hand to hand doing back ochos together. The goal was to stay close to each other with our hips. We needed to reach our back cross (back ocho) steps close to each other, and pivot enough (a lot). If we didn’t pivot enough, we would go away from each other. This exercise was a test in that the Leader needs to be comfortable with stepping back; that’s when he needs to have the Follower experience.

Slot Ochos

In Sugar Bowl Embrace (formerly known as the Tea Kettle Embrace), with Leader’s hands at the small of his back, elbows out to the side, and Follower’s hands on Leader’s triceps, Follower does back ochos. Leader rotates his chest 35-40 degrees on each side, being even. The Follower does back ochos in a slot in front of the Leader, so this exercise does not travel and is not floor-space intensive if done correctly. Leader can stand with just chest rotation, and Follower does slot ocho footwork in a straight line in front of the Leader. In her embrace, the Follower provides horizontal energy, not vertical, so she does not press down onto the Leader or force him into the ground.

From here, we were running out of class time, but did a little bit of work on the body spiral, starting in close embrace to transition to open embrace to lead the Follower to do a back sacada in the Leader’s Sugar Bowl embrace. The Leader’s legwork was such that he got into the Captain Morgan (Rum) leg position.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Demare’s Din…Don

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Finding Your Style via Leg Wraps

2011-09-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

Song: Pobre Yo by Carlos Di Sarli Y Su Sexteto Tipico
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org
June 1, 2011, Cellspace, San Francisco

Homer and Cristina Ladas summarizing an intermediate tango lesson on
style and structure in tango.

0:23 - A little plug for http://theorganictangoschool.org/

0:39 - One important idea was the difference between style and
structure. Style can be something unique and personal, and alter the
appearance and the feel of the moves with the same structure.

0:48 - Another important idea was the importance of communication: any
application of style by the leader only works if the follower can
receive it properly. As an illustration, students were tossing little
objects to each other in groups, throwing with different levels of
creativity. At the end, there seemed to be a tentative tradeoff:
groups with extreme creativity caught the ball the least. Creativity
in tango works only if "the ball is caught".

1:06 - a pattern - leading the follower into a cross and then lead a wrap.

1:25 - the leader's structure - lead the follower into the cross while
keeping a straight line of walking, without height change, keep the
shoulders overturned while leading into the cross, extend the left
leg, touch the follower's thigh, and, while keeping the follower on
her axis, turn the spine and shoulders to lead a wrap.

1:48 - the follower's structure - keep with the leader at all times,
including the twisted position, keep own balance, and being able to
unwind into the wrap. Thigh contact is important.

2:22 - the style parameters - it is possible to alter many aspects of
the sequence without altering the structure - such as speed of the
wrap, the rhythm of going into the cross, height changes in different
places (including the wrap). Stylistic games are all fair, as long as
the partner "catches the ball" and the couple executes the cross and a
wrap as intended.

3:14 - four branches of tango awareness that Homer and Cristina try to
develop - awareness of self, partner, music, and surroundings.

4:22 - a little demo of the sequence with stylistic alterations by
Homer and Cristina.

As a kind of individual experiments, the students were also attempting
to lead multiple wraps after the cross.

Notes courtesy of Leo Landa

Rock Step - Concept and Variations

2011-04-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

Song: Rawson by Juan D'Arienzo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
April 6, 2011, Cellspace, San Francisco

Our focus of class was the rock step, and how to execute it so that it feels good and so that we do it efficiently in tango or milonga.

We began with a warm-up 1/2-song dance doing as many rock steps as we can so that Maestros could asses where we were skillwise and tailor the class accordingly.

BASICS OF COMMUNICATING THE ROCK STEP

Beginning with the basics, Leader begins in Tea Kettle arm position, or what is now known after Maestros' visit to New Orleans as the Sugar Bowl hold, with Leader's hands at the small of his back, elbows out to the side. The Follower holds onto the Leader's arms at his triceps. In this embrace, the Leader and Follower were to communicate the Lead and Follow of the rock step. We were to make the movement as small as possible. The goal for the Leader is to communicate the rock step cleanly without using his hands. The goal for the Follower is to engage appropriately to read the Leader's communication correctly. We drilled this for a song.

ROCK STEP LEG WORK

Then we backed up a bit from here. With everyone working independently and separately, we were to do the rock steps on our on, keeping our upper inner thighs together as if holding on to a quarter. We tried this rock step with our left foot forward, then right foot change weight, to do left foot forward again in rock step.
We also did this with our right foot forward and left foot weight change, back to right foot rock step, etc.
We also tried turning clockwise and counterclockwise with our left foot forward rock steps and right foot forward rock steps.
We were to keep our back foot heels off the floor.
The knees are bent and soft.
The muscle memory goal was to make our rock step efficient by being tight, controlled, and quick. In doing it this way, we would make our partner feel more comfortable.
For the Leader, it is important that when he does the rock step, that he has enough room in between both his feet. Ideally, this should be 1-1.5 shoe lengths. Thus, at least one foot/shoe should fit in between the Leader's front and back feet. He should lock the top of his pelvis so that he is tight at the tops of his inner thighs.
For the Follower, it is important in her back foot rock steps that she reach back first, and then transfer the weight to catch the rock step. She should not just step back and automatically transfer the weight back fully. She should also not go too far back in her rock step.

KEEP BACK HEEL OFF FLOOR

It is important to not send the weight too far back on the weight change of the rock step, and not land on our back heel. If we do, then it takes the weight too far back. We need to keep our back heels off the floor. The rock step is not a huge range of motion. We should try to prevent ourselves from going too far back or too far forward. One way for us to practice this is to do one rock step, and then a forward step.

THE EMBRACE IN THE ROCK STEP

How does the Leader use the embrace?
The Leader's right hand is like a wall, but it should not be alike a Star Wars trash compactor where the Leader's arm moves independently. He should not telescope or move his arms, but keep them consistent. He should not force the Follower to do anything with his right hand.

The Follower also has to engage, but not anticipate the rock step.

HEIGHT CHANGE

In terms of height change, we go down a little when doing the rock step since we are on two feet. While doing the rock steps, we remain level at that slightly lower height. To get out of the rock step, we can also use the height change rise to fully communicate that we are getting out of it.

ROCK STEP VARIATIONS
PARALLEL POSITION ROCK STEPS are the normal ones we usually do.
Leader's left foot forward
Follower's right foot back.

CROSS POSITION ROCK STEPS

Both Leader and Follower begin with side steps (Leader left, Follower right).
Leader does a quick cheat weight change. Follower does not change weight.
Leader steps inside with his left foot, touching the Follower's right foot/thigh in the rock step.
Here, he can turn the rock step, clockwise.
As an exercise, we also tried to turn it counterclockwise.

Our homework was to practice our Leader's Snake Walk (slight forward ochos), as the Follower walks straight back. Here, it is important for the Leader's thighs to be together as if he has to pee.

ROCK STEPS TRAVELLING TO THE SIDE

Here, we do the parallel position rock steps, with travel to the side.
As an experiment, we also tried this in Cross Position, and though possible, we found it to be more difficult for the Follower to follow.

Adding the Snake Walk adds a lot more possibilities to how we get into doing the rock step.

WINDSHIELD WIPER ROCK STEP

Finally, we concluded with the most difficult type of rock step.
Here, the Leader puts a lot of energy into his middle (his belly area), but keeps his embrace steady and torso toward the Follower to maintain connection.
In the Windshield Wiper rock step, the Leader does his rock steps first in a forward slight front cross step, then a forward slight open step, like a windshield wiper, side to side. His back weight change step is generally in the same position.

The class concluded with a short quiz and Maestro doing a demo dance to D'Arienzo's Rawson.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Arizona State University Tango Performance

2011-04-05T00:28:00.000-07:00

Song: Mil Pasos by Soha
Performers: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
April 1-3, 2011, Arizona State University Workshops, California

A Guide to Focused Intention & Energy

2011-03-29T01:37:00.000-07:00

Song: Milonga de Los Fortines by Orquesta Tipica Victor
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
March 28, 2011, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

We would explore the topic of Focused Energy and Intention in the context of doing open embrace style ochos, with the Leader doing side steps and the Follower doing reaching and touching steps.

REVIEW OF BASIC OCHO TECHNIQUE

We began our work on the basic technique to lead and follow ochos well.

For the Leader, in teakettle hold (coming back from New Orleans, some students renamed this the “sugar bowl”), with both hands at the small of his back and elbows out to the side and his chest up, his goal was to have symmetry in his spinal rotation, aiming for about 30-45 degree rotation on both sides, so that the Follower pivots. He should also time the beginning of leading her pivot, which should happen as she arrives to axis.

For the Follower, as the Leader leads the ocho with his torso rotation, the Follower amplifies the energy down to her hips (her ocho factory). The Follower’s standing, supporting leg is the pivoting one. The Follower needs to be on her axis or slightly away from the Leader while she does her ochos. She should engage horizontally, and not press down on the Leader. She should have an elastic embrace, holding on with both her hands, and having tone in both arms, but also be flexible and elastic, like pasta “al dente”. She should have good, reaching steps, and amplify the Leader’s energy in her ocho response from her hips.

The Leader takes long side steps as he leads the Follower to do either forward or back ochos. We drilled this for a while, doing it slowly.

CHAPTER 1: FOCUSED INTENTION

Next, we took our work beyond ochos to work on Focused Intention. The goal here was to physically manifest intention by using our energy and connection with the floor.

In teakettle (sugar bowl) hold, the Leader leads the Follower to do an ocho, and then a little touch step. For the Follower, her footwork is a forward front cross step, and then a side touch step, or a back cross step and a back step. For the Leader to lead these various Follower steps, he makes either front cross steps, back cross steps, or side steps simultaneously with his torso rotations to lead the Follower ochos. The steps were the structure in which we were to figure out how and where to lead and follow the touch step.

With respect to intention, the two things to focus on are:
(1) Leader leads Follower to pivot with him. He needs strong intention in his chest/torso rotation.
(2) Whether the weight transfer is complete or slight/partial/in the middle so that the Follower just touches the floor.

We drilled, with the idea of experimenting by changing the speed, just touching in place, going back and forth, or transferring the weight completely. We did this with the Leader in teakettle position so that we focused on using the floor, and the Follower listening to how the Leader uses the floor, while she also uses the floor. The Leader uses the floor by using his whole body and the connection to the floor, up through his hips, through his back and through his shoulders. The Follower has to copy what the Leader does. She has to mirror his movements.

The two philosophical things we were to think about:
(1) The Leader has to know what he wants before he leads it. Thus, he needs to plan ahead.
(2) The Leader has to be completely in the moment too (which is contradictory to philosophical point no. 1)

CHAPTER 2: ADDING THE EMBRACE

Add the embrace. The lead still has to come from the Leader’s body and his connection to the floor.

We went back to our original exercise, only we added the embrace (some Leaders chose to use the teapot embrace of left hand as spout and right hand at the small of his back as the handle to prevent the use of his right hand to influence her ochos and pivoting range of motion), with the Leader doing side steps, and the Follower doing forward ochos (so these are “with” ochos). The Leader was to employ the technique of leading the Follower to do touch steps or full transfers of weight.

The Leader should direct energy from the floor into his body, so that he uses his right arm/hand less to lead the Follower to do ochos. This way, he will be able to do more with his core/body rotation/disassociation.

We drilled this for a while.

Timing is the most important thing. The Leader needs to plan ahead, as his weight transfer should be a little ahead of the Follower’s. The Follower is always a little behind the Leader. The Leader puts his weight half way, and then retracts it for the touch step. We drilled this doing it slow, in double time, with ochos, and without ochos.

The Leader should keep his chest up, be symmetrical in his torso rotation, plan ahead, be in the moment, and phrase the movement to the music. The Follower’s touch step does not have pressure into the floor, but it is OK to bounce or rebound off the floor. The Leader can put pressure into the floor, but not put the weight into the floor to have fast and responsive intention without changing weight. The idea is to put pressure into the floor to bounce back quickly, all the while engaging with his whole body.

Maestros concluded with a short class quiz followed by a demo to Orquesta Tipica Victor’s Milonga de Los Fortines.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Colgada/Volcada Connection with Mixed Music (adv)

2011-02-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

Song: Querer from Cirque de Soleil’s Allegria
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19-20, 2011, Stanford Workshops, California

EXERCISE TO IMPROVE TIMING AND FEELING OF OPPOSITION

We began with an exercise where the Leader tries to send the Follower away and then bring her back. It was an exercise in hanging out and pushing in. The Follower’s feet remain in the same spot while the Leader steps in and steps out. This exercise was for the Leader to figure out timing and feeling of opposition.

With respect to posture, have the hips under, send the Follower out, and do not bend the knees. We were to use our backs, and use our strong back muscles and our strong core muscles.

THE VOLCADA/COLGADA HYBRID: THE COLLAPSABLE VOLCADA

This is more a fake volcada, where the Leader inserts his right foot between the Follower’s feet, sends the Follower’s hips out in Colgada, and then brings her back in in the volcada, so her left foot swings out and in to front cross in front of her right foot. To execute this correctly, the Leader needs to know where the Follower’s axis is, and he needs to step into it to get the Follower to do the “out” action.

COLGADA INTO A WRAP

The Leader sends the Follower back in colgada, and then brings her in and around into a wrap of her left leg of his right leg. The shape feels like an ellipse or a backward D. Note that Follower is on axis at the point of the wrap. The Leader’s contact with his thigh to the Follower’s leg is the invitation to wrap.

Our exploration involved doing no volcada in this exercise, with a bare minimum of effort (the Homer wrap), or with maximum energy (the Cristina wrap). You can do either the minimum or maximum energy wrap depending on how you are feeling in the moment and what the music is saying.

But if you do, the energy should be opposite each other:

Big Colgada, Small Volcada, OR

Small Colgada, Big Volcada

The Leader can start the Colgada with leading a few Follower shimmies before sending her back in Colgada.

During the wrap, the Leader should not go too far away from the Follower’s axis.

FOLLOWER WRAP STYLING OPTIONS

For the Follower wrap, there are two styling options:

(1) Raise the knee up and then back down to collect.

(2) Keep the feet low on the floor and collect.

Either styling you choose, the Follower should always have control of what her leg is doing. The music will tell us how much time we have to exit, and which styling option might be more suitable/expressive of what is going on in the music.

EXPLORATION: COLGADA TO NO-PIVOT WRAP

The no-pivot wrap works because of the Colgada. The Leader sends the Follower out to the side and then brings her in to axis.

Leader catches the Follower’s middle of her right foot on her forward (front cross) step in the clockwise turn/hiro/molinete with his right foot so that both feet are parallel. As the Follower transfers weight to her right foot, the Leader shifts the weight to that same foot, sending her out to the side in Colgada. He then brings her back in to wrap with her opposite leg (her left leg across her body to wrap the Leader’s right leg). We tried this in open embrace. He stops her when she returns to axis.

The Follower’s forward (front cross) step should be around and close to the Leader, so when he puts his foot next to hers, he doesn’t need to go too far.

We also tried this type of no-pivot wrap from the promenade walk.

Then we drilled just exploring on our own doing wraps from different colgadas and volcadas.

After a short question and answer class review, Maestros did a demo dance to Cirque de Soleil’s Querer (from Allegria).

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Melodic and Rhythmic Volcada Explorations with Enrique Rodriguez (int/adv)

2011-02-24T22:59:00.000-08:00

Song: La Torcacita by Enrique Rodriguez
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19-20, 2011, Stanford Workshops, California

We began with reviewing the Volcada setup we learned in yesterday’s class because we will use this to explore doing rhythmic and melodic volcadas.

REVIEW OF VOLCADA SETUP

Leader left foot rock step forward, right foot back cross perpendicular behind left foot, left foot power step, right foot forward step to drive Follower into the Cross.

Follower right foot back step, left foot weight change, right foot forward (front cross) step, left foot swoops around to front cross in front of right foot as Leader drives it back into the cross.

The Leader’s chest needs to be tilted toward the Follower at all times to provide support to the Follower. As soon as his body gives and he goes back, she will take it all in her back and doing the volcada will potentially be painful.

The Leader needs to turn clockwise toward the Follower more, and his right foot needs to come toward the Follower’s axis as he drives her left foot to front cross.

The Follower’s parachute in case something goes wrong in the volcada is her step.

EXPLORATION 1: DIFFERENT POTENTIAL ENDINGS

There are two different potential endings:

(1) Rock step out

(2) Suspended, split weight two-foot pivot to uncross out.

We drilled both types of potential endings with different partners.

EXPLORATION 2: RHYTHMIC VERSUS MELODIC VOLCADAS

The difference between doing volcadas rhythmically versus melodically is one strong beat, with the rhythmic volcada taking one beat, and the melodic volcada taking two beats.

We drilled doing volcadas rhythmically and melodically with different partners.

EXPLORATION 3: FOLLOWER FOOTWORK OPTIONS: BALLET OR SASSY

For Follower’s volcadaing leg (in this case the left leg), she has two choices with her footwork:

(1) Ballet: where tip of foot or big toe remains on the floor throughout the movement.

(2) Sassy: Where the heel remains on the floor throughout the movement, so that she is really flexing the foot and extending the back of the leg, while still keeping both hips level.

Either footwork technique the Follower chooses, she should do it maximally: Either really point or really flex the foot, but don’t do it half way or half-heartedly/wimpily.

We drilled doing the different types of footwork with different partners.

EXPLORATION 4: WRAP VOLCADA ENDING

An optional ending we worked on was concluding the volcada with a wrap:

(1) Plain with just Follower left leg wrapping Leader’s right leg.

(2) Dual wrap with both Leader and Follower wrapping each other (Leader’s right leg wrapping Follower’s wrapping left leg).

We drilled doing the different wraps with different partners.

EXPLORATION 5: WINDSHIELD WIPER (LINKED SEQUENTIAL ALTERNATING VOLCADAS)

Our next exploration involved the Windshield Wiper, or linked sequential volcadas, whereby the Follower does alternating volcadas with her left leg/foot and right leg/foot. The Leader leads this by stepping forward with his right foot, changes weight to his left, and then steps forward with his right foot, alternating going inside and outside partner to get her to cross with alternating feet. The Leader should not step narrowly toward Follower, not far away from her, so that he can drive nice tight crosses (not big sloppy ones). The Leader does not drop his left foot, and uses energy on both of his forward steps. The Leader should not change his posture much. The Leader should not pull back with his left hand.

We drilled doing the windshield wiper with different partners.

After a question and answer class review, Maestros did a demo dance to Rodriguez’s La Torcacita.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Stanford Workshop Performances

2011-02-24T22:57:00.000-08:00

Song 1: Lo Que Vieron Tus Ojos by Francisco Lomuto
Song 2: Such Great Heights by Iron and Wine
Performers: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19-20, 2011, Stanford Workshops, California

Functional vs. Aesthetic Colgada Explorations with Mixed Music

2011-02-24T22:50:00.000-08:00

Song: Milonga Del Angel by Astor Piazzolla
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19-20, 2011, Stanford Workshops, California

Note: Audio disabled due to song copyright but didactic demo can be seen at the end of this original clip.

Mixed Music Class, though we mostly worked with Piazzolla.

This class built on the first class. This was an exploration class, so the whole purpose was to have fun, building on what we learned in the first workshop on colgadas.

We began with one colgada.

Leader in teapot embrace with Leader doing Pac man footwork around. Then Leader places his left foot next to the Follower’s left foot back cross step of the counterclockwise turn/hiro/molinete, and he continues to turn her until she steps over in a right foot side step. Leader does not initiate and Follower does not automatically do any unled colgada out movement. Follower should, however, have a good long reach around on her side step.

We also tried this on the other side, with Leader right foot placed next to Follower’s right foot back cross step, to side step over with her left foot.

How does the Leader not get heeled? He slides in with his foot with a side approach, and gets near the ball of her foot, making contact with the front of her foot.

To this Follower step-over, we can add the Follower’s left foot sweep/drag of the Leader’s left foot, or a Follower right foot sweep/drag of the Leader’s right foot.

Next, we turned this into a fun pattern, whereby the Follower needs to employ good turn/hiro/molinete technique during her forward, side, back, side steps around the Leader. She needs to pivot and step well, and Leader needs to keep leading the turn well.

Choices:

In the teapot embrace, Leader can lead the Colgada at the point of the back cross stepover as the Leader changes his weight to his left foot. There is not a lot of Colgada out movement here, but just enough to keep each other balanced, then returning everything to center, to step out.

Explorations:

Leader can use either leg, left or right, or on any of her steps.

The Leader leads the Colgada with a weight change, with his foot next to her lead leg/foot, which is a general rule for Colgadas. If the Leader enters the trailing leg/foot, then this would be a sacada (not a colgada). Colgada movement relates to the lead leg (not the trailing leg).

How to use the colgada in a functional sense?

(1) As a quick turn to give a “whee” sensation like doing the hurricane colgada.

(2) On the Follower’s right foot back cross step, to left foot colgada into to do a left foot wrap of the Leader’s right foot as she is returned back to axis.

We drilled a lot of the second option, with the wrap, on the both sides, left and right. Since the class didn’t look very good doing the wrapping, we backed up our exploration a little and worked on just wrapping the Leaders legs, left or right, from the Follower’s cross. For the wrap, the Leader lifts his heel, and provides his thigh to enable it to be wrapped. At the moment of the wrap, the Follower wants to be, and should be, on axis. The Follower sensation of her wrapping leg is like a whip in a linear fashion. We also tried to do double or triple wraps, which are achieved by the Leader playing with the Follower axis.

We did a lot of drilling of each part in this class, trying as much as possible to relate to what we did earlier in the first workshop.

After a question and answer summary, Maestros concluded with a demo to Piazzolla’s Milonga Del Angel.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Volcada Foundations with Miguel Calo

2011-02-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

Song: Al Compas Del Corazon by Miguel Calo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19-20, 2011, Stanford Workshops, California

The goal of our class was to go through it entirely with no pain in our backs. So both Leader and Follower need to do their jobs.

“Volcada” comes from the Spanish verb “Volcar”, which means to tip over (like spilling something)

HUG EXERCISE

We began with hugging each other, in a nice way (not a bad way), with the leader attempting to find the sweet spot on the Follower where it feels best to be hugged. This sweet spot is at the Follower’s sternum level. We tried this with several different partners so that the Leaders could work on adjusting their hug to the each Follower’s sternum height.

HUG EXERCISE WITH LIFT

Next, to the hug, we added the Leader lift, whereby he scoops up the Follower.

Follower responses:

(1) Follower allows the lift.

(2) Follower opposes the lift by pushing down on her shoulder blades.

We tried this with several different partners so that the we could feel this and adjust our physical efforts with many different body shapes/weights/heights/musculature.

HUG EXERCISE WITH LEADER BACK AND FORWARD STEPS

Next, we added the Leader steps back and forward.

The Leader takes 2-3 steps back, and takes 2-3 steps forward.

The Follower should resist the lift by keeping her core and back strong, and not have her posture dissolve into banana posture and keep her belly button pushed back into her spine. She should fall like a tree.

Leader hugs Follower.

Leader changes weight to his left foot to get Follower weight on her right foot.

Leader compresses and lifts Follower.

Follower opposes the lift, keeping her posture strong and solid while she is on her standing, supporting right foot as Leader takes 2-3 steps back.

The Follower can create shape with her free, unweighted left foot. Leader steps forward 2-3 steps to release the Volcada, and they walk out to resolution.

The Leader has permission to support his partner. Both dancers need to be strong through their whole body. The Leader needs to engage his core and have a strong back too. Neither Leader nor Follower should come in with their bellies, otherwise they will hurt their back.

HUG EXERCISE WITH FOLLOWER HUG ONLY

Follower holds onto Leader’s chest only.

The Leader takes 2 steps backward, and then two steps forward. This exercise is for Leader to develop his connection to the Floor and for the Follower to keep herself upright but still oppose the lift. The Follower really needs to hold on and lift herself a little by keeping her shoulders and shoulder blades/lats back and down.

LEADING THE FOLLOWER TO FRONT CROSS

With no volcada in practice hold, the Leader tries to get the Follower’s left foot /leg to cross in front of her right foot. We got into this by the Leader doing a left foot rock step, right foot crosses behind perpendicular (like passing a soccer ball), left foot cheat step around, attacking the floor, which causes the Follower’s left foot to swing around and cross in front of her right foot as his right foot steps forward as he takes control and changes what would normally be the side step after her right foot forward (front cross) step of the clockwise turn/hiro/molinete.

For Follower’s Technique, she should keep her foot on the floor, caressing it with the big toe as her foot comes around to end in a cross. Her weight is distributed throughout her entire leg, and her leg starts from her rib cage going all the way down to her toes.

For the Leader, timing is key. He needs to lift and support the Follower and be powerful in his cheat step (the third step). The Leader has to lead the Follower’s cross.

The Leader’s cheat step needs to be with power. He gets this power by engaging his core as he torques his body clockwise.

THE VOLCADA IN OPEN AND CLOSE EMBRACE

Next, we added the open embrace, and also allowed falling/a little bit of lean.

Again, the Follower needs to push her self down to keep herself pulled up strong and solid in her posture.

The Leader’s cheat step is more around and away, which is what makes the Follower fall.

We drilled this for quite a while with many different partners.

The Leader’s forward step should be toward the Follower so that she crosses tight. If he steps forward but more away from the Follower, she will cross big and possibly sloppily.

Next, we added the close embrace. The Follower still compresses and pushes down to keep herself pulled up. The Leader needs to wait for the Follower to cross before walking out.

The class concluded with a question and answer session and Maestros’ demo to Calo’s Al Compas Del Corazon.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Colgada Foundations with Carlos Di Sarli

2011-02-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

Song: Cara Sucia by Carlos Di Sarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19-20, 2011, Stanford Workshops, California

The Colgada can replace the turn/hiro/molinete in many places. It can be artistic and functional, and be the glue to help keep us together and balance us. In our class, we were to explore ideas and technique to create a more complicated movement.

We began the class with one dance doing all the colgadas we knew, so Maestros could asses were we were knowledgewise. Since in our one dance, no one did any colgadas, this was the perfect class for us all since it was a fundamentals class.

The word “colgada” comes from the Spanish verb “colgar”, which means “to hang”. One visual image is a truck going fast around a corner, almost tipping over, but hanging onto the road with two wheels.

TRUST GAME:

We began with the Trust Game, where we were split into groups of 5-6 people. Size and gender do not matter as there is no Leader or Follower. One person is put in the middle of the circle while everyone else stands around that person. The Center person closes their eyes and imagines they are a redwood tree swaying in the wind, and then falls in random direction. The Circumference people do not let the Center person fall more than a few inches. The Center person gives others his weight, but has a strong back and core. Everyone in the Circumference can help to keep the Center Tree person upright since it is falling in random directions, sometimes directly to a person, sometimes in between two people (and both people should try to set the Tree back in the upright position). Everyone in the group takes turns being the Center Tree person, as in Colgadas and Volcadas, there is a sense of controlled falling, and the person doing the falling has to be able to trust that they will be caught and not let go. The advanced level of this game (which we did not do), is for the Circumference people to use their bodies only (no arms) to set the Center Tree person upright.

EXERCISE: KNOCKING THE FOLLOWER OFF AXIS

The Leader walks into the Follower, knocking her body off axis, and allowing her to fall back into the Leader’s hands. He should enter with his right foot/leg. Follower’s feet remain in the same spot. There are three levels to this exercise:

(4) Follower and Leader catch each other.

(5) Leader catches Follower (Follower’s arms and hands do nothing, they do not hang onto or catch the Leader).

(6) Follower catches Leader (Leader’s arms and hands do nothing, they do not hang onto or catch the Follower).

In this exercise, the Leader needs to physically knock the Follower off axis with his whole center, displacing the Follower’s space. She needs to wait for the Leader to do this, not anticipate being knocked off axis and not go back to soon automatically with no initial contact from the Leader. Follower needs to be prepared to catch the Leader.

This is a physical exercise.

An advanced version is for the Leader to try knocking the Follower off axis from other places, such as from the side or from the back.

EXERCISE: HIP UNDER COLGADA POSTURE AND COUNTERBALACING EACH OTHER

Next, we refined the Hip Under Colgada Posture. We were not to plank back, or banana back.

In the Hip Under Colgada Posture:

Spine is straight.

Hips go back.

We were to engage our cores, and our hips were to be under our rib cages.

The Leader sandwiches (his feet are in a “V” shape) the Follower’s feet (which are in parallel).

Leader and Follower hang onto each other’s wrists, and then move their cores/centers back, counterbalancing each other, using the power of their back and core muscles (not their arm/shoulder muscles).

We worked on this by going out a little first, and then more farther out, working on the posture in an extreme position.

The Follower and Leader should not curl toward each other.

Shoulders should be back and down, chest up, belly back.

The Followers hips and back counterbalance the Leader’s hips and back.

We drilled this for a while, practicing with many different partners (tall, short, fat, thin), to work on being able to counterbalance all sorts of body shapes, weights, and muscle compositions.

STEP-OVER COLGADA

We used the Step-Over Colgada as a foundation, starting in the line of dance, and possibly in close embrace.

The Leader does a left foot rock step forward, pivots 90 degrees, to does a right foot hook back, to a Left foot cheat step, and then puts his weight on his right foot so the Follower can step over his unweighted left foot in colgada on her left foot forward (front cross) step of the first half of the counterclockwise turn/hiro/molinete, walking out to resolution.

The Follower’s left foot should step long and around the Leader during her counterclockwise turn/hiro/molinete, and Leader should try to keep this in the line of dance as much as possible.

STEP-OVER WITH NO COLGADA AND NO CHEAT STEP:

Leader does step over with no colgada, in teapot embrace (with his right hand the handle, his left hand the spout, and the spout being solid with no telescoping), with no cheat step. This is like a regular leader Parada, Follower Pasada.

Follower should have long and reaching steps. She should not fall into her steps. She should have a smooth transfer of weight (no kerplunking). Her embrace is elastic, always breathing, while it is important that the Leader keep his left hand and arm strong and solid like a teapot spout, with no telescoping.

Comments about Ears and Noses, and how Followers should use them.

EARS: Maestra recommended that Followers look at the Leader’s ears, because it lifts her chest and keeps her head back, as opposed to looking down at his chest, which might cause her head to tilt forward and close her chest.

NOSE: Maestro commented that the Follower should keep her nose the same distance from the Leaders nose at all points during her turn/hiro/molinete, and not have it tilt in or back, or change levels.

STEP-OVER COLGADA FROZEN AND SUSPENDED, WITH CHEAT STEP:

For this exercise, in teapot embrace, the Leader sends the Follower out in Colgada, and then freezes/suspends it as Follower is out in Colgada, and then the Leader does the cheat step. The Leader needs to learn how to suspend the Colgada and how to keep his center back to enable him to suspend the colgada.

Line of Power

The Line of Power is a very clear point, where the Follower’s hips are going. In this particular Colgada, it is more out to the side.

The Follower needs to use both hands, left and right, to hang onto the Leader. The Leader’s left arm must not telescope, because then she will have nothing to hold onto. It is important to breathe.

The Leader’s cheat step is where he takes a small right foot step around the Follower while his weight is quickly and momentarily on his left foot.

We drilled this for quite a while with many different partners to get an idea of how to do this with different body sizes.

STEP-OVER COLGADA WITH FULL EMBRACE, STARTING CLOSE

Next, we did this adding the full embrace, starting in close embrace.

The Leader releases his right arm for a period of time as the Follower goes over in Colgada. This is not a momentary release, but a sustained one as she goes around, typically taking two beats. The Colgada ends when the Follower steps. The Follower’s left leg is active in collecting as it is suspending in the air, and controlled as it steps around the Leader.

The class concluded with a question and answer review session and Maestros demonstrated the class concepts to DiSarli’s Cara Sucia.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

From Single Axis Turn to Hurricane Spin in Lomuto Valses

2011-02-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

Song: Jugando Jugando by Francisco Lomuto
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 18, 2011, Muse Milonga, San Francisco

EXERCISE: ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HUGGING

We began with an exercise in partnership face to face, imagining that we were back in elementary school, giving the person a nice hug. We got into this by stepping to the side, and the hugging person (usually the Leader) doing waddle footwork around the hugged person (usually the Follower), slightly lifting while whirling the hugged person around.

What is the biggest problem that prevents the colgada from happening? The Fear Factor. This exercise is an attempt to help us get over our fear factor of the whirling feeling. Other things are that the belly button of Follower and Leader come in, or the Follower’s knees come in, or the Follower clamps down on the Leader.

We worked to refine things.

Leader tries to step into the Follower’s space.

Follower pivots on one foot.

Leader waddles around quickly.

Leader and Follower belly buttons should not touch.

Stepping to the Leader’s left is easier, with Follower on her right foot.

As the Leader starts to turn, have belly button go away from each other.

The Follower posture is the same as the Leader steps to the side. She should keep her regular posture. The Leader should find where he can do it, and have a graceful exit when he stops. In stopping, he should pause and then walk out of it backwards into the line of dance. He should not cause the Follower to fall. Follower needs to keep her knees soft but not overly bend them.

We did a lot of drilling of this exercise, with many different partner changes in class.

EXERCISE: KNOCKING THE FOLLOWER OFF AXIS

Next, we did a fundamental, static exercise.

The Leader walks into the Follower, knocking her body off axis, and she falls back into the Leader’s hands. Follower’s feet remain in the same spot. There are three levels to this exercise:

(1) Follower and Leader catch each other.

(2) Leader catches Follower (Follower’s arms and hands do nothing, they do not hang onto or catch the Leader).

(3) Follower catches Leader (Leader’s arms and hands do nothing, they do not hang onto or catch the Follower).

In this exercise, the Leader needs to physically knock the Follower off axis with his whole center, displacing the Follower’s space. She needs to wait for the Leader to do this, not anticipate and not go back too soon automatically with no initial contact from the Leader.

EXERCISE: HIP UNDER COLGADA POSTURE AND COUNTERBALACING EACH OTHER

In the Hip Under Colgada Posture:

Spine is straight.

Hips go back.

We were to engage our cores, and our hips were to be under our rib cages.

The Leader sandwiches (his feet are in a “V” shape) the Follower’s feet (which are in parallel).

Leader and Follower hang onto each other’s wrists, and then move their cores/centers back, counterbalancing each other, using the power of their back and core muscles (not their arm/shoulder muscles).

We worked on this by going out a little first, and then more farther out, working on the posture in an extreme position.

We drilled this for a while, practicing with many different partners (tall, short, fat, thin), to work on being able to counterbalance all sorts of body shapes, weights, and muscle compositions.

BUILDING TO THE COLGADA:

Next, we worked on a Magic Trick.

In the Leader’s parada position, he has his leg out and outturned, and pivots around by kicking his heel around (lifting it). This is the same position as the Colgada position, only instead of weight being on the back foot, it’s on the Leader’s forward foot.

Then we went back to the first exercise, only with the Leader sending the Follower out in colgada posture, and then spinning the Follower around. We drilled this for quite a while with many different partners.

COLGADA KILLERS:

Belly in.

Back arches and upper body goes back like a banana.

Follower bends knees too much.

Follower clamps onto the Leader’s leg, exerting tension. The free leg should be controlled, but free.

COLGADA:

Next, one simple pattern to pull all the exercises and concepts together:

Leader does rock step with his left foot. Right foot hooks behind, so feet are in a perpendicular angles to each other, Follower right foot forward step (front cross step) around Leader clockwise, pivoting and getting 180 degrees around.

Follower should step long and around Leader to make her step compact.

This is like the ocho cortado, except it’s more circular and doesn’t interfere with the people dancing behind you. This is our set-up step.

The Leader unweights his left foot, and starts to walk around the Follower clockwise, after her right foot forward (front cross) step.

Follower should keep her belly back.

Leader should be aware of how he is holding the Follower. He needs to figure out where the sweet spot is. It is usually under her shoulder blades, and since Followers are all different heights, with different shoulder blade levels, he needs to adjust accordingly depending on the Follower height.

Leader releases his right shoulder a little bit, while Follower maintains contact with her back against the Leader’s forearm during the Colgada.

The Hurricane aspect of the Colgada we learned involved going around really fast. To go around REALLY fast, as the Leader steps around the Follower, his left foot sickles, and his right foot turns out and collects to help the Follower spin in axis. So his feet look like /\ < , etc, as he steps around and around on axis.

Both dancers should keep their elbows in so that it doesn’t take a lot of space.

After a class question and answer review, Maestros demonstrated the class exercises and concepts to Lomuto’s Jugando Jugando vals.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Phrasing to the Transitions & Fills

2011-02-22T00:54:00.000-08:00

Song: No Se Porque Razon by Enrique Rodriguez
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 21, 2011, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

Our class consisted of many games and exercises.

Game: Vals Chacarera.

We got into Chacarera formation of Leaders all in one line facing Followers all in one line, making eye contact with the person across from you, and keeping hands in the air, and turning our torso a little diagonally since the room was quite crowded. Then we took four steps forward and four steps back, similar to the Avanzado and Regreso initial steps of the Chacarera. The 4 forward steps were done in 4 beats, and the 4 back steps were done in 4 beats. We were to play in between the sentences of the song, doing pitter-patter or some fancy or playful footwork or bodywork. Our goal was to get back to our original spot at the end of the sentence.

During this game, maestro played a very regular vals, A Magaldi by Alfredo de Angelis, which has some very nice fills and some run-ons in the song.

Next, we tried to dance in partnership, dancing to the fill. Our constraints were that we were to just walk to the end of a sentence, to get ready to dance to the fill. During the fills we were to do playful things like taps, pitter-patters, or shimmies. Our song was still A Magaldi by Alfredo de Angelis. We were to be as creative or as simple as we want to be during the fill. We were to give ourselves room to play.

“Fills” are often transitions between sentences, but they can also be Run-Ons. We should pay attention to the lyrics because they can help us with timing and anticipating when the fills will come. The lyrics don’t come into a song until the entire song does its thing. Vocals are in poetry form, so it gives you an idea of how the sentences will come. The lyrics/song poetry falls directly on top of the sentence/musical structure of this particular vals, as is the case with many valses. Maestro demo’d this concept by dancing by himself, walking forward and back with the musical phrasing, showing that we could hear the sighs, and take a pause to start the next phrase (like a comma). At the comma or the end of a sentence (phrase) is where the Leader should start the turn in the other direction.

Exercise: Follower Musically Educating the Leader

Our next exercise focused on the Follower educating the Leader about what she hears musically. The Leader pretends that he doesn't hear anything (including the beat). We were to only walk. We were not to do any weight changes, rock steps, turns, ochos, double time steps, or traspie. The Follower needs to actively hear the music, as she tries to gently educate the Leader in a subtle way, conveying what she hears in the music. The Follower is not to back lead or take the lead away, but to use subtle things to suggest to the Leader what she hears. This is so that the Follower can empower herself and be in tune with the music. This is an exercise for the process of Leader education. The Follower can use other parts besides her legs to express the fills in the music: She can do these subtle things:
hand signal (slight squeezes)
move hips
move shoulders
soft taps with hand

She should keep her subtle suggestions and signals in her upper body, and not use her legs and feet. Otherwise, she will be back leading. Without back leading, the Follower can add accents to the music.

The secret agenda of this exercise is to empower the Follower. The Follower adds a lot to the Leader’s education if she is in tune with the music. When we really know the music, we will know it, we will own it and it will come easier.

What is the difference between this and back leading? Do the little things with other parts of the body so that they are under the radar. Follower can initiate something independent of the lead to enhance the dance. Be active in creating the dance with the Leader.

To develop our musical awareness, we did four different exercises.

FIRST LEVEL OF AWARENESS:

To Canaro’s Poema, we just listened to the song without dancing or doing anything (although at home we could do something mindless like wash dishes so that we can focus on the music). In listening, we were to sharpen our hearing and try to find and recognize the fills.

SECOND LEVEL OF AWARENESS

Here, we played a game. In partnership, with Leader and Follower face to face, fingertip to fingertip in mirror image to each other, our fingers and hands “danced” to Canaro’s Poema, with the Leader leading first, and then the Follower given the ability to impose herself if she chooses. This was a give-and-take exercise, with our hands and fingers mirroring and talking to each other. This exercise is to help the Leader to listen to the Follower better, and for the Follower to be more vocal in her body movement about what she hears.

THIRD LEVEL OF AWARENESS

To Canaro’s Poema, we danced simply, giving ourselves a set of constraints, which were to just walk during the song, but to catch the fills, during which we could do pitter patter or taps, but nothing much fancier than that.

FOURTH LEVEL OF AWARENESS

At this level we danced with no constraints, being able to do anything, but still dancing to the music and to try to interpret the fills.

Note that fills can be at the middle or the end of a phrase. Maestro asked if we wanted the same song or a different song. The class wanted a different song, so we danced to Rodriguez’s No Se Porque Razon.

In sum, our 4 Levels of Awareness are:

1. Listen to the song and do as little as possible other than listen.

2. Play with a partner to develop listening interaction skills without physically dancing.

3. Dance with a partner with constraints to try to interpret the music. Use simple movements.

4. Dance with no constraints, but dance to the music and try to interpret the fills.

Maestra shared her experience as a learning Leader. She said she is currently stuck at Level 3. She said she tries to interpret the fills, but by the time the fills arrive, she is late in her lead to them and has missed them. For her to get to the next level, she is trying to simplify everything else, but save the “special” movements for the fill. The “special” movements are simple ones like rock steps or weight changes.

After a short question and answer class summary, Maestros demo’d the class concepts to Rodriguez’s No Se Porque Razon.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Getting Your Lead / Follow Spiral On

2011-02-17T00:46:00.000-08:00

Song: Don Juan by Carlos Di Sarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 16, 2011, Cellspace, San Francisco

This workshop was similar to the one held at Stanford in January 2011

Our focus was on the body spiral, connecting to our bodies and having more self-awareness.

WASHING MACHINE EXERCISE

We began with the Washing Machine Exercise.

Here, we turn our bodies to our left and then release the right foot, pivoting on our left foot. Our hips catch up with our chest.

The goal was to do a 90-degree (quarter) turn with our chest, with everything else following, and then do a 180-degree (half) turn with our chest, with everything else following. Then if we could master that, we could try doing a 360-degree (full) turn, with everything else following.

The motion is:

(1) Turn

(2) Release Hips

(3) Get all the way around.

We were to try this on both sides (turning to our left and turning to our right), engaging and then releasing.

We were also to try this on each foot, in each direction, so there were four possibilities:

(1) Pivoting on our left foot while turning to the left

(2) Pivoting on our left foot while turning to our right

(3) Pivoting on our right foot while turning to our right

(4) Pivoting on our right foot while turning to the left

The first level of this exercise is to have the hips catch up to the chest.

The second level of this exercise is to have the hips go past the chest.

This action is called the Washing Machine exercise because it mimics the spin cycle of a washing machine. It is a good oblique workout.

Next, we were to apply this exercise in a real tango move.

BODY SPIRAL IN CONTEXT OF FOLLOWER TURN/HIRO/MOLINETE

In teakettle embrace with Leader’s hands at the small of his back and elbows out so that Follower can hold onto his arms, the Leader steps around the Follower and leads her in a turn/hiro/molinete on either side. The Leader uses a bit of spiral, turning his chest first, and then his hips coming around.

The Follower also uses spiral while she does the turn/hiro/molinete around the Leader. The only point of contact is in her hands on his arms. Follower, be active in making this contact work. Hold on enough. Wake up that part of the embrace. Keep both sides (her left and right hands) awake. Her arms should be like spaghetti al dente, not too hard and stiff, but not too loose and soggy/absorbing. She should feel and be responsive to the Leader’s body so that the Leader doesn’t have to push her around.

The Leader should not overuse his hands. This is why we practiced the turn/hiro/molinete in teakettle embrace with the Leader not using his hands at all.

The Leader’s right foot outside forward step is where his first spiral is. The Follower spirals in her chest in response, to maintain connection with the Leader and to be in front of him. This is not a square move, it is a circular rotation.

We practiced doing this to a slow Di Sarli song on the strong beat.

With respect to Follower’s turn/hiro/molinete technique, she should keep her nose back on the side step, stay near the Leader, and do not float away at all on all steps of the turn/hiro/molinete: forward (front cross) step, side step, back (back cross) step, side step.

The “Rule of the Nose” was introduced. Since we were doing our work in Open Structure (as opposed to Close Structure), the Follower should try to keep the distance between her nose and the Leader’s nose the same at all time, and not get ahead or behind his nose, and not change the level of her nose up or down, or tilt her head forward or back.

More on Follower’s turn technique: Do not rush in the steps. The Leaders were instructed to lead it on the strong beat, so you should know how much time you have and what the pace of steps should be. Each step in the turn/hiro/molinete is worth $100. Do not rush through the side step and short change it. Step long and consistently around the Leader. Make the weight transfers smooth.

For Leader’s turn technique, the Leader opens his left shoulder to get the Follower to go around him in the clockwise turn/hiro/molinete. It is a pull energy. Leader needs to engage his core.

Here, Maestro demonstrated the wringing/torsion a la washing machine with his right foot forward step, and then his left shoulder opening, and as she goes around in the turn/hiro/molinete, his hips come around.

More on Follower’s turn technique: She should collect at the end of the movement where here feet pass each other, rather than throughout, which takes too much time and looks stiff and robotic.

Also, since we are working using the Open Structure, the axis of both dancers is straight.

Going back to the "Rule of the Nose" since there were questions about it, Maestra commented on how to use the nose. Having the nose and head up raises the eyes and head, which opens up the chest. It is a different way of presenting yourself. This is in contrast to looking at the Leader’s chest, which can cause the Follower’s head to tilt forward and break the line of the body and throw her off axis (make her lean in).

Next, onto the more challenging part of the evening.

The Leader’s back sacada.

ADDING THE LEADER’S BACK SACADA TO THE FOLLOWER TURN/HIRO/MOLINETE

Leader does a right foot back to big spiral, into a left foot back sacada while Follower does a counterclockwise turn/hiro/molinete around him. The Leader uses pull energy in his left arm so that the Follower continues to go around him in a turn/hiro/molinete.

There are two options taught in receiving the Leader back sacada:

(1) Follower raises her knees up, collects, and then steps back.

(2) Follower keeps her feet low and down toward the floor, fluidly receiving it with a little fan out, collects, and then steps back.

Either way, the Follower needs to have control of her receiving leg with either option and not let it flail around, our or away.

With the Leader back sacada option, there are three places of Leader spiral:

(1) Right foot forward step

(2) Left shoulder opening up to initiate the Follower turn/hiro/molinete

(3) Right foot back step to counterclockwise pivot

The class concluded with a review and class summary that included Maestra demonstrating the Follower homework of working on the turn/hiro/molinete footwork around a chair with her focus on keeping her spine vertical and using her arms up, like holding a beach ball over the center of the chair, to also work the spiral in her body.

Maestros demonstrated the class concepts to DiSarli’s Don Juan.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Body Spiral Explored with a CELLspace Inspired Music Mix

2011-01-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

Song: White Flag by Dido
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 16, 2011, Stanford University

Since this was an exploration class, Maestros asked what we wanted to work on, and it was decided that we continue our work on the Overturned Gancho.

Pendulum Exercise
We began with the Pendulum Exercise with the Follower swinging her leg, being really big and strong in her swing, really opening up and toes pointed forward, and the knee only bends when it has to.

At the right moment, the Leader puts his leg behind the Follower's supporting standing foot/leg, with his heel lifted from the floor, and his thigh opening up, exposing the soft part of his leg to receive the Follower's swinging pendulum leg in a gancho. This is called the "Captain Morgan" (of rum fame) position. Again, the Follower's bend in the knee happens at the maximum height of her back leg swing, and she should have good flesh contact with the Leader's thigh.

On the Pendulum Exercise, the Follower should be tall, lengthen the leg, point her toe.
The Leader's foot goes behind the Follower's far away foot, unweighted, with just a little bit of pressure to keep it steady, so perhaps 10% of his weight is on it.
If the Follower is much shorter, the Leader's knee needs to bend, so that he goes down like an elevator.

For the Pendulum Exercise, we had three levels:
(1) Both dancers with both eyes open
(2) Follower's eyes closed.
(3) Leader's and Follower's eyes closed.

If the Follower can do the exercise well, they are almost there.

The Overturned Gancho
The Leader plants his foot, but keeps rotating the Follower so that she pivots a lot and to the point where she can't rotate at all anymore. As he stops and plants, her free leg will go flying. The Leader's right hand needs to let her go so she can go. The Follower will still be hanging on with her left and right hands. The Leader's right hand just provides support on the Follower's left side rib cage/waist. The Follower can drop her left hand, completely letting go of the joint, to get 4 more inches of spiral so she can turn more. If she keeps hanging on, it will be more difficult for her to get around. The Leader's left shoulder joint needs to be relaxed too, to provide space.

Double overturned ganchos can also be done.

Again, as for ochos, the Follower should stay close to the Leader while doing her ochos (including her back ochos). If she needs to lean, she should hang back, not forward. She should not do knee ganchos.

Variation with Leader Back Ocho:
One easy adaptation is with the Leader doing a pivoting back ocho, while leading the Follower to do her overturned ocho so that the Follower ganchos through the back of the Leader's leg, so that her foot ends up at the front of the Leader when she ganchos.

To maintain the connection, the Follower should keep looking at the Leader.

Back Gancho Versus Follower's Back Sacada
The rule of the Follower's forward ocho is that the Leader does nothing at the point of no return, does not do any blocking or any rebounding.

How does the Leader lead a gancho/boleo? You stop turning at the right time to create a wall for the Follower. There is a block energy versus a continuous smooth energy. The Block energy has a suddenness, strong send energy to it.

For the Follower's back sacada, the Leader needs to be able to keep turning smoothly and keep the energy continuous and smooth with no block energy.

For either the Back Gancho or the Follower's Back Sacada, she needs to pivot a lot on the back ocho step, otherwise she will be too far away and hit his foot. She needs to pivot enough to walk around the Leader on the back ocho.

Since this was an exploration class, we drilled a lot to try to figure things out, mixing up Back Ganchos or Follower's Back Sacadas, both on the left and right sides.

Next, Maestros showed us a simple sequence, which we were to replicate in our bodies.

From the idea of the Leader's back ocho Follower overturned gancho through his legs from the back of his thighs to his front, he does a right leg parada. Follower does a reverse pasada, stepping back with her right foot, to a Follower left leg barrida of the Leader's right leg counterclockwise, to a Follower right leg gancho of the Leader's right leg. Our goal in recreating this sequence was the apply all the concepts we learned in all 5 workshops. Leader should drop his knee and keep turning the Follower at the point of his parada/her pasada. At the point of the barrida, the Leader has a soft knee and his weight is on his back left foot so that his right leg is free enough for the Follower to sweep easily and he doesn't block or resist her.

The class concluded with a summary review of Q&A.

Maestros did a demo to White Flag by Dido.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Boleo vs Overturned Gancho Connection with Roberto Rufino on Vocals to Di Sarli

2011-01-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

Song: Corazon by Carlos Di Sarli with Robert Rufino on Vocals
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 16, 2011, Stanford University

We began with a review of yesterday's material to warm up our bodies. Today, our focus was to explore the benefits of having good body spiral, which enables us to have better connection, better communication, more technique and more fulfillment in our dancing.

Ocho Exercise
We began in partnership with no Leader or Follower, and we both did forward ochos, stepping around and toward our partner's trailing foot. We tried this doing back ochos as well, which required even more torsion on our partners. In doing these ochos, the hand that goes to the forward foot will use a little bit of the pull energy to help give lots of pivot in the hips and feet. Again, it was emphasized that we should use our back muscles to keep us up, and our elbows should be pointed down.

Switch Step Exercise
Next, we did the switch step exercise in partnership, which is similar to the Ocho exercise, except we added the switch step pivot forward and snap back. Here, our work focused on how we rely on each other in a positive tango way, as we rebound off of each other and are the other person's wall. So we needed to focus on how we engaged, when we engaged, using our back, core, and connection to our floor. We were not to use our arms and shoulders to lead as if steering a bus.

Next, in Tea Kettle Open Embrace, the Leader's were to do the switch step lead. Leader should have symmetrical (30-45 degree) rotation in his chest/torso.

Building The Forward ("With") Boleo

Foot Trace and Caress the Floor Exercise
We began with an exercise to loosen up our hip. We were to caress the floor with our big toe, tracing the shape of the front of our opposite, supporting standing foot. We were to see how much we can rotate the hip, one foot around the other foot. Our feet began in a "V" position with a little turnout. At the end of our caress with our foot on the other side of our standing foot, our feet will look like the top of an arrow "/\".

“Thwack” (Front Boleo Legwork) Exercise
Then we did the "Thwack" Exercise, with our leg going all the way up and hitting the outside of our opposite hip in a whip action. The goal was to get a good thwack so that you can hear the snap of the pants. The Follower controls the shape of the boleo leg, even though it's the free leg. The quality of the boleo is in how well her leg does the whip action. Keep the knee as low as possible, as long as you clear the other thigh. Knee can lift a little at the end. Follower should keep her hips even, with an even pelvic floor. The Follower needs to have a solid standing, supporting leg for the boleo to work.

Leading the Boleo
With the Leader in Tea Kettle Open Embrace, the Leader was to lead this by doing a side step to the left, attacking the floor, changing weight, and then stepping again in a counter step without transferring the weight completely, but keeping it in the middle while sending her past the point Point of No Return.

The most important thing is timing to stabilize the step and the stop energy. Leader should not be too early or too late. The goal of this class was for the Leader to figure out where that point is and how to lead the boleo at that exact moment.

The Follower needs to be able to pivot on her standing leg, and the Leader needs to keep the Follower on her axis and not pull her off as she does her boleo by rushing her through her completion as her leg returns to exit. Thus, he must be patient and wait for the Follower to finish and he must wait for her hips to get back around after her boleo before he leads the next step, which could be a back ocho or regular back step after her normal collection. Leader must not rush the exit, otherwise he will knock her off axis.

Send Energy and Rebound Energy
Every Boleo has a send energy and a rebound energy to varying degrees. It could be 50/50, or 90/10 or anything in between. Maestro commented that Fabian Salas once demonstrated this by throwing a tennis ball at a wall.
Throwing the ball = send energy
Ball Hitting Wall and bouncing back = boleo
Ball Hitting No wall = ocho

The most obvious way to block the energy is through the embrace. The Leader's counter step reinforces the wall. The counter step can be a little away from the Follower.

Timing is key. The place where the Follower is ready to hit the wall is when you want to give her the block energy.

Our music was DiSarli with Rufino on vocals because the music is obvious with a good strong beat where we could employ the send energy, and also a good strong beat where we can feel the rebound energy.

Exits:
(1) Regular exit is a collection and foot returns back down to the floor.
(2) Knee goes up and around, then back down. Do not knee the Leader. This is for slower, more melodic and flowy music.

We could also do double or triple boleos before exiting.

Maestros showed us the overturned gancho, which is like the idea of the Follower kicking through the Leader's legs from the forward ocho, only it is done on the back ocho instead. The Leader gives the Follower a lot of send energy and also over rotates her so that she does an overturned back ocho and pivots a lot on her supporting, standing leg, such that her toes are pointed completely away from the Leader. Then he creates the wall energy to change it from circular to linear, compressing the energy and being like a wall or statue, as her boleo goes through his legs.

The class concluded with a summary review of Q&A.

Maestros did a demo to Corazon by DiSarli with Rufino on vocals.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Rebotes (switch steps) for Tango, Vals and Milonga with Juan D'Arienzo

2011-01-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

Song: Nada Mas by Juan D'Arienzo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 15, 2011, Stanford University

The goal of this workshop was to continue our work on spiral energy, applying it to our vals and milonga. Thus, the introduction of the switch step, or "rebote".

In partnership with no Leader or Follower, we did forward ochos, pivoting as much as possible, but not breaking the embrace. We were to step toward our partner's trailing leg and really work the spiral in our bodies. Our shoulders should be relaxed and down. Our lats are engaged and support our back. We should stretch and reach our foot, and then go in our step forward. We could also practice this on our own.

Rebote Footwork and Bodywork
Next, we did a solo exercise, where we stepped forward, pivoted 90 degrees, snapped back, and stepped back. So we did it with right foot forward, pivot forward (clockwise), snap back (counterclockwise), step left foot back. Left foot forward, pivot forward (counterclockwise), snap back (clockwise), right foot back.

Tai Chi Tango Exercise
Next, we did the Tai Chi Tango exercise, which is an exercise to help us work on our connection, really mirror and match our partner’s energy, and feeling compression.

Leader and Follower face each other and are hand to hand (or palm to palm). The Leader does a circular motion with each of his hands, and at some point, he stops and gives compression. The Follower's job is to mirror and match the circular motion and to give resistance when she feels the Leader compress.

Next, the Leader's tea pot embrace (with his right hand behind him at his lower back like the handle of a tea pot, and his left arm and hand up like the spout of a tea pot, for the Follower to hang onto) was introduced. Leader should be sure that his left arm/hand (spout) is solid and stiffer. His left arm/hand (spout) should not telescope forward into the Follower.

The Point of No Return
When Leader’s and Follower’s hips face each other, that is called the "Point of No Return." In leading rebotes, the Leader starts compressing before the Follower reaches the Point of No Return. He compresses at the right moment so that the Follower has a wall from which to bounce back off. The Leader should bring his legs together at the point of the rebote to be a more solid wall and have better connection with the floor.

The rebound/rebote can be smooth or snappy/violent.

Adding the Weight Transfer to the Rebote
What happens when we add a weight transfer? The rebote travels linearly. Here, we travel, rebounding forward, linearly. Our hips are turn the same way.
The Leader leads the weight change by simply dropping the weight onto the foot.

This can be done circularly too, with either the Leader or Follower as the axis / center of the circle.

There are four possible variations:
If you can make the linked rebotes with weight transfer go in a line, you can also turn it, with either the Follower as the center, or the Leader as the center. But first, you should start it as a line. The Follower follows the Leader's direction and energy. Usually the Follower walks around the Leader, but the Follower can be the center and do her rebote steps. Maestros demonstrated, but the students did not attempt, doing rebotes using back ochos.

We were to work on getting the first, simple rebote down into our bodies before we attempted the other variations. Again, it was emphasized that the Leader keeps his left arm solid. We also did this in single time and double time. The Leader needs to be able to lead the weight change.

Push and Pull Aspects of the Embrace
In the embrace, there are two sides, or left hand and our right hand. For both Leader and Follower there is push and pull, using the palm of our hands or our fingers, both in our left hand and our right hand. To understand this concept, Maestra demonstrated what the push/pull would look like on a ballet barre. There is push/pull resistance/compression energy. If the Follower pulls the Leader off axis, she is doing the push/pull too strong or at the wrong timing.

"Surprise" Step
The Follower does ochos, and the Leader leads it such that the Follower kicks her leg through the Leaders open legs.

The Rules for the Follower:
The "Surprise Step" has the same feeling as the rebote, with the Leader giving you the wall, but he stops the rebound energy of his hips with the Leader compressing into the floor. This frees up the Follower's free leg to kick through.

Pendulum Leg Exercise
We backed up with an exercise, the Pendulum Leg. Here, the Follower's leg swings from the hip, large and full, not from the knees. Her knees should stay low, but be a part of the entire leg during the swing. It's a controlled leg swing, not a floppy one. Thus, it is a Tai Chi moment where you need to have freedom and also control.

After the exercise, we attempted to drill some more of rebotes with the surprise step kick through.

The class concluded with a summary review of Q&A.

Maestros did a demo to Nada Mas by D'Arienzo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Get Your 'Pivot' vs No 'Pivot' Ochos Defined with Edgardo Donato

2011-01-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

Song: Se Va La Vida by Edgardo Donato
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 15, 2011, Stanford University

Our music for the second workshop was Donato: rhythmic, playful and sweet.

We began with a review of the simple sequence learned in the Workshop 1, focusing on applying the concepts we learned to be as twisty as possible:

8CB to 5 (cross)
Follower forward ochos
Leader parada, with his hips turning 45 degrees.

Follower should keep her chest turned toward the Leader, even though her hips face away (she can pivot away as much as she can manage it)

Follower’s embellishments to the Leader parada (done on either side):
(1) Syncopated stepover.
(2) Rulo

Syncopated Stepover
The syncopated stepover is used to accent the strong rhythm. The Follower steps a little back, then a little to the side, and then around in front and over the Leader’s parada foot like a little boat. It’s a little like tricking him.

On the close side of the embrace, it’s left foot back, right foot side, left foot around in front and over.

On the open side of the embrace, it’s right foot back, left foot side, right foot around in front and over.

Rulo
Maestra demonstrated the rulo, where her hip opens out and away from the Leader, and then she draws a circle on the floor with her foot, while she pivots on her opposite foot, so that when she is done with her rulo, her body is oriented toward the Leader at a right angle so she is ready to step over his parada foot.

Parada Pointers:
Leader: Touch the Follower’s foot in the parada. If there is no foot contact, you will trip her. Have contact in the feet, but do not jam her pivoting foot.

The “Rule of the Knee” was introduced. The “Rule of the Knee” is that the Leader’s knee needs to be lower than the Follower’s knee, otherwise she can’t pass.

The “Rule of the Embrace” was introduced. It says that the Follower wants to hold on. She can pivot as much as possible within the constraints of the embrace. Our goal was to have the Follower pivot as much as possible.

The Follower's pasada step over is a forward step, long and around the Leader.

Now, the meat of the class material:

Follower Ochos with Leader Side Step
In partnership, we did Follower ochos, working in a slot, with the Leader doing a side step (versus the earlier ocho with Leader standing in place but rotating his upper body).

Follower: She does a 180 degree pivot, so that she does the ochos linearly, in a slot. She should rotate as much as possible without breaking the embrace. She can adjust her hip so that she is in the line of the Leader. She should amplify the Leader's energy 2-3 times with her hips so that she can get a good pivot. Be good in your embrace, have elasticity and tone, to take the lead energy and transport it into the hip.

Leader: Don't be asymmetrical in your torso rotation. Most beginner Leaders do uneven torso rotations, turning more on one side than the other when leading ochos. Our goal was to have the amount of rotation the same, at 30-45 degrees. The Leader should not compensate for the asymmetry in his torso rotation by cheating and fixing it by using the embrace (his arms). Timing is key with respect to torso rotation. The Leader's energy into the floor helps the Follower pivot. Along with trying to be even in the 30-45 degree torso rotation, he should also keep his axis up (not tilted forward), when leading the Follower ocho. Otherwise he will pull her in.

For the leader, the side step is like a martial arts chop, adding impulse to the ocho lead to make the ocho more exciting. The Leader should attack the floor at the right time, to release the pivot from the Follower's ocho factory (hips).

"No Pivot" Ocho
Leader: Pretend you are rollerblading down the boardwalk in your feet, but have NO shoulder rotation in your upper body.

Follower: Back cross steps with no hip pivot. Open the hips without pivoting the supporting, standing leg so that your shoulders do not rotate.

Vanilla Bean Ocho
In tea kettle open embrace, the Leader does the roller blade footwork while the Follower does no-pivot ochos. The idea for both is that neither should have any torso or shoulder rotation. In the tea kettle embrace, it's easier to be symmetrical. When you add the normal embrace, it's more difficult to be symmetrical. In class, we were to work on the ideal of being symmetrical. At the milonga, you should do what fits in the space.

The Leader's footwork is in cross system. He gets into it with a side step left, holds the Follower's weight in place while he does a quick weight change, and then he roller blades forward.

We also tried this in double time, as it is very fun to do musically. In single time, the Leader collects at the ankles in between the strong beats as he would normally, but in double time he does not since there is not enough time. Instead, his legs are open and it might look more like a waddle-- admittedly not very elegant, but all eyes will be on the Follower anyway. Since all eyes are on the Follower, she should always collect in between her steps.

Pivoted Ocho: Baby Back Ocho
In this ocho, the Follower has a lot of torsion in her core.
Leader releases his right arm so that the Follower's hips have room to rotate. The Leader transitions to open embrace with both Leader and Follower at vertical axis.
We tried doing this in partnership, doing it in normal time and double time.

The class concluded with a summary review of Q&A.

Maestros did a demo to Se Va La Vida by Edgardo Donato.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Fundamentals of Body Spiral for Leaders and Followers

2011-01-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

Song: Sinsobar by Edgardo Donato
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 15, 2011, Stanford University

We began with Cristina leading several warm-up exercises to help us do twisty moves to the best of our ability.

Exercise 1:
We all stood in a circle, with feet hip width apart (6-8 inches), with feet parallel, trying to look like the letter H.
Keep knees soft, don’t lock them.
Be nice and tall.
Inhale four counts, raise shoulders, swing arms from side to side like a monkey or May pole.
Exhale, drop shoulders.
Do this twice
Begin again, swing arms, exhale, drop shoulders

Exercise 2:
Turn head to the right.
Keep shoulders parallel.
Turn head a little more, trying to look behind you.
Turn head to the left.
Keep shoulders parallel.
Turn head a little more, trying to look behind you.
Bring your chin to your chest.
Roll shoulders back.
Lean head back.
Roll shoulders forward.

Exercise 3:
In partnership, with one persons back facing the other person’s front, the person behind has his hands on the front person’s hips. The front person twists to the right to see if he can turn his head to face the other person. Then he twists to the left to see if he can turn his head to face the other person.

Next, the back person’s hands were changed to the front person’s shoulders, and again the front person tried to turn his head all the say way around so that he could see the other person behind him. Again, we did this both ways.

Next, the back person holds the front person’s head up by the ears, so that the front person’s head was more floaty. The front person tries to twist his whole body around, including his feet, to see how far he can go. We did this on both sides.

The freer the joints, the more twisty the body, and the larger the range of motion one is able to achieve.

Exercise 4: Introduction of One-Legged Concepts
It’s hard to be just on one leg.
We began with being 100% on one leg, our left leg. Do not sit on the leg, keep the knee soft. Be upright. Keep shoulders even, ribcage open, and spine long. Be rooted into the floor. We held this for several counts, and tried it on the left foot and the right foot.

Exercise 5:
Next, we stepped forward with our right leg, raised our left leg, and then take our right arm/shoulder and twist to the right, while standing on one leg (our right leg). We held this pose/position for four counts. Keep shoulders level. Try to raise the arms higher. Hold for 8 counts.

We also tried this on the other side, stepping with our left foot, raising our right leg, and twisting to the left.

Exercise 6: Disassociation Exercises Led by Homer
Walking in a line, turn our body toward our forward walking foot with our arms stretched wide like in exercise 5. Try to look all the way behind you. Keep chest up. Stay tall. Be balanced, elegant and controlled. The idea is to do this smoothly and with flow. At the time of collection, you should be looking back.

We also tried this walking backward.

We drilled this for 1-2 minutes. Practice this at home to improve your tango spiral.

Applying the above Exercises to our Walk:
In partnership, we walked, in line or outside partner in open embrace. We should keep facing each other, but the Leader should try to exaggerate his twisting toward the Follower as he walked and changed from inside to outside partner. We should feel the twist in our core and spine.

Building our Simple Walking Pattern to Leader’s Grapevine Footwork:
Next, in partnership, open embrace, the Leader does grapevine footwork, in and out. Here again, the Follower and Leader should keep their chests toward each other, and try not to move just their shoulders, but their entire bodies, with disassociation. The Leader was to hyper exaggerate leading with his spine.

In kettle embrace (leader’s hands at the small of his back, Follower hanging on to Leader’s arms), we did the Leader’s grapevine footwork, and the Follower needed to mirror the Leader’s body. The Leader should focus on the smoothness in between the transitions. He needs to know when to twist his spine, and coordinate the turn with when he steps on the floor. He should keep the size of his steps consistent, so that the timing is also consistent.

The Follower should mirror the twist in the Leader’s spine when she feels it, and keep consistency and good reaction in her own steps. She must not fall into her steps. In walking back, Follower should take care to walk back straight, with one foot behind the other in one straight line (track). Follow the direction of the Leader’s hips, even though your chest faces the Leader.

The point of this class is to maximize the torsion in our body, but still be balanced in our walk.

It is not just a twist in our front. The core has to soften a little to allow range. The back has to be soft enough to accommodate the twist and to allow separation from what the lower half is doing from where the upper half is.

Leader: Do not tilt and let your shoulders become uneven when you twist back.

Part I: Going to the Follower’s Cross
In tea kettle open embrace, the Leader tries to lead the Follower into the cross. He does the spiral in his back/body to lead it. Here in class, we were to exaggerate this.

Leader: Keep upright, do not lean forward.

Follower: Do not do automatic crosses for this exercise. Make sure you follow the lead. Be with the Leader. Follower’s cross should reflect how the Leader spirals and how his back twists. The cross should be tight. The cross, shallow or wide, depends on how much your right hip opens out and how well the left foot comes back (it should mirror the Leader’s torsion).

The Leader and Follower should be well connected to make this a very sophisticated, elegant move.

Leader: If you can make this feel good, you are on the right road.

Leader: Keep thigh close to the Follower’s. It might even touch. This is so you line up with Follower at the point of her cross.

Part II: Follower Forward Ochos While Leader Stands in Place
In tea kettle open embrace, the Follower does forward ochos while the Leader stands in place. The Follower should stay close, but don’t bump into the Leader. She should take long, snaky steps around him. The Leader really spirals in place. The Follower should have a good, engaged embrace.

Bonus:
Leader parada on either foot.

Follower can embellish before she steps over with a fan or rulo, but she should always step over long and snaky.

Putting It All Together In A Simple Sequence:
8CB to 5 (cross) to Follower forward ochos, to Leader parada on either side.

Followers: Because Leader is in tea kettle embrace, he can’t hold you up or twist you. The Follower has to amplify what the Leader is doing. She needs to be very smart about where she steps. It is very important. She should have tiger hips and snaky steps. Do not knock the Leader over or off his axis. Be near the Leader. The Follower’s whole body is involved in snaking around. Use your curves.

The Follower’s right thigh should brush the Leader’s pants. That’s how close she should be to the Leader.

The class concluded with a summary review of Q&A.

Maestros did a demo dance to Donato’s Sinsobar.

Bonus Material given during the break:

Leader’s Parada Exercise:
We worked on the Leader’s footwork.
Stretch the right foot forward with no body spiral.
Stretch the left foot forward with no body spiral.

Start in one direction, pivot 90 degrees. The twist is in the abdomen, and is like ringing a towel.

Release it to kick heel around.

The foot is out and curving 90 degrees around. Shoulders are twisted even more, about 105 degrees.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

How Foot Work Effects Lead & Follow in Turns

2011-01-18T00:44:00.000-08:00

Song: Noches de Colon by Ricardo Tanturi with Albert Castillo on Vocals
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 17, 2011, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

We began with defining vocabulary of the Absolute Turn versus the Relative Turn.

Absolute Turn:
Turns where there is only one axis, usually the Leader.

Relative Turn:
Turns where the axis is changing with almost every step. An example of this is dancing with sacadas. Follower still wants to go around the axis (walk around the Leader).

To understand these different types of Turns, we danced one dance, turning as we usually do, either absolute or relative, but we were to try to be more aware of how we were turning, either relatively or absolutely.

What is the purest Absolute Turn we can do?
Ones where the Leader is rotating on one axis. An early, sometimes considered a beginner example of this is with the Leader's paddle footwork, so he is on one axis (his standing, supporting leg), while the other foot paddles around. We tried this in open embrace with both Leader and Follower on axis (no lean). The Leader paddles around, really being on one axis (one column from his standing, supporting leg all the way up), while the Follower does a Turn around him.

Leader's Paddle Footwork Technique:
You don't need to have the heel up. Just let it be up at the point of pivot.

Follower's Turn Technique:
This class assumed that Follower knew the grapevine Turn footwork of forward - side - back - side - forward - side - etc.
Keep the steps constant in cadence, weight change, and size.
For the class exercise, we were not to do the automatic QQ of the back - side step if the Leader doesn't lead it. Thus, we were just to step on the strong beat only.
Be in control all the time.
Take equal size steps.
The back step needs to have more pivot to stay around Leader while turning around him.
The real litmus test of whether or not a turn is good is the quality of the side step. Because the back step is challenging, the side step usually suffers. The side step will eventually help the other steps (back cross and forward cross steps). Be clean in your side steps.
Another litmus test is how well the Follower stays close to the Leader. Thus, the Follower needs to figure out how much to pivot on the forward and back steps and how much she needs to step around the Leader to remain close to him.
The Follower needs to be good with all her steps in her turn because each step affects the next step.
Do not fall forward, and do not have small steps. Otherwise, you will kill the turn.

What can be problematic for the Follower to do a good Turn is if the Leader keeps changing his axis. He might inadvertently do this by having instability while he paddles around, or wobbling or partially changing weight from one axis (one column, one leg) to the other (other column, other leg) to maintain his balance as he paddles around. This makes the turn dirty or sloppy.

Cross Walking Forward and Backward Exercise
We did just a short, quick review of the Cross Walking Forward and Backward Exercise since many students were regulars and had done this before.
The goal is to walk forward by doing alternating, continuous back crosses. So you can cross back left foot, unhook and cross back right foot, unhook and cross back left foot, etc., continuously, and all the while attempting to go forward.
We also did the back walk by crossing forward. So you can cross front with your left foot, unhook and cross front with your right foot, unhook, and cross front with your left foot, etc., continuously, and all the while attempting to go backward.
We were to remain upright with chest up, balanced and elegant when we did this exercise.

Exploration Exercise:
The Leader needed to figure out if crossing in front or behind helped the Follower turn.
How does it affect your lead?
Where and at which Follower step is it best for the Leader to cross in front or cross behind?
When you cross, what foot is crossing? Crossed feet can work to your advantage or disadvantage.
The goal for the Leader was to think about what he is doing and why.

When the Leader crosses behind when the Follower does her back cross, it gives a "whoosh" feeling when they go around each other because the pivot helps each other get around. Both the Leader and Follower pivoting back supercharges the turn.

When the Leader steps with his right foot and crosses behind with his left foot, it feels like the turn is slowing down. To keep it going, the Leader needs to have even more spiral in his body.

Maestros demo'd the Leader's Turn with Back Crosses:
Leader turns to his left, enters with his left foot on her side step, doing a right foot back cross on the Follower counterclockwise Turn.
Leader turns to the right, enters with his right foot on her side step, doing a left foot back cross on the Follower clockwise Turn.

Solo Exercise: Leader Footwork
Working in slots, we were to take a:
left foot step forward
pivot
hook right foot behind left foot
change weight
unwind, and
left foot step back to our original beginning place

We also did it on the other foot:
right foot step forward
pivot
hook left foot behind right foot
change weight
unwind, and
right foot step back to our original beginning place

In partnership, the Leader uses pulling energy to open up his left side on the counterclockwise turn. On the clockwise turn, he opens up his right side. To this, we added the Leader's back cross hook footwork.

During the Turns, both Leader and Follower need to do their jobs.

Leader: Work on crossing behind tight and small so that you have absolute center and clean crosses (not dirty crosses).

Working on the Turn to the Right, in open embrace, we were to explore two ideas:
Starting with the Leader's sacada of his right foot of the Follower's trailing right foot on her left foot side step during the clockwise Turn, to:
(1) the Leader walking around the Follower.
(2) the Leader doing a left foot front cross to make the turn absolute again.

The Leader has a lot of work to perfect and master the Back Enrosque to the Left and the Forward Enrosque to the right. He needs to have tight and deep crossing ability and he needs to be able to pivot enough with energy. Thus, he should try to practice the crossing and pivoting exercises where ever and whenever he can (the bus stop, in the kitchen waiting for the microwave to finish, etc.). He needs to be able to pivot with energy to get his hips in front of the Follower's in order to get more power to get the Follower to keep turning.

Close Embrace Turns:
The close embrace Turn has forward energy, and the steps are truncated, shorter. The Follower truncates the back and forward step.
On the clockwise Turn, the Follower's back step is truncated (a tight back cross step).
On the counterclockwise Turn, the Follower's forward step is truncated (a tight front cross step).
The Leader crossing in front or behind is supposed to help the Turn keep going.

The Review Quiz yielded the conclusion that the effective placement of the feet for the Leader and Follower should result in more power, more energy, better timing and better communication between the dancers during the Turn.

Maestros demo'd the class concepts in open and close embrace to Noches de Colon by Tanturi with Castillo on vocals.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Beginning Class: Novice Material and Introduction to Turns

2011-01-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 12, 2011, Cellspace, San Francisco

The music for our class was elegant and easy dancing Di Sarli.

We began the class with partnering up, and then giving each other a hug. The first social barrier in tango to get over is hugging. So during the class, we did a lot of hugging in between partner changes.

Human Metronome Game
Next, we played the Human Metronome Game. Leader and Follower stand face to face, with knees soft and feet together. Ankles should be together like Dorothy's in the Wizard of Oz. The Follower puts her index finger on the Leader's body in an appropriate spot, such as on his chest. The Leader shifts weight and the Follower stays with him with her finger, feeling the weight shift and matching it with her own weight shift. The Leader should imagine waving like a tree and swaying gently side to side, so the movement is small and subtle, but grounded. Leader does not need to move a lot. Next, the Follower changes the spot where her finger is to another appropriate point on the Leader's body, such as his belly. Again, she should follow the Leader's weight shifts with weight shifts of her own. The Leader's goal is to communicate the weight shift, and he can vary his speed, slow and fast. Next, the Follower again changes the spot where her finger is (maybe to the Leader's hip), using her other hand. Wherever her finger is, or whatever hand she uses, it should feel the same. The Leader can go fast or slow, but his movement should be narrow, as if he is moving in a coffin. Next, the Leader changes tempo. We tried this while Maestro snapped his fingers on the strong beat to Di Sarli's Don Juan. The goal was for the Leader to try to tune into the music, and translate that into his body movements.

After the song, we hugged and then rotated partners.

Introduction to the Embrace
We began with the open embrace.
The Follower should put her right hand on the top of the Leader's left hand. The contact is soft, and her right elbow points down to the floor, relaxed.
The Leader should have his left hand not too high or too low; it should be somewhere between the Follower's shoulders and eyes.
The Follower's left hand can be on the Leader's shoulder, around his triceps, or around his bicep. It should be floating, not pushing down on the Leader.
The Leader's right hand scoops the Follower.

Junior High Sweetheart Dance
In the open embrace, we tried to change weight as we did at our dances in Junior High School, like young sweethearts, where we separate our feet by a few centimeters or inches, and both dancers take little steps, going around in a circle. It could take 20 steps to get around in one revolution. We did this clockwise and counterclockwise. The Junior High Sweetheart Dance is used as a tool to stall/wait, or to navigate.

Walking in the Line of Dance
The Line of Dance is the way the dance floor's order is maintained, with the Leaders facing counterclockwise (and walking forward) and the Follower's facing clockwise (and walking backward). With Maestro calling out "step" "step" on the strong beat of the song, the Leader would step forward, doing little steps. He could also do weight changes in place, or do the Junior High Sweetheart Dance to the left or to the right. We should not cut corners, otherwise we could wind up in the middle of the dance floor, which is a scary place. We should also not bog down the dance floor, but keep it moving.

Next, we changed partners and hugged our new partner. To a new Di Sarli song we again just practiced dancing, doing just:
Weight Changes
Junior High Sweetheart Dancing
Walking to the music, stepping on the strong beat.

The added instruction was to put this all together and do it all in the Line of Dance, and use all of the space by walking into the corners. Beginner dancers often cut corners to get around the dance floor. We were specifically instructed to not cut corners, but to walk into them, so that we all have more space to dance. We were to stop dancing when the music stops.

Social Etiquette, Part I: Thank You
Besides the Line of Dance, there are two other things that we should know about Argentine Tango social dancing.
The first thing is: "Thank You"
What does it mean when you say "Thank You" to someone you've been dancing with?
It means, "That's It."
It can be used many ways. If you enjoy dancing with someone, you can say it at the end of the tanda (a set of 3-5 songs) with sincerity and enthusiasm. You can also say it after the first song or in the middle of a song if are not comfortable, and don't want to continue dancing with the person.

Next, we changed partners and hugged our new partner. To a new Di Sarli song, we again just practiced dancing, doing just:
Weight Changes
Junior High Sweetheart Dancing
Walking to the music, stepping on the strong beat
In the Line of Dance.

The added instruction was to work on our floorcrafting a little more with the specific instruction on Not to Pass Anyone.

Also, if the embrace didn't feel comfortable to the Follower, she should ask the Leader to change it. Here in class, this is OK to do.

After the song ended, we thanked our partner, gave him a hug, and then changed partners.

Introduction on the Side Step
We all got into one big circle, holding hands. We began with a weight change, stopping with our weight on our right foot, compressing our knees, stretching our left foot, going over and transferring weight to the left side, and then coming up completely onto the left foot and the right leg pulling in to fully collect as a consequence. We also did this to the other side, changing our weight, settling on our left foot, compressing our knees, stretching our right foot, going over and transferring weight to the right side, and then coming up and collecting. Energywise and feelingwise, we mimicked the letter "U" of the alphabet.

In partnership of Leader and Follower, we went from the Metronome Game to the Side Step. In open embrace, the Leader settles on his left, compresses his knees, stretches his free foot, transfers the weight, comes back up and pulls the free leg in. It is important that when the Leader arrives to his new weighted/standing foot/leg, that he draw up in his body. The Leader should try to match the Follower, and not out step her, especially if he has longer legs than she does. Leader should keep his ankles together even while just changing weight in place.

Pointers:
A: On the side step, the footwork for both Leader and Follower should be more like a gentle squeegee, with the focus on the inside of the foot, rather than like a Hoover vacuum cleaner, with the whole foot moving flatly across the floor.
B: Leader: Don't go too far down, otherwise you will knock knees with the Follower. The Leader can control his knee so that it cuts to the inside or the outside of the Follower's knee to avoid contact with her knees. Thus, he should be aware of where the Follower's knees are likely to be.
C: Leader: Do not out step the Follower.
D: Follower: Stay with the Leader.

Next, we did a partner change, hugging our new partner.
To a new Di Sarli song we again just practiced dancing, doing just:
Weight Changes
Junior High Sweetheart Dancing
Walking to the music, stepping on the strong beat
In the Line of Dance
Using the Corners of the dance floor.

To this we added: The Side Step.
When doing the side step, the Leader needs to be aware of his/their orientation. If he is doing the side step across the line of dance, he should be sure he has room because he will be changing lanes. If he does it perpendicular to the line of dance, he should know whether his side step goes forward in the Line of Dance, or backward. If he chooses to go backward, he should be sure he has enough room and time to do so, and that he doesn't crash into or disturb the other dancers moving forward in the Line of Dance, possibly right into him.

The Leaders were also instructed to step forward more confidently, taking bigger steps. They could also vary the size of the steps, big and small, to practice their intention. It is important that the Leaders not compress the embrace unconsciously, but that they should be sure to keep it open.

Social Etiquette, Part II: Eye Contact
Q: How do you ask someone to dance?
A: You use eye contact. Be as subtle as possible.
This is called the "Cabaceo".

For the Follower, if she does NOT want to dance with a Leader who is trying to catch her eye, it is not enough to just not look at the Leader. She should look at him, acknowledge the eye contact, and then purposefully look away.
If she DOES want to dance with the Leader, she should look at the Leader, acknowledge the eye contact, and slightly nod a little bit (not hugely with head bobbing frantically up and down). Here, after he sees the Follower nod at him, the Leader should walk to the Follower and verbally ask, verifying that she does indeed want to dance.

More on Eye Contact:
How to get into the Line of Dance.
Leaders: Do not run into the Line of Dance.
Followers: Do not let the Leaders run into the Line of Dance.
Leaders: Establish eye contact with the couple you plan to cut in front of into the Line of Dance. If they don't acknowledge you, don't go in. Wait for them to go by, and then try with the next couple.

The class was split in two, with Leaders on one side and Followers on the other, and we tried to cabaceo each other, and then the Leaders walked over and verbally confirmed that the Follower wanted to dance.
Then we danced one song using all that we learned so far in class, again paying attention to dance in the Line of Dance, using the corners of the dance floor space, and not passing anyone.

Introduction to the Turn/Hiro/Molinete
The tango Turn is just as vital as walking. The Turn allows us to do everything else.
In one big circle, we all held hands. Then we took a side step right, forward cross step left, side step right, back cross step left so that we went around in one big counterclockwise circle.
We also tried this in the opposite direction: Side step left, forward cross step right, side step left, back cross step right so that we all went around in one big clockwise circle.

To put this in the context of social dancing, in partnership, the Leader does Pac Man with his feet, where his ankles are together and his feet are in a V, opening and going around like Pac Man (the 1980s video game), while the Follower does the Turn/Hiro/Molinete footwork of side, forward, side, back.

Usually, the first step is a side step. The Leader was to practice "capturing the Moon" -- with the Leader being the Earth and the Follower being the Moon. The Leader "captures" the Follower side step with a side step of his own, getting out of Pac Man footwork. For the Leader's Pac Man footwork, he should keep his ankles close together, taking care to not let the jaws of Pac Man open up too much.

Next, we did a partner change, and hugged our new partner.
To a new Di Sarli song we again just practiced dancing, doing just:
Weight Changes
Junior High Sweetheart Dancing
Walking to the music, stepping on the strong beat
In the Line of Dance
Using the Corners of the dance floor.

To this we added:
Leader Pac Man footwork, opening to his left while Follower did grapevine/Turn/Hiro/Molinete footwork of side, forward, side, back
Leader was also to capture the Follower's side step.
And then repeat.

The class concluded with a filmed question and answer review. No demo dance was done.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

An Introduction to An Effective Use of Body Weight in Tango

2010-12-10T00:29:00.000-08:00

Song: Comme Il Faut by Carlos Di Sarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
December 8, 2010, Cellspace, San Francisco

This was a brand new, experimental class.

EXPLORING HOW WE USE BODY WEIGHT
We began with an exercise. In teakettle open embrace (with both the Leader's hands at the small of his back, and Follower hanging on to his biceps), the Leader was to lead the Follower in a dance. The following things were things we should think about:
Leader: How do I use weight to lead?
Follower: How do I use the weight to respond appropriately to the lead?
We were to be slow and elastic, dynamic, and in control in our dance (in teakettle open embrace).

Followers:
How do we use our standing leg? We should connect with the floor with our standing leg.
We should spend time and effort to really settle in to our standing leg, settling first, and then reaching with our free foot for our next step.
Try to use the connection to the floor.
The Follower's embrace is elastic: each arm can bend and flex.
In the Follower's steps and dancing, she should not be flighty and try to get away from the Leader.
She should use her whole body when she starts moving.

We then danced a song, again in teakettle open embrace, where the Leaders were encouraged to change it up more by:
Changing weight
Being subtle at times
Being energetic at times
Changing from one direction to another
Followers were instructed to be grounded, and show a bit of resistance.

RESISTANCE
The question came up: "What is resistance?"
Does the Follower slow down the Leader?
The Follower's purpose is to connect with the Leader.
The kind of resistance we hope to achieve is horizontal in energy, not vertical.
It is the Follower choosing to actively stay longer on the standing leg before reacting to the lead.
This is the Follower's way of letting the Leader know how she moves through space using her weight.

The question came up of how to handle males who follow since they have higher centers of mass. How does the Leader compensate for the male follower's higher center of mass?
Cristina's answer: You connect with the floor more.
Homer's answer: (1) You play with the tilt of the bodies/axes and (2) Make the Follower learn to connect with the floor more.

BODY WEIGHT WHILE WALKING AND THE CONCEPT OF CHANGING THE EMBRACE COMPRESSION AND TILT OF LEADER'S AXIS TO SIGNAL A CHANGE OF DIRECTION
Next, we played a game.
In teakettle open embrace, in partnership we were to walk forward and walk backward.
In our forward walk, our bodies are slightly toward each other /\.
In our backward walk, our bodies are slightly away from each other \/.
Our goal in this game was to feel the weight of our bodies.
The Follower should take long forward steps, but not plank in her body. She should also not fall into her steps, especially the forward step.
Both dancers should create a natural resistance and communication in the embrace.

The Leader changes the embrace compression at the point when the direction changes forward to back, or back to forward. He does this by taking a moment to create the resistance by settling into the floor.
The Leader and Follower should both collect first, and then work through the neutral zone, and then change the direction before the next step is made.
For the exercise, it is OK to exaggerate it, to feel and understand the concept.
The Leader tilts his axis by flexing his ankles as he changes direction forward to back or back to forward. If his or her toes are crunching, he/she is too far forward. The toes should always be able to wiggle.
The change from forward to back feels like a slow vacuum.
The Follower feels the intention to change direction in the change in the tilt of the Leader's body before the change in direction, so she knows where to go.
It is up to both the Leader and Follower to build the relationship before you step/change the direction.
This game gave us a concept that will help us add elasticity to the embrace. Shifting weight has great leverage potential.

DYNAMICS: GOING FROM A LINEAR TO A CIRCULAR MOVE, EMPLOYING THE ABOVE CONCEPT
Next, we worked on the concept of Dynamics, that is, going from a linear to a circular move using the above concept.
The Follower should have an al dente embrace (not too soft and not too hard, but firm and responsive), using her back and core muscles.

The step, still done in teakettle embrace, was a simple one:
Leader's side step left (Follower's side step right) to step forward with his right foot, change weight, and then back with his right foot, as he leads the Follower counterclockwise molinete/hiro/turn around him.
This was a very simple step, and our goal was to work on quality of movement.

The dancers are close to begin with together at the side step, and then the Leader changes his axis back as he leads the molinete/hiro/turn. The Follower's embrace has flexibility (compression and extension). The Leader works through a forward tilt and back tilt during the Follower molinete/hiro/turn, and the Follower feels a "slingshot" type of energy as she comes around him.
To get out of it, the Leader captures her with another side step left.
The movement is soft and quiet, and then explodes, and then quiets down again.

The Follower should not take short steps, and not fall into her steps. Otherwise she will kill the dynamics of the molinete/hiro/turn. She should also make a good reach effort.
The Follower should really arrive on her step before reaching for the next step, and use everything in her body as she moves through space. She should not rush, and not be afraid of being left behind by the Leader.

Next, we added the teapot embrace with the Leader having a right hand handle and left hand spout to have more control.
The Follower must really hold onto the Leader.
Again, we tried the side step to molinete/hiro/turn on one side (counterclockwise) and then the other (clockwise).

The Leader should not move his body in a block when he leads the molinete/hiro/turn. Otherwise, he will be inefficient in his molinete/hiro turn lead. Instead, the Leader should use disassociation to make the movement easy and with finesse. Leaders tend to use their arms too much when leading the molinete/hiro/turn, so our work using the teapot embrace should alleviate that, and to also work on the secret agenda: that is, for the Leader to develop more pull energy with his left hand (as opposed to overusing and misusing his right hand by pushing the Follower to do the molinete/hiro/turn).
The teapot embrace also causes the Leader to engage his arms to his back to the floor.

The Follower works through many different types of strength in her embrace in this simple sequence in teapot embrace: soft, al dente, and firm, but she should always have elasticity, with each arm expanding and compressing as she goes around the Leader.

Maestros concluded with a demo to DiSarli's Comme Il Faut.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Exploration of Styles Within Colgadas with Mixed Music (Advanced Class)

2010-12-06T00:36:00.000-08:00

Song: No Te Mires En El Rio by Enrique Rodriguez
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 28, 2010, Ashland, Oregon

We began with Cristina leading some physical body warm-up exercises so that we could be grounded and our bodies could be nimble and flexible.

In the first colgada class, maestros gave us a simple structure (the step-over colgada). In this class we were given options to develop our own style.

The basic foundation was the step-over colgada. It doesn't need to be too big, and can be done in open embrace. We were to stay in the line of dance.

We reviewed the counterbalance exercise and hip under posture. We were not to arch our back or have ballroom posture, we were not to plank, and we were not to collapse in our shoulders or upper body.

The idea of this class was to explore what works, and what doesn't work.

We experimented with the counterbalancing exercise with different postures and embraces:
cross hand hold
arch back/ballroom
plank
collapsing in shoulders or upper body.
If doing any of these options hurts our backs, we were to go back to the basic step-over colgada with hip-under posture.

Next, we experimented with changes in height, changes in embrace, and changes in the leg, and turning it even more.

Our goal was to experiment with different postures with the underlying thought of "How can I make this work?"

The Follower would decide one posture, and the Leader would have to counterbalance it.

The default is that the Follower should not change her height.

The Leader has to adjust instantly.

Option 1: If the Leader changes his height (by bending his knees), the Follower copies the Leader.

Option 2: The Leader changes his posture; see how the Follower responds (she usually copies it).

Since there were some students in this class who were not in the previous class, the concept of "The Wall" was reviewed.

The Leader needs to be a wall that the Follower wants to hang from. In teapot embrace, the Leader's left hand stays fixed so that the Follower can hang from it. If the Leader's left hand/arm has give, the Follower will want to step down earlier than she should. The Follower needs to be able to use the wall. The Follower has an elastic embrace, sometimes engaging more than usual. In the teapot embrace, the Leader should practice keeping his spout (left arm) solid. The Leader uses his back to keep his spout (left arm) solid to open up his lats. In teapot embrace, the Leader should not telescope his left arm.

Going back to our colgada experimentation, we were able to change:
height
posture
position
momentum
suspending it and letting the Follower initiate the ending.

The Follower should try to copy the Leader first before she becomes disobedient (experiments).

What does the Leader do when the Follower does an abrupt change? Colgadas have a built-in parachute if something goes wrong. You can put your leg and foot down (step). If you are in trouble, put both feet on the floor to prevent falling. If something really bad happens, like someone get stuck in their pant legs, the Leader falls first and then the Follower is cushioned by him. Do not let go of the Follower, otherwise she will fall first without cushioning.

The class concluded with a student review and maestro demo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Part I: Colgada Basics with Miguel Calo (Intermediate Class)

2010-12-06T00:30:00.000-08:00

Song: Al Compas Del Corazon by Miguel Calo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 28, 2010, Ashland, Oregon

Students said they had experience, so maestros gave a simple pattern to do, to see where we were skill and knowledgewise.

FIRST: NO COLGADA (REGULAR PARADA/PASADA)
Just do a rock step. Then Leader traps Follower's right foot with his left foot. The Leader traps her right foot by stepping in front of it. She makes a long step with the Leader leading it by opening up his left shoulder as if in a little turn. Then she goes into her side step with a little pivot. The Leader's weight is on his right, where he keeps turning and pulling her through, then transfers his weight after she steps over with her left foot.

Next, we tried this in teapot embrace, with the Follower holding onto his handle and spout as they do a counterclockwise turn. The Follower should take long steps all the time. The Leader traps her right foot by stepping in front of it.

EXERCISE: COLGADA POSTURE AND COUNTERBALANCE
Next we worked on our colgada posture by doing an exercise.

Holding at the wrists, we were in hip under position, with our hips lined up with our rib cages. The Leader's feet, which can be in a "V" position, were outside the Follower's feet, sandwiching them. Elbows have 90 degree bend to them. We were to squeeze our transverse muscles, using our center mass in our backs and cores, keeping our chest open, and pushing our shoulder blades down. We were to hang from the hips and counterbalance each other. We were not to crunch our shoulders. We could move our belly out back a little.

Leader initiates the send out. The Leaders tried with different Followers to feel the height and weight differences, and how he had to change his counterbalancing efforts depending on the Follower's height and weight. This exercise was the most important five minutes of class so that we could understand the concept of counterbalancing each other.

The Follower's embrace becomes elastic first, stretching first and then start engaging it when the movement starts.

The Leader is well aware that the Follower hangs from him. She has the freedom to extend or flex the embrace as much as she wants. Follower needs to add tone with back and core muscles and leg/foot connection on up with the floor.

As our home exercise, we can imagine that we are windsurfing, and hang away from the side of our doors, putting us in hip under colgada posture.

NEXT: STEP-OVER COLGADA
In open embrace, we did the following pattern:

Leader rock step, left foot trap of Follower's right foot (Leader puts weight on his right foot), Leader sends her out. Leader puts his weight on his left foot at the same time Follower transfers her weight to her right foot to send her out. Leader does right foot cheat step around Follower to provide support as she hangs and steps around with her left foot. Leader and Follower both keep their chests up. Follower steps long and around Leader as she goes over in her colgada.

Clarification: When the Leader traps the Follower's foot, he does it in the "Line of Power". Two points of his feet are in a line in the direction where the Follower's hips are going to go. The Follower's hips go out straight: that's the line of power. The Leader's left arm is what the Follower hangs onto. When the Follower steps down with her left foot, that is when the Colgada ends.

The Follower must use good molinete/hiro/turn technique. Use all your body to create the extra range of motion when you take the forward cross step. We drilled this simple Step-Over Colgada to Calo's Lejos de Buenos Aires , Que Te Importa Que Te Llore, and Al Compas Del Corazon.

In the colgada, the technique is the same as for the molinete/hiro/turn to the left for both Leader and Follower. Follower should stay up, and don't make changes in height. The Follower should use both hands to hang onto the Leader. Her left hand slides down to his bicep in open embrace. Follower should not rush into getting out of the colgada. She should step when it's time to finish.

Be careful of the line of dance when doing colgadas. Play with how much you want to do it. In the teapot embrace, see how far Follower can go out. See how far Follower can go to the end. Leader can regulate this by how much he sends the Follower out and how much he counterweights/counterbalances her.

The class concluded with a student review and maestro demo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Part II: Close Embrace Alteration & Turn with Di'Sarli with Roberto Rufino on vocals (Advanced Class)

2010-12-06T00:25:00.000-08:00

Song: Cosas Olvidadas - Carlos Di Sarli con Roberto Rufino
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 27, 2010, Ashland, Oregon

Our goal in this class was two-fold:
(1) Do a close embrace alteration, which is a change of direction with circular energy.
(2) Make the turn to the right in close embrace with dynamic, but still have control.

CHAPTER 1: CLOSE EMBRACE ALTERATION
The Leaders footwork is side step left foot, weight change right foot, left foot long forward step to the outside, right foot hooks behind on line, pivot on both feet clockwise as weight is split, to walk out.
The Follower's footwork is side step right foot, back left foot, right foot crosses in front, right foot big round forward step around the Leader as she pivots on her left foot, left foot side step, right foot back step.

How does the Follower know not to do an ocho? The Leader blocks her by stepping beyond her foot and the focus is taking her around the Leader's axis (Leader is the center of the circle and Follower goes around him).

We did a lot of drilling to this to Cascabelito by Di'Sarli with Rufino on vocals.

The Follower should use everything in her body to create the curve and length of the forward step around the Leader. The Leader's cross behind is supposed to create the space to open up his right hip so the Follower can have enough room to walk through. We tried this in various speeds, first slow slow slow, and then quick quick slow on the Follower's forward and side step.

We drilled this to many songs:
Tristeza Marina
La Pasao Paso
En un beso...la vida
Adios Te Vas

One option we worked on was to do it all in open embrace. The close embrace can open up like a hinge by the Leader. We also tried to do it on the other side. Here too, the close embrace on the other side can open up like a hinge by the Leader.

If the Leader's right hand is evil and he pulls her in, he should practice doing this in teapot embrace (with his right hand as the teapot handle behind his back, and his left hand and arm up as the spout, supporting the Follower). The Follower still hangs onto the Leader, and he still turns to his right.

CHAPTER 2: SET-UP FOR CONTINUOUS TURNS TO THE RIGHT (OR THE TANGO SLINGSHOT)
The Leader does a right foot tight back cross behind his left foot, to make a tight turn to the right. Then he collects, and left foot steps out. Here, each step pivots.
Since it seemed like the Leaders had problems doing TIGHT back crosses (many were not at the Beginner lesson earlier in the day when we worked on our tight cross walking exercises), we backed up to do more tight back crosses, imagining that we were speaking behind a podium, and doing tight back crosses so smoothly that no one knew we were doing them. Next, we did tight back crosses in a circle, trying to walk forward to get to the middle. The big toe caresses the floor. Next, we tried doing tight front crosses, walking back. When we cleaned up the Leader's tight back and front crosses, we then drilled the footwork for the continuous turn.

The Follower's back cross step is truncated, tight and small.

We also tried this in open embrace to get the timing synchronized where the Leader and Follower step at the same time.

ADDING SACADAS:

The Leader does a right foot sacada on the Follower's right foot on her left side step during her molinete/hiro/turn clockwise around the Leader. We can add these sacadas to our footwork so that we end up with full turns to the right. The Leader needs to think about evening things out in his steps and the dance.

The class concluded with a student review and maestro demo to Adios Te Vas.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Part I: Half turn in close embrace with Edgardo Donato (Beginner Class)

2010-12-05T23:50:00.000-08:00

Song: Se Va La Vida by Edgardo Donato
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 27, 2010, Ashland, Oregon

EXERCISE 1: TIGHT CROSS WALKING
We began with an exercise of crossing our feet in back, deep and tight and traveling forward. Then we did the same exercise crossing our feet in front deep and tight, and then travelling backwards. During these exercises, we were to be balanced, elegant, keep our shoulders still, have flexion in the arch of the foot, really isolate our inner muscles (our core muscles). Our feet should point like an arrow when we cross (either in front or behind).

EXERCISE 2: LEADER'S PADDLE
Our second exercise applied mostly to Leaders: The Paddle.

Here, we stepped to the side, and with our other free foot, paddle ourselves around, touching the floor as we paddled. We were to use small steps, not big steps. When our weight is on the right foot, our turn is to the right. When our weight is on the left foot, our turn is to the left. We were to paddle around elegantly. The Paddle adds two things:
(1) it keeps the Leader over his axis (like a kickstand for a bicycle). Do not bounce from one foot to the other. That's not paddling.
(2) The function of the free leg helps maintain stability of the standing, supporting leg and gives power.

EXERCISE 3: MOTORING AROUND
Here, with our paddling feet off the floor, we were to kick the heel around and turn as our standing supporting leg is on the ball of foot.
As our homework, we were to practice the four different combinations:
forward with our left foot, back with our right foot, forward with our right foot, back with our left foot.

Next level: We were to imagine kicking through our partner's legs, the goal of which is to do accurate quarter turns.

Again, the motoring around was our homework.

CHAPTER 1: THE VANILLA BEAN OCHO
Close embrace ocho with no Follower hip pivot (also called the Vanilla Bean ocho).
Here, the Follower walks back. The Leader walks forward as if tango rollerblading. His body is very quiet, with no torso rotation. The Follower does not pivot, does not rotate her shoulders. Her hips can be open. The Leader isolates his chest, and walks a little side to side (as if rollerblading). The Follower moves as if she is walking on butter, really crossing behind in her step, but not rotating her shoulders. For her steps back, she should have a long reach and smooth transfer of weight, but no hip pivot.

As our homework, we can practice this anywhere at home, even on carpet.

Walking in partnership, the Leader does a weight change in place to get synchronized with the Follower. He settles on his right, takes a left foot side step, does a weight change, and then steps forward with his left foot. The Follower should stay longer on her standing leg, and use it to create a good reach with her free leg by pushing into the floor. The Leader, lifting her a little, holds her up with his right hand to prevent her from changing weight, while he can change weight endlessly.

Next, we did a musical training exercise. With the rhythm of Donato's Yo Te Amo, we were to find the strong beat and lead the vanilla bean (no Follower hip pivot) ocho.

We practiced this in partnership, stepping together and collecting together, and in open embrace and close embrace. The secret to get back into the walk after this is to change weight, and start with your left foot.

Next, we worked on our connection and close embrace a little, with hugging, one arm above and one arm below the other dancer's.

CHAPTER 2: THE HALF TURN
The Follower does the following footwork: Back ocho to half turn of back cross left, side right, forward cross left. The Leader is on his left foot when the Follower arrives on her left foot back step, and turns to his left by paddling with his right foot, caging the Follower in his embrace, preventing her from rotating. We were to keep our connection in the chest.

In one big circle, we all held hands and then we did a molinete/hiro/turn footwork to the right, stepping side right foot, forward cross left foot, side right foot, back cross left foot. We did this as a "white" version with very open, very big steps, and then "black" version of very right front cross steps and very tight back cross steps, lifting our opposite heels when we did this. Most of tango is "gray" in terms of step size.

The class concluded with a student review and maestro demo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Cristina Favorite Milonga Moves with Juan D'Arienzo (Intermediate Class)

2010-12-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

Song: Silueta Portena by Juan D'Arienzo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 26, 2010, Ashland, Oregon

Cristina Favorite Milonga Moves with Juan D'Arienzo
Typewriter Pitter Patter and Bandoneon Pitter Patter

We began with an exercise where we lifted our heels without raising or changing our height. Our knees needed to be bent. We were to keep our thighs together, pretending there was a quarter between them that we didn't want to drop. With our heels, knees, and thighs this way, we were to work forward, and then walk back, and then in a circle. This is also known as the "butterfly" or "schmedling."

Next, we were to take our imaginary quarters, drop it, but catch it before it hits our knees. We practiced this going side to side in circle formation to D'Arienzo's Silueta Portena.

CHAPTER 1: THE TYPEWRITER PITTER PATTER

The typewriter pitter patter can be done in tango, vals or milonga. In this class, our focus was on milonga.

For the exercise, the footwork for the Leader began with forward left foot, side right foot, weight change, give Follower a extra hug and lift, and then turn at the waist to the Leader's right. She then does the typewriter pitter patter to her left.

Next, we did a hug exercise. The Leader hugs the Follower with all of his back, surrounding the Follower with his whole body. Here, the Leader was to find the sweet spot on the Follower where he can surround her just below the rib cage.

Next, he was to provide a little bit of lift, by raising his diaphragm as the Follower lifts from her body. The rib cage spreads out, the shoulder blades go down to oppose the upward momentum of the Leader's lift.

We were to practice giving "extra" hugs versus "normal" hugs.

We also practiced finding the sweet spot on other dancers, tall/short, fat/thin, standing chest to chest, trying to find the sweet spot of connection. The Leader's arms will follow that line usually, that's the sweet spot.

For the Typewriter Pitter Patter, there are two parts to the lead:
(1) the Extra Hug
(2) the lift from the Leader's whole body. The Leader needs to turn his body up to 90 degrees without moving his feet, really disassociating.

To D'Arienzo's Silueta Portena, we practiced this with the Leader forward left foot, side right foot, weight change, give Follower the compression lift (extra hug and lift), and then turn at the waist to the Leader's right as he disassociates. She then does the typewriter pitter patter to her left and then back to her right as his torso goes back to his center with no disassociation. Then the compression is released and goes back into regular embrace.

Follower should not worry if she ends up on the wrong foot after the pitter patter. The Leader will figure out where to put her.

We talked about the psychological lead. Psychological leads depend on how well we hear the short staccato notes to physically interpret it in our feet. We can also interpret with lyrics. Here, Cristina sang the lyrics to a tango song. She is great!

For the Typewriter Pitter Patter, Follower takes small steps so that it's a manageable lead for the Leader's torso.

VARIATION: OPEN EMBRACE
One variation we worked on was to do it in open embrace.

Leaders: How do you encourage the Follower's pitter patter? He can put it into his feet because the Follower wants to copy him. So they do it together. He can also walk it out with her, either in a line or a circle.

VARIATION: IN PROMENADE
Another variation we worked on was to do the Typewriter Pitter Patter in promenade with the Follower to the Leader's right in promenade. Here, the Leader gives her a sideways hug and lift, and also limits the Follower's range of motion. As long as the Follower stays with the Leader in Promenade, she can do the pitter patter. The Leader can't force the Follower to do the Pitter Patter.

VARIATION: OFFSET TYPEWRITER
Another interesting variation we worked on was the Offset Typewriter. We also changed the music to D'Arienzo's La Cicatriz. In the Offset Typewriter, the Leader goes one way in pitter patter, while the Follower goes the other way, and then there is a small jump at the end where both dancers end up back together in front of each other. Here, the Leader needs to loosen the embrace a little, but still give an extra hug and lift. He extends his right arm away so the Follower goes farther away from him, while he goes to his left in pitter patter.

BANDONEON PITTER PATTER
Maestros showed, but we did not do the Bandoneon Pitter Patter, which is when the Pitter Patter this movement goes forward and back (instead of left and right). This is called “The Bandoneon Pitter Patter” because the movement is similar to the Bandoneon bellows compressing and expanding.

FINAL CHAPTER: THE HULA HOOP (A PALETTE CLEANSER)

This move is not for everyone.

The Hula Hoop has a down energy, but still has extra hug and compression. Maestros showed us with a tango demo to D'Arienzo's La Bruja.

In exercise, we tried standing face to face with open legs and split weight, and space between dancers, with a sway left to right. As the Follower is in the middle weight, the Leader sends her out and the Leader goes out back in opposition. Next, we made the exercise more challenging by having the Follower's feet together. Here, it forced the Leader to be more sensitive regarding where her weight was. The Leader needs to be selective in where he inserts this move. For the Hula Hoop, the Leader compresses the embrace, and then does the down (hula hoop), and then goes back to regular embrace.

The class concluded with a student review and maestro demo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Milonga Fundamentals with Francisco Canaro (Beginner Class)

2010-12-05T23:22:00.000-08:00

Song: Silueta Portena by Francisco Canaro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 26, 2010, Ashland, Oregon

CHAPTER 1: PHRASING
TANGO CHACARERA

We began with an exercise to help us on milonga phrasing through the tango chacarera. In chacarera formation with the Leaders all in one line and the Followers facing them all in one line, we took four steps forward and four steps back, signifying one phrase in the music. We made eye contact with each other, and our arms were in the air, as if we were doing the chacarera.

Building on this, we then freely danced, doing four steps forward and four steps back.

Our music for this exercise was D'Arienzo's Milonga Vieja Milonga, which is a very regular milonga. Most tango songs are well behaved (predictable), especially Milonga Vieja Milonga.

PAUSING AT THE END OF A SENTENCE
Next, in a partnered exercise, we worked on pausing at the end of a sentence. Here, we were to only do weight changes, walk, or rock steps. We were not to do any turns, ochos, double time steps, or traspie. Our goal was to show that we were able to control our pauses at the end of the sentence. Both Leader and Follower need to actively hear the music.

Our next exercise focused on the Follower educating the Leader. The Leader pretends that he doesn't know where the break is. The Follower tries to educate the Leader in a subtle way. Later on she can be a little more aggressive. The Follower is not to back lead, but subtly suggest ideas to the Leader where the pause should be.

She can do these subtle things:
hand signal (slight squeeze)
move hips
move shoulders
soft taps with hand
deliberately slow down
use breath to mark the end of the phrase
Basically, she should keep her subtle suggestions and signals in her upper body, and not use her legs and feet. Otherwise, she will be back leading.

The secret agenda for this exercise is to empower the Follower.

Without back leading, the Follower can add accents to the music.

When we really know the music, we will know it, we will own it and it will come easier.

CHAPTERS 2 & 3: GROUNDING

Our next exercise was to work on being grounded. First, we walked on the strong beat by ourselves. Next, still by ourselves, we were to walk randomly still on the strong beat, and then imagine there is water/puddles on the floor and "splash" someone silently (not stomp) at the pause.

Our next exercise to continue our work on being grounded involved walking together in partnership, with one dancer's hands on the other dancer's hips. We did this with both the Leaders and Followers. The dancer pushing down should not bend at the waist. The Posture needs to be maintained, with good uprightness, and torso up. The dancer whose hips were being held down was to use their connection with the floor to get power. We were to be into the ground.

Q: What does grounding mean?
A: The act of not falling. You can be on the ball of the foot, but you need to be over your foot as you step.

Since this was a beginner class, the instruction was given that in milonga, you should stick to the strong beat. If you step on the strong beat in milonga, you will never go wrong. Keep it simple. You can get in trouble when doing double time/traspie.

Maestros demonstrated dancing a half song to a fast milonga: Meta Fierro by D'Arienzo. They showed that just by stepping on the strong beat, you should be able to talk and not be out of breath. If you are out of breath, you are dancing too hard.

Next, we danced 30 seconds to a medium-speed milonga: Silueta Portena by Canaro. Then we changed partners and danced for 30 seconds to the same song with our new partner. We were to include "splashes" (accents/pauses), little or big.

Next, we danced 30 seconds to a faster milonga: Meta Fierro by D'Arienzo. Then we changed partners and danced for 30 seconds to the same song with our new partner. We were to work the splash and step on the strong beat.

The Leader is responsible for initiating movement. More control has to deal with how quiet the Leader can make his upper body (with no bopping up and down or weird torso rotations). Later on, he can use the upper body as styling, but not a dance technique. The Follower also needs to be calm and quiet in her upper body to hear the Leader's lead.

CHAPTER 4: FIND THE DOUBLE TIME/TRASPIE SYNCOPATION TOGETHER

We began with an exercise doing the box steps by ourselves, Leader on one side, Follower on the other.
Follower steps are back right, side left, change weight, front left, side right, weight change.
Leaders steps are front left, side right, weight change, back right, side left, weight change.

We were to put this box step over the rhythm of the song Milonga Sentimental by Canaro, where everything is on the strong beat, with our goal to hit the phrasing/end of the sentence. We were to hit the 1-2, and double double time and still hit the end of the phrase.

With the box step we can play with different grounding energy.

To get out of the box step, we walk out of it. Here, we can soften the embrace momentarily and then cut out to the outside to walk out of it.

We concluded the class with the "San Francisco exercise". Again, dancing to Canaro's Milonga Sentimental, we did the box step where when we heard the "1" in the song, that was where the "San" would be in our steps. The "2" is where the "cis" in "Francisco" would be. The rhythmically correct spot where the traspie would go would be at the "2 and".

Do not do traspie all the time. You can do it around the "1" if the melody is a little crazy. This would be called the "butterfly effect".

The class concluded with a student review and maestro demo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Homer & Cristina's Tango Teacher Training Class Handout

2010-12-02T03:43:00.000-08:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
December 1, 2010, St. Louis, Missouri

Click here to download the teaching training seminar class handout from Homer & Cristina Ladas' presentation in St. Louis, Missouri, in December 2010.

How to Cure the Follower's Forward Walking Phobia

2010-11-17T01:09:00.000-08:00

Song: Si Tu Quisieras by Miguel Calo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 15, 2010, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

The music for our class was Miguel Calo with Podesta on vocals.

Q: Why do Followers hesitate when asked to step forward?
A:
It could be because Followers are trained to walk backward all the time, so they are not used to walking forward.
They feel insecure.
They are afraid they might step on their partner's foot.
Maybe they do not feel comfortable getting into the Leader's space.

EXERCISE 1: STEPPING FORWARD WITH WEIGHT TRANSFER EXERCISE
We began with an exercise, where we lined up so that we could see our spines in the mirror as we looked sideways.
We were to stand as straight as we could.
Then we started to shift our weight, from left to right and back again, really feeling connected to the floor.
We were to try to feel where the weight is distributed on the foot from side to side and forward to back.
Then we put our weight on our left foot, pushing our left foot into the floor more than usual (about 5-10% more), without bending our knee but keeping it soft, and keeping our spines straight.
Then we reached forward with our right foot.
We also tried this on our opposite feet (putting the weight on the right foot pressing into the floor and reaching with the left foot).
In this exercise, our legs and backs are really working.
Left foot is grounded.
Right foot reaches forward.
Transfer the weight by moving the spine forward.
The goal as we take these forward steps is to not change the articulation of the spine as we transfer weight.
That is, we should not plank back, lean forward, or fall into our step when we take our forward steps.
Our spines move through the space in a vertical position to make the weight transfer nice and smooth.
Also, we were not to go down too much as we take our forward step.
The length or strength of the forward step depends on how you connect with the floor with the standing leg.

EXERCISE 2: FOLLOWER FORWARD STEP WITH ELASTICITY IN ARMS AND WAITING FOR THE LEAD BEFORE GOING
Phase 1: In partnership with Leader and Follower facing each other, hand in hand in open embrace, the Leader steps back, the Follower lets the embrace open up but still has tone in her arms, and then she steps forward AFTER she feels the lead and AFTER the Leader begins his step back (she does NOT step simultaneously with the Leader).
Phase 2: Similar to Phase 1, only the embrace opens up less, and the Follower does not take as much time before she goes (but she still waits for the lead and does NOT step simultaneously with the leader).
In the Follower's forward step, she reaches first, pushes with her standing leg, and then goes. She should not pre-empt the Leader's lead by matching him step for step. She is supposed to lag behind, really waiting for and feeling his lead as he steps back, leading her to take a forward step.
To begin this exercise, the Leader shifts weight a few times to be really clear regarding what leg he wants the Follower to be on.
The Follower should try not to change height when she takes her steps, and not plank back or lock her arms. Her arms need to be flexible to allow the embrace to open up, and yet she must also still have some tone in them.

EXERCISE 3: FORWARD OCHOS WITH BIG FOLLOWER STEPS
Most forward steps are curved, walking steps around the Leader. Our next exercise focused on the Follower taking curving steps around the Leader with a long forward step.
With Leader in teakettle hold (both his arms behind him at the small of his back, elbows out to the side), he was to lead the Follower to do forward ochos, really taking big side steps and reaching as far as he can. This will force the Follower to take big, strong forward steps in response.
The Leader should be even in his chest rotation as he leads her forward ochos, as the Leader's tendency is to be uneven, with one side being more open than the other. We were to try to correct this by being as even in the Leader's chest rotation as possible.
The Follower's goal is to try amplify the Leader's chest rotation in her hip rotation to really pivot. Also, she should make her forward step nice and smooth.
In this exercise, the embrace was not to be too hard or stiff or too loose. It should be al dente.

EXERCISE 4: SIMULTANEOUS FORWARD OCHOS
In partnership, we did forward ochos together, with our forward step reaching for our partner's trailing foot.
Our goal was to keep our spines nice and stable, and use the pushing energy of the standing leg as we did our ochos. We were to add pressure with our whole foot as we reach and transfer weight.

EXERICSE 5: CONTINUOUS SACADAS
Leader and Follower are in open embrace, hand-to-hand hold, and we did continuous right foot forward ochos and left foot sacadas around each other.
Follower does her right foot forward ocho clockwise, stepping around the Leader, and then the Leader does his left foot sacada of her trailing left foot.
Leader does right foot forward ocho clockwise, during which Follower steps forward into the Leader in her left foot sacada. Here, the Leader steps a little away from her, not around her, so that she has room to do her sacada and so that he does not block her from walking into him.
It is important that the Follower have an elastic embrace, as one arm extends as the other arm flexes.
Both Leader and Follower should have long forward steps, and have good quality of their sacada.
The Leader needs to continually rotate his chest and open his right shoulder so that the Follower knows where to step and he doesn't get in her way. So the fundamental lead is for the Leader to turn to his right.

In this exercise we are working on two kinds of forward steps:
(1) curving and around the Leader
(2) pivoting a lot, and then doing a direct step forward. This is not a cross step. You just have to go for it, pushing into the floor and then going.

To make this exercise more challenging, we could do it with the Leader in teakettle embrace (both hands at the small of his back, elbows out to the side), which would compel the Follower to have elasticity in her embrace, really demanding that the Follower be responsible for the extension and flexion in her arms.

EXERCISE 6: CLOSE EMBRACE FORWARD OCHOS WITH FOLLOWER LONG STEPS
In close embrace, the Leader leads the Follower in forward ochos. The Follower should take big long steps and not truncate the steps and jamming the Leader. She should make the Leader rotate around to meet her.

We are to practice these exercises at home. That is our homework. As we work on our technique, these concepts can be applicable to other areas of our dance.

The Follower's default steps should be LONG as long as it goes with the music and she stays with the Leader. The Follower often takes too short of a step or truncates the step, which kills energy and/or the next movement.

After our class review, maestros did a demo to Calo's Si Tu Quisieras.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Homer & Cristina’s Tango DJ Workshop Presentation

2010-11-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 5, 2010, Perth, Australia

Click here to download a Tango DJ workshop presentation that Homer & Cristina Ladas delivered in Perth, Australia in November 2010.

Homer & Cristina's Tango Teacher's Training Presentation

2010-11-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
November 2, 2010, Perth, Australia

Click here to download a teacher training seminar slide show that Homer & Cristina Ladas presented in Perth, Australia in November 2010.

Sure Footed but Feather Light

2010-10-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

La Abandone y No Sabia by Ricardo Tanturi
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
October, 13, 2010, Cellspace, San Francisco

There are many ways to dance tango. In this class, we would explore very light connection, feather-light connection. To do this, it is critically dependant that the dancers have really solid connection and control with their feet on the floor. A lot of this depends on how you use the standing leg and how you transfer weight.

By learning how to dance lightly, we are really working our feet, ankles, and legs and our connection to the floor. This helps us work on technique.

Weight Transfer

We began with an exploration of how we shift our weight simply standing. When we shift our weight, do we do it with our heels first, and then the toes? Or do we do it with our toes first, and then the heel? For our feet, does the weight transfer go from the outside edge rolling in? Or does it go from the inside edge rolling out? Answer: The foot should roll from the inside to the middle of the foot, not all the way to the outside.

We practiced this, standing with both feet on the ground, and then with the weight being on our left foot, and touching the inside of the right foot to the floor, to shift the weight to be on our right foot, with the inside of our left foot touching the floor. This weight shift does not take much torso motion. Our goal was to be sensitive, be subtle, and be controlled.

Weight Shift in Context of Side Step

Next, we did side steps with our right foot. Here, when we took the side step to the right, we were to focus on just transferring weight from the inside of our right foot to the middle of the right foot, and then pull our left foot in as our upper thighs and legs zip up together. Both legs work to create the collection, and we should push off from our standing leg (not just reach with our stepping leg). We tried this with both our left foot and right foot side steps.

Weight Shift in Context of Walking

Starting with our weight on our right foot, we were to reach back with our left foot, focusing on pushing off with our standing leg, pulling up with our left leg, to collect. We did this with both our left leg as the standing leg and our right leg as the standing leg, focusing all the while on pushing off with the standing leg, transferring the weight smoothly (no kerplunking), and pulling up with the other leg. We also tried this with our forward walk, with both left and right legs.

Reaching Game

Next, we played a connection game called the Reaching Game. The Leader stands with legs together and without moving. Follower’s two hands are on the Leader’s upper pectoral muscles high near his shoulders. The Follower does not put weight on the Leader, but stays connected to him at all times while also being light in her touch at all times. He is to be subtle in his weight shift so that she as a Follower also shifts her weight in response. After a few tries with this, and to make sure they are connected, he then tries to get her to start taking a step back. He does this by flexing his ankles, but remaining upright in his torso (he should not lean in on top of her or tip forward). The initial goal of this game is to become more sensitive toward each other, and to be more subtle and clear in the lead and more responsive in the follow. Once the Leader has mastered getting the Follower to reach with her foot (and the Follower has mastered responding to the Leader’s lead), he can allow the weight to fully transfer so she takes a complete back step. We tried this reaching game in both open and close (chest-to-chest) embrace.

The Leader needs to remain upright and lifted in his chest and not plank forward/lean in on top of her/tip forward, and the Follower needs to keep her connection to the Leader consistent with no hiccups and no vacuuming/pulling him into her. Her step should be as smooth as possible with no kerplunking.

We tried this reaching game while dancing to the music (doing walking only), single time and double time.

Again, the Follower’s step should be as smooth as possible with no kerplunking and no jolting – which is when her body tenses up suddenly as she gets ready to take a step. In the Follower’s step, she should push into the floor more to compel her body to stay there and not get away (jolt away). She should have strong legs to be connected to the floor.

Simple Figure

We were to incorporate all these aspects of weight transfer and connection doing all that we learned in a simple figure: Leader’s side step left / Follower side step right, to two Follower back steps with simultaneous Leader forward step outside, and then Leader forward step inside, to Leader side step right / Follower step left. We were to practice this simple figure only with no other additions (no ochos, no rock steps, etc.), although pausing and weight changes in place were OK. We could also curve the steps if we needed to to get around in the line of dance.

We were to also to practice this in open and close embrace. In close embrace, the connection should be sternum to sternum, not belly to belly. As dancers, we should hold our bellies under our ribs so that it seems like our legs come from our rib cage.

For this class, we focused a lot on quality of movement of our feet, ankles and legs. If we do good practice in our tango development, it lays a good foundation.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Tanturi’s La Abandone y no Sabia
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Understanding the Follower “With” and “Against” (4th) Back Sacadas

2010-09-14T23:48:00.000-07:00

Coqueta by Orquesta Tipica Victor
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
September 13, 2010, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

The basis of our work was to focus on the Follower having an energetic pivot and the Leader leading it in a nice way. Since the recent local Bay Area lessons have focused on alignment, posture, and hip pivot, Maestros decided to teach something different from, but related to, those topics. Hence, the choice of the Follower Back Sacada.

Exercise 1: Couples Ocho Exercise

We began with the couple’s ocho exercise, where each person does ochos; there was no leader and no follower, we are equal partners. Our goal was to stay close to each other, and take long steps, and step around each other while doing a series of forward ochos (easier) and then back ochos (a little more difficult). There is no Leader and no Follower, and both dancers were to do their respective ochos together simultaneously. The goal was to be able to create balance with each other. If the dancers need to find their balance, their orientation should be backward (not falling forward).

Good posture is key in being able to do good ochos. We should think about spreading our “tango wings” by keeping our chest up, compress our shoulder blades out wide and down, and expand in our rib cage. We should not compress or slouch or curl forward in our shoulders. For the exercise, we were to pivot as much as possible, over rotating, with hips facing away from each other, but stepping around each other to stay close. We should stay with our partners and articulate the femur to really step around each other and add to the spiral, which is what we were after. We should step in an arc.

For the back ocho, which is a little trickier, it is important to step close to your partner, but also work on keeping your balance at the same time. Again, you should be on axis or oriented slightly back if you need to.

Building Toward the Fourth/Quattro Sacada with Leader’s Teapot Embrace

Next, our work on tonight’s subject, the Quattro or Fourth Sacada, began. It is from the Follower back sacada, so the Follower needs to develop a good back ocho. We did this by moving to another exercise where the Leader uses his body (his chest, not arms) to lead the Follower back ocho. For the exercise, the Leader Teapot Embrace was used, with his right arm is behind his back, and his left hand holds the Follower’s right hand. The Follower maintains the connection in her left hand on the Leader’s right arm, but his right hand does not touch her, remaining behind his back.

This exercise was to help us develop the Leader’s lead, where he turns both shoulders, left and right, evenly when leading her to do back ochos. He should not turn one shoulder more than the other, and he should not rush. The Follower receives the communication through the embrace and adds her own energy with her hip pivot through her connection to the floor. The goal of this exercise was to improve our communication with each other, and really communicate the pivot and for the Follower to pivot a lot. The lack of the Leader’s right hand/arm gives the Follower the opportunity, empowering her to get in touch with her relationship with the floor to power her steps and her pivot.

Adding the Soltada and Follower Back Sacada

Next, we added to this, with the Leader’s left hand with the Follower’s right hand, leading a half turn (inside/loop turn) soltada change of embrace on the Follower’s right foot back ocho step, with the Leader then stepping across her ocho path (slightly at an angle, away from the Follower so he doesn’t jam the Follower) with his right foot, while the Follower pivots, to do a Follower left foot back sacada through the Leader’s legs. The Follower should always try to look at the Leader, or for the Leader, so that she knows where to go, and to keep track of him to have an idea of where the space is.

Adding the Leader’s Right Hand to the Embrace

Next, we added the Leader’s right hand embrace to this. He should not raise his hand too high, but keep it safely low since his hand should go around the Follower’s waistline during her pivot as he leads the soltada. The Leader needs to lead the pivot first, before leading the half turn soltada (change of embrace). The Follower stays in the same back ocho line with her steps, and then takes a step back with her left foot.

Leader Needs to Lead a Good Follower Pivot

We drilled a lot on the Leader deeper idea of leading a good pivot. For this concept to work in our dance, the Follower should not fall into her ocho, and not fall forward. If she needs to fall to keep her balance, she should fall back or be backward oriented. The Leader needs to communicate the energy he gives as he “attacks” the floor. The Leader feels like he is pushing more into the floor when he leads a big pivot. The Follower needs to have the confidence to pivot a lot and completely, and not truncate the move or cut it short because she feels a change in the Leader lead or that something is coming up and going to happen.

The exit for the soltada figure is for the Follower to take an additional step back with her right foot, to a clockwise molinete of left foot side step, right foot forward cross step.

The “With” and “Against” Follower Back Sacada

“With” Sacada:

When the Follower’s and Leader’s hips go in the same direction (clockwise + clockwise or counterclockwise + counterclockwise), it is a “With” Sacada.

“Against” Sacada:

When the Follower’s and Leader’s hips go in opposite direction (clockwise + counterclockwise or counterclockwise + clockwise), it is an “Against” Sacada. An example is where the Follower’s hips turn counterclockwise, while the Leader steps clockwise. The Fourth/Quattro Sacada is one of these, with the Leader stepping counterclockwise (right foot open side step), while the Follower does a clockwise hip turn with a right foot back sacada between Leader’s legs.

Why Does the Leader Sometimes Get in the Way During the Follower Back Sacada?

For the Follower back sacadas, the question of the Leader getting in the way of the Follower came up. He gets in the way because he tends to over lead and get in the way. He needs to know (1) where to step and he needs to know (2) when to let go of the embrace.

The Leader can let his right hand/arm go, and the Follower should still hang on and remain connected to him with her left hand on his right arm. She needs to hang on because he should be leading a big, dynamic pivot with lots of energy, and she needs to use everything to protect her standing, supporting, pivoting leg. The Follower needs to be able to have active elasticity in her embrace, with her left arm being able to have a large range of motion, extending back to create a big energetic pivot. Here, she feels like she is being thrown out and led back in.

For the Leader, he steps half a foot back with his right foot, opening up the space for the Follower to do her back sacada. She aims for his left foot during her right foot back sacada. Follower needs to be precise where she does her back sacada.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Orquesta Tipica Victor’s Coqueta.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Follower's Syncopated Baby Ochos

2010-06-10T16:37:00.001-07:00

Mandria by Juan D'Arienzo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
June 9, 2010, Cellspace, San Francisco

Our music for the class was D'Arienzo.

For syncopated steps, the Leader and Follower both have to hear the music. The Follower needs to respond immediately to the Leader and to the music, so she needs to hear and pay attention to the music. She can also help the Leader with his double time step by being on the beat even if he is a little ahead or a little behind the beat.

Syncopated Baby Back Ochos

We began with the Leader leading slow vanilla bean ochos. Vanilla bean ochos are ochos with no Follower hip pivot, and no Leader shoulder rotation, and Leader legwork as if he is roller blading. No Leader shoulder rotation = No Follower hip rotation. In the slow Vanilla Bean ochos, both Leader and Follower collect in between their steps.

Next, we added the double time, or quick quick to the vanilla bean ocho, with the Leader going forward with his left leg on the QQ. Though he collects his feet in between during the slow vanilla bean ochos, he should not worry about collecting when doing double time QQ in his steps, and he might look/feel like he is waddling; that is OK. The Follower, however, should still try to collect during her QQ steps. Since the Follower does vanilla bean ochos, there should be no hip pivot during the QQ.

It is most logical to try to catch the vanilla bean ocho on the QQ when we are on the straight side of the line of dance (not on the corners or rounded points).

We could also do Mocha Java ochos with the QQ syncopation. The Mocha Java ochos are the ones with Follower hip pivot. Since the ochos would be done on the QQ, they become smaller, and are syncopated ochitos.

Syncopated Baby Forward Ochos

Walking in promenade, the Leader can lead small, syncopated forward ochos. He does this by first leading her into promenade with a side step to his left (her right), and then opening up his left shoulder. When he steps with his inside leg (his right leg), he starts to lead the syncopated ocho. The two dancers open up like two gears meshing with each other.

Here, communication between the Leader and Follower is key. To communicate the double time QQ ocho lead to the Follower, the Leader needs to compress the embrace a little. To improve our communication / sensitivity toward each other, we played a game, Tai Chi tango, for a little while. Here, the dancers stand face to face, and have hand-to-hand contact. The Leader moves his hands and arms in a patternless movement, and Follower should match the Leader's movement and energy. At a random point, the Leader compresses his hands in the Follower. The Follower's job is to mirror and match the Leader's energy so she neither gets pushed back by him or push him away from her when he compresses.

Next, we worked on the body mechanics / physiokinetics for both the Leader and the Follower. Individually, we all stepped forward with either our left foot or right foot, then we pivoted forward, and then pivoted back, and then stepped back, so that we started and finished in the same spot. It was emphasized that we should do this homework at home often so that we can be able to communicate this through the embrace, and so that the Leader can gain control over other types of movement if he can master this one.

Next, we tried this in partnership so that we could feel the Leader and Follower rebound off each other with our hip pivots. The Leader was to build up the compression, and then release out of the compression. It is very important to keep our chest up and have good communication in the Leader's left hand and the Follower's right hand. The Leader's left hand and Follower's right hand should be flat like a wall so that each can rebound off of each other with their respective compression energy. This flatness of the wall also helps the Leader pivot back to his original position.

Our next challenge was to change the Leader's footwork, so that instead of stepping forward with his right foot with her left foot, he steps forward with his left foot with her left foot. With this foot position, the Leader does not do a forward ocho with the Follower's forward ocho. Instead, he still leads it with his embrace/upper body. The goal of this footwork change for the Leader was so that he get used to leading it on either foot, with or without doing Leader ochos. It's tricky, but it's a road map.

To build on these syncopated baby forward ochos from the promenade, we linked a series of them linearly. The thing that changed is that for the Leader, there is a weight change to his left foot after his pivot. So, he first steps right foot front cross step, and does a weight change to his left as he pivots to face the Follower. The weight change to his left foot is a sensation of dropping into his left foot, and then the rebound, and then his forward cross step with his right foot.

Floor Craft Comments

Maestros commented about floor crafting, since our class was so crowded and a bit unruly floor-craftwise during class. Touch The Corners is one of the rules of floor crafting whereby we try to touch the outside corners of the line of dance, and not cut across the corners. For our class, we were to imagine that there were two tracks/lanes. There should be no zig zagging, no changing of lanes from one to the other to get ahead of the couple in front of you. We were to stay in our own lanes.

End of Class Lesson Highlight Summary:

Vanilla Bean Ocho: Leader does roller blade footwork with no shoulder rotation = no Follower hip rotation. Follower still tries to collect in single time and double time. In double time, Leader compresses the embrace a little, and Follower matches the energy by compressing back.

We can add a little pivot and get mocha java ochos. Doing them on the double time QQ, we get Follower pivoted ochitos.

From promenade, the Leader's left hand and the Follower's right hand should be still, the same, like a wall.

From here, the Leader can do ochos with the Follower's ochos, inside foot to inside foot, or he can step with his outside foot while she steps with her inside foot.

For the linear series of syncopated baby ochos, the Leader has a weight change to his left foot, and this can be done on single or double time.

The Leader and Follower need to hear the music to know when to do the double time.

Maestros concluded with a demo to D'Arienzo's Mandria.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Cristina's Favorite Moves

2010-03-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

Song: Felicia by Adolfo Carabelli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
March 22, 2010, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

Cristina’s Favorite Moves” - Typewriter Pitter Patter and Bandoneon Pitter Patter

The material and inspiration for the class were taken primarily from our dancer friend Mark Harris. The class consisted of compact and playful musical ideas focusing on the Follower.

We began with a posture exercise, which would apply to how we moved for most of the class. We lifted off our heels, but did not crunch our toes. We should be able to wiggle our toes. When we lift off our heels and with our chest/sternum up, we should not lift our shoulders. The lift is from the heel and ribcage, but we should try to pull our shoulder blades down. Our weight is up front, but not to the toes.

To this lifted posture, we added a little bit of movement, little tiny quick side steps to the left and to the right, the Follower’s tiny pitter patter, which was called “The Typewriter Pitter Patter” (those who don’t know what a typewriter is can Google Image it or visit a museum). When this movement goes forward and back (instead of left and right), we called it “The Bandoneon Pitter Patter” – because the movement is similar to the Bandoneon bellows compressing and expanding.

In doing these Follower pitter patter steps, the steps are tiny, the thighs are together, and the knees are soft.

We worked on these Follower Pitter Patter steps using the same song for the entire class: Adolfo Carabelli’s Felicia so that we could really lock into the parts of the music where the Follower’s Typewriter Pitter Patter or Bandoneon Pitter Patter could be led.

Typewriter Pitter Patter
In partnership, we danced with the Follower’s typewriter pitter patter side steps to the Leader’s right. To lead this, the Leader’s lift comes from his chest, with a little bit of compression, at the point in the music where it would make logical sense for her to accent the music with these small, quick side steps. The leader rotates her to his right, and then back to his left. In the song “Felicia” the most logical places for this to occur would be in the piano or bandoneon fills in between the phrases of the music.

For the Follower, she needs to be in tune to the music. The move is compact and the Follower has equal responsibility for the musical interpretation of the song. The Leader can lead the general direction of the movement when he rotates her to his right and back in to the left, but the Follower’s steps are up to her in terms of the timing of each left – right – left –right pitter patter step.

The question came up of how the Follower knew to do pitter patter, quick tiny side steps, rather than regular molinete grapevine footwork. The answer was that there is a definite lead from the Leader for the Follower Pitter Patter. There is more lift and compression than a regular molinete.

Next, we drilled the Typewriter Pitter Patter to the left and to the right on the open side of the embrace.

Next, we drilled the Typewriter Pitter Patter with the Follower and Leader doing it alternately. Here again, there are the lift, hold, and compression ideas, depending on the music. The question came up of how the Leader holds the Follower and ask her not to move or step when he does his Typewriter Pitter Patter steps. The answer is that the Leader needs to isolate the embrace, holding her out there, and the bring his body when he wants her to move. Both dancers here should keep their shoulders down, as it is easy to accumulate tension during the alternate Typewriter Pitter Patter. That is why in between the Pitter Patters, we need to walk it out or do other things, before we start again with more Pitter Patter. The Leader can lift the Follower, and then let her down, and then do his pitter patter. Or, he can just keep lifting her, holding her up as he does his pitter patter.

The Bandoneon Pitter Patter
The next idea we explored was the Bandoneon Pitter Patter. In “V” embrace, we went to the forward promenade (Americana) walk. This is a move from close, to more open in promenade, back to slightly more in, in “V” while the Leader leads the Follower to walk around him with forward steps. To lead the Bandoneon Pitter Patter, again he would give her lift and compression at a place in the music where it made sense for her to do the Pitter Patter. The lift is like a little scoop as the Leader compresses. The Leader should take care that the Follower is comfortable in the lift, and that her left shoulder is not overly lifted or uneven with her right shoulder.

From this promenade Follower walk in a circle, the Leader can lead her to do the Bandoneon Pitter patter forward and back, or right and left, which would be away and back near to him since they are at right angles to each other. For the Follower, her left arm is caged in because of the compressive energy, so the forearm is what expands and shortens when she is sent out to her right and then back in to her left.

The Follower has a lot of choice in terms of how she interprets the music with her hips and body movement. The Follower needs to own her own movement.

Some Followers had trouble following the lead for the Bandoneon Pitter Patter out to the right and back in to the left from the Follower promenade walk in a circle. It was noted that this might be because the Leader had to catch the Follower on her correct foot, to enable the free foot to correctly step out to the right. The Leader also needs to ground himself a bit more to lead the Follower Bandoneon Pitter Patter out to the right and left from the Promenade Walk.

Some Followers responded with Colgada body movement. Maestro noted that there is a different send energy in the Bandoneon Pitter Patter than the Colgada. In the Bandoneon Pitter Patter, there is lift and compression and height change. In the Colgada there is no height change, not a big compression, and the send energy is much larger. There is also a definite sense of planting in the Colgada.

It was noted that there is a Physical Lead to these pitter patter moves, as well as a Psychological Lead (if he starts to do it, she might mimic him at some point, understanding what he is hearing and how he is interpreting the song and inviting her to do the same with her movements). The more you do these Pitter Patter moves, the more natural they becomes. When social dancing with someone who is unfamiliar with this concept, it is best to try The Typewriter Pitter Patter before attempting the Bandoneon Pitter Patter.

Since the class was struggling a bit with the Bandoneon Pitter Patter, maestros decided to back things up a bit, and we tried it in partnership facing each other. Yes, our butts stuck out a little bit. In this embrace, we could do the Bandoneon Pitter Patter with just the Follower, or alternating with the leader, or simultaneously.

She Steps, He Steps
Our last idea was She Steps, He Steps idea. Again, working with lift and compression, the Leader leads the Follower to do two steps, and then he takes one step, eventually leading her into the cross. First, he steps side left, changes weight, and then steps left foot forward in a sneak attack. He leads her to walk using horizontal energy in the lead, to get the Follower to take two steps. Then he takes one, and then she takes two into the cross as he takes one.

Concluding remarks:
The Follower has the freedom and responsibility to be in tune with the music.

The Leader’s lift comes from his chest, and combined with compression, is a scooping idea. He can send her alone on either side, or send the Follower and then go himself. He needs to choose the moments wisely of when to lead these Follower Pitter Patter steps.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Carabelli's Felicia.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Leader's Back Enrosque

2010-03-16T00:12:00.000-07:00

Song: Cascabelito by Osvaldo Pugliese
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
March 15, 2010, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

We went immediately into exercises.

Exercise 1: Crossing behind while walking forward. With all of us together in one big circle, we were to try to get to the center of the circle by walking forward with tight back crosses.

Exercise 2: Crossing forward while walking backward. From the center of the circle, we were to try to get to the perimeter by walking backward with tight forward crosses.

On both these exercises, our feet should be in tight crosses, with our two feet coming together to point in an arrow /\. We were to have no bounce, and we should lift our heels so that we can get in and move forward or back as we cross in the opposite manner. We were to try to get to the middle of the room (or the perimeter of the room) as quickly as possible, but with control, elegance, and grace.

Exercise 3: In partnership, hand in hand, we were to do forward ochos together and back ochos together, stepping around each other so that we remain relatively close. Timing wise, we were to go together simultaneously. The Followers need to create spiral in their bodies, and the Leaders should try to be as elegant as the Followers in their ochos as well. Good ocho technique applied in this exercise: caress the floor with our feet, keep our knees, thighs, and ankles together at the point of collection/pivot.

Exercise 4: Next, we were to compete with each other to see who could get the most energy in our forward pivot, pivoting as much as we could to see who has more hip energy. Here, it is very important to connect to the floor with our standing, supporting leg, so that we can pivot strongly and a lot. The energy in our hips depends on how we connect to the floor. We were to compete with each other, but have speed as well as control, but with grace and without falling. This exercise is important because most of the back enrosque is derived from the forward pivot.

Exercise 5: A drill of the Leader Enrosque footwork. The Leader walks in a line, starting with a forward step (forward ocho / front cross step) with his left foot, with his right foot hooking behind, then pivoting counterclockwise, then changing weight to be on his right foot, to a pivoted back step (back ocho/ back cross step) with his left foot. The Leader faces the same direction at the start on his first step forward, and at the finish with his last step back. His goal is to stay in a straight line for this drill.

We also did this exercise with the right foot, stepping out with our right foot first, tight back crossing with our left foot, to pivot clockwise, to change weight to our left foot, and then to pivoted back step with our right foot.

Exercise 6: The ocho exercise transformed into the back enrosque exercise. Again, in partnership, both dancers did the same footwork as in Exercise 4, of forward step (forward ocho / front cross step), to tight back cross of other foot, to pivot, change weight, and then back step (back ocho / back cross step). If starting with the left foot, it also ends with the left foot. If starting with the right foot, it also ends with the right foot. Both dancers need to be responsible for their body, to be aligned and have good spiral, and hang a little back (do not lean forward). The dancers can lift the heel a little by bending the knee, to help them pivot. The idea to focus on in this exercise is to be very grounded over ourselves as we did this enrosque footwork. We need to be on the balls of our foot, and be solid. Our whole body works, not just our foot. There was less pivot in this exercise, so the dancers danced in a straight linear direction with the pivot in between steps, to arc around each other in a half circle.

Exercise 7: Leader back enrosque footwork during Follower molinete / turn. While the Leader does his forward step (forward ocho / front cross step), tight back cross, pivot, weight change, and back step (back ocho / back cross step), he simultaneously leads the Follower to do a molinete / turn of forward/front cross step, side step, back cross step. We did this with the Leader’s left foot first and last (during Follower counterclockwise molinete / turn), and then Leader’s right foot first and last (during Follower clockwise molinete / turn).

Follower should have long, consistent steps during their molinete, and she should not transfer the weight too fast, especially on the side step. She should have complete control of her reaching leg, and take equal size steps. She should also have a smooth transfer of weight. Even if the Follower feels the Leader changing weight, nothing in his upper body should do anything other than keep leading the Follower in her molinete. The point of this exercise is for the Leader to figure out when to transfer weight to maximize the energy in the turn.

Exercise 8: The introduction of a cheat: The Forward Sacada. The forward sacada can be used so that the Leader is around the Follower’s center more, in a tighter relationship. The forward sacada helps the Leader do his enrosque. The Leader’s forward sacada is a forward ocho step, on the Follower’s forward step at her trailing foot.

Note that the Leader’s back step afterwards is optional. He can do it continuously, link it with rulos, etc.

Finally, Maestros showed us conceptually that entering (doing the sacada) on the Follower’s side step is easier than entering (doing the sacada) on her forward / front cross step because it synchronizes the pivots of the Leader and Follower, thus adding power to the Leader’s pivot.

Note that the sacada can be done on any step of the Follower’s molinete: back step, side step, forward step. There are many possibilities.

Sometimes the Leader might inadvertently get confused with his feet, and then end up in the wrong crossed feet position. To get out of it, he can do another tight back cross to be on the correct foot again to get out of it.

Summary Comments:

Leader’s back cross / cross behind technique is key. So is his forward ocho and back ocho technique.

Follower’s molinete / turn technique is key. Take long steps. Have smooth weight transitions. Keep close. Be on axis with nose over hips.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Pugliese’s Cascabelito.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Art of Floorcraft

2010-03-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 9, 2010

CellSpace Milonga with lesson beforehand by Homer and Cristina Ladas on "The Art of Floorcraft". After the dance floor was made smaller, to be somewhat tight, we began with some games:

Game 1: Molecule Game
Every person is a molecule that stands still, but there is one rogue molecule that stimulates random movement. When that rogue molecule touches you, you need to move away in a random pattern away from the spot you just occupied, and touch/invade the space of another person/molecule. Then that person moves, etc.

Game 2: Actors' Walk
Walk across the dance floor, in a random direction, either across or diagonally, but not in the line of dance, to get to the other side of the dance floor. Do not run. First, walk slow. Then go faster. Then faster. The point of this game is:
(1) to watch where you are going
(2) to make adjustments
(3) to increase your sense of awareness and vision

On the milonga dance floor, it is OK to dance in the middle or outside, but do not weave or zig zag between couples.

Game 3: Touch the Corner
In partnership, we danced doing just walking and weight changes, trying to go around the line of dance, but especially touching the four corners of the dance floor with one foot of the Follower, where chairs were set up to clearly delineate what the corners were, and the object we were to try to touch with our feet to make sure we actually went all the way to the four corners. The point of this game is:
(1) to be aware of how much space we have behind us and in front of us
(2) to keep the line of dance moving (do not slow it down or speed it up)

Game 4: Blind Tango
We built on Game 3, Touch the Corner, with the eyes of both the Leader and Follower closed. We were to dance with our eyes closed, line of dance, and touching the four corners with one foot of the Follower. We were to dance doing simple things, small movements, and nothing complicated. The point of this game is:
(1) to sense other people around us
(2) to keep the line of dance moving

What helped us? Lots of people, so that we could hear and feel them. No hard elbows, so no one got hurt even if there were little bumps. The bumps, if any, were soft. Soft bumps/taps are important.

Tool 1: The Switcheroo
Next, Maestros taught us a technique to help us in tight spaces: “The Switcheroo”

Here, the Leader and Follower are on the respective sides facing each other, and then they change to the opposite sides. It is similar to a cross-body lead in salsa. The Switcheroo takes a little space, and both dancers work in a little circle together. For the Leader, his footwork is a rock step on his left foot, and then a back cross step with his right foot (or the opposite side of a rock step with his right foot, and then a back cross step with his left foot) as he brings the Follower around. For the Follower, it is a rock step, where the weight remains in the middle, and then a front cross step to a pivoted collection in front of the Leader.

Game 5: The Tango Train
Our class, all couples in partnership, were formed into dance trains of 4-5 couples, each train having one couple as an engine, and one as a caboose, and the other couples in the middle the chewy, gooey center. The goal of the engine is to not let the line get jammed up into the train in front of them. The goal of the caboose is to keep the train moving, protecting the middle segment. Our goal was to keep the line of dance moving, but not move too fast or two slow. If we move too fast, we end up jamming the people in front of us. If we move too slow, we end up being a space hog.

Definition:
Space Hog: Leaving lots of space in front of you and backing up everyone else behind you.

Space Jammer: A tailgater, dancing right up to the couple in front of you.

Game 6: Rogue Molecule added to Tango Train
One couple was assigned the task of trying to enter the line of dance anywhere, in any way possible. The rogue couple in this case had a very strong leader, who was aggressive enough to try to get between the dance couples in these very tight conditions. It was discovered that it was possible for a rogue molecule to enter, but this was only accomplished between the trains, as each train was a pretty cohesive group in our class, making it difficult to get inside of one train. If the trains were not a cohesive group, the rogue couple would have been able to get between an engine and caboose in the middle of a train.

Concluding comments:

Ideally, the buffer between dancers at the milonga should be at least one step (but ideally two) in any direction in front of, behind, and to the side.

Be aware of what part of the dance floor you are occupying.

Know the line you are occupying.

Don’t zig zag on the milonga dance floor.

If you need to change lanes, make EYE CONTACT first.

With respect to passing: Don’t do it unless there is a major accident.

Sometimes there will be couples just standing there chatting away for much longer than the 20-30 seconds at the beginning of the song. In that case, it is OK to pass them as long as the intent is to keep the line of dance moving.

Beginners are often pushed into the center of the dance floor.
Intermediates are often like Porches on the Autobahn, zig zagging in and out because they are getting the hang of how to navigate.
Advanced dancers can pass, but don’t. They prefer to stay in their lane, dancing in the line of dance.

EYE CONTACT is key.

Do not cut corners. Dancing all the way out to the corners creates space for you and everyone else.

Don’t be a space jammer or space hog.

Followers: Be precise with where you are stepping (do not fan out far and wide or do high boleos if it means it will take out all of the couples around you). Followers are also responsible for the social dance milonga floorcafting with respect to how they answer with their dancing to the Leaders’ leads. Do not collect, or do any movements, in a thoughtless manner. These movements include reaching, collecting, and transferring weight, as they all matter. Keep the footwork close to the floor and close to the embrace/body, especially in crowded social dance milonga conditions. You are dancing with the whole room.

There was no didactic demo due to the nature of the class.

The Leader's Back Sacada from Close to Open

2010-02-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

Song: Soy Aquel Viajero by Carlos DiSarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
Sunday, February 21, 2010, Stanford University

In this class we continued with music by DiSarli with Podesta on vocals.

We were going to work on two Leader’s back sacadas:
(1) Organic Back Sacada
(2) 4-Step Shortened Organic Back Sacada which is better to do socially

First, the Leaders and Followers were split into their respective groups.

For Leader's back sacadas, the molinete (turn) technique is very important for Followers. So we began with Followers perfecting their counterclockwise molinetes, the goal of which was that the Follower take big smooth steps around the Leader, and employing good technique during her reach, collect, pivot, and weight transfers. To make this exercise extremely challenging, the Followers partnered up and tried to get completely around their partner by doing just the three steps of the turn/molinete: forward cross step, side step, back cross step. Follower should make steps as even and smooth as possible, really stretching the steps, and really pivoting in this exercise. She must keep her spine straight, chest up, have no forward lean in her posture and maintain her axis. This three-step molinete exercise is more difficult than what we would encounter on the social dance floor. This is so that when we try to do it on the social dance floor, it will be easier.

For the Leader, there is a pull lead in his left hand (as opposed to a push lead). This Leader's left hand pull lead is important because for the organic back sacada, the lead is also from the pull of the Leader's left hand (as felt by Follower's right hand).

The Leaders worked on doing a linear grapevine pattern of right foot FWD – (pivot 90 degrees) - left foot SIDE – (pivot 90 degrees) right foot BACK – back ocho counterclockwise all the way around, left foot BACK step (this left foot BACK step will be the Leader’s back sacada). The Leaders were to try to do this in one straight line as much as possible. This requires a 360 degrees turn for the back ocho pivot, to finish with the back step in a straight line. This exercise is more difficult than what we would encounter on the social dance floor. This is so that when we try to do it on the social dance floor (where the back ocho pivot might only be 270 degrees), it will be easier than when we tried it in our exercise.

The Follower takes big, equal steps, especially on her side step, where she receives the Leader's back sacada. For the Follower, her steps are left foot BACK – right foot SIDE – left foot FORWARD – right foot SIDE (on this side step is where the Leader does his back sacada through her legs).

At the point of the Leader's back sacada, the Leader releases the hinge of his right shoulder to give Follower room to get around because he is coming into her space. His left shoulder needs to open so that he leads her to takes her side step around him. The Leader's back sacada might not be directly on the line (but should be very close to being in line). The Leader must really engage his left arm lead so that Follower feels his pull through during his back sacada.

For Leader's technique, since the foundation for the Leader’s back sacada is the overturned back ocho, he needs to work on his back ocho to get good spiral in his body and good pivot in his feet and hips. He also needs to collect after his back ocho pivot, before he sends his left foot out in a back step / the back sacada. This is so that he can find his center and then walk gracefully into the back step. For the pivot he should keep his spine very straight to keep his axis, and not tilt his head forward or back or in a strange way as it will throw his balance and posture off. For the Leader during his back sacada, his heel should be pointed down, not up.

For the exit when Follower receives the sacada, there are options for her free left leg:
(1) She can keep it on the floor, opening out and away in a fan, and collecting afterwards.
(2) She can receive the sacada and have her leg peel away with her knee up, bouncing off, raised but keeping her leg close to the Leader's body. Her toes should be pointed down to the floor, and she should not open up her hips, but keep them close.

With both of these options, the Follower needs to be strong and supportive in her standing leg so that the free leg can be articulate (and she has more control over the movement and aesthetics of what the free leg is doing).

4-STEP SHORTENED ORGANIC LEADER'S BACK SACADA
For the Leader:
(1) Leader steps side left (Follower steps side right) as if he is getting on the balance beam.
(2) Leader right foot steps straight forward.
(and) Leader pivots, with hips coming around 70% of the way, and right hand needs to let go and drop. At this point the Leader's left hand compresses in to stop Follower from stepping, because any pressure will make her step to the side too early.
(3) Leader's does back sacada with his left leg as his hips pivot around the rest of the way (30%).
(4) Collect.

For the Follower:
(1) Follower steps side right.
(2) Follower left foot steps straight back.
(and) right foot collects.
(3) Right foot steps side right, curving around Leader.
(4) As Leader does his organic back sacada, her left leg peels away as a consequence to exit.

We can start this step in close embrace, but Leader must let Follower go to her axis at the point of the back sacada by letting go with his right hand, while his left hand stays fixed.

Note that there are no back sacadas in close embrace. There is no physical way to do back sacadas in close embrace.

Though the two Leader organic back sacadas taught in class today can begin in close embrace, they must transition to open embrace at the point of the Leader back sacada. This is because the Leader must have his axis to be able to pivot as much as he needs to (270-360 degrees), and the Follower must to have her axis to do the turn around the Leader.

Maestros concluded with a demo to DiSarli's Soy Aquel Viajero.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Elegant Step-Over Colgada from Close to Open

2010-02-23T23:10:00.000-08:00

Song: Indio Manso by Carlos DiSarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
Sunday, February 21, 2010, Stanford University

Video courtesy of Alex

Our music for this workshop was DiSarli.

We began with learning the simple pattern with no Colgada.

In open embrace, we started with walking, and then into a rock step with Leader’s left step forward and Follower’s right step back, to pivot 90 degrees as she is forward on her left foot and he is back on his right foot, to an unweighted side step of the Leader’s left foot (Follower’s right side), where the Leader’s left foot meets/captures the Follower’s right foot at the last moment. As he turns her counterclockwise, and her weight fully transfers to her right foot, he opens his left shoulder to lead her to she step over with her left foot, long and around him to help the couple get back into the line of dance. The feet are in a straight line, 180 degrees all the way from the forward rock steps, to pivot 90 degrees, to side steps. The Leader’s weight is back on his right foot up until the point after she steps over, when he can transfer the weight onto his left foot.

There are two possible exits:

(1) The Leader can lead the Follower to do an optional side step to her right (his left) so that he can easily step forward with his right foot if she takes short steps and is too far to his right and blocking him.

(2) He can keep her on her foot, and he can change weight, so that they step out together.

As we worked on this pattern, we were to focus on the Leader rotating his body, not just capturing her foot. For the capturing of her foot, the Leader’s foot should not arrive to soon, it’s like a sneak attack, not a solid wall or fortress block.

Next, we tried this in close embrace. Here, the Follower’s left arm needed to be ready to release the Leader at the point of open embrace when she steps over.

Since some Follower’s were hesitating or not stepping over at all, we discussed “The Rule of the Knee”: In the parada/pasada, if the Leader’s knee is lower than the Follower’s, she can pass over. If the Leader’s knee is higher than the Follower’s, she is blocked and can’t pass over.

Applied to this particular pattern, the Leader’s weight needs to be back on his right leg, so that his left knee is lower than her’s, so that she can pass.

To this basic step over pattern, we added the Follower colgada, by adding a Leader right foot cheat step to step around the Follower a little. This was to optimize the weight distribution and where the axis is.

The Leader sends the Follower out in Colgada by transferring weight, moving the axis to his left foot, which displaces the Follower out and away. We did this in practice hold. The Leader has to counterweight the Follower, and not just put all of his weight on his left foot (otherwise there will not be enough weight to balance her and she will feel like she is going to fall).

The Follower needs to pretend she is hanging onto a wall. However, she should not overly rely on her arms, but also use her back muscles. Her hips go back and out, but beneath the ribs.

The Leader does a little cheat step around the Follower with his right foot, which sends her around to step over. During her pasada, the Leader is at split weight, with the weight back on his right to counterbalance her body being sent out.

To help us understand the Colgada energy, we worked on an exercise, the Two-Foot Colgada Warm-Up (Trainer). The dancers are face to face, with the Follower’s feet shoulder-width or a little wider apart, firmly planted on the floor, with Leader’s feet inside of them. The dancers go from opposite side to opposite side of each other, hips, core and ribs out and away circularly in Colgada movement. Each dancer goes to their own corner, trying to round off the corners, and not have any change in body height as they do this (never really coming up). While they are at one corner, one leg is very straight and the other one is very bent. Chests and hips face each other. At some random point, the Leader should lead the energy/momentum all the way around so that she steps through and around to the other side. This exercise helps us get used to the colgada feeling of counterbalancing each other, sending the hips out, circularity, and understanding where the boundaries are.

Follower’s Technique:
Be active in your embrace. It is important to use both the right hand and the left hand in the embrace when doing colgadas. There is horizontal energy in the Follower’s posture of out and up. Do not plank back like a stiff board, and do not do a back dive, where shoulders are out farther beyond the hips in a curved out fashion. The Follower gives the weight of her back/core to the Leader in the Colgada, and she should be engaged and connected there also, not just in her arms. When doing her forward cross step over, Follower should make long reaching steps by having flexion in her right supporting standing leg, really going for it, to get around the Leader.

Leader’s Technique:
Do not collapse in your torso or curl in at the shoulders. Keep your sternum up, your chest strong, and your shoulders back. The Leader is the foundation of the Colgada, and his strong core and engaged left arm and strong left hand make up the wall from which the Follower hangs. His energy needs to be remain back on his right to counterbalance her being out, even though he has “stepped” with his left foot.

For colgadas, it is a move from close embrace, to open embrace during the colgada, back to close embrace.

Maestros concluded with a demo to DiSarli’s Indio Manso.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

The Vanilla Bean Ocho & Baby Back Volcada

2010-02-23T23:06:00.000-08:00

Song: No Quiero Mas by Enrique Rodriguez
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
Saturday, February 20, 2010, Stanford University

Video courtesy of Chris Novak

We used music from Enrique Rodriguez for this workshop.

VANILLA BEAN OCHO – an ocho with no Follower hip pivot

First, we began with an exercise:

We were to dance in close embrace with just walking and back ochos. For the Follower, she should have no pivot in these Vanilla Bean, close embrace style ochos, and to keep her chest in consistent contact with the Leader. Because the Follower’s hip pivot is a direct reflection of the Leader’s chest movements, he needed to have no shoulder/chest turn either. He needed to keep his chest silent, in order for her to have NO pivot in her back ocho steps. These back ocho steps are back cross steps, with no fan, but keeping them tight and simple, with no bounce and no hip pivot. In getting around the corners of the room, it was OK to have some pivot to maneuver the curve.

We were to keep the steps even and equal in size, even though there is a hard and an easy side. The Leaders should try to create a shallow v (not a wide v) when walking.

LEADING BACK OCHOS TO GET A FOLLOWER HOOKING BACK CROSS

Next, we changed this up by allowing the Leader to make his steps unequal.

The Leader plants his left foot, and then his right foot comes up and forward, but doesn’t pass the other foot, so that he leads her to finish an ocho, with it hooking behind her other foot, and then transferring weight. For the leader, it is his transfer of weight to his right foot that causes the Follower to complete her hook behind.

The Leader going back with his right foot is how he leads the Follower’s right foot to hook back, to change the weight and free up her left foot. The Leader steps forward with his left foot to get out. For the Follower’s hook behind, the Leader needs to have enough send energy so that her cross behind is tight and deep.

Next, we did another exercise of continuous hooks back while the Leader’s feet remain where they are, planted. This can be a nice surprise, and can also be done to double time ochos. The Follower needs to be on the music, hearing the QQ parts.

BABY BACK VOLCADA

From this back hooking ocho / back cross, we turned it into a back volcada of the Follower’s left leg with the right leg being the standing, weighted, strong leg. The Leader leads this by stepping diagonally back, with weight shifting back to his right leg, and then diagonally stepping forward with his left leg outside partner.

The Leader needs to give Follower lift and support for the entire duration of the volcada, and both dancers need to stay up in their cores like tree trunks swaying toward each other.

There are two Follower endings to the Volcada:
(1) Ballet: with toe pointed and in contact with floor at all times.
(2) Sassy: with foot flexed and heel in contact with the floor at all times.

After we struggled with this a bit (taught this way so that we could fail first at doing it how we thought it should be done), Maestros gave us more tools so that we could understand how to do this the right way.

Leaders’ technique: The Leader lifts and holds her, preventing her from falling, during the whole time of the volcada: before, during, and setting her back upright. The minute the Follower lands on her left foot is when the volcada ends and the Leader no longer has to lift her to prevent her from falling. The Leader can also use breath to inhale at the point of lead and suggest in his body that something is coming. The Leader must be forwardly intended to keep supporting the Follower. He should not go back too much in the beginning, but make the volcadas small. When the Leader goes back on his right foot, he DOES NOT return to his axis, but maintains a forward and upward intention in his chest, as does Follower, so both dancers maintain good connection to each other.

Follower’s technique: She needs to remain lifted using her own strength, from her strong, standing, supporting leg, up through her core and back, and using her armpit/shoulders to remain strong and lifted. The Follower compresses down on her left side, digging down with her armpit to remain lifted in her body and core. She should not have a noodle or rag doll body. She needs to support herself and her body should not break or collapse against or onto the Leader. The Follower tries to stay in front of the Leader as much as possible. She should use her relationship to the floor and have groundedness.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Rodriguez’s No Quiero Mas.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Close Embrace Surprises

2010-02-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

Song: Nada Mas by Juan D'Arienzo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
Saturday, February 20, 2010, Stanford University

Video courtesy of Chris Novak

Surprises are little jokes, little surprises, to make things fun. They are easy, and the number is endless. For this class, our music was D’Arienzo’s Nada Mas. Nada Mas is a song with lots of rhythmic accents, and every strong beat can be a moment of surprise.

We began with a connection exercise to help improve our close embrace. We were to dance one song, chest to chest with no arms, with no turns, just walking, weight changes, or side steps. For this class, we were to try not to touch heads in our close embrace.

The Leader always has forward intention in his chest, even when he collects. Otherwise, there will be bubble/hiccups in the embrace as he goes back or centered in his intention.

For our dancer connection, the tilt is from the ankles, we should flex forward from the ankles.

Next, we played our games:

Game 1: The D’Arienzo Surprise
To D’Arienzo’s Nada Mas, we worked on the concept of surprise. Everyone was to walk around the room, in any/all directions, always stepping on the strong beat to accent it in our walk, with energy going into the floor. Every once in a while, we were to surprise someone by touching appropriately them with both our hands at two points on their body (arms, shoulders, hips), always staying on the strong beat.

The purpose of this first game was to get us used to the element of surprise as a musical tool, coordinating our dancing with the music. Every strong beat is a potential surprise. The Follower needs to feel safe and comfortable before she is surprised.

Surprise 1: Freezing
We were to dance, doing just walks, and then freezing for a moment. The Follower should always feel safe. To freeze, the Leader’s embrace changes, with compression energy to firm/tighten up/jolt/get more rigid, as his steps get down energy into the floor. After a moment of freezing, he then keeps going by releasing the embrace into the normal, non-compressed close embrace.

The Leader should wait for an appropriate strong beat, freeze for a moment, and the ease back out of it to normal dancing.

The Follower needs to respond to the change of energy.

To work on this concept, we danced one song, walking with the stop/freeze.

Surprise 1, Level 2:
Take any pattern you do, and interrupt it with a surprise freeze. This could be a on the side step, an outside step, on the rock step, or for the more advanced, in the middle of the boleo so that the Follower’s boleoing leg is suspended with foot pointing up in the air.

Surprise 2: Leader’s Sneaky Sandwich
Leader tries to trap Follower’s foot in a quick sandwich without stepping on her foot. It is easier to trap the Follower’s right foot, by the Leader approaching with his right foot first, and then completing the quick sandwich with his left foot. For this, the Leader needs to be snappy to catch the surprise to stop the Follower in the middle of her weight so that she doesn’t collect. The Leader’s heels stay together in the sandwich so that he doesn’t go too deep. The Leader should keep his thighs together and try not to change height, and to accent the rhythm/melody of the music.

Surprise 2, Level 1A: Sneaky Sandwich of the Thigh
Here, it is important to be appropriate, otherwise this surprise could be taken the wrong way. It should be comfortable and not at all inappropriate, but the move is somewhat “PG” rated. It is a gentle squeeze, with contact in the thighs, not the feet. It’s a very quick move and should not linger. It is a “hello and go” movement. Don’t sandwich too long, otherwise it’s not “PG” anymore.

Surprise 2, Level 2: Add Leader’s Pitter Patter before the Sandwich.
The Leader’s pitter patter are small, short quick baby steps. Though the Leader does his Pitter-Patter, he must also still keep leading the Follower to walk back normally, stepping on the strong beat. He should not change the height; there should be nothing going on in the Leader’s chest that encourages the Follower to do anything but walk back normally. The Leader starts the Pitter-Patter when the Follower’s right foot goes back, and when there is good synchronicity of movement.

Key takeaways:
If you can do these surprises and make the Follower feel comfortable, that is a good place.

Surprise 3: Wiggles
These are very subtle shoulder or hip twitches, which are hard to see or even teach. They are movements through your body to play with and match the music. The Follower can respond to the Leader’s wiggle, or she can initiate her own wiggles. These wiggles change the quality of Follower, adding a little bit to it. It’s a micromovement to be used with discretion, a burst, as a special thing, and not done all the time. Have a little something in your body.

We danced one song trying to do these wiggles, doing it with:

(1) He does them (for the first 30 seconds of a song)

(2) She does them (for the second 30 seconds of a song)

(3) They both do them at the same time together (for the third 30 seconds of the song)

Surprise 4: Soccer sweep
The final surprise, which maestros showed but which the students did not do during class time, was the Leader’s rock step, to lead Follower to do forward cross step with her right foot, and then he catches it and pushes it back. The Leader does this by doing a rock step with his left foot, and then a weighted right foot back cross step to allow Follower to come through with a forward right cross step, so that his left foot is free to catch her right foot as it steps forward. The Leader puts his left foot in front of her right foot, much like the footwork as if he were playing soccer. He can drag her foot back, put weight on it, and then keep going.

Maestros concluded with a demo to D’Arienzo’s Nada Mas.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Dynamic Turns & Wraps in Close Embrace

2010-02-23T22:54:00.000-08:00

Song: Poema by Francisco Canaro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
Saturday, February 20, 2010, Stanford University

Video courtesy of Chris Novak

We began with an exercise. Hand in hand in one large circle, we went counterclockwise doing the grapevine/turn/molinete footwork of side step, forward cross step, side step, back cross step. Our cross steps were to be very tight, with the sides of our feet touching at the small pinkie toes. We did this same exercise going clockwise.

Then in close embrace, we did a very simple sequence of the Leader doing a side step to his left (Follower to her right), and then leading the Follower to do a counterclockwise molinete around him, starting with a back cross step, to side, to forward cross step. The Leader collects his feet, changes his weight, and then goes, pivoting on his left foot, to end up facing the opposite place from where he started. If the Leader has trouble keeping pivoted on one foot the entire time, he can help himself by employing the Paddle Technique.

Paddle Technique: The Leader takes a left side step so that the left side of his body from his left foot on up becomes his axis. Then he paddles around with his right foot, where the right foot stays slightly behind or no more than equal to his left supporting, standing foot. The right paddling foot should never go ahead/ in front of his left foot. The use of his other foot will help stabilize his body and keep him turning while he is on axis. The Leader does not change weight when he paddles. If he does change weight, he will confuse the Follower.

The Follower needs to make her back cross tight and immediate, with no hesitation, emphasizing the marching quality of the music (it is not fluid). She should not let her hips open up, but keep them facing the Leader, so that her hips don’t dwell or her feet move too slow.

The Leader pivots on his left while simultaneous paddling with his right foot, as the Follower does a tight back cross, side, tight forward cross.

Next, we tried to do this same turn to the right, the other side. For the Follower, when being led in a close embrace turn, the front and back steps are truncated and very tight. Thus, it is very important that her side steps need to be good sized (big?), and she needs to really step AROUND the Leader (not away from him). She can also pivot a little bit on her left foot, so that her side step with her right foot is around, and not away from, the Leader. Here, the Leader plants his right foot, and paddles around with his left foot, if needed.

Next, we added the wrap.

From the turn to the right from the side step (Leader paddles around with his left foot), after the Follower’s forward step, the Leader changes weight to be on his left foot to lead a wrap on the Follower’s side step to her left foot, by sneaking in his right thigh next to her left thigh, so that she does a wrap of her right leg, to bounce back out to cross back with her right foot. When the Leader sneaks in his right thigh, his leg is slightly turned out.

After his warp, he should keep turning a little, not a lot.

After the wrap, there are two exits:

Fast: Small, tight, back cross and out, with the feeling of in-out-collect-back cross.

Slower: in-out-slower fluid raise of knee-collect-back cross.

For the Follower’s leg wrap using her right leg, her left leg is key. It needs to be strong and stable in order for her to get freedom and fluidity in her leg wrap. Her left leg must also be completely ready and accepting of the full weight transfer with no wobble so that her right leg can have all the energy and freedom to whip freely in the wrap.

From here, we backed up a little to a boleo exercise to get the “thwack” of hip. In this exercise, we were to do front boleos on ourselves, trying to kick ourselves on the side of the opposite hip so that we get a very satisfying “thwack” sound, with our foot coming back to land immediately into a tight back cross. The purpose of this exercise was to imagine that this is the Leader’s left leg, but we are doing it solo on our own.

The Follower does not kick the Leader as she gets out of this by her hips opening up in the ball and socket.

The Leader, when receiving the wrap, should lift his heel off the floor to enable his leg to be much more flexible and maneuverable.

With respect to the Leader’s paddle footwork timing, he retracts his paddling foot on her forward step, changes weight, and gets his right leg in for the Follower to wrap.

Maestros concluded with a demo to Canaro’s Poema.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Pivot versus No Pivot Wraps

2010-02-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

Song: Canto de Amor by Osvaldo Fresedo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 22, 2010, The Beat, Berkeley, CA

Our music for tonight was Fresedo. The goal was to work on the pivot and non-pivot wraps with elegance.

NON-PIVOT WRAPS

We began with Non-Pivot wraps, going directly into it after maestros showed us.

From the forward / front cross step of the molinete / turn, the Leader steps outside of the Follower’s foot to lead a wrap. The outside (small toe side) of the Leader’s left foot meets the outside (small toe side) of her left foot. He then sends her out a little bit off axis with a little bit of colgada energy out to the side, and then brings her back in, up to axis, at which point she wraps her right leg around the outside of his left leg.

We also did this on the other side, where his right foot meets her right foot (both at the small toe side), and she wraps with her left leg around the outside of his right leg.

The Leader must not lead a pivot for this to work, because if she pivots, she won’t be in the correct position to do the wrap.

The timing is very important. The Leader has to lead the wrap as the Follower’s weight is arriving on her foot, NOT when she’s already collected—it’s too late by then.

The Leader lifts his heel and bends his knee, and goes in to the Follower to get the correct energy to get a wrap.

The Follower’s forward / front cross step needs to be long so that the Leader has enough time to prepare for the send out energy.

When the Follower does her wrap and passes through her center, her toes point down, as if she is crossing her legs, but the Leader is in the way.

Note that for the pivot and non-pivot wraps we worked on, the Follower is on axis at the point of the wrap.

The Leader needs to maintain a strong core, with left arm firmly attached to his back so he doesn’t let go, especially when wrapping on his left side, the more difficult side.

He needs to capture her foot as early as possible (so that her weight hasn’t completely arrived on her front foot yet), and then send her out at the point where she’s strong and stable on that leg.

We spent time several songs repetitively drilling these non-pivot wraps, on the left side and the right side, to figure out the timing, positioning of feet and body. The Follower focus was on good molinete technique and remaining on axis with no lean in, and Leader working on foot placement and sending the Follower out, and both getting used to and trying to get the ideal the wrap feeling in the Follower’s legs against the Leader’s, which was based correct positioning and timing.

After we cleaned things up a bit, we attempted to do the double wrap.

DOUBLE WRAP

The lead for the Double Wrap is very quick, with a boom-boom energy. To lead a double wrap, the Leader does a small, short, quick twist of his spine while maintaining the embrace.

It is important when attempting the double wrap that the Follower feels good on her axis. We also attempted to do this with elegance.

PIVOT WRAPS

From Follower forward ochos, the Leader sneaks his foot in on the inside of the Follower’s foot (big toe sides of feet meet) to do a wrap. He comes into her as she tries to finish her pivot, thus causing her to wrap.

After the Leader sneaks his leg in to lead the wrap, it turns out a little to get parallel to the Follower’s leg. This Leader leg turnout prevents them from knocking knees during the wrap. To turn out easily and fluidly, his heel is off the floor, and his knee is forward and lifted.

During the Follower ochos, she needs to pivot enough, and keep her hips close to the Leader’s hips. Her front cross steps should be toward the Leader (not away from him), so that her steps are easy to catch. She should stay on axis and not lean forward.

Next, we drilled from one to the other: pivot, non-pivot, double and single.

It is important for the Follower to match the Leader’s embrace and energy. When he compresses/stiffens, Followers should as well.

The more we do these wrap movements, the more subtle we can be.

The Follower chooses how high to go with her wrapping leg; she should go high enough where it feels good on the fleshy part of the Leader’s thigh (“the meat of the chicken bone”). She also gets the energy, space, and comfort zone from the Leader, which will dictate how she responds / shapes her wrapping leg.

OFF-AXIS WRAP

This is a more advanced, volcada-type wrap. With the dancers in promenade walking position, with the Leader’s right leg in light but firm contact with the Follower’s left leg, he leads a wrap of her right leg across the front of her body and around his right leg.

The Leader does not send her out, but rather, takes her in with a lift. There is no pivot. The Follower leans toward the Leader as he tilts her, with the Leader giving her lots of support. A lot of tilt is not needed or necessary; there can be just a little tilt. Because of the simultaneous lift with the tilt, and Follower will naturally respond to the lift by wrapping.

Then we spent a few more songs mixing them all together, and playing with the size: non-pivot, pivot, double, to the left and to the right, big and small, and the off-axis wrap from promenade.

If the Leader gives the Follower more energy, she will do a higher wrap. He can also change his position to get more energy. But he should start with low wraps first, then do higher ones.

SUMMARY COMMENTS

The Leader’s position and energy are key.

The Follower has her axis at the point of the pivot and non-pivot wraps.

The off-axis wrap needs to have lift and support from the Leader.

The Follower has control of the leg and control of the exit in the wraps.

The Follower needs to keep her hips close to the Leader and take long steps to be in the correct position for the Leader to lead the wraps.

Maestros concluded with Fresdo’s “Canto de Amor”

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

His and Her Pitter-Patter

2010-01-10T22:11:00.000-08:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
December 31, 2009, San Diego Tango Festival

Homer & Cristina 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 THREE: 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 FOUR: 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

Syncopated Pitter-Patter, Snake Walk, & Sustained Volcada

Rhythmic Pitter-Patter in the Milonga (lots of Follower’s Pitter-Patter in this video)

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com