http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
May 29, 2016, Ardingly College, England
Cristina led the class first.
In bare feet, we stood with feet hip width apart, with our
feet parallel, making an “11” shape instead of in a turnout “V” or pigeon-toed
“A”.
Spread your toes.
Keep your hands by your side.
Shoulders are down
Get head up and back (not tilted forward).
Look to your right. Hold.
Roll left shoulder back gently.
Look to the middle.
Look to the left. Hold.
Roll right shoulder back gently.
Look to the middle.
Try to touch your right ear to your right shoulder, and roll
your left shoulder forward three times.
Head in center.
Check your feet. Are
they still in the center?
Try to touch your left ear to your left shoulder, and roll
your right shoulder forward three times.
Head in center.
Pump knees softly as if they have hydraulics in hem. Roll knees forward and back.
Notice how the weight goes down from one foot to the other,
front to back.
Get everything to move: shoulders, hip joints, ankle joints.
Stand on the right leg, putting all the weight on your
right. Put weight on the ball of the
foot, pressing into the floor.
Roll the wrists forward.
Change weight.
Stand on the left leg, putting all the weight on your
left. Put weight on the ball of the
foot, pressing into the floor.
Roll the wrists forward.
Shake it off/out.
With feet still hip width apart, and the feet parallel in an
“11” or “H” shape. Shift the weight to
the front of the foot by flexing your arches.
Gently shift the sternum to the heel/tailbone with the toes
lifting. Do not fall back.
Move the weight back to the front. Wiggle your toes.
When we dance, we try to keep our toes spread out. Do not curl them in.
Bring the sternum to the middle of your two feet (the
arches).
Each foot has 4 corners: 2 in the front toward the ball and
2 in the back toward the heel. These
four corners are like suction cups, whereby they push down to get a pulling up,
without locking, to create length in the body.
Put the left foot on top of the right foot.
Hold arms out as if holding a big bowl of fish, with your
elbows in.
Change the weight to the right leg, imagining that the right
leg is a big tree trunk. Active the right leg by pushing down on the 4 corners
of your feet and turning on the suction cups, but try to create length by
pulling up. Imagine the right thigh is turning in. The belly button wants to go back to your
spine. This turns on the lower belly muscles.
Hold out your arms as if holding a fishbowl, gently rolling
your arms out. This turns on the lats.
Really feel the back of your neck trying to stay long.
Keep squeezing your inner thighs to turn on the lower belly
muscles.
This turns on our core and back muscles without tightening
or locking them. Do not pike back or
lean forward.
Shake off right leg.
Put the right foot on top of the left foot.
Hold arms out as if holding a big bowl of fish, with your
elbows in.
Active the left leg by pushing down on the 4 corners of your
feet and turning on the suction cups, but try to create length by pulling up.
Imagine the left thigh is turning in.
The belly button wants to go back to your spine. This turns on the lower
belly muscles.
Hold out your arms as if holding a fishbowl, gently rolling
your arms out. This turns on the lats.
Really feel the back of your neck trying to stay long.
Keep squeezing your inner thighs.
This turns on our core and back muscles without tightening
or locking them. Do not pike back or
lean forward.
Shake off left leg.
Now we can start moving.
The Reaching Game
Both legs are working, but doing different things, using
different muscles.
Activate the right leg.
Get the left leg to come in as if the inner thighs have
magnets and they are trying to meet. The
left leg is like a pendulum, hanging long.
Push with the right leg/foot into the floor.
Reach with your left foot.
The leg bones should really point forward.
Push with your right leg.
Turn on your inner thigh magnets as the thigh pulls back in
collection.
Do the same with the left leg on the floor and right leg reaches
forward.
Do not lock anything.
Next, activate the right leg and the left leg reaches to the
side.
Think of the opposing energy to keep the body stable and to
create length with the right leg. Keep a
long line on your standing leg. Be
fluid. Breathe.
Do the same on your left leg, with your right leg reaching
to the side.
Next, active the right leg and reach back with the left
leg. The foot can be straight or turned
out, but not turned in.
Do the same with the left leg with reaching back with the
right leg.
Next, we were to take two steps forward and 2 steps to the
side.
Active the right leg.
Reach forward with the left leg.
Start rolling slowly from the back 2 corners of the right
foot to the middle, then to the arch to transfer the weight.
Activate the left leg.
Turn on your inner thigh magnets.
Activate the left leg, etc.
Activate the right leg as we reach to the left. Use all of the right foot from the outside to
the inside as you roll toward the center of the left foot. Turn on inner thigh magnets to collect.
Active the right foot.
Reach back with the left foot.
From the front of foot, start to roll the weight by pushing
back.
The other foot starts to receive the weight.
Active the 4 corners of your feet.
Roll through.
Active your thigh magnets to collect.
Homer then joined in the teaching.
In partnership, we did the statue exercise.
Here, one person is still on one foot, while the other
person gently pushes against him with one palm in various locations using
consistent pressure – the middle of his upper chest, the side of his arm, at
his hip, etc. The person remains stable
by pushing against the person pushing him.
Do this slowly to allow the person being pushed enough time to
recover. Each time the person creates
resistance, he should think about squeezing his inner thighs, as it immediately
turns on core engagement. Have a long
neck.
Next, in partnership, we built on this exercise, where one
person walks back while the other person has his palm to that person’s chest
and pushes them back with consistent pressure to walk back. The same person walks forward with the person
in back pushing him with his palm. We
also did this walking to the side, both left and right. The recipient of the push always opposes the
direction of the movement by using his core muscles, his inner thighs, and the
4 corners of his feet.
Note that the lead comes from the earth first, and so we
need to become aware of how we relate to the floor.
Be very limited with what we lead or follow. We need energy and space to lead and
follow. Using psychological energy and
presence.
In no embrace, we did a lead – follow exercise just doing
very simple steps of walking forward, backward, side steps and weight
changes. Both people took turns at
leading and following their partner.
We were to be active in activating our leg and proposing the
direction. Do not have/make sudden
movements.
Next, we put our shoes on.
In partnership, but still not touching and without an
embrace, we were to do the lead-follow exercise, but also include simple things
like turning, ochos, paradas, pivoting, and turns/hiros/molinetes.
The Follower should not look at the Leader’s chest as it
changes her posture. She will get more
information by keeping her head up as she will have more in her field of
peripheral vision. Leaders and Followers
should not look at their feet. To have
psychological presence, and to be there for each other, you should look at the
whole person.
Next, we played the Capture the Moon game
The Leader is the Earth and the Follower is the Moon. The Leader (Earth) walks forward in small
steps, and sends the Follower out around him as the Moon. As the Moon orbits around the Earth, the
Follower does hiro/turn steps. The
Leader stops her by capturing her in a snap back on her side step. Then he reverses her in the opposite
direction.
The Leader can capture two ways:
(1) Dramatically,
by using his body.(2) Subtly, by using his eyes only.
We were to practice this by orbiting twice in one direction,
Leader capturing Follower and sending her back in the other direction and the
Moon orbiting twice from there. After
the Leader captures the Follower twice, the Moon can become the Earth (they
switch Leader/Follower roles). The Earth
should take small steps so the Moon can go around him doing her turn steps
without difficulty.
The Leader captures the Moon by turning his shoulders to the
left or the right to send out the Moon, then snapping back and start walking
forward.
We explored the practical application of this exercise,
still with no embrace.
From a side step, how can the Leader lead the Follower to
take a forward step or a back step? (aka,
How to Start Turns or Creating and Blocking Space) By tilting his axis. By going away, he invites her to step forward
and the focus is on his axis. By going forward
toward her, he blocks the space so she goes back and the focus is on her axis
as she does her ocho step. The Leader
tilts the axis by using his feet. We
explored this idea via the Capture the Moon game, still in no embrace.
Next, we did this exercise using the embrace. The Leader was
to focus on his axis. Remember to use
the 4 corners of the feet, inner thigh magnets, and axis tilt. Capture the
Moon. Dance simply. Focus on the music. We should be in tune with each
other. Because we did not use our
hands/embrace previously, it sharpened our senses and awareness of each other.
There is no such thing as a Free Leg as we still use muscles
to create articulation.
Maestros concluded with a class quiz and short demo.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
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