Class Notes: January 2011

(Previous notes June - December 2010)

These are the class notes for January 2011 Tango classes in Berkhamsted.

23rd January: "Tango Nuevo" workshop

See here for the workshop notes.

30th January: Walking and connection

Walking

We started off by walking, in "practice hold" (hands on each others' shoulders), around the room to the music.

Posture

  • Leaders, chest lead: don't move your arms / feet first.
  • Followers, wait for the lead: if there's no lead, do nothing.
  • Always keep in contact with your partner
  • Ensure you have a "forwards intention" - for both leaders and followers. Don't lean back - if you do, your partner will feel off-balance as they'll have to lean forwards too much.

Weight changes

Both leaders and followers should only ever stand with weight on a single foot - the other foot ("free leg") should simply be resting on the floor. The only time your weight should be distributed across both feet is when you're transferring weight from one foot to the other.

We spent some time working on clearly leading and following weight changes, and differentiating between a change of weight and a step (forward step and side step).

Key points:

  • Leaders, it's essential that you always know what foot the follower is on. The best way to ensure this is to put her on that foot to start with.
  • Followers, it's essential that you don't change your weight without it being led. Don't "mark the beat" by shifting from one foot to the other, for example. If your weight is on one foot, keep it there.
  • Some information about posture

The open embrace

There are two types of tango "embrace" (hold): close and open. We covered the open embrace in this class (we'll do close embrace at a later date).

Key points

  • In open embrace, followers get both tactile contact (from the arms) and visual clues (looking at the leader's chest) to understand the lead.
  • Leaders, don't pull or push your partner into position. Align yourself correctly, and your follower will align herself to meet you.
  • Some more information about the embrace.

Sidestep variations

We did some variations on a basic sidestep: a "pulse" and a "lunge" movement.

To lead "pulse"-type motions: leaders, keeping the feet stable, led the followers to take sideways motions with their free legs; to either side.

This is a nice way to "stand in place" during social dancing, marking time to the music.

Key points

  • Followers, as soon as you feel the lead, move your free leg. Don't fight it, let the leg move freely.
  • Leaders, lead by moving your chest - not by moving the arms, or "shoulder shrugging".

Secondly, to lead a "lunge" sideways, take a large side step (to the leader's left), then stop the sidestep before the collection point, raising the left arm high.