Song: Como dos Estranos by Francisco Canaro (vocals by Ernesto Fama)
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
March 30, 2009, The Beat, Berkeley, CA
Height change is the up and down movement of dancers. Are height changes deliberate or do we do them unaware as a result of bad habits? Every movement we make in tango can have an element of height or height change. If our height change is deliberate, is it styled? Does it come from communication? Is it an expression of the music? Everything we do has an impact on our partner.
We began with an exercise attempting to use height change to communicate. We did this by doing a touch step or multiple touch steps, first to the left and right sides, then forward and back. The lead is more of the energy of the Leader pushing into the ground and not transferring weight. The Leader's axis remains where it is; his center does not move. The Follower should be prepared to go down, and to do this she must have flexion in the knee of her standing supporting leg and just reach with the other leg, but not change weight. This is especially important/apparent on the Follower's forward step. The dancers' centers don't move; they stay back, but flexion in the knees give the dancers range (especially the Follower). We then tried the touch step exercise with our eyes closed.
The question came up of whether or not we knocked knees when we did this, especially on the forward and back touch steps. Many people did. To remedy this, the Leader can use our upper bodies to create space on the bottom where the legs are by going outside or inside (using a little bit of contrabody movement) because someone has to move to get out of the way.
Next subject: weight changing. Here, we were to either change our weight in place, or make a side step. We were to really work on our posture, thinking about how up we could be, and still have our feet on the ground, and keeping the backs of our neck long and letting our head float (like in Alexander Technique). If you are over your center, you will be very grounded and balanced.
Next, we did a series of side steps, as many as three, four or five, then come back up to center and do a few weight changes in place. Here, the Leader was to have flexion in his knees going down before he actually goes. There is a "U" energy when doing the side step, and when there is a series of linked side steps, the energy becomes more like a series of "O"s.
Next, we worked on forward and back steps with weight changes. Here, we stepped forward and back with the same foot with a weight change (or several weight changes) in between. This was to let us practice the concept of rising up to change weight, and to have down compression in our leg to help us move.
Next, we used height change to communicate. The Follower can help the Leader to go up, giving him a lifting energy with slight push to increase the chest connection. The Follower's supporting standing leg can create a nicer quality of the side step by staying longer on the supporting, standing leg, but pushing off and lifting and transferring the weight slowly, delayed, staying as long as she can on her supporting, standing leg so that she massages the step. Here, there is a very apparent oppositional pull of up and down in the posture, really pulling horizontally to create density of movement (like molasses). Follower should really reach when doing the side step, and to get maximum range of motion, her supporting, standing leg must have flexion in the knee. The goal was for the Follower to be really up, maximally stretching from sternum to pelvis/hip.
Next, we worked on the concept of keeping the weight transfer in the middle. Here, the Leaders used a little bit of down energy and settling. When the Leader plays with the weight in the middle, both Leader and Follower's legs are open/separate.
From this idea of the weight in the middle, the Leader stops the Follower when she is in the middle of her weight (she is at the point of split weight), he then walks around her axis. As Leader walks around Follower, she pivots around on both feet without changing weight; her body eventually unwinds as a consequence of maintaining connection and remaining in front of the Leader. The Leader uses a bit of down energy, and as he walks around and she unwinds/spirals out, both dancers' heights go up. We tried this first on the Follower's back step and Leader walking around her clockwise. This can be done on the other side as well.
From this split weight walk around, we can conclude this to unwind directly into a volcada. Here, the Leader drops the Follower in her energy to lead the volcada. For Follower's technique, it is very important to really stretch from sternum to pelvis/hip, and to maintain this stretch/reach and core engagement at all times, especially when it transitions into the volcada.
Maestros concluded with a demo to Canaro's Como Dos Extranos with Ernesto Fama on vocals.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Advanced Volcadas
Song: Nido Gaucho by Carlos DiSarli (vocals by Alberto Podesta)
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
March 27, 2009, Emeryville, CA
This was truly an advanced seminar, with maestros introducing the idea/figure, and then giving the students two songs to work on it to figure it out. Maestros expected us to have knowledge and fundamentals of volcadas.
(1) Standard Forward and Back Volcada, with Follower working on how to embellish/play with them, and Leader leading them so she has time to play. Maestra demo'd rulo embellishments in the volcadas. Play can be done as long as the music dictates it. For the Follower, she should treat her embellishment like the ocho parada/pasada, doing it within the time of the lead/movement. The Follower has choice; sometimes the Leader will feel the Follower doing something more and will let her do the embellishment by giving her time. If the Leader leads one straight smooth volcada, the Follower will find a place to do the embellishment within the time of the lead. Follower can do play as soon as the Leader starts the lead for the volcada so that the embellishment is in the beginning; otherwise, she imposes the embellishment, which changes the timing of the leader. Our goal in embellishing is to stay within the music/movement.
(2) The Funny Volcada -- from the open back ocho. Here the dancers are perpendicular to each other, and Leader gives Follower lots of time to play. We only attempted this on the easy side. The Volcada has a different feel when the foot is articulated with the heel on the floor, so be careful about how you hold your body. Be playful. Since many people did not know the Funny Volcada, we reviewed it. The analogy was the Follower as the moon orbiting around the Leader, or earth, so she can spin on her own. It is important that Follower use good volcada technique and be strong in her left arm with the digging down to get lift like coming out of a swimming pool, and that her standing weighted leg be strong and supporting of her own weight. The Leader's foot work is left foot back, right back step, left back step, big side step. The Follower traces the path that the leader leads, but stays behind him. Follower should know where leader is the whole time. (See the Funny Volcada September 11, 2008 video and notes.)
(3) Chicho Compression Volcada. The Leader uses out/colgada energy, then breaks the normal volcada rules (normal rules: (1) never collapse; (2) never go down) -- sending her out, then pulling her in so she collapses a little. The Leader also collapses his frame too, but his back is still engaged and his core is still engaged. We did this in open embrace, and tried small ones since this was new to many students and is a "special effect" volcada, since the Leader sends her out, then back in by using compression to collapse her. For the Follower, in her frame collapse, her shoulder blades come closer together, touching. When doing volcadas in open embrace, they should be done small. The Follower really needs to engage to compress/collapse in, which is why the Leader leads the colgada energy first. If she is too stiff, she will block the energy. This requires trust and should not be done large.
(4) Multiple Volcadas / Hard Side Volcadas. We tried the more "dangerous" versions of what we already worked on -- linking the standard forward and back volcadas with the Leader doing windshield wiper technique to do multiple ones, and also the Leader using the right foot block to do multiple ones.
(5) Travelling Forward Volcadas where Leader walks back. Here, the Follower knows where to land her foot because the Leader sets her down mid-Volcada. Compression and release are used here so that the Leader can give the Follower the feeling of both compression and release. With respect to walking, the Leader does this as if he is trying to lead sacadas in a funny way, but his body is swerving from side to side. It looks a little weird. For Follower, she does a series of progressive forward volcadas, and you don't have to do too many of them since the Leader's back will be to the line of dance as she progresses forward. Floorcraftwise, this works well approaching corners of the dance floor.
(6) Volcada Plus. Here we practiced our sustained volcadas, trying to do them in the context of social dancing. The Volcada Plus is where the Follower's side legs go out and is sustained, like an ocho cortado of volcadas. The Leader leads a forward volcada, then uncrosses it after she settles on her weight. Follower needs to use the same technique as for regular volcadas, but her free leg is straightened out very linearly. For the Leader it is important that his feet are together so that his hips are under his axis. The Leader's spine stays straight to take care of his axis, with the weight split between two legs so he can keep her back on axis. We also attempted to do more difficult Volcada Pluses: with a Follower forward split, going really underneath and beneath/between Leader's leg. (See the Back Volcada Explored February 20, 2009 video and notes.)
(7) Volcada Plus with two different exits. Maestros only showed us this as it was beyond what the students could do. Starting from Promenade position,
(A) The Bounce Exit, where the Leader kind of crosses her, then he steps back and so does she. There is an up, bouncing energy to this.
(B) The Helicopter / Spinny Thing. This is tricky. The Leader turns to his left to pivot her around to the maximum point of support where Leader has to unwind her.
Maestros demo'd all that they taught to Di Sarli's Nido Gaucho with Alberto Podesta on vocals.
The milonga was fun. I had danced with many new Leaders. The catered food by Cristina was fantastic as always: tortilla and pita chips, guacamole, cheese platter, bread, fresh fruit, grapes, crackers, sliced veggies, hummus, baba ganoush, spinach quiche/muffin things, prosciutto wrapped grilled pears with Gorgonzola, and two yummy desserts of flan and deconstructed ginger bread triffle. Pablo y Jaime thought it was the best food Cristina had ever done for a Seminario. Tangonero played live, and they sound better and better (from an excellent base to begin with).
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
March 27, 2009, Emeryville, CA
This was truly an advanced seminar, with maestros introducing the idea/figure, and then giving the students two songs to work on it to figure it out. Maestros expected us to have knowledge and fundamentals of volcadas.
(1) Standard Forward and Back Volcada, with Follower working on how to embellish/play with them, and Leader leading them so she has time to play. Maestra demo'd rulo embellishments in the volcadas. Play can be done as long as the music dictates it. For the Follower, she should treat her embellishment like the ocho parada/pasada, doing it within the time of the lead/movement. The Follower has choice; sometimes the Leader will feel the Follower doing something more and will let her do the embellishment by giving her time. If the Leader leads one straight smooth volcada, the Follower will find a place to do the embellishment within the time of the lead. Follower can do play as soon as the Leader starts the lead for the volcada so that the embellishment is in the beginning; otherwise, she imposes the embellishment, which changes the timing of the leader. Our goal in embellishing is to stay within the music/movement.
(2) The Funny Volcada -- from the open back ocho. Here the dancers are perpendicular to each other, and Leader gives Follower lots of time to play. We only attempted this on the easy side. The Volcada has a different feel when the foot is articulated with the heel on the floor, so be careful about how you hold your body. Be playful. Since many people did not know the Funny Volcada, we reviewed it. The analogy was the Follower as the moon orbiting around the Leader, or earth, so she can spin on her own. It is important that Follower use good volcada technique and be strong in her left arm with the digging down to get lift like coming out of a swimming pool, and that her standing weighted leg be strong and supporting of her own weight. The Leader's foot work is left foot back, right back step, left back step, big side step. The Follower traces the path that the leader leads, but stays behind him. Follower should know where leader is the whole time. (See the Funny Volcada September 11, 2008 video and notes.)
(3) Chicho Compression Volcada. The Leader uses out/colgada energy, then breaks the normal volcada rules (normal rules: (1) never collapse; (2) never go down) -- sending her out, then pulling her in so she collapses a little. The Leader also collapses his frame too, but his back is still engaged and his core is still engaged. We did this in open embrace, and tried small ones since this was new to many students and is a "special effect" volcada, since the Leader sends her out, then back in by using compression to collapse her. For the Follower, in her frame collapse, her shoulder blades come closer together, touching. When doing volcadas in open embrace, they should be done small. The Follower really needs to engage to compress/collapse in, which is why the Leader leads the colgada energy first. If she is too stiff, she will block the energy. This requires trust and should not be done large.
(4) Multiple Volcadas / Hard Side Volcadas. We tried the more "dangerous" versions of what we already worked on -- linking the standard forward and back volcadas with the Leader doing windshield wiper technique to do multiple ones, and also the Leader using the right foot block to do multiple ones.
(5) Travelling Forward Volcadas where Leader walks back. Here, the Follower knows where to land her foot because the Leader sets her down mid-Volcada. Compression and release are used here so that the Leader can give the Follower the feeling of both compression and release. With respect to walking, the Leader does this as if he is trying to lead sacadas in a funny way, but his body is swerving from side to side. It looks a little weird. For Follower, she does a series of progressive forward volcadas, and you don't have to do too many of them since the Leader's back will be to the line of dance as she progresses forward. Floorcraftwise, this works well approaching corners of the dance floor.
(6) Volcada Plus. Here we practiced our sustained volcadas, trying to do them in the context of social dancing. The Volcada Plus is where the Follower's side legs go out and is sustained, like an ocho cortado of volcadas. The Leader leads a forward volcada, then uncrosses it after she settles on her weight. Follower needs to use the same technique as for regular volcadas, but her free leg is straightened out very linearly. For the Leader it is important that his feet are together so that his hips are under his axis. The Leader's spine stays straight to take care of his axis, with the weight split between two legs so he can keep her back on axis. We also attempted to do more difficult Volcada Pluses: with a Follower forward split, going really underneath and beneath/between Leader's leg. (See the Back Volcada Explored February 20, 2009 video and notes.)
(7) Volcada Plus with two different exits. Maestros only showed us this as it was beyond what the students could do. Starting from Promenade position,
(A) The Bounce Exit, where the Leader kind of crosses her, then he steps back and so does she. There is an up, bouncing energy to this.
(B) The Helicopter / Spinny Thing. This is tricky. The Leader turns to his left to pivot her around to the maximum point of support where Leader has to unwind her.
Maestros demo'd all that they taught to Di Sarli's Nido Gaucho with Alberto Podesta on vocals.
The milonga was fun. I had danced with many new Leaders. The catered food by Cristina was fantastic as always: tortilla and pita chips, guacamole, cheese platter, bread, fresh fruit, grapes, crackers, sliced veggies, hummus, baba ganoush, spinach quiche/muffin things, prosciutto wrapped grilled pears with Gorgonzola, and two yummy desserts of flan and deconstructed ginger bread triffle. Pablo y Jaime thought it was the best food Cristina had ever done for a Seminario. Tangonero played live, and they sound better and better (from an excellent base to begin with).
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Leader and Follower Enrosques
Song: Tres Esquinas by D'Agostino (vocals by Angel Vargas)
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 23, 2009, The Beat, Berkeley, CA
We began with one dance, trying to include as many enrosques as we knew how to do.
There are many definitions of what enrosques are, but they all have a corkscrew action element to them. They can be done from the turn and sacada, sometimes with weight changes and sometimes without. The Follower enrosque from forward ochos typically do not have weight changes.
We began with a solo exercise to develop enrosques for our body: we practiced crossing our foot in front and changing weight after the cross.
There are two main shapes to enrosques:
(1) Eye of the Needle: has space between the thighs
(2) Eagle position, like in yoga, with thighs close together, going to the other side.
Both have 90 degree pivots, and the foot is planted next to the axis foot in the middle of it, with toe tip pointing down and touching floor. It is important not to sickle the foot here.The pelvis joint and how open the hips can get will determine which enrosque you do.
Next exercise in partnership:
We did forward ochos, and enrosque wrap (either eye of needle or eagle) in front without weight change.
(1) Step
(2) Position foot one next to the other (not too far way, and do not sickle).
(3) Pivot.
This was a more stilted, paused exercise to get us used to the movement and to slow us down to look at all the variables in getting the technique right.
Next option:
(1) Step
(2) Pivot
(3) Then go into foot placement.
This is a more fluid enrosque.
For Followers, no weight change is best option for enrosques.
Followers can do forward ocho into enrosque embellishment, letting her free leg go in front, cross, and then pivot. This adds momentum. She must try to step as close to the Leader as possible to maintain connection.
An alternative is that she can pivot first, then whip the leg in front. What really helps is (1) to keep good spiral in the upper body, (3) rotate the hips, and (3) keep her shoulders square/parallel with Leader's upper body, facing Leader the whole time. All ocho technique applies (spiral and counterspiral).
Next, we drilled with the Leader leading forward ochos, and Follower doing enrosque embellishments on her ochos.
Level 1: Regular enrosque (a little amague) in regular time.
Level 2: A delay, and then a speed up at the end, putting energy into hips to really get around quickly/sharply. It's a slow down, whip around kind of action.
As a reminder, embellishments are always dictated by the music and not done arbitrarily.
Next, the Leader leads Follower to do forward ochos for one or two enrosques. Then Leader leads Follower to do molinete around him while he does enrosques. The Leader leaves his hips behind, gets all twisted, and then lets go into enrosque, while continually leading the Follower's molinete with his upper body. The Leader can do his enrosque on any of the Follower's molinete steps, but the easiest is on her back step.
The question came up: How does the Follower know if he is leading a regular forward ocho (where she can do an enrosque) or a molinete (and if she does an enrosque here she will mess up his lead)?
Answers:
(1) Follower can do enrosque during the molinete, but she should do it without crossing in front.
(2) Follower can cross, but she has to do it quickly and make sure she does not transfer weight.
(3) When the Leader leads the ocho, the focus is on the Follower's axis.
(4) When the Leader leads the molinete, the focus is on the Leader's axis.
Bottom line: If the Follower does an enrosque during the molinete, she can do it successfully and not mess up the lead if she does the enrosque without crossing and/or not changing weight.
Next, we practiced weight changes in enrosque, replacing one axis with another.
The exercise we did by ourselves:
ocho
enrosque
weight change
step back
Next, we did another exercise by ourselves:
step right foot forward
cross left foot in front of right foot
pivot 180 degrees
pivot 180 degrees again
step right foot back.
We also tried this on the other side:
step left foot forward
cross right foot in front of left foot
pivot 180 degrees
pivot 180 degrees again
step left foot back.
Here, there is always a moment when you are sharing weight with two feet. It is important to have good technique with being on one foot and pivoting on one foot.
In the open embrace, we did Leader forward sacada of Follower's trailing foot during molinete forward step, into Leader enrosque, into Leader's back sacada on Follower's side step.
You can practice these things (enrosques, sacadas and back sacadas) wearing socks.
Follower can do air enrosque embellishments, but she needs to be careful how this is done.
Maestros concluded with a demo of what we learned to Tres Esquinas by D'Agostino with vocals by Angel Vargas.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 23, 2009, The Beat, Berkeley, CA
We began with one dance, trying to include as many enrosques as we knew how to do.
There are many definitions of what enrosques are, but they all have a corkscrew action element to them. They can be done from the turn and sacada, sometimes with weight changes and sometimes without. The Follower enrosque from forward ochos typically do not have weight changes.
We began with a solo exercise to develop enrosques for our body: we practiced crossing our foot in front and changing weight after the cross.
There are two main shapes to enrosques:
(1) Eye of the Needle: has space between the thighs
(2) Eagle position, like in yoga, with thighs close together, going to the other side.
Both have 90 degree pivots, and the foot is planted next to the axis foot in the middle of it, with toe tip pointing down and touching floor. It is important not to sickle the foot here.The pelvis joint and how open the hips can get will determine which enrosque you do.
Next exercise in partnership:
We did forward ochos, and enrosque wrap (either eye of needle or eagle) in front without weight change.
(1) Step
(2) Position foot one next to the other (not too far way, and do not sickle).
(3) Pivot.
This was a more stilted, paused exercise to get us used to the movement and to slow us down to look at all the variables in getting the technique right.
Next option:
(1) Step
(2) Pivot
(3) Then go into foot placement.
This is a more fluid enrosque.
For Followers, no weight change is best option for enrosques.
Followers can do forward ocho into enrosque embellishment, letting her free leg go in front, cross, and then pivot. This adds momentum. She must try to step as close to the Leader as possible to maintain connection.
An alternative is that she can pivot first, then whip the leg in front. What really helps is (1) to keep good spiral in the upper body, (3) rotate the hips, and (3) keep her shoulders square/parallel with Leader's upper body, facing Leader the whole time. All ocho technique applies (spiral and counterspiral).
Next, we drilled with the Leader leading forward ochos, and Follower doing enrosque embellishments on her ochos.
Level 1: Regular enrosque (a little amague) in regular time.
Level 2: A delay, and then a speed up at the end, putting energy into hips to really get around quickly/sharply. It's a slow down, whip around kind of action.
As a reminder, embellishments are always dictated by the music and not done arbitrarily.
Next, the Leader leads Follower to do forward ochos for one or two enrosques. Then Leader leads Follower to do molinete around him while he does enrosques. The Leader leaves his hips behind, gets all twisted, and then lets go into enrosque, while continually leading the Follower's molinete with his upper body. The Leader can do his enrosque on any of the Follower's molinete steps, but the easiest is on her back step.
The question came up: How does the Follower know if he is leading a regular forward ocho (where she can do an enrosque) or a molinete (and if she does an enrosque here she will mess up his lead)?
Answers:
(1) Follower can do enrosque during the molinete, but she should do it without crossing in front.
(2) Follower can cross, but she has to do it quickly and make sure she does not transfer weight.
(3) When the Leader leads the ocho, the focus is on the Follower's axis.
(4) When the Leader leads the molinete, the focus is on the Leader's axis.
Bottom line: If the Follower does an enrosque during the molinete, she can do it successfully and not mess up the lead if she does the enrosque without crossing and/or not changing weight.
Next, we practiced weight changes in enrosque, replacing one axis with another.
The exercise we did by ourselves:
ocho
enrosque
weight change
step back
Next, we did another exercise by ourselves:
step right foot forward
cross left foot in front of right foot
pivot 180 degrees
pivot 180 degrees again
step right foot back.
We also tried this on the other side:
step left foot forward
cross right foot in front of left foot
pivot 180 degrees
pivot 180 degrees again
step left foot back.
Here, there is always a moment when you are sharing weight with two feet. It is important to have good technique with being on one foot and pivoting on one foot.
In the open embrace, we did Leader forward sacada of Follower's trailing foot during molinete forward step, into Leader enrosque, into Leader's back sacada on Follower's side step.
You can practice these things (enrosques, sacadas and back sacadas) wearing socks.
Follower can do air enrosque embellishments, but she needs to be careful how this is done.
Maestros concluded with a demo of what we learned to Tres Esquinas by D'Agostino with vocals by Angel Vargas.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Back Volcada Explored
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February, 20, 2009, Just Dance Ballroom, Oakland, CA
A didactic demo was not filmed for the February 20, 2009, class. The August 20, 2007 "Tokyo Drift / Back Volcada" video illustrates many of the same concepts; thus, places in that video are referenced in the notes below to illustrate similar things we did in class.
First, we began with some exercises:
Exercise 1: In circle formation at the perimeter of the room, the class practiced moving forward using back crosses to the center of the circle.
Exercise 2: Then the reverse: In the center of the circle formation, the class practiced moving backward using forward crosses to the outside of the circle.
Exercise 3: The Leaders practiced walking forward using rollerblading footwork in a straight line, as if walking on a railroad track, while Follower maintained back cross footwork walking back.
Exercise 4: We worked on Follower's back ocho technique, doing tight crosses with minimal hip rotation in order to build to the back volcada from the back ocho. We practiced this in open and close embrace.
Leader's Volcada Technique:
The Leader gives a tight embrace with a slight lift.
The Leader creates the volcada feeling by supporting and lifting the Follower more.
The Leader controls how loose or tight the the Follower's back cross is.
We practiced with the Leader leading consecutive tight back crosses while trying to preserve the connection as much as possible, and have tight, compact crossing in the Follower. See 2:07-15 in the video for examples of Follower doing a series of back crosses (looser and larger than the ones we get in class).
Leader does not move feet, but does arch his body, taking care not to rotate his shoulders.
Leader does not go back on his axis, but maintains a forward and upward intention in his chest, as does Follower, so both dancers maintain good connection to each other.
Leader should not go down at all, and really be forwardly and upwardly intended in his chest. This was reiterated several times.
For the Leader's footwork, he goes back on his right foot while still keeping a forward intention in his chest, not going back to vertical axis.
The Leader can lead a tight cross or more open cross depending on the range of communication between the dancers, the music, mood and space available to dance.
If a more open cross is used, there needs to be more suspension and lift from the Leader as it would require more support.
Follower's Volcada Technique:
The Follower tries to stay in front of the Leader as much as possible.
The Follower compresses down on her left side, digging down with her armpit.
Follower should not hesitate, and should have a lot of power in her supporting leg, digging down into the floor to push up and against the Leader. She should use her relationship to the floor and have groundedness.
Her body needs to be stable and strong, with her core muscles engaged so that she does not have a noodle or rag doll body and so that she supports herself and her body does not break or collapse against or onto the Leader.
The Follower's right foot crosses behind the left foot, and the left foot unwinds out forward, out to the left, and back as the Leader steps forward. The Follower's foot traces a half circle on floor, and Leader can track/feel where her foot is. The goal is to have a deep and big movement.
The Follower's left leg is free, but controlled. She should pay attention to how it articulates, and she can project her foot a lot forwardly if it's a big volcada. She should pay attention and think about how her foot unwinds, trying to make it as elegant, articulate and stable as possible.
It is important that the Follower stay in front of and square with the Leader at all times during this back volcada. This was reiterated several times.
After the volcada, the Follower should not kerplunk back with her footwork; she should ease back into her normal position, rolling through her feet.
See 1:43 and 1:51 in the video for examples of the simple back volcada.
Potential Pitfalls:
If both don't keep their forwardly intended axis.
It works better when neither dancer goes down.
If Leader rotates his shoulders or chest, the Follower will be in trouble because she will peel off the Leader.
If Follower is not aggressive in terms of pushing up against the Leader, and does not really push against him. In the volcada, the energy is always up or straight ahead.
For the Leader, there are three volcada killers:
(1) If he goes down.
(2) If he rotates his shoulders.
(3) If his posture goes back to fully vertical from forwardly intended in the chest.
For the Follower, she must maintain good technique:
(1) Holding or pressing down on her left side of Leader's right side.
(2) Stay in front of the Leader.
(3) Maintain her body position, being very stable and supported in her standing leg and with her chest forwardly and upwardly intended and connected to the Leader.
(4) Engage her core muscles so that she does not have a noodle or rag doll body and supports herself so that body does not break.
(5) Don't take big steps if they are not led.
(6) Don't kerplunk in the exiting footwork.
As a treat, we also tried to do the Volcada-Plus:
From the simple tight back volcada that we worked on, the Leader brings his feet together, takes his axis back and down, which causes the Follower to do a split with her legs, and then he drives her left leg back into the forward cross.
The Follower uses her supporting right leg to have lift and have the left leg open up out to the left side.
See 2:59-3:00, and 3:02-03 in the video for similar examples on the left side, which is what we attempted. 2:20-22, 2:30-34, and 2:48-50 are examples of the right side, which we did not attempt.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February, 20, 2009, Just Dance Ballroom, Oakland, CA
A didactic demo was not filmed for the February 20, 2009, class. The August 20, 2007 "Tokyo Drift / Back Volcada" video illustrates many of the same concepts; thus, places in that video are referenced in the notes below to illustrate similar things we did in class.
First, we began with some exercises:
Exercise 1: In circle formation at the perimeter of the room, the class practiced moving forward using back crosses to the center of the circle.
Exercise 2: Then the reverse: In the center of the circle formation, the class practiced moving backward using forward crosses to the outside of the circle.
Exercise 3: The Leaders practiced walking forward using rollerblading footwork in a straight line, as if walking on a railroad track, while Follower maintained back cross footwork walking back.
Exercise 4: We worked on Follower's back ocho technique, doing tight crosses with minimal hip rotation in order to build to the back volcada from the back ocho. We practiced this in open and close embrace.
Leader's Volcada Technique:
The Leader gives a tight embrace with a slight lift.
The Leader creates the volcada feeling by supporting and lifting the Follower more.
The Leader controls how loose or tight the the Follower's back cross is.
We practiced with the Leader leading consecutive tight back crosses while trying to preserve the connection as much as possible, and have tight, compact crossing in the Follower. See 2:07-15 in the video for examples of Follower doing a series of back crosses (looser and larger than the ones we get in class).
Leader does not move feet, but does arch his body, taking care not to rotate his shoulders.
Leader does not go back on his axis, but maintains a forward and upward intention in his chest, as does Follower, so both dancers maintain good connection to each other.
Leader should not go down at all, and really be forwardly and upwardly intended in his chest. This was reiterated several times.
For the Leader's footwork, he goes back on his right foot while still keeping a forward intention in his chest, not going back to vertical axis.
The Leader can lead a tight cross or more open cross depending on the range of communication between the dancers, the music, mood and space available to dance.
If a more open cross is used, there needs to be more suspension and lift from the Leader as it would require more support.
Follower's Volcada Technique:
The Follower tries to stay in front of the Leader as much as possible.
The Follower compresses down on her left side, digging down with her armpit.
Follower should not hesitate, and should have a lot of power in her supporting leg, digging down into the floor to push up and against the Leader. She should use her relationship to the floor and have groundedness.
Her body needs to be stable and strong, with her core muscles engaged so that she does not have a noodle or rag doll body and so that she supports herself and her body does not break or collapse against or onto the Leader.
The Follower's right foot crosses behind the left foot, and the left foot unwinds out forward, out to the left, and back as the Leader steps forward. The Follower's foot traces a half circle on floor, and Leader can track/feel where her foot is. The goal is to have a deep and big movement.
The Follower's left leg is free, but controlled. She should pay attention to how it articulates, and she can project her foot a lot forwardly if it's a big volcada. She should pay attention and think about how her foot unwinds, trying to make it as elegant, articulate and stable as possible.
It is important that the Follower stay in front of and square with the Leader at all times during this back volcada. This was reiterated several times.
After the volcada, the Follower should not kerplunk back with her footwork; she should ease back into her normal position, rolling through her feet.
See 1:43 and 1:51 in the video for examples of the simple back volcada.
Potential Pitfalls:
If both don't keep their forwardly intended axis.
It works better when neither dancer goes down.
If Leader rotates his shoulders or chest, the Follower will be in trouble because she will peel off the Leader.
If Follower is not aggressive in terms of pushing up against the Leader, and does not really push against him. In the volcada, the energy is always up or straight ahead.
For the Leader, there are three volcada killers:
(1) If he goes down.
(2) If he rotates his shoulders.
(3) If his posture goes back to fully vertical from forwardly intended in the chest.
For the Follower, she must maintain good technique:
(1) Holding or pressing down on her left side of Leader's right side.
(2) Stay in front of the Leader.
(3) Maintain her body position, being very stable and supported in her standing leg and with her chest forwardly and upwardly intended and connected to the Leader.
(4) Engage her core muscles so that she does not have a noodle or rag doll body and supports herself so that body does not break.
(5) Don't take big steps if they are not led.
(6) Don't kerplunk in the exiting footwork.
As a treat, we also tried to do the Volcada-Plus:
From the simple tight back volcada that we worked on, the Leader brings his feet together, takes his axis back and down, which causes the Follower to do a split with her legs, and then he drives her left leg back into the forward cross.
The Follower uses her supporting right leg to have lift and have the left leg open up out to the left side.
See 2:59-3:00, and 3:02-03 in the video for similar examples on the left side, which is what we attempted. 2:20-22, 2:30-34, and 2:48-50 are examples of the right side, which we did not attempt.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tango Accident, Tango Now & The Art of Improvisation
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19, 2009, La Pista, San Francisco
This class was done in game format to spawn creativity, encourage experimentation, and to help us think outside of the box.
We began with one dance dancing as we normally would.
Game 1: Tango Accident
There are two levels to this game.
Level 1: We walked, and at some point, the Follower randomly crosses (the Leader does not lead her to cross). The Leader has to think what to do to get out of it (i.e., behave as if he led the cross). Follower can do left over right foot crosses or right over left foot crosses.
Level 2: Follower can do any move accidentally (Leader does not lead it). Here, the Leader has to recover from it. We do this continually, with Follower doing different accidents and the Leader recovering from it gracefully and smoothly.
Game 2: Tango Now
There are two levels to this game.
Level 1: While the Leader and Follower dance together, periodically the Follower says "now" in the middle of a move that Leader is leading. The Leader has to come up with a creative way to get out of it, instead of continuing to complete the move as usual. Follower should say "now" during a move Follower can predict so that she gives Leader a fair opportunity to get out of it. The Follower should follow and observe what the routine is before she says "now."
Level 2: When the Follower says "now" the Leader breaks the thought and does something entirely different.
Some problems we encountered here were that sometimes there is a lot of momentum to the move, and to stop it midway. The challenge was that when Follower says "now", it's like stumbling. The Leader should try to make the change smoothly. This game enables the Leader to try to lead something he's never tried before, to break patterns and habits.
When we give constraints, it forces us to become more creative. If there are no restraints, it is difficult to be creative.
Game 3: Tango Blind
Constraint: Leader and Follower dance together with eyes closed.
- Who is around me?
- How can I be careful?
- It can generate some very interesting things.
- Be careful.
Here, we develop increased sensitivity to our partner, and develop creativity.
Game 4: 5th Step
Level 1: Every 5th Step of the Follower must always be a back step. Follower helps Leader by counting steps out loud. Boleo is counted as 1, and leg wrap is counted as 1.
Level 2: After the 4th step, but before the 5th step, the Follower calls out a move, such as a back step, forward step, molinete, leader sacada, follower sacada, leg wrap, volcada, colgada, soltada, calesita, etc., and she can be specific (left foot, right foot, clockwise, counterclockwise, overturned back ocho, overturned wrap). This game got us to start thinking about the flow of movement. Often the Follower has a better sense of what flows nicely, and she can help the Leader to be more sensitive to the flow of the movement, giving him feedback and permission to try something new. In this game, the dancers can slow down and think about it, figure out how to do it, before moving. Follower can help Leader discover new moves.
Game 5: Leader and Follower switch embrace
(Follower's left hand and Leader's right hand become the open side of the embrace and Follower's right arm/hand and Leader's left arm/hand become the close side of the embrace; line of dance remains the same, and Leader typically walks forward and Follower typically walks back as normal). We danced, doing very basic moves like the 8CB, ochos, etc. Here, the dancers will find that the difficult side becomes easier and the easier side becomes more difficult.
Game 6: Moliono X Factor (named after a maestro named Moliono)
Maestros only demo'd this; we did not try it because no students were skilled enough.
Leader and Follower switch roles so the Follower appears to be leading, but the Leader is back leading. The goal is to back lead the Follower to look like she is leading the Leader while he does ochos, ganchos, etc. New things open up, brainwise.
Game 7: No Side Step
Constraint: We danced with no Leader or Follower side steps.
Game 8: 3 Elements
The Follower picks three elements, and the Leader had to do them in that order with no separation between the movements. Examples: side, back ocho, back boleo; half back ocho, volcada, leg wrap; soltada, calesita, colgada.
Game 9: Sacada Twister
In groups of three, we held hands and had our legs open. One dancer began by doing a wrap or sacada between one or two people's legs, and then someone else goes. We tried to keep connected with our hands, but it was OK to change the embrace (let go of hands) if we needed to. We were to try to get more than one person with our foot.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
February 19, 2009, La Pista, San Francisco
This class was done in game format to spawn creativity, encourage experimentation, and to help us think outside of the box.
We began with one dance dancing as we normally would.
Game 1: Tango Accident
There are two levels to this game.
Level 1: We walked, and at some point, the Follower randomly crosses (the Leader does not lead her to cross). The Leader has to think what to do to get out of it (i.e., behave as if he led the cross). Follower can do left over right foot crosses or right over left foot crosses.
Level 2: Follower can do any move accidentally (Leader does not lead it). Here, the Leader has to recover from it. We do this continually, with Follower doing different accidents and the Leader recovering from it gracefully and smoothly.
Game 2: Tango Now
There are two levels to this game.
Level 1: While the Leader and Follower dance together, periodically the Follower says "now" in the middle of a move that Leader is leading. The Leader has to come up with a creative way to get out of it, instead of continuing to complete the move as usual. Follower should say "now" during a move Follower can predict so that she gives Leader a fair opportunity to get out of it. The Follower should follow and observe what the routine is before she says "now."
Level 2: When the Follower says "now" the Leader breaks the thought and does something entirely different.
Some problems we encountered here were that sometimes there is a lot of momentum to the move, and to stop it midway. The challenge was that when Follower says "now", it's like stumbling. The Leader should try to make the change smoothly. This game enables the Leader to try to lead something he's never tried before, to break patterns and habits.
When we give constraints, it forces us to become more creative. If there are no restraints, it is difficult to be creative.
Game 3: Tango Blind
Constraint: Leader and Follower dance together with eyes closed.
- Who is around me?
- How can I be careful?
- It can generate some very interesting things.
- Be careful.
Here, we develop increased sensitivity to our partner, and develop creativity.
Game 4: 5th Step
Level 1: Every 5th Step of the Follower must always be a back step. Follower helps Leader by counting steps out loud. Boleo is counted as 1, and leg wrap is counted as 1.
Level 2: After the 4th step, but before the 5th step, the Follower calls out a move, such as a back step, forward step, molinete, leader sacada, follower sacada, leg wrap, volcada, colgada, soltada, calesita, etc., and she can be specific (left foot, right foot, clockwise, counterclockwise, overturned back ocho, overturned wrap). This game got us to start thinking about the flow of movement. Often the Follower has a better sense of what flows nicely, and she can help the Leader to be more sensitive to the flow of the movement, giving him feedback and permission to try something new. In this game, the dancers can slow down and think about it, figure out how to do it, before moving. Follower can help Leader discover new moves.
Game 5: Leader and Follower switch embrace
(Follower's left hand and Leader's right hand become the open side of the embrace and Follower's right arm/hand and Leader's left arm/hand become the close side of the embrace; line of dance remains the same, and Leader typically walks forward and Follower typically walks back as normal). We danced, doing very basic moves like the 8CB, ochos, etc. Here, the dancers will find that the difficult side becomes easier and the easier side becomes more difficult.
Game 6: Moliono X Factor (named after a maestro named Moliono)
Maestros only demo'd this; we did not try it because no students were skilled enough.
Leader and Follower switch roles so the Follower appears to be leading, but the Leader is back leading. The goal is to back lead the Follower to look like she is leading the Leader while he does ochos, ganchos, etc. New things open up, brainwise.
Game 7: No Side Step
Constraint: We danced with no Leader or Follower side steps.
Game 8: 3 Elements
The Follower picks three elements, and the Leader had to do them in that order with no separation between the movements. Examples: side, back ocho, back boleo; half back ocho, volcada, leg wrap; soltada, calesita, colgada.
Game 9: Sacada Twister
In groups of three, we held hands and had our legs open. One dancer began by doing a wrap or sacada between one or two people's legs, and then someone else goes. We tried to keep connected with our hands, but it was OK to change the embrace (let go of hands) if we needed to. We were to try to get more than one person with our foot.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Decarean School of Music
Song: Anibal Troilo by Julio de Caro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 26, 2009, The Beat, Berkeley, CA
We began dancing with two songs by Julio de Caro: Tierra Negra and Anibal Troilo, to introduce us to the Julio de Caro sound.
Next, we danced to segments of four songs: D'Arienzo's El Flete, de Caro's El Monito, Canaro's La Melodia de Nuestro Adios, and de Caro's Mi Dolor. We then discussed the comparisons and contrasts among the different orchestras (staccato, a way of straining instruments, more soloists and when they happen, the wobble, the variación -- de Caro created the formula for solo improvs -- "variaciones").
The first element of de Caro's music that we explored was Pausing and Breathing. We attempted to stretch our dance movement though the shimmy or two-foot ideas (with our weight on two feet and legs open). Here, we attempted to work on articulation of the hips in an unconventional way, where the hips are more separate from the torso, playing with the concept of different ways to articulate our hips, and the flexion in our knees, in both linear and side articulation. It was noted that this move was somewhat bluesy. We did this to de Caro's Mala Junta.
We continued our discussion of de Caro's music: how there were shifts, that it was rich in variación with lots of unaccompanied solos, the element of "whistling", how de Caro's music was known more for innovations than playing virtuosity, the use of his specially made violin-coronet, the music's playfulness, sometimes the strong beat is missing, during which you can switch into pitter-patter mode.
The second element we explored in our dance was the planted two-foot pivot. Here, the Leader takes two steps forward, plants the Follower while her left foot is back and right foot is forward, then the Leader walks around her clockwise; her upper body follows his, maintaining connection, until all of the weight transfers fully to her forward right foot, at which point his continual motion around her causes her left leg to free so she pivots all the way around on her right leg. One option to this is that the Leader can change direction both ways clockwise and counterclockwise, forward and back, to unwind the Follower the other way.
Followers should take their time coming to their axis on this move (go ahead and hang out). She can easily practice this by herself, transferring weight as she rotates around one side to another. For a more advanced Follower technique, she can play with the way her body moves as the Leader walks around her, letting her knees go so that they open up the hips, where there's a delay of movement from one joint to another. Generally, the hips turn first, then the knees follow. However, sometimes there is a movement where both knees are turned out.
For the Leader' technique, it is important that he lets his right hand go (just like for all big pivots or big ochos), still providing a frame in which the Follower can move, but not restricting her body rotation, as her rib cage has to be free to have maximum torsion without any hand pressure from him. At the point of where the Leader plants the Follower, he actually stops short of the middle as the Follower's foot starts to put the weight down. For the Leader, it is important that he walks around close to the Follower, and that he attempts to walk around the standing, pivoting leg of the Follower. The Leader should envision an invisible circle that he has to walk around the Follower, using her right leg as the center of the circle as his goal. If he walks too far away, he will pull her and she will fall.
Next, we attempted to focus the energy on the release to try to lead a boleo at the end.
Next, we changed the ending into a volcada instead of boleo. The trick was that the release of energy is farther away when the volcada is led.
We then tried it in close embrace, and also changed the ending to a shared single axis turn, or the two foot shimmy out to resolution.
The concept of strechiness can be found in many orchestras (Troilo, Pugliese, Donato, Laurenz). About 80% of de Caro's music is instrumental, with only about 20% having vocals.
To conclude, we danced to two de Caro songs: Derecho Viejo, and a milonga, Saca Chispas.
It was noted that de Caro was so interconnected with the musicians of the time, that Piazzolla wrote a tribute to de Caro. Pugliese was such an admiring student of de Caro that he dedicated a whole album to him.
Maestros did a demo of what we learned to de Caro's Anibal Troilo.
Shared class materials were from:
* http://www.todotango.com/english/creadores/jdecaro.asp
* "History of Tango Music" masters thesis by Pablo Aslan
* A page from the coffee table book called Tango (picture of de Caro's orchestra, and he with his violin-coronet)
* A tango diagram of orchestras and composers "Cuadro Relacionador de estilos orquestales"
* Maestro's handwritten class outline
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 26, 2009, The Beat, Berkeley, CA
We began dancing with two songs by Julio de Caro: Tierra Negra and Anibal Troilo, to introduce us to the Julio de Caro sound.
Next, we danced to segments of four songs: D'Arienzo's El Flete, de Caro's El Monito, Canaro's La Melodia de Nuestro Adios, and de Caro's Mi Dolor. We then discussed the comparisons and contrasts among the different orchestras (staccato, a way of straining instruments, more soloists and when they happen, the wobble, the variación -- de Caro created the formula for solo improvs -- "variaciones").
The first element of de Caro's music that we explored was Pausing and Breathing. We attempted to stretch our dance movement though the shimmy or two-foot ideas (with our weight on two feet and legs open). Here, we attempted to work on articulation of the hips in an unconventional way, where the hips are more separate from the torso, playing with the concept of different ways to articulate our hips, and the flexion in our knees, in both linear and side articulation. It was noted that this move was somewhat bluesy. We did this to de Caro's Mala Junta.
We continued our discussion of de Caro's music: how there were shifts, that it was rich in variación with lots of unaccompanied solos, the element of "whistling", how de Caro's music was known more for innovations than playing virtuosity, the use of his specially made violin-coronet, the music's playfulness, sometimes the strong beat is missing, during which you can switch into pitter-patter mode.
The second element we explored in our dance was the planted two-foot pivot. Here, the Leader takes two steps forward, plants the Follower while her left foot is back and right foot is forward, then the Leader walks around her clockwise; her upper body follows his, maintaining connection, until all of the weight transfers fully to her forward right foot, at which point his continual motion around her causes her left leg to free so she pivots all the way around on her right leg. One option to this is that the Leader can change direction both ways clockwise and counterclockwise, forward and back, to unwind the Follower the other way.
Followers should take their time coming to their axis on this move (go ahead and hang out). She can easily practice this by herself, transferring weight as she rotates around one side to another. For a more advanced Follower technique, she can play with the way her body moves as the Leader walks around her, letting her knees go so that they open up the hips, where there's a delay of movement from one joint to another. Generally, the hips turn first, then the knees follow. However, sometimes there is a movement where both knees are turned out.
For the Leader' technique, it is important that he lets his right hand go (just like for all big pivots or big ochos), still providing a frame in which the Follower can move, but not restricting her body rotation, as her rib cage has to be free to have maximum torsion without any hand pressure from him. At the point of where the Leader plants the Follower, he actually stops short of the middle as the Follower's foot starts to put the weight down. For the Leader, it is important that he walks around close to the Follower, and that he attempts to walk around the standing, pivoting leg of the Follower. The Leader should envision an invisible circle that he has to walk around the Follower, using her right leg as the center of the circle as his goal. If he walks too far away, he will pull her and she will fall.
Next, we attempted to focus the energy on the release to try to lead a boleo at the end.
Next, we changed the ending into a volcada instead of boleo. The trick was that the release of energy is farther away when the volcada is led.
We then tried it in close embrace, and also changed the ending to a shared single axis turn, or the two foot shimmy out to resolution.
The concept of strechiness can be found in many orchestras (Troilo, Pugliese, Donato, Laurenz). About 80% of de Caro's music is instrumental, with only about 20% having vocals.
To conclude, we danced to two de Caro songs: Derecho Viejo, and a milonga, Saca Chispas.
It was noted that de Caro was so interconnected with the musicians of the time, that Piazzolla wrote a tribute to de Caro. Pugliese was such an admiring student of de Caro that he dedicated a whole album to him.
Maestros did a demo of what we learned to de Caro's Anibal Troilo.
Shared class materials were from:
* http://www.todotango.com/english/creadores/jdecaro.asp
* "History of Tango Music" masters thesis by Pablo Aslan
* A page from the coffee table book called Tango (picture of de Caro's orchestra, and he with his violin-coronet)
* A tango diagram of orchestras and composers "Cuadro Relacionador de estilos orquestales"
* Maestro's handwritten class outline
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Hard Side
Song: Viviani by Carlos DiSarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas co-taught with Felipe Martinez & Rosa Corsico
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 23 & 24, 2009, Emeryville, CA
Advanced Seminario on January 23, 2009
The purpose of this seminario was to explore doing things on both the open and close side of the embrace, and how they felt differently in terms of easy and difficulty, and to work on what types of adjustments we need to make in our bodies to execute the moves well on both sides.
We began with an exercise where the Leader stays planted in place, and leads Follower to do three steps around him in the molinete, then pivot her around to change direction, to do three steps around him in the other direction. For the pivoting change of direction, the Follower does a back ocho on the closed side of the embrace, and a forward ocho on the open side of the embrace. The Follower needs to be cognizant of how she has to hold her body and legs in pivoting. Followers often have trouble pivoting on the right leg on the closed side. It is important for the Follower to engage and work the supporting, standing leg. The Leader changes his left and right arm on whether he leads forward or back ochos on the open or close side, and there are different challenges of each -- it is important for the leader to not be static, and not block the movement. Leader needs to be open in the shoulders and grounded on the floor to minimize tension and potential for liming the space. As usual in the molinete, the Follower should try to keep her hips close to the Leader and not float away. Sometimes the arm relationship will feel funny. It is important for the Follower to maintain her spiral and not collapse on her right side, which would cause her to tilt.
Next, we did the same exercise, but added a more dynamic Leader pivot energy during the Follower ochos to lead her to do either (1) boleos or (2) rebound/switch step/rebote. Here, the Leader can let go of the contact with his right hand when she pivots/boleos/rebounds, but still use his arm and forearm for connection and contact. The Follower still holds onto the Leader to maintain contact and connection to the lead coming from his body, but she must not use him to keep herself in balance. For the Leader, he uses compression energy to get the rebound on the closed side. Our work showed that for the leader, this is easier to lead on the open side. To distinguish between the boleo or the rebound step, the leader must make sure the Follower's hips do not pass in rotation out, otherwise it will certainly be a boleo rather than a rebound. Follower needs to be fully on her axis on the supporting leg with knee slightly bent to get a nice boleo.
We tried doing these steps (rebound/switch step or boleo) in all of the ways and locations -- forward and back, open and close side. We found the back switch step to be the most challenging. Follower has a tendency to collapse in the right side of her body in the embrace; she needs to really engage her right lat to not do this.
We then danced to another song, working on boleos, rebounds and ochos, playing with getting more send energy and more rotation. It was noted that the Leader brings the Follower closer for the back ocho, and lets her out father away for the forward ocho. Felipe said the Leader has to anticipate the move (boleo or rebound) so he can lead it and know what's coming. If he doesn't think about it and she's already there, it's too late to lead a boleo or rebound/switch. The goal is to blend one step with the next so energy is maximized and there is flow to the dance. The Follower should let her hips amplify the energy she gets from the lead. Rosa reiterated that the Follower's upper and lower body needs to be connected through the center, which means that the core must be actively engaged.
Next, we worked on sacadas, both on the open side and closed side: Leader's back sacada on Follower's forward cross or back cross. For these Leader back sacadas, he needs to release his arms on the more open side. For the Follower, the embrace is movable. She needs to rely on her legs, not on her arms. Her arms are sliding in the embrace to make room for the Leader to get around. For the Follower's overturned forward ocho, she needs to keep her shoulders on top of her hips and ankles, because if they are ahead, she will fall into the step. Felipe noted that on the open side for the Leader's back sacada, the Leader can put his left hand and her right hand behind his back like in an L shape to get the dancers in the correct position so that their arms do not block each other, enabling the Leader to do a back sacada with his right leg.
Homer and Cristina showed us a step on both sides: Follower's forward ocho with Leader's back sacada. Here, while Follower does one forward ocho after another, the Leader simultaneously does one overturned back sacada after another. The Leader must do this over his axis, and it requires a lot of pivoting and precision on his part. There was discussion of back sacada technique. Felipe and Rosa do this differently (using a less physically challenging technique). Felipe recommends "looking for the triangle" -- whereby the Leader sets up the triangle so he knows where to step out to enter between the Follower's legs. Thus, there is no pivot, but a series of steps.
Again, Felipe reiterated on the Leader's back sacada technique, he needs to manage the embrace much more on the open side, to get Follower close enough, he needs to do an L with his left hand and her right hand. To get the hands in the correct position, he needs to change the hold of her hand, where the fingers go underneath, and he holds her hand from the top of it. In addition, he needs to release the close side of the embrace, so his right hands slides down her arm and looks for the connection, maybe in her left hand. For the back sacada, the Leader needs to get a lot of pivot, but if he is not physically capable of it, or does not have really long legs to step through, he can cheat on his back step by doing a back cross step. Still, the Leader must try to look at the Follower during the back sacada to maintain connection and a sense of where she is, and try to create his own spiral in his body.
Next, we attempted to combine what we learned to the Follower forward boleo using her left leg on the closed side, immediately into a Follower overturned left leg back sacada of Leader's right leg. If Leader's left arm does not have a lot of control, he will send (knock) her off her axis. If Leader is receiving a Follower back sacada, he must not jam her. He has to create space by going a little away from her. Felipe said Leader should try to create space for Follower on the step before, when she is doing the boleo. Homer and Cristina said you can create space by stepping away at the end. Either way, both said Leader should not jam the Follower and must create space.
Next, we did the Follower overturned back sacada. Felipe clarified his "looking for the triangle" technique for the Leader to set this up. The Follower's standing foot is one corner of the triangle. The Leader's two other feet make the other two corners to give her a place to go into with her overturned back sacada as Leader steps around her in a circle.
The final concept of the class involved doing a different type of sacada after the boleo -- the "fourth sacada." Here, the Follower does a back sacada, then immediately Leader does a back sacada, they continue to do this, on both sides.
The final, final concept of the class involved the Follower forward boleo, directly into a Follower back sacada using the same boleoing leg, to cause Leader to do an enrosque (pivoted forward cross), directly into a leader back sacada.
Our conclusions: What's difficult or easy for the Follower may not be difficult or easy for the Leader with respect to the sides they are dancing on. For some moves, the open side is easier, for others, the closed side. For some moves, the Leader might think the open side is easier, others the closed side. The Leader really needs to manage the embrace and what he's doing with his left and right hands and arms when he does back sacadas. Our experiment in co-teaching was to give instruction differently from each other, sharing our perspectives, and saying it in a different way from each other that might resonate better with the students and give them a different, more complete viewpoint.
To Canaro's Organito de la Tarde, Homer & Cristina did a partial demo with some movements, focusing on the initial setup for the framework for the class concept of executing different moves on both the close and open side of the embrace for both the Leaders and Followers.
The milonga was fun; it wasn't super crowded since there were six other milongas that night (we are very blessed in the Bay Area) so there were no floorcraft issues. Cristina, as usual, did a fabulous job catering. There was a veggie platter, a cheese platter, crackers, sliced fruit, blackberries and pomegranate seeds in a ginger sauce, a hot artichoke and spinach quiche-like dip, a roasted pepper and eggplant dip, and yummy Indian rice pudding.
Intermediate Intensivo on January 24, 2009
Homer & Cristina Ladas Intermediate Intensivo on "The Hard Side."
We began with the same exercise as yesterday, with the leader standing and leading the Follower to do three steps of the molinete in front of him, then pivot her around using a forward ocho or back ocho to do the molinete the other way. We discussed which side was easier or more difficult, and some potential reasons why (see yesterday's notes).
We worked on the Leader's technique, an exercise where he avoids using his right hand in leading ochos (though it is OK for him to use his arm). Here, the Follower still maintains connection and contact with the Leader with her left hand on his bicep. Like yesterday, maestros reiterated repeatedly that the Follower should keep her hips close to the Leader, and actively try to maintain her spiral by facing the Leader as much as possible. The Follower needs to be on her axis, with no lean forward, chest up, nose back, and joints stacked on top of each other.
Then we worked on the rebound/switch step/rebote. Here, the Leader uses stop compression in the embrace, using both his hands. Follower's arm connection to Leader is equally distributed among both her arms (50% each arm). When does the Leader lead the Follower to do the switch? Before the point of no return. If the Follower's hips go past a certain point, it will be a boleo, not a switch step.
We did one dance changing between ochos and switch steps to feel and to understand the change of embrace from open to close, and to understand the different physical demands of the open side versus the close side, and the energy intention of the soft switch versus a quick switch, with the Leader's experimenting with the amount and speed of compression in the arms and the energy in his spine.
Next, we did a series of linear switch steps to the easy (open) side (Leader goes left while Follower goes right). (The hard side is for the Follower to go left, Leader to go right.) Basically, it was a series of short forward step, pivot to face each other, short forward step, pivot to face each other, etc., with Leader snapping his hips to get good rebound energy to stop Follower. We experimented here with tight weight changes with feet together or looser weight changes with more open steps. One creative idea: Anything done in a line can be done in a curve or circle, counterclockwise or clockwise. So then we played with this step, with Leader doing small, tight pivoting in place while Follower steps around him in tight switch steps, and then the Follower doing small, tight pivoting in place, while the Leader steps around her in tight switch steps. The difficult thing about this is that sometimes the Leader's left hand pumps the Follower's right hand or he may use his right hand as he attempts to force her to pivot. If he does this, the Follower cannot feel any rebound energy. To remedy this, the Leader can practice this by himself, holding his left hand up as if it is sliding across a wall while he does a series of tight pivots linearly. This "wall", this plane between the Leader and Follower, is important since that is where the rebound comes from. So here, the Leader's left arm and Follower's right hand need to be on a straight line, with no push or pull.
Next, we worked on the ocho and blocking the ocho to rebound her back, in addition to working the boleo. Again, if the rebound energy is too late, you will get a boleo. The Leader's right arm and forearm are used to lead, but not the right hand.
Since our boleos didn't look very good, we all did some exercises to work on the technique so that we could get high energy for snappy boleos. The dancer plants his left foot, while trying to whack his butt with his right foot (thigh is lifted). Here we were to rotate our hips to do this, but not pivot, so we could get a whipping motion, striking the floor like a match to get the whacking sound on our left butt cheek. For the feet, point them and turn them out when it leaves the floor, and be sure foot doesn't sickle. As always, soften the knee of the supporting standing leg. Follower needs to be ready to take the rebound.
Next, the Leaders attempted to lead a back ocho after the Follower's front boleo on both the open and close side.
Next, we did Leader and Follower back sacadas, working on the hard side and easy side. For the Leader, it's a stretch on the back sacada of his right leg of Follower's trailing left foot on the open side of the embrace. On the close side, Leader does back sacada of his left leg of Follower's trailing right foot. In doing sacadas, chest needs to remain up, and there is a breaking of the embrace on the close side. Importantly, we quickly practiced changing the embrace with respect to the Leader's left hand and Follower's right hand, whereby his thumb goes on top of the back of the Follower's hand, and then he reaches his other fingers underneath. This type of hold is common in ballroom, and this change in hand embrace is necessary for the Leader to get her hand behind the left side of his back as his left arm does an L behind his back to do his back sacada of his right leg of Follower's trailing left leg on the open side of the embrace. When changing the hand embrace, the Leader leads her to pivot, and should try to do the hand transition in the middle of her step.
When doing the Leader's back sacada on the close (easy) side of the embrace, there is a transition of the Leader's right hand down Follower's back. Here, the Follower's arm must not be underneath the Leader's arm; it can be over or on top of/ on the outside of Leader's arm.
We discussed but did not have the time to do any rebounding off boleos into back sacadas.
Maestros did a demo of what was taught to Di Sarli's Viviani.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas co-taught with Felipe Martinez & Rosa Corsico
http://www.freshlaundrytango.info
January 23 & 24, 2009, Emeryville, CA
Advanced Seminario on January 23, 2009
The purpose of this seminario was to explore doing things on both the open and close side of the embrace, and how they felt differently in terms of easy and difficulty, and to work on what types of adjustments we need to make in our bodies to execute the moves well on both sides.
We began with an exercise where the Leader stays planted in place, and leads Follower to do three steps around him in the molinete, then pivot her around to change direction, to do three steps around him in the other direction. For the pivoting change of direction, the Follower does a back ocho on the closed side of the embrace, and a forward ocho on the open side of the embrace. The Follower needs to be cognizant of how she has to hold her body and legs in pivoting. Followers often have trouble pivoting on the right leg on the closed side. It is important for the Follower to engage and work the supporting, standing leg. The Leader changes his left and right arm on whether he leads forward or back ochos on the open or close side, and there are different challenges of each -- it is important for the leader to not be static, and not block the movement. Leader needs to be open in the shoulders and grounded on the floor to minimize tension and potential for liming the space. As usual in the molinete, the Follower should try to keep her hips close to the Leader and not float away. Sometimes the arm relationship will feel funny. It is important for the Follower to maintain her spiral and not collapse on her right side, which would cause her to tilt.
Next, we did the same exercise, but added a more dynamic Leader pivot energy during the Follower ochos to lead her to do either (1) boleos or (2) rebound/switch step/rebote. Here, the Leader can let go of the contact with his right hand when she pivots/boleos/rebounds, but still use his arm and forearm for connection and contact. The Follower still holds onto the Leader to maintain contact and connection to the lead coming from his body, but she must not use him to keep herself in balance. For the Leader, he uses compression energy to get the rebound on the closed side. Our work showed that for the leader, this is easier to lead on the open side. To distinguish between the boleo or the rebound step, the leader must make sure the Follower's hips do not pass in rotation out, otherwise it will certainly be a boleo rather than a rebound. Follower needs to be fully on her axis on the supporting leg with knee slightly bent to get a nice boleo.
We tried doing these steps (rebound/switch step or boleo) in all of the ways and locations -- forward and back, open and close side. We found the back switch step to be the most challenging. Follower has a tendency to collapse in the right side of her body in the embrace; she needs to really engage her right lat to not do this.
We then danced to another song, working on boleos, rebounds and ochos, playing with getting more send energy and more rotation. It was noted that the Leader brings the Follower closer for the back ocho, and lets her out father away for the forward ocho. Felipe said the Leader has to anticipate the move (boleo or rebound) so he can lead it and know what's coming. If he doesn't think about it and she's already there, it's too late to lead a boleo or rebound/switch. The goal is to blend one step with the next so energy is maximized and there is flow to the dance. The Follower should let her hips amplify the energy she gets from the lead. Rosa reiterated that the Follower's upper and lower body needs to be connected through the center, which means that the core must be actively engaged.
Next, we worked on sacadas, both on the open side and closed side: Leader's back sacada on Follower's forward cross or back cross. For these Leader back sacadas, he needs to release his arms on the more open side. For the Follower, the embrace is movable. She needs to rely on her legs, not on her arms. Her arms are sliding in the embrace to make room for the Leader to get around. For the Follower's overturned forward ocho, she needs to keep her shoulders on top of her hips and ankles, because if they are ahead, she will fall into the step. Felipe noted that on the open side for the Leader's back sacada, the Leader can put his left hand and her right hand behind his back like in an L shape to get the dancers in the correct position so that their arms do not block each other, enabling the Leader to do a back sacada with his right leg.
Homer and Cristina showed us a step on both sides: Follower's forward ocho with Leader's back sacada. Here, while Follower does one forward ocho after another, the Leader simultaneously does one overturned back sacada after another. The Leader must do this over his axis, and it requires a lot of pivoting and precision on his part. There was discussion of back sacada technique. Felipe and Rosa do this differently (using a less physically challenging technique). Felipe recommends "looking for the triangle" -- whereby the Leader sets up the triangle so he knows where to step out to enter between the Follower's legs. Thus, there is no pivot, but a series of steps.
Again, Felipe reiterated on the Leader's back sacada technique, he needs to manage the embrace much more on the open side, to get Follower close enough, he needs to do an L with his left hand and her right hand. To get the hands in the correct position, he needs to change the hold of her hand, where the fingers go underneath, and he holds her hand from the top of it. In addition, he needs to release the close side of the embrace, so his right hands slides down her arm and looks for the connection, maybe in her left hand. For the back sacada, the Leader needs to get a lot of pivot, but if he is not physically capable of it, or does not have really long legs to step through, he can cheat on his back step by doing a back cross step. Still, the Leader must try to look at the Follower during the back sacada to maintain connection and a sense of where she is, and try to create his own spiral in his body.
Next, we attempted to combine what we learned to the Follower forward boleo using her left leg on the closed side, immediately into a Follower overturned left leg back sacada of Leader's right leg. If Leader's left arm does not have a lot of control, he will send (knock) her off her axis. If Leader is receiving a Follower back sacada, he must not jam her. He has to create space by going a little away from her. Felipe said Leader should try to create space for Follower on the step before, when she is doing the boleo. Homer and Cristina said you can create space by stepping away at the end. Either way, both said Leader should not jam the Follower and must create space.
Next, we did the Follower overturned back sacada. Felipe clarified his "looking for the triangle" technique for the Leader to set this up. The Follower's standing foot is one corner of the triangle. The Leader's two other feet make the other two corners to give her a place to go into with her overturned back sacada as Leader steps around her in a circle.
The final concept of the class involved doing a different type of sacada after the boleo -- the "fourth sacada." Here, the Follower does a back sacada, then immediately Leader does a back sacada, they continue to do this, on both sides.
The final, final concept of the class involved the Follower forward boleo, directly into a Follower back sacada using the same boleoing leg, to cause Leader to do an enrosque (pivoted forward cross), directly into a leader back sacada.
Our conclusions: What's difficult or easy for the Follower may not be difficult or easy for the Leader with respect to the sides they are dancing on. For some moves, the open side is easier, for others, the closed side. For some moves, the Leader might think the open side is easier, others the closed side. The Leader really needs to manage the embrace and what he's doing with his left and right hands and arms when he does back sacadas. Our experiment in co-teaching was to give instruction differently from each other, sharing our perspectives, and saying it in a different way from each other that might resonate better with the students and give them a different, more complete viewpoint.
To Canaro's Organito de la Tarde, Homer & Cristina did a partial demo with some movements, focusing on the initial setup for the framework for the class concept of executing different moves on both the close and open side of the embrace for both the Leaders and Followers.
The milonga was fun; it wasn't super crowded since there were six other milongas that night (we are very blessed in the Bay Area) so there were no floorcraft issues. Cristina, as usual, did a fabulous job catering. There was a veggie platter, a cheese platter, crackers, sliced fruit, blackberries and pomegranate seeds in a ginger sauce, a hot artichoke and spinach quiche-like dip, a roasted pepper and eggplant dip, and yummy Indian rice pudding.
Intermediate Intensivo on January 24, 2009
Homer & Cristina Ladas Intermediate Intensivo on "The Hard Side."
We began with the same exercise as yesterday, with the leader standing and leading the Follower to do three steps of the molinete in front of him, then pivot her around using a forward ocho or back ocho to do the molinete the other way. We discussed which side was easier or more difficult, and some potential reasons why (see yesterday's notes).
We worked on the Leader's technique, an exercise where he avoids using his right hand in leading ochos (though it is OK for him to use his arm). Here, the Follower still maintains connection and contact with the Leader with her left hand on his bicep. Like yesterday, maestros reiterated repeatedly that the Follower should keep her hips close to the Leader, and actively try to maintain her spiral by facing the Leader as much as possible. The Follower needs to be on her axis, with no lean forward, chest up, nose back, and joints stacked on top of each other.
Then we worked on the rebound/switch step/rebote. Here, the Leader uses stop compression in the embrace, using both his hands. Follower's arm connection to Leader is equally distributed among both her arms (50% each arm). When does the Leader lead the Follower to do the switch? Before the point of no return. If the Follower's hips go past a certain point, it will be a boleo, not a switch step.
We did one dance changing between ochos and switch steps to feel and to understand the change of embrace from open to close, and to understand the different physical demands of the open side versus the close side, and the energy intention of the soft switch versus a quick switch, with the Leader's experimenting with the amount and speed of compression in the arms and the energy in his spine.
Next, we did a series of linear switch steps to the easy (open) side (Leader goes left while Follower goes right). (The hard side is for the Follower to go left, Leader to go right.) Basically, it was a series of short forward step, pivot to face each other, short forward step, pivot to face each other, etc., with Leader snapping his hips to get good rebound energy to stop Follower. We experimented here with tight weight changes with feet together or looser weight changes with more open steps. One creative idea: Anything done in a line can be done in a curve or circle, counterclockwise or clockwise. So then we played with this step, with Leader doing small, tight pivoting in place while Follower steps around him in tight switch steps, and then the Follower doing small, tight pivoting in place, while the Leader steps around her in tight switch steps. The difficult thing about this is that sometimes the Leader's left hand pumps the Follower's right hand or he may use his right hand as he attempts to force her to pivot. If he does this, the Follower cannot feel any rebound energy. To remedy this, the Leader can practice this by himself, holding his left hand up as if it is sliding across a wall while he does a series of tight pivots linearly. This "wall", this plane between the Leader and Follower, is important since that is where the rebound comes from. So here, the Leader's left arm and Follower's right hand need to be on a straight line, with no push or pull.
Next, we worked on the ocho and blocking the ocho to rebound her back, in addition to working the boleo. Again, if the rebound energy is too late, you will get a boleo. The Leader's right arm and forearm are used to lead, but not the right hand.
Since our boleos didn't look very good, we all did some exercises to work on the technique so that we could get high energy for snappy boleos. The dancer plants his left foot, while trying to whack his butt with his right foot (thigh is lifted). Here we were to rotate our hips to do this, but not pivot, so we could get a whipping motion, striking the floor like a match to get the whacking sound on our left butt cheek. For the feet, point them and turn them out when it leaves the floor, and be sure foot doesn't sickle. As always, soften the knee of the supporting standing leg. Follower needs to be ready to take the rebound.
Next, the Leaders attempted to lead a back ocho after the Follower's front boleo on both the open and close side.
Next, we did Leader and Follower back sacadas, working on the hard side and easy side. For the Leader, it's a stretch on the back sacada of his right leg of Follower's trailing left foot on the open side of the embrace. On the close side, Leader does back sacada of his left leg of Follower's trailing right foot. In doing sacadas, chest needs to remain up, and there is a breaking of the embrace on the close side. Importantly, we quickly practiced changing the embrace with respect to the Leader's left hand and Follower's right hand, whereby his thumb goes on top of the back of the Follower's hand, and then he reaches his other fingers underneath. This type of hold is common in ballroom, and this change in hand embrace is necessary for the Leader to get her hand behind the left side of his back as his left arm does an L behind his back to do his back sacada of his right leg of Follower's trailing left leg on the open side of the embrace. When changing the hand embrace, the Leader leads her to pivot, and should try to do the hand transition in the middle of her step.
When doing the Leader's back sacada on the close (easy) side of the embrace, there is a transition of the Leader's right hand down Follower's back. Here, the Follower's arm must not be underneath the Leader's arm; it can be over or on top of/ on the outside of Leader's arm.
We discussed but did not have the time to do any rebounding off boleos into back sacadas.
Maestros did a demo of what was taught to Di Sarli's Viviani.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
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