My Tango Diaries

(Grisha performing at Esquina Tango, Austin, TX) Lessons with Gregory "Grisha" Nisnevich are always fun and very rewarding. My partner and I shared an hour lesson to work on basic technique, but also to learn some more versatile options for milonga and for some Biagi pieces. If you've got musicality stuff to work on, Grisha's a wonderful resource. Not surprising, my right hip still locks through side steps and some turns, but not as much - and I can get it out more smoothly now. In fact Grisha worked with both my partner and me on releasing the tension in our hips to keep from locking them. My balance is still an issue, though. For short movements, a few steps, maybe a molinete, not so much a problem. When Grisha led a couple molinetes in a longer sequence, however, I was not so consistent. At the end he'd lightly let go of me, and I'd tilt forward slightly before regaining my balance. (I was also "drifting" away from him in turns.) My balance is be...

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...

I've been trying to broaden my tango (technique) world. At the recommendation of friends and teachers online and off, I have been filling my tango tool box with musical embellishments, improving my technique for my boleos (high and low), sacadas, leg wraps, ganchos, and volcadas. I'm learning to give the energy I receive from my leader back, rather than almost absorbing it (or so it was explained to me) - so it feels a little like keeping the energy in the loop. I feel more elastic in my technique - though I'm sure there has to be a better way of describing it. At the milongas, I follow what I'm led, when there's room, including high boleos without my usual consternation. I've asked for help from teachers, watched videos, practiced, practiced, practiced. One of the most revealing experiences I had at the last milonga was when I felt my partner "hear" a high boleo in the music. That's awkward isn't it - "I felt my partner hear " but h...

It's all in the hips . . . Well, all in my *right* hip - the trouble, that is. I suffered a labral tear in dance class many, many years ago and even though my hip rolled back into place fairly quickly, the damage stuck around for quite awhile. Since I started tango, I've had to learn how to dance on a hip that doesn't pivot right and locks whenever I place my balance over it. When I started doing the physical therapy exercises I remembered from way-back-when, I thought the locking was mostly a case of "guarding behavior' - favoring and protecting the hip that was injured. But as I've tried to work on it, it isn't a matter of just loosening up, or not actively locking the hip - it's a matter of relearning how to move on that hip. Right now I can't do the exercise in tango-blog.com's side step exercise (see video) without my right hip locking. I can unlock it/loosen it when I notice it, but it takes time and attention. When dancing, I've mostl...

A week of anniversaries. Most importantly, my 14th wedding anniversary is this Wednesday. My husband and I have actually been together about 18 years. Wow . . . Our marriage is old enough to vote. After 14 years, my patient and supportive husband, has found himself married to a rabidly obsessed tanguera. He's coping as well as can be expected. ;) This week is also the anniversary of my first steps in tango. My first class at UT, my first milonga, and my first dance. "Your baby at One Year - Milestones this month (from Parenthood.com)" - Your baby now drinks from a cup without assistance. (well, wine glass anyway) - She can stand alone for several minutes. (but she doesn't like it very much) - Baby walks well (that might be a bit generous.Still working on that whole extending the back leg/walking with intention etc etc) - Baby expresses her wants with gestures and words instead of cries. (gesture, schmesture, she uses the cabeceo ) - She engages in gibberish conv...

(As usual, what follows is only my opinion and should in no way be construed as expert advice on anything.) There's been some teacher bashing happening on a few of the tango forums lately. Not particular teachers (thankfully) but of the practice of teaching tango to begin with. - http://tangoconnections.ning.com/forum/topics/abrazo-apilado?x=1&id=2259628%3ATopic%3A38885&page=5#comments ; - http://www.dance-forums.com/showpost.php?p=756595&postcount=15 ; - http://pythia.uoregon.edu/~llynch/Tango-L/2006/msg12104.html From Chris_UK, on Tangoconnections ( http://tangoconnections.ning.com/ ): " . . . From this POV classes are a massive success. No matter that the 1-yr drop-out rate amongst their students is around 90%. Amongst instructors it's nearer 10%, because giving classes very much works for them. Further, a large proportion of students that do graduate do so not to the milonga but back to the classroom, as the next layer of instructors in the pyramid schem...

Normally I don't go for workshops that have steps in the title - classes like "The Twelve Ganchos of Christmas" or "Fifty Ways to Lead Your Rulo" tend to leave me cold. However, when instructors have a reputation of teaching steps and combinations that work well on a crowded milonga floor - I'm far more willing to give the class a shot. Georgetown Tango's Special Topics Workshop last month featured Milonguero Dip * & Back Volcadas for the social dance floor. Here are a couple of examples of the Milonguero Dip: Ney Melo and Jennifer Bratt The Milonguero Dip (at 0:55, 0:59 and 1:03): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6YMpeJGg6U and at 0:38 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtQvYQLCbZc Like some of the best stuff in tango, how the Milonguero Dip looks on the outside is nothing compared to how great it feels in the embrace. As the man collects his knees and twists he creates the slight drop which gives a "swoosh" (dip) feel to the resulti...

I admire women who can lead. And I am in absolute awe of women who really own the lead . They're not just going through the sequence, performing all of the right moves in the right places in the music. They're not leading the way they imagine they should lead. They're leading - from the heart, from the music, and from the core of their bodies. There is joy in their lead. Love for the music and for the dance. I know two such leaders who have such emotion and connectedness in their lead that I can fully and completely relax into the dance. I can feel the music through them. One of the leaders is playful, bright, and almost effervescent in her lead. I smile all the way through the tanda when we dance. The other leader is more serious, more intense - at first almost intimidating. But once the music starts - there is only the music and the feeling of total embrace. They lead like they mean it. So when I was faced with having to lead due to lack of men in the intermediate tango ...

The first milonga of 2010. A new decade. So many wonderful tandas. A more relaxed milonga than NYE. Dancing with J. and F. in particular, always makes me feel so grateful to have stayed in tango. My first challenging/constantly apologizing/anxious dances with them all those months ago - I thought surely neither of them would ever ask me to dance again. On making resolutions . . . I'm not making resolutions this year. That is, I'm not making specifically New Year's resolutions. I am always working on things - always setting goals for myself. There are things I would like get through/get over/get done - as always, but they are ongoing. Sometimes I'm disappointed that I can be in such completely new territory and still have so many old, bad habits. That's the rub I guess - we always take ourselves with us, no matter how far we go. For example, I would like to be consistent about not apologizing for the things I don't know, or don't do well. It's better - an...

The mantra from my partners used to be "wait . . . wait . . . wait" - now it's "slow . . . slow down . . ." It's hard to say if that's an improvement or just a new variation on an old problem. One of my partners last week worked with me for a tanda on this, advising me to stop trying to be on the music for the time being, but actually try to be a little behind it. Behind? Behind the music? Isn't that bad? But I tried it despite my scepticism. It took effort and practice to keep myself from rushing to be on the music - esepcially during molinetes when it's "my job" to keep myself on the music. When I did manage to wait, to get "behind" the beat, I realized why he had suggested it. While I waited for the music - he actually got the opportunity to lead me to the music - instead of me getting there on my own. I was so excited by that development I started rushing again - so we had to start over. Every turn, every sacada - "...

I have had three private lessons in the last month, from four different teachers (one lesson was with a couple - which I highly recommend.) Each lesson gave me tremendous insight into my posture, my body, and my dance. Of course now every time I dance I think too much. Shoulders down. Lower elbow. Tummy in. Relax hips. Walk on the inside of my foot. Lead with my big toe. Drop my hip. Bend knees. Relax shoulder blades. Don't lean back. Cross deeper to make more room. Be more compact. Relax and breathe... relax ... relax ... relax Saturday night I tried to put it all into motion. So many things to remember at once. I was so tired after lessons during the day - and still sore from the milonga the night before. I bandaged my toes and braced my knee, took some advil and headed out. I had to go dancing. I had to work the new information into my muscles while it was still fresh. I made it til midnight. Not bad for the shape I was in. Was I any better? I don't really know. I felt bette...

Every once in awhile I hear someone make the suggestion, usually casually, lightheartedly - 'leaders and followers should have separate classes.' At first I thought, how crazy would that be? How would we learn to connect - to walk? But as I continue to take lessons, and classes, and workshops - the difference in goals and methods is becoming more and more apparent between followers and leaders. As a follower, I want to learn technique - strength, balance, connection, musicality. After all, what good is learning more patterns if I can't follow the lead. The majority (though certainly not all) of the leaders want more patterns, more steps, more variety and vocabulary to build their choreography. Of course they also want to focus on musicality - at least there's one thing we have in common. It reminds me of my ballroom classes - what few I had, anyway. We all learned the patterns together - men on one side of the room, women on the other. We danced steps back and forth to ...

After watching the video of my dancing, I was startled at how different my feet look from not only the dancers I admire most, but also from simply more advanced dancers. My instructors are always telling me to turn my feet out, caress the floor, point my toes etc etc. And while I attempt these various things, it never comes off to my (or their) satisfaction. I was clearly missing something. I've tried exercises to strengthen my ankles and my feet, increase my flexibility - but I still felt there was something missing in my alignment. I could see it in the video very clearly. I was stepping, but not dancing. So time for more research. I started with Ney Melo and Jennifer Bratt's excellent advice HERE Then followed with Tango and Chaos's extremely thorough page on the subject HERE But it wasn't until I read this on Dance Forums, that I really got the alignment issue nailed. That post can be found HERE Now I'm doing dozens of exercises under my desk and already feeling...

This may not be something that can be addressed in words, honestly. I'm planning to take a private soon, and will certainly address it there. But as I've found that many followers in my classes have been corrected on this also, I thought I'd ask for any advice. I am weak on my molinete/grapevines, not because I can't do them, but because I often get ahead of my leader. When I wait for the explicit lead, leaders have gotten impatient because I "missed" their lead. If I'm unsure that it was led (in other words, I'm guessing) - then I of course get ahead. When I am told to express my steps to the music, then I sometimes end up ahead of my leader again. Conversely, when I slow down and wait again for the explicit lead, I end up behind the music. Any advice out there for a confused newbie tanguera?

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...

Sorry for the delay in getting this post written - seems like ages since the workshop. I was only able to take the first of Daniela's classes which focused on posture, strength and balance exercises. The class included around 30 people from experienced dancers to "I just walked in off the street, what class is this?" dancers and I believe that she accomodated all of us very well. The exercises, while simple and straightforward, were not easy to hold - which was her point. Bending knees deeply into lunges, while disassociating the torso and twisting - and, because you can always do more afterall, check foot position so that the toe is pointed out. She walked up and down the lines of dancers to check foot position, lower shoulders, straighten backs - meanwhile several dancers (including me) were starting to quiver from the exertion. We were barely moving but we were working hard just holding the forms. Most of the time Daniela maintained a careful balance between pointing o...

A post by Virtualapiz, "Are we talking about the same thing?" sums up a bit of where I am right now. Doubts, work stresses, anxiety from my non-tango life are filtering into my dancing. And I catch myself wondering, does my leader see/feel this dance the way I do? I enjoy dancing with him , but does he enjoy dancing with me ? Am I weighing down his shoulder? Pulling him off his axis? Giving back enough energy? When I first started tango, I didn't know enough to know how badly I was doing. In that state - I was completely open to the experience - to everything anyone would teach me. It seems now that I know just enough to doubt everything else. As another tango blogger quoted from the book, The Shack - in the beginning, I was in a state of expectancy - not expectation . Now I catch myself constantly questioning - shouldn't I be better than this by now? Shouldn't I be able to push my leg back further by now? Should I still be missing cross leads? Why am I still ti...

UPDATE: I got an email from someone who was there and she told me I shouldn't feel so bad about my leading performance. So, on her suggestion, I upgraded it to "not so great actually" from the previous title. Last Tuesday, as there was the usual shortage of men in my beginner tango class, I had to (attempt to) lead. I've been (well, you could call it) dancing tango about 2 months. I can barely follow, but it would be good to see a bit of the other side, right? Right. My partner looked irritated. She seemed irritated that there weren't enough men in the class and she was going to be lead by a woman. She also seemed irritated that we were all (well, mostly all) truly beginners, while she was more intermediate. The class was too slow. I tried not to be intimidated, thought about how I liked/disliked different aspects of being led, and tried to go forward from there. Well, not so much forward, as shifting weight side to side. Was she with me? uh..no.. hmm.. Maybe she ...

That snarky title is for the benefit an Englishman currently living in New Jersey. At some point he's promised to come visit and learn a bit of tango with me. To get him started, I've pulled together a few of my favorite video resources from YouTube (of course) just for him. First there are two videos from James and Joanna of JamesandJoanna.com : The first video, which covers the basic eight, windmill and forward ochos is below. They have a second video that demonstrates the back ochos, basic stops, pushes, sandwiches and a few decorations. The next set of videos is from Happyseaurchin , who not only gives fantastic advice on tango, he shows a real passion and connection in his views on the subject. The very first video on Posture and Balance helped me so much - and that's just the first one! It only gets better from there. The Tango series is shown below: