Tango in Sussex... Two: Sunday 29th May Classes
31st May 2011
Introduction | Workshop Notes: Part One | Workshop Notes: Part Two | Dancing and Conclusion
Introduction
This is the second set of workshop notes / reviews, following on from the Workshop Notes: Part One. This section covers the workshops I attended on Monday 4th June and Tuesday 5th June.
As with the previous reviews, obviously, all comments are personal opinions, and any mistakes are almost certainly because of me not understanding something.
Chan Park workshops
Teacher: Chan Park
I did three workshops with Chan Park:
- Two Bodies, Four Legs, One Heart
- The art of Embrace
- Milonga traspie
Two Bodies, Four Legs, One Heart
Walking exercises + technique for establishing mindfulness and connection with one's partner and the music. Tuning your ears to lively songs that will challenge your mind and body. This is the intro to dancing tango with the spirit of zen in your hearts. For many of you, your dancing will never be the same again
This workshop consisted largely of connection exercises. We started with a warmup, then we were all walking in a small space (partnered-up).
Chan then started playing a variety of non-tango music (Frank Sinatra), asking us to walk solo and express musicality to more familiar tracks.
We looked at timing:
- Firstly in single time
- Then switching to double-time
- Then half time and pauses - pauses are an essential part of the dance
- Then eighth time - one the "1" for every phrase.
Breathe out when stepping.
We then did a series of connection exercises, in a variety of different positions:
- Side by side walking (arms around shoulders)
- Then hand in hand
- Then leaders palm up and followers palm down (then vice versa)
- Then one behind the other with hands on shoulders - followers the person in front, then followers the person behind
- Then side by side (leader eyes closed, follower guiding)
- Then face-to-face, and palm-to-palm
- Then bring the practice embrace in closer
Workshop: The art of embrace
This workshop followed on nicely from the previous "Two Bodies, Four Legs, One Heart" workshop, and we spent the first half-hour fast-forwarding through similar topics and a similar process.
We then brought the practice embrace in even closer, and it eventually mutated into a hug, which we finally adjusted to create a close embrace.
Workshop: Milonga Traspie with Zen practice
This gave us a nice introduction to milonga traspie (there wasn't much Zen, but I think that was for the best...!)
We started off walking to some fast Latin music, walking very small movements, to get us used to Milonga Lisa (walking on the single beat).
We repeated the practice hold from previous exercises, then we practiced a number of possible traspie steps, in all directions. This opened my mind to lots of different movements in traspie, whereas previously I'd only used one or two variations, now I can see a lot of different possibilities - side, forward and back traspie movements.
Ritmica Compleja
Teachers: Dario and Clare Da Silva
This was the second Advanced workshop I attended, and it was Dario and Clare's last Ardingly workshop. It was relatively quiet - about 7-8 couples I think - which was good as it allowed more time with the teachers.
For this workshop, we did a number of different exercises to emphasize musicality, including:
- Sequence: Rebound forward on right, then to theside, then both cross in front and lower - similar to an ocho cortado. Then add two forward steps to that sequence.
- Side and back cross to quarter beat
- Two taps variation (golpecitos)
- Crab move: double crossing to leader's right, then to leader's left.
- Then doing movements to three quarters of a single beat
All these sequences were done to emphasize aspects of musicality and movement.
It was a great workshop - and a good way to round off the weekend.
~ David Bailey, 6th June 2012