Overturned Ganchos + Back Sacadas (Advanced)

Song: Como Se Hace Un Tango by Lucio DeMare

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/

May 25, 2013, England International Tango Festival (at Ardingly College, Haywards Heath, West Sussex)

Maestros showed us a pattern in close embrace.  Leader walks follower to the cross. Leader pivots Follower, changing her weight to her left foot as his left foot steps forward side to lead Follower to do a right foot back gancho in between his legs. The Leader’s left foot “forward side” step is a forward step that turns into a side step because he rotates clockwise to get the Follower to over pivot to do a right foot back gancho in between the Leader’s legs.  It is an open forward step that turns into a side step, and the Leader’s torso still keeps turning clockwise to get the Follower to over pivot and gancho.

The class is split in two with Leaders behind Homer and Followers behind Cristina so we could work on our respective footwork.

Leaders:  When walking to the cross, do not drift (do not change lanes)

Left foot side step

Right foot weight change

Left foot forward step

Right foot forward step

Left foot forward step that turns into a side step.

Right foot Captain Morgan with heel lifted, thigh opened

Rotate his whole body while his weight remains back on his left foot

Return to right foot to lead Follower to unwind.

Followers:

Right foot side step

(no weight change for Follower, unlike Leader)

Left foot back step

Right foot back step

Cross left foot over right foot

Leader’s Captain Morgan rotation leads the Follower to do a gancho.

The Follower wraps around the Leader’s Captain Morgan right leg.

The Follower’s left foot over pivots so that her right foot has the momentum to do the right leg gancho. 

The Follower should pivot as much as possible and for as long as possible until she hits the wall.

We can start this in close embrace, but we need to transition to open embrace so that both dancers are on axis at the point of the gancho.

Refining our Gancho Technique

The Followers were to imagine they were all tigers. 

We were to avoid the knee gancho, where the leg bends at the knee and the thigh is not involved in the gancho at all.

We step 1.5 meters away from the wall.

Hold onto fish bowl.

Swing one leg with lazy bent knee on the way up, and swing it back.

Keep our upper body quiet

Connect the four corners of our standing foot

Use the floor to power the working leg.

In partnership, with both dancers side to side next to each other, Follower was to keep consistency of swing in her leg while the Leader goes behind or in front with his Captain Morgan leg. The Follower does not change the angle of the swing of her leg, and she should not look for the gancho.  The Leader’s job is to be in the right place at the right time with his Captain Morgan leg.  With different height dancers, the Leader’s leg can go up or go down.  He would use his opposite elevator leg to go  down when dancing with a very short Follower.  For the Follower, on her leg swing, she should go with a  pointed toe, and come out trying to create a little bit of turnout.  Level 2 of this exercise is for the Follower to close her eyes.  Level 3 is for both the Follower and Leader to close their eyes.   The Follower needs to have strong legs (don’ be wimpy). The Followers should be tigers, squeezing the Leader’s leg with her swing leg, really letting it go to wrap around the Leader’s thigh.  The Follower’s leg is like a whip, if she can wrap around the leg/joint it makes things all the sweeter.  The Follower needs to really let the whole leg go.

We had a mandatory partner change at this point, preferably with someone of different heights so the Leaders could practice adjusting their legs (either the Captain Morgan leg or the opposite elevator leg) depending on the height of their partner.

Next, we went back to the pattern.

The Follower should keep her torso nice and long, incorporating the pendulum movement having extension in the front, and compression in the back. To create good/more spiral, it is important not to collapse in the posture/chest.

The Leader is taking circular energy and turning it into linear energy.  The Follower’s answer is the whip of her leg. 

Follower: Before the gancho, the Leader’s lead of the big back ocho pivot has to be so clear that our belly buttons face away from the Leader.

Sometimes the Follower’s left arm will get in the way. To prevent this, she should soften her left shoulder blade to get closer to the Leader. She should make it flexible or drop it if she needs to.

If the Leader is much taller than the Follower, he should not bend down as he will change the dynamics. 

Both dancers should not rush, and be ready NOT to go to be more settled in their dancing.

The Leader should not push the Follower off axis by keeping his chest forward into her or have an evil right hand.  To work on getting rid of his evil pushing right hand, we use the teapot embrace.

CHAPTER 2:

At the cross, the Leader steps a few centimetres farther away, to get the Follower off axis a little bit, with no stop.

So our options are:

-       close or farther away

-       stop or keep turning

When we choose a little farther away + keep turning (which defines a new axis, so the Leader is the focus), we get a Follower’s right foot back sacada of the Leader’s right foot as she naturally gets pulled from her ocho into a turn/hiro/molinete.

The Leader needs to be clear about his position and energy (is there a stop or is there continuous energy). If he is not clear, the Follower will guess.

The Leader can keep turning by continuing to open his right shoulder. 

Any time the Follower is at the point of the cross of left foot over right, the Leader can lead a gancho:

Such as in the ocho cortado, or in the close embrace to turn to the left (counterclockwise).

The Leader can lead the Follower to do a right foot sacada and then immediately an overturned left foot gancho by doing stop and block energy.

The Leader needs to have good Captain Morgan turnout in his right leg to give the Follower enough room to do her gancho.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and a demo to Como Se Hace Un Tango by Lucio DeMare.

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

Universal Tango Technique (Improvers)

Song: Tormenta by Francisco Canaro

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
May 25, 2013, England International Tango Festival (at Ardingly College, Haywards Heath, West Sussex)

We began in bare feet/socks, with trying to find the four corners of our feet.  We stood with our feet 6-8 inches apart, feet straight in line, either imagining the letter H or the number 11. Have even distribution of weight between two feet, be really in the middle. Our hip bone is aligned with our shoulder joints and ankles.  We stretch the neck up, being really tall, and going into the floor.  We should have soft knees. This is the sweet spot to feel really rooted in the floor.

Next, we put all of our weight to the right side.  Our right toes spread out into the floor.  We can push with the right foot to create length.

Next, we put all of our weight to the left side and do the same thing.

Next, with weight on the right foot, we imagine that our foot has four corners, two in the front, and two in the back.  We should have straight legs, but our knees are always soft. We push down to create length, and everything is stacked up.  The four corners of our feet are like suction cups, not just pushing, but creating vacuuming up, suction, creating length.  It pulls down to push up.  Followers: do not forget the four corners, even though you are wearing high heels.  We should use the four corners of our feet as much as possible, though we pivot on the first two corners only.

Next exercise: Reaching

We began with stabilizing our body using the four corners idea.  Then we reach, and then we extend our reach a little farther, and then transfer weight. We were to avoid kerplunking and control the landing.  We should try not to change height.  As you reach and transfer weight, think about what muscles are working to make a really nice collection.

Next exercise: Crossing game

We cross behind and walk forward, or cross in front and walk back.  We should still think about the four corners of our feet to make this happen.  We bend our knees, but lift our heels to get enough clearance to move forward.  Doing it backward, it is called the Michael Jackson Moonwalk in tango, crossing in front to walk back.  We need to be clear about it, but take as much time as we need. Our feet are in a little bit of an A shape, as we cross behind to walk the way forward, and cross in front making the A walking backward.

How to do crossing game exercises

We were to think that we are holding a giant bowl of fish that are sleeping.  So our upper bodies need to be very quiet.  We achieve this by using our core and inner thigh muscles, squeezing the top part of our thighs.  We can do this exercise anywhere: in the grocery store line, or behind a podium during a speech, the goal of which would be to separate our lower half from our upper half and no one realizes what we are doing behind the podium.

No-pivot back ochos

In close embrace, we worked on no-pivot back ochos, where the Follower’s ball of foot does not rotate. She can open the hip, but her feet do not pivot.  We can do this in open or close embrace, but we tried in close embrace first.

Leader’s technique: For the lead, the Leader’s spine, shoulders, and chest have no rotation while he does rollerblading on the California boardwalk.  With the class in a circle formation, we tried this, rollerblading in the center, collecting our heels in between.

Follower’s technique: She zig zags back to the outside of the circle, opening her hips and reaching, but not pivoting.  Because the Leader’s chest does not rotate, the Follower does not pivot.  The Follower’s foot should roll to the middle of the foot, and then reach with the other foot for her next step. She should not roll to the back of the foot to avoid kerplunking. 

Both Leader and Follower should make everything even. We are products of our partner, so if they are uneven, we will be uneven.

In between his steps, the Leader can collect or do double time and not collect, but the Follower has to always collect, even if the Leader goes fast in double time.

Follower: Do not push with your right hand, but engage the right lat instead.

On the hook behind, from the no-pivot ocho, the Follower’s footwork needs to be very pointed in the foot and straight in the ankle so she doesn’t scrape over her other foot as it comes around.

The resolution after hooking behind: The Leader can get into perpendicular and rotate the Follower, which is good for taking corners.  Or he can just lead her back into back ochos.

For the more advanced dancers, he can hug her a little more and shift from left to right, where he will lead continuous hooks behind.  The Follower makes her crosses tight and deep.

When practicing, be sure to make clear exits and really know what you are going to do/are doing once you finish the movement.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and a demo to Tormenta by Francisco Canaro.

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

Body Spiral Fundamentals (Intermediate)

Song: Soy Aquel Viajero by Carlos Di Sarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
May 25, 2013, England International Tango Festival (at Ardingly College, Haywards Heath, West Sussex)



The Leader’s Spiral

The Leader’s embrace is the Sugarbowl (which used to be the Tea Kettle embrace). This is also called the Less Blame embrace because the Follower can’t blame the Leader. This embrace empowers the Follower to hold onto the Leader and learn how to hold on in a positive manner, using horizontal energy (not using vertical energy).  The Follower’s arms are nice and elastic, allowing the embrace to open up or contract as needed, and never being stuck rigidly in just one articulation.

For the pattern:

The Leader turns into the line of dance, paying attention to how it starts and ends.

The Leader on his left foot pivots while he does 1-2 lapices with his Right foot.  The Leader has to turn a lot so that at the end of the pattern, they are facing the line of dance.  The Follower’s steps need to be long and near the Leader.

The Pattern:

Leader’s footwork:

Left foot side step

Right foot forward

Weight change to left foot

Right foot tuck to with change on his left foot, doing 1-2 lapices with his Right foot, to Right foot parada on close side (as Follower does hiro/turn/molinete clockwise around the Leader) to Follower’s right foot, then she steps forward around the Leader with her left foot in her pasada.

Follower’s footwork:

Right foot side step

Left foot back step

Right foot

[WORK ON THIS]

Follower should keep her chest up and take long steps close to the Leader.

Do not rush or accelerate through.

The Follower’s steps on the strong beat, with one whole beat for the pivot.

Enjoy the turn.

The Secret to this:  Timing

When does the Leader start the pivot?

On the Follower’s back pivot is when the Leader starts his pivot so that their pivots are coordinated.

The Leader’s chest allows his upper body to disassociate from the lower body.  The Leader sends the Follower with his right shoulder.

The Follower allows each foot to center and arrive to use that foot to power the next step.  Completely arrive on each step to prepare for the next step.  Each of the Follower’s step on the floor has equal value. Each step is worth $100 (or £100).

We should do this pattern in the line of dance, so the Leader needs to be aware of where he is facing.

Follower: How to keep distance consistent to Leader? 

1. Elasticity of the embrace
2. Distance of the hips, which will dictate how much the Follower has to open or close

The Leader’s standing leg is the axis of the circle, which helps the Follower walk around him.

Here the class was split with Leaders with Homer and Follower’s with Cristina

Followers: worked on 3 and 4 point turns

Leaders: worked on Leader’s spiral

Leaders:

Washing Machine Exercise

We start rotating the ribs before it deadpans, releasing the hips, and allowing the hips to get ahead of the ribs, and pull the ribs around.

The washing machine exercise helps us to get more disassociation in the body and to really focus on moving from the top first, and then down, or moving from the bottom first, and then up.  This exercise can be done on either weighted leg, and in either direction. Our homework is to practice all the options to work this movement into our muscle memory.

What is the fundamental way to turn?

Block turn: Shoulders on top of hips, kicking the heel around

Adding spiral

Planeo/Ronde/Lapice/Pencil

Do them, and then turn 90 degrees and point.  Do this with either foot.  Try getting to 180 degrees.

Reverse spiral is going on, so it enhances the turn.

A solo drill, with the Leader’s arms in sugar bowl, start to practice disassociation, releasing the hips, and doing lapices alone.  With a Follower, it’s easier because she helps stabilize the Leader. When the Leader does it alone, it’s more difficult.

Exercise: In close embrace, turns with Follower tucked footwork. 

In open embrace, fast with dancers going slightly away from each other at the chest/upper body.

Exercise: In Leader-to-Leader partnership, each one does a 4-point turn (Forward, Side, Back Side), etc. 

The dancers were then brought back together to drill the pattern again, based on their individual exercise where they refined their technique.

Don’t let rib cage get ahead of hip bone.  Follower needs to help keep the Leader balanced when he is pivoting on one foot.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and a demo to Soy Aquel Viajero by Carlos Di Sarli.

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

The Art of the Leg Wrap (All Levels Class)

Song: Sonar y Nada Mas by Alfredo de Angelis
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
April 7, 2013, Yale Tango Fest



Ganchos are in the family of leg wraps.

Communication is key

The Follower needs to do her part.

There are many families of leg wraps:

-           From Ochos

-           From Turns

-           From Crosses – the focus of our class

Chapter 1

The Leader leads the Follower to the cross.

He then puts either foot next to her right side of her crossed left foot and then leads her to wrap her right leg around his leg. 

At the point of the wrap, the Follower needs to be on axis so she doesn’t fall into the Leader.

The Leader sends her linearly back, as if for a straight back step, and on her return, his left knee comes forward in straight ahead Captain Morgan stance as he meets her half-way.

The Leader’s Captain Morgan knee needs to touch the Follower’s left inside knee so she feels contact and for him to lead the wrap.

The Follower should point the toe of the right foot at the point of the wrap.

Leader’s Captain Morgan Leg is Key

The Leader’s Captain Morgan stance with heel lifted off the ground accomplishes several important things:

-           Gives his leg more flexibility.

-           Gets his knee closer to her knee

-           Creates space between his legs for her to  wrap

In the wrap from the cross, at the point of the Captain Morgan stance (which in this case is with his leg forward instead of the off to the side), and where the Leader has come in to meet the Follower half-way on her return after he has sent her out, both his feet are weighted.  The weight is at the center, and the Leader is on axis. The Follower is also on axis during her wrap.

Follower’s Technique during the Wrap

Precursor: The Follower should do deep crosses in her feet.

The Follower should try to always keep her foot on the floor, even when it goes forward. Only when she feels the obstacle of his leg should she wrap around the meaty, fleshy part of his thigh (so higher than his knee).

The Follower creates the shape of the wrap.  The Leader leads it, but the way the Follower answers is all in her control.

Follower’s Exit: 2 options

-           Collect in place with foot staying on the floor

-           Knee up and collect at conclusion.

Either way, the Follower should not anticipate the next step as it could be a back step or a back ocho.

For the Leader’s forward Captain Morgan stance, he should not turn his knee outside as she is squeezing his leg with hers. Because of the joint, her knee bends.  “The thighs have eyes.”  Maestro illustrated this concept with a blind student in class.

Note that there are two back and forths:

1. The Leader sends the Follower back in colgada-like movement and he goes back a little.
2. Then he brings her forward to him and he stops.

In our drilling, the Leader should focus on feeling the Follower’s momentum and direct it in the wrap.   The Leader should cage the Follower, but must not send her too far back, otherwise she will take a step.  It is a very small, slight colgada feeling/movement, and then stop the energy, and try to get her to come forward.  As she comes back in, the Leader makes Captain Morgan leg contact.

Chapter 2 for the more advanced: Double (or Triple, Quadruple, etc) wraps

Music is the master.

Physical communication is key with the transfer of weight from one leg to the other, moving through the base.

The Leader’s heel remains lifted.

The Leader needs to do the lead for the double at the right time.  He has to catch the moment of time of the Follower leaving to lead the second one.  In leading a double or triple wrap, there is a rule: The Leader must lead the first one first (Follower cannot do the double or triple on her own accord).

For the Follower, it is difficult to steal a gancho or a wrap as it has to go with the music.  In this class, the Followers were instructed to NOT steal ganchos.

How to lead the double or triple wrap:

The Leader needs to do it while their thighs are still touching

The Leader should practice his Captain Morgan linear pulses.

For the Advanced: Doubles on one leg, then the other.  Maestros demonstrated this, but no one else tried it.

Chapter 3: Wraps from the Hiro (Turn/Molinete)

The Follower has to commit to her wrap. She should not be tentative.

The easy side is with the Leader turning to his right (counterclockwise).  After the Follower’s forward step, on that side step is when the Leader enters with his leg.  The Follower needs to have consistent long, reaching steps around the Leader.

Hint: The Leader needs to really open up his legs in full Captain Morgan stance to the side, so that his thigh is open and his heel is up.

For the Leader, it is a slow transfer of weight. He should also stay low and not rise.

Demonstration Only:  Sequential alternating wraps

There was a lot of student interest in this after Maestros performed it at Friday’s opening milonga.

Leader does a tight leg wrap of her lead leg so that the Follower gets almost a boleo.

Leader steps long and away, doing a tight right leg with Captain Morgan turned out, and then a cowboy left leg with Captain Morgan turned in.

Demonstration Only: Overturned Ganchos

This is where the Follower’s leg goes back in between the Leaders.

Maestros concluded with a class review and a demo to Sonar y Nada Mas by Alfredo de Angelis.

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

The Body Spiral Connection: Overturned Movements (Intermediate-Advanced Class)

Song: Somebody That I Used to Know by Pentatonix (Goyte cover)
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
April 7, 2013, Yale Tango Fest



There are many examples and reasons why we do overturned movements:

-           Follower’s forward ochos with Leader’s forward sacadas

-           Leader’s back sacadas

-           Follower’s back sacadas

The first part of the class was dedicated to exploring the Overturned Ocho.

The Overturned Ocho

The secret to the Overturned Ocho is in how the Leader “attacks” the floor with his foot, giving it more energy. 

We drilled this concept, with the Leader instructed to start thinking about how much energy to give the Follower, with an eye to:

-           giving impulsive energy to lead an overturned movement, or

-           without giving impulse energy, but still lead an overturned movement.

The Follower does overturned forward ochos while the Leader walks forward. He can do a sacada to her trailing leg or not (just walk in between her feet). 

The Leader leads the Follower to walk forward into him while he does forward ochos.

This was a test of:

-           Communication

-           Posture

-           Elasticity of the embrace

ELASTICITY (this concept is very important)

In hand-in-hand embrace, the leader walks back and the Follower walks forward, but she takes her time and stays a little longer on her standing leg, so there is a very slight lean back, as she provides a little bit of resistance to help stabilize the movement.  Recall that in our hand-to-hand partnered ocho exercise, there is a slight lean away so that we balance each other.

In their observations of us, maestros noted that for the Follower’s overturned back ocho, the first two are fine, and then the rest look a little bit rushed and uncontrolled.

There are two different ways the Leader can walk into the Follower:

-           By doing regular forward sacadas to her trailing foot

-           By having a sexy forward ocho walk with more rotation/torsion/disassociation

He can also lead the Follower to

-           Walk straight

-           Walk with a slight ocho

In fingertip hand-to-hand hold, we held each other gently as if there was a big fish bowl filled with sleeping fish in between us.  We were also supposed to do these two exercises (Leader walking into Follower or Follower walking into Leader) in the line of dance.

The Leader hangs a little back, he should not push into the Follower when she is doing her ochos.  He should lean back to create balance.

Since Followers do not walk forward in the tango very much, they might find it difficult in walking forward to create a long step and also hang back.  To help, the Follower should lengthen her step by transferring the weight slower so that the Leader finds stability, connection and communication. She needs to work on this technique.

There are three options for the Follower’s foot movement in walking forward:

-           Going with toes first, then sliding more into the step

-           Going with heels first, weight flat back and then going to the middle

-           Going with toe reaching, then foot rolling so heel lands first and weight goes to the middle of the foot on transferring weight.

While each is a valid way of stepping forward, whatever option the Follower chooses, she should arrive with stability and not be wobbly.  Cristina uses the third option (toe reaching, then foot rolling with heel landing first), and notes that there is the risk of being short or pulling forward more with the first option (toes first).

The Lead for Impulse Energy

The source of Leaders’ power is in the floor and in the timing.

As an exercise, in fingertip hand-to-hand embrace, the Leader leads the Hiro (Turn/Molinete), with impulse at the point of the Follower’s ocho.

Application of the Impulse:

Maestros demonstrated two ways/flavors to lead ochos:

·         Mocha Java: mellow and sweet consistently throughout, like the ice cream flavor

·         Rocky Road: give a little more energy, like the bits of interesting exploding accents dotted throughout the overall smoothness, like the ice cream flavor

Leaders should use his foot and the floor to create impulse (not just their arms).  In attacking the floor, the four corners of his foot act like a section cup, sucking down but pushing up. One foot will be stronger than the other. We need to work on strengthening the weaker foot to have symmetry in our dance skills.

The Leader gives impulse to the Follower at her maximum tension (you will see the extreme lengthening in the diagonal folds of her dress/shirt) as she is about to transfer her weight, so just before her foot lands in the ocho step. 

The difference between the Ocho and the Hiro is who is the center of the axis:

-           Ocho: Follower’s axis is the focus

-           Hiro: Leader’s axis is the focus

Next exercise:

To illustrate the concept of Impulse, we applied it to the Ocho Parada, with the Leader giving the Follower impulse energy at the point right before she does her ocho.  As the Leader attacks the floor with his foot, the energy goes up into his center, into his embrace, which transmits to the Follower as impulse energy. 

Efficiency in tango

It is inefficient for Leaders to use their arms to lead the ocho.  We are on Earth, so there is gravity and we are connected to the Earth.  Thus, we should use this fact in our dance and use the floor.

Concluding comment:

There is more than one way to lead anything in tango.

Maestros concluded with a class review and demo to the Pentatonix (Goyte cover band) version of Somebody That I Used to Know.

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

Happy Sacadas with Francisco Canaro (Intermediate Class)

Song: El Rey del Bosque by Francisco Canaro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
April 6, 2013, Yale Tango Fest


Video courtesy of Steven Spura

We began with a warm-up song, just doing regular dancing for the first half of the song. Then the song was paused and we were instructed to then dance the second half of the song doing as many sacadas as we knew.

Next, we were told to dance doing forward sacadas, seeing how many we could do in a row with each other (so both Leaders and Followers doing sacadas to each other).  Here the communication and integrity of the embrace are key.  We were to try to get 4-6 in a row, on either side, although it was easier to do left leg sacadas during turns to the right.

The idea of this class was to have fun and be happy playing with sacadas to the mellow, easy beat of Francisco Canaro.

We started with the forward sacadas. 

Sacadas are like Closets

In their home, Cristina has more shoes, more clothes, and more grooming products than Homer, so she has more closet space, more shelf space, because she needs it.  The same is true for Sacadas.

In Sacadas, the Leader needs to give the Follower more space for her to do her Forward Sacada into the Leader, but when he does his forward sacada into her space, he can be closer.  If the Leader walks near/around the Follower, the Follower feels crowded and may hesitate and feel uncomfortable about walking forward in her sacada.

Elasticity of Follower’s Embrace

The paradoxical nature and idea of the elasticity of the Follower’s embrace is to allow it to stretch if it needs to so that the Follower can take her long, reaching steps into the Leader during her forward sacada.  She should use her embrace to help facilitate this.  However, she must always hold on and maintain connection with the Leader in her hands, with the pads of her fingertips

During the Follower’s Sacada, the Leader should maintain visual connection with the Follower by looking at her as he walks away from her in a tangent to lead the Follower to do her Forward Sacada step into him.  He should create the space for her to feel comfortable walking into his space.

Both dancers must control the speed to make it a nice, smooth movement, keeping the embrace elastic as there will be points where we need to be farther way from each other, and then closer.

The Leader is leading two things:

1. The Follower’s Forward Ocho
2. The Follower’s Hiro while the Leader is stepping away in a tangent to her.

We worked on doing this in Sugar Bowl (aka “Less Blame”) embrace, to help us understand that the Follower needs to be more active in her embrace.  Here, the pads of the Follower’s fingers are always on the Leader’s arms, but her arms are flexible so she can open up the embrace a bit when she needs more space to take long reaching steps into the Leader’s space.  In her Sacada, she should reach with her foot and leg first, then bring her hips forward as she transfers the weight and takes his space during the sacada.

We then switched gears and started with the side-step hypnotizing setup.

Here the Leader steps side to side, and the Follower follows with her side steps.

The Leader then plants his left foot, pivots 90 degrees so that he is perpendicular to the Follower, and then he steps forward with his right foot on a line tangent to the Follower with his right foot. This leads the Follower to step forward into his space in her sacada.  The Follower needs to recognize that after the Sacada, the Leader is leading a movement: the forward ocho (forward pivot).

The keys for the sacada are:

·         The lead for the Sacada is based on the Hiro

·         Both Leader and Follower need to do Big Ochos right before walking into their partner.

Other tips:

• Keep your chest up.
• Do not rush.
• Follower needs to have good ocho technique with good energy in her hips.
• Leader needs to have good ocho technique with good energy in his hips. If he does not, then he needs to work on his Follower’s technique.

Stride Length

The Leader enables the Follower to make good steps by not constraining her. He must not push her or rush her step and give her clear space. 

The Follower must still be connected to the Leader with her hands and pads of her fingers, even though her embrace opens up with elasticity in her arms.

Next we changed the exercise:

Still starting with the hypnotizing side steps.

The Leader extends his left foot in a sneak attack, then transfers weight and turns to the right to lead the Follower to do a right foot forward sacada into his trailing, now unweighted right foot.

We also tried this on the opposite side:

The Leader extends his right foot in a sneak attack, then transfers weight and turns to the left to lead the Follower to do a left foot forward sacada into his trailing, now unweighted left foot.

As we do these Follower forward sacadas into the Leader, he becomes a moving target as he changes the location of the axis.  The Follower needs more space to feel comfortable walking into him.

Snakey Sacadas

The Leader leads mini forward sacadas in sequence (snakey sacadas).  These are snaky ochos into him. The Follower should not fall forward in her forward steps. She needs to reach, and arrive completely instead of cutting through the movements and moving continuously.  When she arrives, she needs to really connect the four corners of the foot to the floor.

These continuous snaky Follower forward ochos are an academic exercise as it goes against the line of dance as the Leader is walking backwards and the Follower walks forwards into him.  If done on the social dance floor, the most you would do would be 1 or 2. Otherwise, you will crash into the couple behind you.

The secret to doing continuous Follower forward sacadas is to take it back at an angle by turning our shoulders diagonally opposite (like what we did in our earlier sneak attack exercise), and then do another, angling it a bit.

For the Leader, it is very important that he collect in between the steps. However, if doing this move in double time, he will not be able to collect. If the Leader does this in double time, he still needs to have control. And the faster they go, the more the Follower needs to hold onto the Leader.

Maestros concluded with a class review and demo to Francisco Canaro’s El Rey del Bosque.

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

The Ocho Rock Step Parada Transition Done While Looking Cool (Pre-Intermediate Class)

Song: El Yacare by Angel D'Agostino with vocals by Angel Vargas
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
April 6, 2013, Yale Tango Fest



Maestros demonstrated the simple step we would learn in this class: the rock step to the Follower’s forward ocho, to the Leader’s parada on the close side, to the Follower’s pasada to the open side. 

The class was first separated into two sections with Leaders on one side and Followers on the other side facing the Leaders. Maestros then went through the footwork first and the students mimicked them from behind.

Then the groups were reunited.

The Rock Step

We began in open embrace and focused on doing the rock step and Follower’s ocho and step around (so we did not do the Leader’s parada at this point)

Leader’s footwork

Leader’s left foot rock step forward

Right foot rocks back, crossing behind

Right foot opens to the right as Follower walks forward, she does a weight change, then pivots.

As the Leader leads the Follower around, the Leader goes with her and pivots on his left and steps off.

Follower’s footwork

The Follower’s right foot steps back.

Then her right foot rocks forward where she takes a long step around the Leader and does a big forward ocho pivot on her now-weighted right leg as the Leader’s right shoulder opens up.

The Follower then steps around the Leader with her left foot and then back out with her right foot.

If we found this easy, we were to do it in Teapot Embrace (Leader’s left hand up and out as the spout, right hand at the small of his back, his right arm as the handle).

In tango, for both Leader and Follower, we must always maintain the three Cs:

1.      Comfort

2.      Clarity

3.      Consistency

From here, we moved to the Sugar Bowl embrace (aka the “Less Blame” embrace), with the Leader’s hands at this small of his back and both arms as the handles.  This embrace is “Less Blame” because the Leader’s right hand is not on the Follower’s back so he can’t push her around.

The Big Ocho Pivot

In doing the rock step parada pasada, there is a transition period where the embrace starts with the dancers in close appilado style with a tilted axis, to a fully vertical one at the point of the Follower’s pivot.  To lead this opening up of the embrace to fully vertical, the Leader needs to take his axis to fully vertical.  The Follower will automatically mimic this movement and take her axis at the point of her big ocho pivot on the close side of the embrace.

The Follower needs to take long, reaching steps around the Leader to remain close to him, because if she takes short steps not around the Leader she will end up being very far away from him.  The Follower’s default should be long, reaching steps.  To illustrate this point, the Rule of the Hip was introduced.

The Big Ocho Pivot: The Rule of the Hip

The Follower’s hip will touch the Leader’s hip at the end of her big ocho pivot.  That’s how close they should be.  This rule applies to both the close and open sides of the embrace.  Here the Leader has to make his base small with his feet together (not apart), otherwise the Follower will have more difficulty getting around him.

The Follower at the moment of the ocho must be on vertical axis, as this will help her pivot a lot and maintain balance.  In all our dancing, we must exercise control. We must not fall forward and we must not rush to the next step (which for Followers is the pasada).

The Leader’s Parada

To add the Leader’s Parada, we began with working on an exercise to get the Leaders used to the footwork.

The pre-exercise was the pivot with a little kick around with our bodies like a block.

The exercise was the Leader standing on his left foot and then pivoting around while fanning out his free foot in “ronde” movement.  With each pivot/fan, he would try to turn 90 degrees. The Leaders goal was to use the movement of the ronde to get around. 

Next we drilled and became infinite ocho parada machines.

The Follower’s Pasada

When stepping over, the Follower should not step over as if stepping over a box as this is very inelegant.  Instead, she should imagine her foot as an airplane coming in for a landing to have a smooth, gliding effect.

Maestros concluded with a class review and a demo to El Yacare by Angel D'Agostino with vocals by Angel Vargas.

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