Song 2: Indio Manso by Carlos DiSarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
May 28, 2016, Ardingly College, England
In circle formation, we began with two exercises doing the Greek Dance using the forward, side, back, side footwork of the turn/hiro/molinete. We did this with the circle going to the left and then to the right, and used the same timing for each step, with no automatic QQS on the back, side steps. Keep your head and chest up and torsos straight. Look at the person across from you. Do not look down at your feet.
Then in partnership, in hand to hand embrace, we turned
together doing forward, side, back, side
steps. There was no Leader or
Follower. We were to finish where we
started, and then reverse the direction.
Both dancers do forward, side, back, side footwork. Heads should be
steady. Chest should be open and wide. Take long, even steps. Be controlled and
clean when making each step. Both dancers should try to stay together. Take
your time. The dancers should relate to
each other.
Next, we added the Leader and Follower relationship. To do this, we used the teapot embrace with
Leaders hands generally where the opening of his front pants pockets are.
To lead the turn, the Leader should use more of his back
instead of his arms.
For the Leader’s footwork in the turn, he has three options:
- Pac-person feet (the gender-neutral term for footwork reminiscent of how the 1980s video games Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man’s mouths would open and close).
- Turn like a block in his body, but kick his heel around.
- Spiral by turning his rib cage, then let his hips come around a bit past his rib cage. Then he can spiral again from the top, and let his hips come around again, etc. Here the ribs pull the hips. This is a spiral turn rather than a block turn
Next, we added the Barrida. The Barrida is a drag illusion.
The Leader needs to kick his heel around so he has one free
leg to make contact.
The Follower’s speed around the Leer is on the slow beat, so
there is no auto QQ on the back, side steps.
She should keep all steps even in length and time so the Leader can
catch any of the Follower’s steps.
The Leader wants to catch the Follower’s side step after her
back step. They should enjoy the ride
together, but the Leader still must lead the Follower to turn. The Leader slides his foot in at the
Follower’s back step and sticks with her side step foot. The Leader leaves his foot (parada) put turns
his body, so the Follower natural steps over in a pasada.
Leader: Do not cut the Follower’s side step by stepping in
too soon, as she will feel like she might trip or fall. Let the Follower take her normal step. Give the Follower time to pass over by
pointing foot and gently touching the Follower’s foot with the Leader’s foot.
The Leader’s barrida leg needs to be weightless, with all of
his weight on his back standing leg, so his sweeping leg is free to sweep in
the barrida.
When the Leader catches the Follower’s step, he should have
the same size barrida as the Follower’s normal step so he doesn’t cut her step
short.
Then the Leader waits.
Follower needs to have room for both hips to pass when she
steps over.
Leader retracts his foot after the Follower passes over it,
so he does not change the center of the circle.
Next, we explored different options for the Leader’s foot
and the direction of the circle.
The Leader and Follower mechanics are the same, whatever
option is chosen, though ergonomically it might feel different. In our exercise we were to focus on
refinement and control, still in teapot embrace, and trying different
directions.
The Leader keeps Follower on original foot and reverses the
direction of the barrida (so doing 2 barridas in a row).
One: Leader just rotates his leg, but his weight is still on
his back leg so he sweeps from right to left, then immediately left to
right. The Leader’s chest rotates as
little as possible on this change.
When the Follower steps over in her pasada, she can adorn it
for rhythmic purposes by taking a tiny step back to create room for her to step
over elegantly. So the timing of this tiny back step would be QQS. So it is two tiny steps back, and then a long
and around step over.
We then had a short mid-class quiz followed by Maestros’ demo
to Fresedo’s Cordobesita.
For the second part of class, we went on to more challenging
barridas.
We started by refining the connection.
Leader leads Follower to his right foot Barrida of her back
right foot on the her left foot forward step in a counterclockwise
turn/hiro/molinete.
And asking Follower to collect with her right foot cross
tuck behind her left foot, then change her weight so that her forward foot is
free to step forward. Here the Leader
shifts slightly to change the weight so she settles and so that it frees her
forward foot to either (1) step forward or (2) do a back ocho pivot to change
direction.
We are to practice this at home.
The Leader needs to lead the Follower to collect by turning
his body. The Leader touches the
Follower’s ankle, not her heel, to give her gentle guidance (sweep her ankle
gently) to do her back cross tuck against her other foot.
Going back to the original Barrida, instead of the Leader
retracting his foot at the end, he arrives on it to shift the axis of the turn,
doing a sacada after the Follower steps over.
Then there is a pause so the Follower and Leader can face each other
again after pivoting.
We drilled the Barrida into Sacada, being mindful to keep
turning.
How does the Leader lead the Follower to take a forward step
or back step? It depends on where the
Leader’s weight is, to block or create space for the Follower. To lead the Follower’s forward step, the
Leader leans back a little.
To lead the Follower’s back step, the Leader leans forward a
little.
After the Follower completely arrives on her side step, don’t
wait for her to collect.
Leader: Don’t transfer weight too soon in your sacada so she
has room / time to step over. The weight
transfer happens together, not with the Leader going before (Leader should not
transfer weight before, otherwise he will block the Follower pasada). Hold the position after her pasada and his
sacada.
The Follower’s fundamental movement is the turn around the
Leader with long, even steps. The
forward step is long and around the Leader.
Next we drilled doing the Leader’s Sacada with no parada /
Follower pasada. This was a continuous
Sacada exercise with Leader using his left foot or his right foot in his
Sacada. He was always turning with his
chest and hips, moving the axis of the circle so that it keeps changing and
Follower should feel the new axis every time she collects.
In the sugarbowl embrace, the Leader does a Sacada of the
Follower’s trailing foot to shift weight to there, shifting the center of the
axis. The Leader skips one of the Follower’s steps so he does not disturb her
turn. Because the axis changes, the
Follower steps to slightly different places, but still does even steps around
the Leader so he has room to do his Sacadas.
He is always the center of the circle and she should always be walking
around him (not away from him).
Next we worked on doing 2-1/2 Sacadas in the line of dance
from the cross. We could do these with
either foot, and do them either with all left foot Sacadas with a quick weight
change, or with all right foot Sacadas with a quick weight change.
We separated the class, Leaders behind Homer and Followers
behind Cristina.
The Leader starts his Sacada by leading the Follower into
the cross and then into the clockwise molinete, doing a left foot sacada at her
right foot forward step of trailing her left foot, immediately into a Leader’s
right foot sacada into a big 1.5 pivot.
He should not spill out outside of the line of dance.
We then had another class quiz followed by Maestros’ demo to
DiSarli’s Indio Manso.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
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