Notes from "Tango Nuevo - Style and Musicality" workshop

Date and Time: Sunday 27th March 2011, 2pm - 6pm

Warmup

(All in open hold)

Firstly, playing one track of neotango music, dancing around the room as normal.

Next, dancing in place - that is, not progressing around the room, simply rotating around partners.

Finally, reversing roles - getting the followers to lead and vice versa.

Section 1: Stopping with Style

This section was the most "routine-based" section of the workshop; we examined several movements within the

Movemement: Lunge into wrap into boleo into cross

Much easier than it sounds :)

  1. Pivot a small amount (less than 90 degrees) anti-clockwise, then both lunge backwards - leader's right leg back, follower's left leg back.
  2. Leader brings himself and follower back, and applies a small clockwise pivot to bring the follower to wrap her left leg around his right leg.
  3. Leader flexes the leg to let the follower's leg go free back out and around
  4. Leader applies a boleo motion to whip the follower's leg up, then picots her clockwise to bring her into a cross (left leg in front of right)
  5. Leader changes weight to right foot, then steps out of cross as normal - walking on.

Note: the lunge at the start does not need to be a deep stretch - you can even avoid lunging altogether, simply lead a boleo step to start off with.

Key points

  • To lead a lunge, simply lower yourself down, the follower's leg should move out as soon as she feels the chest movement.
  • Followers: let your leg swing freely around; don't move it independently. Think of your free leg as a pendulum, for the leader to swing around freely.
  • These movements can all be done as independent steps, so it's always worth deconstructing a routine and practicing the individual components.

Section 2: Resistance is Useful

"Leaders, hold the followers' chest- errr, let me rephrase that one..." ~ David

The second section was all about decorating movements, for the men and the women.

Technique: ocho dissociation

We all partnered-up, with the followers in front, and the leaders behind, holding the follower's shoulders forwards whilst the follower did forward ocho movements; the aim of this exercise was to ensure the followers kept their chests facing forwards whilst doing the ocho movements.

We then worked on technique for leading and following forward ochos.

Movement: Ocho Parada and Pasada

Stepping over the man's outstretched leg.

  1. Lead a forward ocho to the leader's left
  2. Leader places his right leg out to block the woman's right leg (after she steps onto it!)
  3. Leader leads the follower to pivot clockwise, then to step with her left leg over the leader's right leg

Key points

  • Leaders, you need to let the follower know your foot is in the way - so a gentle contact is required
  • Followers, the pivot part of the movement is your opportunity to play. It's your choice how to decorate the movements - caress, tap, or simply step over.
  • Both: don't look down!

Movement: Sidestep with golpecito

A couple of decorations for the leaders!

Decoration 1: Golpecito:

  1. Step to the left
  2. Pause
  3. Leaders tap feet :)
  4. Step forward on right

Decoration 2: amague

  1. Step to the left
  2. Hook right foot behind left
  3. Step on.

Key points

  • Keep the taps small and balanced - movement is mainly below the knees.
  • Don't spend too long on them.
  • Followers, do nothing whilst the leader does his decoration.

Section 3: Turn turn turn

Soltadas = breaking the embrace. Not to be confused with sultanas...

Movement: ocho turn

Turn from an ocho. We mainly focussed on this from a forwards ocho to the leader's right - but as always there are 4 variations possible.

The move breaks down as follows:

  1. Lady forward step onto right with raised arm
    The leader leads the lady to take a forward step onto her right foot (we learnt from the context of an ocho, but it could be a normal forward step) whilst doing a sidestep to parallel. As the follower steps forward, the man raises his left arm above her head. The man also stops the lady from collecting - so her weight is transferred to her forward foot, but her feet are still separated.
    Note: The lady should not turn at this point; it's just an arm raise.

  2. Lady does a swivel turn
    Now we lead the turn - a 180-degree anti-clockwise swivel, keeping the lady's weight on her back (right) foot. Her feet do not move position, they just swivel.
    To lead this, the men let go with their right arms, and draw their left arms around the lady, gently pulling her around.
    Note 1: The lady should disassociate her body, so that the energy of the arm lead is transmitted first to the upper body, and the lower body then just comes along after a delay.
    Note 2: The ladies must not anticipate the turn or try to "help it".

  3. Lady steps forwards onto left
    The lady then simply steps forward onto her left foot - actually, in practice, this is more like a slide forwards, as her left foot is still touching the floor.

Key points:

  • These are largely led by the hand, so for the duration of those moves only, the follower has to use some tension in the hand - and then lose that tension when back in hold.
  • But leaders don't just hold their hands in the air and expect followers to twirl around them - it simply doesn't work like that. Lead with the body still.
  • Don't overuse this sort of move. If the music's right, do it - but don't just throw it in.

Bonus movement! Travelling grapevine soltada

  1. Start a linear giro (grapevine) movement
  2. During the woman's forward step, let her carry on turning and she can do a travelling step turn
  3. Return into the embrace when she finishes turning.

More

Section 4: Putting it all together

  1. Lunge -> wrap -> boleo -> cross (as in Section 1)
  2. Forward Ocho -> ocho pasada / ocho cariacas (as in Section 2)
  3. Golpecito into a cross (again, as in Section 2)
  4. Ocho into soltada -> ocho to face (as in Section 3)
  5. The end, whew :)

Key points

  • This is an example routine. Work on it, and deconstruct it, into individual movements, rather than use it all at once as a routine. Each of these moves - and each step within the moves - can and should be used individually to get the feel of them