Crazy Out of the Box Stuff, Part 1

Song: Fumando Espero by Carlos Di Sarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
September 20-22, 2013, TangoPulse Workshops in Northampton, MA



The focus of our class would be the colgada to the dark/hard side.

Maestros began with a demo, showing us what we would ultimately learn to do.

Leader’s footwork
Right foot rock step
Right foot capture the moon
Send Follower out to colgada
Right foot parada

Follower’s footwork
Follower’s left foot side step
Right foot step over colgada to the close side of the embrace.

The circular energy tells the Follower where her right leg steps over.

The class was split with Leaders behind Homer and Followers behind Cristina, so we could work on our respective footwork.

Leader’s footwork
Right foot rock step to inside of the embrace
Turn and pivot first, then right foot side step
Invite Follower to pasada through to the close side.
Then he turns to pivot her to step over his right foot again in a pasada to the open side of the embrace.

Follower’s footwork
Left foot rick step with heel off the floor
Pivot on right foot as she reaches to the side with her left foot.
Do not transfer weight yet, but match the Leader’s body as he keeps turning. Weight passes to the left and she passes over with her right foot.
Pivot to ocho and she passes over with her left foot
Pivot to face Leader
Exit in original direction.

First we did this without any colgada.

Next we introduced the colgada, which started with the introduction of the line of power.

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

We worked to understand this concept in the Sugar Bowl embrace to empower the Follower to use her embrace in the correct, active way. The Follower needs to hang onto both sides of the Leader with her hands/arms only and he does not hold onto her at all, but only lead with his chest/torso rotation and is tested to see if he can lead any Colgada. The Leader is like a mountain in his solidity, and the Follower needs to actively engage both sides of her embrace to hold on to him at both points.

In this same step-over colgada, we drilled in Sugar Bowl embrace to work on timing, using the floor, the line of power, having more finesse, and being comfortable with throwing our weight around. The Sugar Bowl embrace also makes the Follower smarter and responsive about the embrace and hanging onto the Leader and using his body as a mountain. If the mountain (the Leader’s arms) collapses, the Follower can put her foot down. The Leader’s arm needs to remain fixed. The Follower needs to hang on with both her left hand and right hand. At the moment of the colgada, the Follower has more elasticity in her arms.

Back to the step-over colgada to the dark/hard side, the movement was broken down into two segments. We were to do one segment first, then pause, and then do the second segment to be sure we had good form for both part.

Part A was up to the apex of the Colgada.

Part B was after the apex of the Colgada, were the Follower steps over.

The Leader’s weight is back on his left foot as his chest rotates and he invites her to step over.

The Leader needs to capture the Follower’s step to start the lead for the Colgada.

For the Follower, she needs to focus on reaching with her left leg, and then stepping over with her right foot.

We should do this step in the line of dance.

After our challenging drills in sugar bowl embrace, we added the regular embrace. We tried this in close embrace, and then the Leader opened the embrace to let the Follower go out in colgada.

Typical colgada posture applies: Follower should keep her hips under her rib cage, and she should keep her sternum up.

LEADER’S CHEAT STEP 
The Leader’s cheat step is where he takes a small left foot step around the Follower while his weight is quickly and momentarily on his right foot after his right foot captures the moon. This cheat step gives the Follower more circular energy in her colgada so she can step over.

ALTERNATE EXIT
Instead of the Follower stepping over with her right foot, the Leader can lead her to do a clockwise back ocho, as the Leader brings her around her axis clockwise while she is still on her left foot, before she steps down with her right foot.

Maestros concluded with a quiz and demo to diSarli’s Fumando Espero.

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