My Tango Diaries

Lesson with Oliver and Silvina - Part II Down to business Oliver and Silvina greeted us very warmly and asked us what we wanted to focus on. We really wanted to focus on very basic things, since asking to learn a pattern for example, if our walk was falling apart, would be a waste of time and money. So we danced for them and let them pick it apart. My partner and I are close-embrace, often shared-weight, dancers, So we lean into each other when we dance. In that type of embrace, we sacrifice a certain amount of vocabulary, to enjoy a very comfortable, and solid, connection. We knew that Silvina and Oliver were very much (more upright) Salon Tango teachers - stressing independent axes, and a more fluid embrace. We were taking a lesson with them to become more adaptable - especially since the majority of dancers in our community are Salon, rather than milonguero, dancers. So we worked on posture - and I mean we worked, and worked, and worked . Then we walked, and walked some more. And g...

"It seemed to me that the view behind every single talk was that we could step into uncharted territory and relax with the groundlessness of our situation. The other underlying theme was dissolving the dualistic tension between us and them , this and that , good and bad , by inviting in what we usually avoid. My teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, described this as "leaning into the sharp points." When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt Lesson with Oliver Kolker and Silvina Valz A Little Context Some readers may remember that I attended classes with Oliver Kolker and Silvina Valz last year at this time and had rather a mixed experience. A lot of what I learned I use literally every single time I dance. Their emphasis on strong technique and respect for basic structure, make them highly sought after teachers, and no one I've talked to has ever been dis...

This post is the result of realizing that I had added something important, that I had accidentally left out of the original post (My First Tango Workshop), in my responses to readers' emails, but never put in the post itself. So I want to take this opportunity to clarify a point, and update longer term effect on my dancing. After the workshop with Oliver and Silvina (and after the "caca embrace incident"), as I was packing up and talking to another dancer, I mentioned feeling a bit over my head as I'd only been dancing for 4 months. At that comment, Oliver turned around and asked, "4 months?" I nodded. He remarked in a kinder tone, that for 4 months I was doing very well. Silvina had turned at that point and nodded agreement. So there was some ... I'm not sure what the word is that I'm looking for... resolution? I felt better, anyway - not quite so inept. I wrote that several times in answering emails from people - but apparantly only imagined tha...

I finally braved it and took two workshops/classes from Silvina and Oliver while they were here in Austin. I'm still trying to absorb everything. Overall, I really enjoyed the classes and I'm continually finding ways to apply what I've learned. Their approach to structure (which I've written a bit about in response to other posts on Tango Connections) is invaluable. They began the class elaborating on the idea that executing a lead, response to a lead, or series of steps sloppily or in a way that disregards the basic structure of the dance - and then saying 'that's just my style' or 'I'm expressing myself' - just won't cut it. There are expectations that "this movement" leads to "that response". For the dance to work socially, on the milonga floor, it has to be that way. Within the few basic movements, forward, back, open - the entire dance is built with almost limitless possibilities. They went on from there to having d...

Warning : I am not a leader and I haven't been dancing very long, so this is purely opinion, based on idle observation and not a deep understanding of technique. When I first saw the video of Tim Ferriss setting the Guinness world record for number of giros in a minute (frequently labeled "world record in tango" which seems silly to me), I kept thinking that can't be very much fun. All I had to go on was my experience of how giros feel to perform. Watching Alicia Monti race around Ferriss just didn't seem elegant or graceful - just racing. The video can be found here (feel free to skip to 4:00mn so you don't have to watch the silliness that precedes it. Then last weekend I watched our guest teachers, Oliver Kolker and Silvina Valz perform a beautiful milonga at Esquina Tango. While I was reviewing the video (which is a little dark, unfortunately) I watched Oliver's feet executing his very fast giros. His steps, in comparison to Ferriss's, are fluid, mu...

Silvina Valz and Oliver Kolker tango workshops and milonga at Esquina Tango. Music: El Choclo - Angel Vargas with Angel D'Agostino