Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 18, 2024
We began with an exercise with the entire class, all together holding hands in a big circle. Then we did the turns/hiro footwork counterclockwise: left foot forward cross, right foot side, left foot back cross, right foot side, etc. Then Maestro broke the circle by letting go and he continued to go around, making the circle smaller, like developing the spiral of a snail from the outside in. Eventually we all ended up much closer in the center of the room, also necessitating smaller steps as we got closer to the center.
Next exercise, in partnership, with no Leader or Follower, in fingertip hold, we both did the steps of the turn/hiro: forward cross, side, back cross, side. We were to take nice steps and do long controlled pivots, especially making the back pivot big and juicy. We were to change the direction of the circle so we didn’t get too dizzy. Both dancers did the same steps and tried to stay together the whole time. The side step should be a long reaching step, extending the leg and then controlling the weight transfer by pushing off the standing leg.
Next, we went on to the structure of the open turn in terms of the Leader’s part (center of the circle).
For the Leader’s footwork, the Leader has two options:
Pacperson (from the 1980s video game Pacman) feet, keeping his heels together as one of his soles opens up to one side, and then the other sole closes to meet his opening foot. When doing Pacperson feet, the Leader should keep his radius small by keeping his heels together.
For his upper body, he is doing a Block Turn, with the Leader’s hips and chest staying together. Block turns teach the Leader how to turn using his whole axis and foot from the ground up, connecting the dots. Too many leaders lead the turn totally unassociated, leading with only his arms through the space to lead a turn, or spiraling too much but without the leg or ground underneath him to understand how to connect the dots. So it’s very important that Leaders practice a lot of block turns. It feels really powerful.
We changed the footwork in the Block Turn to Kickstand/Paddle Around feet. The Leader’s weight is on one leg like a kickstand of a bicycle while his free foot paddles around. The sensation is similar to paddling in a canoe but not falling into the water. The standing leg stabilizes like a bicycle kickstand.
When doing either the Pacman footwork or Block Turn with kickstand, paddling around footwork, the Leader should keep a vertical axis.
For the Leader’s upper body, on the open side of the embrace, he opens up and gives a nice continuous flow of energy to encourage the Follower to walk around.
We practiced this in the Sugar Bowl Embrace, whereby the Leader puts his hands on his hips and his arms are out strong and bent, like the arms of a sugar bowl. The Follower holds on to the Leader’s biceps/triceps. Hips are relatively close to each other, and both Leader and Follower should not look toward the ground, but keep their heads lifted. This embrace prevents the Leader from leading the turn with his arms (like driving a bus), but instead using his whole spine/body.
Leader stops the Follower on her side step to synchronize with her and change the direction of the turn. The feeling/intention is like screwing into the floor.
Follower should walk around the Leader with long, reaching steps. Do not rush the steps. The Follower is always slightly behind the Leader’s lead in the turn.
SACADAS
The most important thing to know about Sacadas is that they are an illusion of the lead/follow. The Leader steps in between the Follower’s feet in her turn/hiro, like a ghost in terms of going behind the Follower.
The turn is the foundation to do a Leader or Follower sacada, which is why we began the class with refining our turns technique.
The Follower turns/does a hiro around the Leader because he is opening his open side shoulder turning his spine.
We did an individual exercise to feel contrabody torsion in our bodies by:
Turning to our left (counterclockwise) while reaching (extending) our left leg forward, then collecting back to our original upright position.
Turning to our right (clockwise) while reaching (extending) our right leg forward, then collecting back to our original upright position.
We should have turnout in our reaching/extending foot.
Next, instead of collecting back, at the end of the reach, we transfer the weight. The Leader’s hips are together under his chest in this block turn.
In partnership, in sugar bowl embrace, we walked together in parallel system, then Leader leads a left turn (counterclockwise). On the Follower’s right foot side step to her right around the Leader, the Leader does a left foot sacada into the Follower’s trailing left foot. The Follower should have control and wait for the Leader.
We did this on both sides, starting with a turn to the left and alternating with a turn to the right.
Leaders: In walking together, really listen to the Follower to see how she steps and projects to get an understanding of how responsive she is and if she can control it once they settle.
The Leader should have some contrabody torsion in his body as we practiced in our earlier exercise as he turns to his left and reaches with his left foot slightly turned out toward the Follower’s trailing right foot.
Follower: After her side step around the Leader and he does his sacada of her trailing left foot, she should really arrive and stop and wait for the Leader to lead the next step. She should be fully on the full length and width of her foot, and stack her body on top of her foot so she has maximum stability. In being on the full foot, the Follower uses all four corners of her foot to be fully on top of her foot, to completely arrive, and then wait for the Leader to lead the next step.
After the Leader does his sacada, he transfers his weight and continues to lead the Follower to walk around him in a turn while he does the block turn with kickstand/paddle/kick the heel around footwork,
Next, we were to explore two different options:
(1) Continuous Leader Sacadas, where the Leader can use the same foot or change his feet, while the Follower keeps walking around in a turn around the Leader as he keeps opening up his shoulder to lead her to step around. If the Leader stops leading, the Follower should stop turning around him.
(2) Do just the one Follower right foot right side step, with the Leader doing his left leg sacada, but in close embrace. In close embrace, the axis is slightly tilted toward each other by creating space up top, so we don’t step on each others’ feet. In our class, we start with the Follower right foot side step because it has good size and it’s easier to set up.
For our final song we added the embrace, doing just one sacada either in open or close embrace.
Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to Milonga Del Don by Juan Villarreal.
Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com
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