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| Second class of Javier Rochwarger's Workshops at Esquina Tango, Austin |
(Background: I've had classes/lessons with Javier Rochwarger for the last 3 years. He makes his annual visit to Esquina Tango here in Austin every Spring. You can
read about two of my previous experiences here: Spring, 2011 and here: Summer, 2012. )
Group Classes
One of the reasons Javier is so
popular is that everything he teaches in group classes is taught in the
context of the social dance. The movements and the technique are intended for dancing on a populated floor, and respecting the
line of dance. He talks about listening to the structure of the music and understanding movement in terms of the music's grammar. His classes have always been filled
with beautiful and immediately applicable skills on the milonga floor.
Javier's focus is on the quality of the embrace and of the dancer's
movement - not so much on sequences, though he does use them. When he uses a sequence, it's most often
to demonstrate the point of technique he is trying to make.
(Connecting turns, making use of crosses in certain places in the music,
disassociation
etc.)
He is funny, and as his website says "warmly intense", but he is
not
timid with correction. He does not take himself too seriously, but he
does take the material he teachers very seriously. He knows he has very little time so he is direct with his instructions and with his feedback.
This year I took more group classes than last year - I managed 3 out of 5 group classes and 2 shared private lessons with different partners. Javier's group classes are about the only group classes I seek out anymore, mostly because he really tries to give followers "equal time" when it comes to technique instruction. (In most group classes, I feel like a prop or worse, a crash test dummy, present only to give the leaders someone to practice their new moves on. I understand the importance of that, truly - but I paid for the class too. ) Javier really makes an effort to work with everyone at some point in the class and that's no easy task, especially in a large class.
This year I took more group classes than last year - I managed 3 out of 5 group classes and 2 shared private lessons with different partners. Javier's group classes are about the only group classes I seek out anymore, mostly because he really tries to give followers "equal time" when it comes to technique instruction. (In most group classes, I feel like a prop or worse, a crash test dummy, present only to give the leaders someone to practice their new moves on. I understand the importance of that, truly - but I paid for the class too. ) Javier really makes an effort to work with everyone at some point in the class and that's no easy task, especially in a large class.
At the beginning of every workshop (and private lesson), he asks the dancers to dance at least once, usually a couple of times, to get a feel for where, collectively, the students are in their dance. If necessary, he adjusts what he had planned to teach to better help the students as a group. So I can tell you he focused on embrace, collecting (and when not to collect), pauses, disassociation and turns in the classes I was in - but that may not be what he focuses on in other classes.
Private (shared) Lessons
I've written before that many dancers, myself included, rarely get truly surprising feedback in private lessons at this point. I usually have an idea of what is going wrong, I just don't know how to fix it. Every once in a while I get a, 'When did I start doing that???' moment, but thankfully not too often.
The homework list this year is, sadly (see previous post), much like last year's list.
The homework list this year is, sadly (see previous post), much like last year's list.
(In no particular order.)
2. While we're on the subject of waiting to be invited - wait to be invited into the leader's embrace rather than putting myself where I want to be. There is always some negotiation of the embrace but latching onto the leader, where I have not been invited to be, can feel presumptuous and limiting to the dance.
3. Continue to work on balance
issues. That part was relatively new given my current muscle issues,
but I got a very clear demonstration of how it is limiting the options of
my partners.
4. Get control of my weight changes and axis.This is one
of those things that, because I only recently understood how to begin to
affect that change, it is taking a very long time for me to work on.
It's a case of different metaphors/explanations work for different
people and it took a long time to find an explanation that worked for
me.
5.Disassociation needs to be more clear and controlled.
This one really is about my own bad habits. Here in Austin, for several reasons,
most leaders open the embrace to do ochos and turns so I don't really
have to disassociate as much as I do when I dance in other cities. Some
of that is
because it is so often taught (in open embrace) that way in Austin - but I didn't realize
until I
was in the group classes this weekend how few dancers (followers and
leaders) can
manage turns and ochos smoothly and comfortably in close embrace when directed to do so.
Note: It's not that I object to doing turns and ochos in open embrace - I don't mind at all as a style issue. I do mind a bit when I'm being pushed and pulled through turns because my partner has not been taught to rotate his torso separately from his (or her) hips.
Note: It's not that I object to doing turns and ochos in open embrace - I don't mind at all as a style issue. I do mind a bit when I'm being pushed and pulled through turns because my partner has not been taught to rotate his torso separately from his (or her) hips.
6. Stop the auto-collecting and wait for the leader to
actually lead me to collect. Collecting too soon, or without being led
to, limits certain options for the leader. It was particularly
noticeable (as an obstacle) when dancing vals.
7. While we're at it - stop auto anything. Some things
you do as a default when you're first learning tango - but after awhile,
damned few things in tango should be considered "automatic".
8. Continue work on hip laxity which slows down my
ability to truly land my side steps. I land my foot, but my hip is still
in motion or pulled slightly over the foot. This is an ongoing PT and
training issue that my teacher was able to refine in terms of the dance.
9.
Slow down. We disagreed at first on this topic as he believed I was
anticipating the lead, but after actually testing my balance, he
admitted what I had initially told him was true - I'm falling into the
next step, not getting ahead. This is the most deeply frustrating part
of my tango training right now.
A couple of months ago, my balance was
more solid than it had been in my entire adult life. Starting High Intensity
Interval Training in the manner I did has developed my muscle tone
(which is great - my body fat percentage
dropped from over 32 to 28% in less than 2 months) but in very
unbalanced ways (which is less great.) I didn't combine my HIIT training with
the complementary strength training that would have prevented this
problem and now I'm having to retrain and do more corrective exercises
to address that. (More on that in a different post.) It gets better
every week, but I'm just not where I want to be yet.
10. Get better control of my hips/balance/abdominal
muscles to reduce unintentional movements in the dance, like breaking at
the waist, dropping my hip, rocking to the side etc.
UPDATE
More notes from my second private lesson.
1. In terms of posture and embrace, when I thought I was
disassociating, I wasn't really using contrabody motion (at least not
consistently), but simply breaking at the waist and dropping my hip
and/or shoulder. I had to feel the "correct" way several times (by
leading Javier) to feel what I needed to do with my own body. Through
turns in particular, even in the ocho cortado which is very minimal
pivot, I was falling slightly away from my partner.
2. Again, as above, don't be so quick to complete the "move" - slow down.
3. Match the energy my partner gives me.
4. Keep working on the balance issues - especially using the
disassociation exercises. I made more progress on my balance this
weekend than I have in the past two weeks simply using the suggestions
Javier gave me. I wish I could explain them here - but even when Javier
explained them to me verbally, I struggled to understand. Once he
showed me, as a leader and as a follower, within the embrace - I got it.
My only regret was that, once again, I forgot to record either the lesson, or a wrap up dance to review later. :-/ My brain was too full.
Videos of his teaching/dancing can be found here: http://www.javitango.com/videos
Comments
Might I suggest that for both aerobic and strength training that you look into kettlebells. They make for a wonderful combination of the two aspects of fitness, and the strength aspect is so good because it is whole body, with a great deal of core involvement. Let me know if you'd like ideas on getting started.