Song: Cacareando by Orquesta Tipica Victor
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
May 25, 2015, Ardingly College, England
An embellishment is something that is not led. Embellishments must be safe and connected to the music. The music for our class was Vals, with lots of transitional room.
Training our ears to
hear where to embellish in Vals
We began with a game of Vals Chacarera, where in Chacarera
formation of Leaders all in one line facing Followers all in one line, arms up
and eyes making contact with each other, we took four steps forward and four
steps back, similar to the Avanzado and Regreso initial steps of the Chacarera.
The 4 forward steps were done in 4 beats, and the 4 back steps were done in 4
beats. During this game, maestro played a very regular vals so we could clearly
hear the musical phrasing and sentence. It was basically:
4 forward
4 back
Comma
4 forward
4 back
Period
At the Period (end of a sentence/phrase) is where the dancers,
both Leader and Follower should do various embellishments/accents/do fancy
things in their dancing.
Next exercise:
In partnership, we began with walking to the comma, then wait.
Then walk to the end of the sentence, then wait, to hear if there is an
opportunity in the music to embellish.
This was an exercise to improve our listening and to help us be more
creative. The music will guide you to
pick a phrase of music and let the embellishment happen.
4 walk
4 walk
Comma (wait)
4 walk
4 walk (embellish if you hear there’s an opportunity in the
music).
Some of the simple
embellishments we could do were:
Tap to the side
Tap to the back
Circles with our feet
Squiggles with our body
We could use any body part – feet, shoulder, hips.
The music for this exercise was Alfredo de Angeles’s A Magaldi Adios Marinero.
Phrasing secret: You
can do this with 80% of tangos, vals, and milongas to catch the fills and
transitions to embellishments (around the 8 beat).
Led Embellishments:
3 side touch steps/taps.
Follower can feel the lead through the Leader’s body/foot
making contact with the floor. The
Follower needs to hear the music with the Leader for the embellishment to make
sense.
We drilled the side taps embellishment on both sides to
Alfredo de Angeles’s A Magaldi Adios
Marinero.
Next Led Embellishment:
Leader’s forward tap with his left foot with simultaneous
Follower’s back tap with her left foot
This is led by the Leader making the step and then grounding
it, so that the Follower does it, too.
Pitter-Patter
Pitter-Patters are rhythmic syncopations, playful movements
with the feet. In our class, the Leader
is leading the Follower’s embellishment, but not doing it himself. Or he can do it simultaneously if he
wishes.
Rules: Leader needs to lift, from chest he compresses/hugs
in the direction he is turning. (We
drilled with the same song.)
Any problems encountered?
Leader: Use your body to lead because it’s an interrupted step, such as
3 forward taps with his right foot and Follower does 3 back taps with her left
foot. After leading the Pitter-Patter,
the Leader needs to know which of her feet is free. He can do this by syncing
up with her by shifting her weight or by stepping to her outside.
Typewriter and
Bandoneon
The Typewriter is where the Leader and Follower go opposite
ways, left or right in the Pitter-Patter, and they can get back together by
jumping.
The Bandoneon is where the Leader and Follower go back away
or forward toward each other in mirror image, and jump back together. This is called “The Bandoneon Pitter-Patter” because the movement is similar to the Bandoneon
bellows compressing and expanding together.
There are many other Bandoneon variations where one dancer can go in while the other
stays put, or goes out when the other goes in, or goes out while the other goes
out or stays in place, etc.
We drilled the Typewriter and Bandoneon to Alfredo de
Angeles’s Sonar Y Nada Mas, a song
that has 4 beat phrases instead of 8.
Safe Space Zone
We did this in a circle in the line of dance, where either
the Leader or the Follower can do the embellishment. Every moment can be “safe” if the Leader is
good. The Safe Space is where either
dancer can play with the other dancer’s feet as they pass by. For example, the Follower plays with the
Leader’s feet by tapping behind, always to her right, either with her right
foot or her left foot. So she would do:
Tap
Step
Outside right tap behind to the right, step forward
Left cross tap behind to the right, step forward
This Follower embellishment must be done in between the
Follower’s step between strong beats toward the Follower’s right side. It should not be done during the whole song,
but in our drilling that is how we practiced it so we could etch it in our
muscle memory. We also drilled this with
the Leader’s back pocket to the line of dance (which wouldn’t happen in real
life, but again, we were just drilling).
First we drilled to just a slow beat (no music), doing:
Step
Tap
Step
Tap
Then we drilled to Rafael Canaro’s Cosas Viejas.
Follower’s right foot back taps Leader’s left foot.
Follower’s left foot back cross taps Leader’s right foot.
The Follower can do a tap only or can touch the Leader’s
left foot with contact.
To get out of this, the Leader leads a side step in a
turn.
We drilled this to Osvaldo Pugliese’s Araca La Cana.
Maestros concluded with a class review and demo to Cacareando by Orq. Tipca Victor.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
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