just in different ways. A private lesson with Lorena Ermocida made me realize what good tango is regardless of styles. Tango is forever about embrace, posture and walk.
After dancing one song with Lorena, she first gave me some encouraging compliments: very smooth, dance to the music well, elegant... but... then she pointed out the things that she didn't like. I occasionally took her off her axis, my embrace was too controlling at those moments. We tried to dance a little without my right arm embracing. Then we discussed the placement of my right arm. Then we danced a second song.
After that, she asked me what I would like to work on. I asked her what she thought that I should work on. We went through posture briefly, spent a lot of time on walking and leading with the body. I was amazed that the way she explained walking, however different style it is, was essentially the way Javier, Andrea and Silvina had taught me. They all stressed the leg behind, good transition between legs and the pull up from the front leg.
There were a lot of information to be absorbed in an hour. I was too tempted to book another lesson with her next day. Then I realized that I needed time to take everything in. But I thought that this class had taken my dance to another level. I finally realized how to set myself free in the dance.
The music makes you dance. " Pedro said to me during our milonga practica session with Tina. Pedro is a seventy year old milonguero who has been dancing tango for over fifty years. He makes the yummiest rabbit stew.
The music makes you dance. It is so simple when one gets it. Connect with my partner and then connect with the music, let the music tell me how to move my body rather than how my body moves to the music. With the right music and right partner, I am contented to have just one tanda a night.
Would you like the woman in your embrace dancing like a man, marching like a soldier, say during the song of Poema? Probably not, right? A woman should look and feel like a woman: sexy, beautiful and feminine. A masculine follower doesn't get much cabaceos, at least at the milongas where I have been going to.
A woman tangos like a woman, a man tangos like a man. It is natural, that yin and yang thing. When two becomes one, it is the most beautiful to see and feel. When I was in Buenos Aires, from the 72 year old Padro who has been dancing over fifty years to Javier who is younger than I am, every man that I met who dances tango, has this universal message: stand like a man and walk like a hombre.
When I left La Nacional last night, I took a glimpse of these men, who are supposed to be the creme of creme in the NY tango scene, dancing, which inspired this post. I felt ill watching these men dancing like they haven't eaten for a week. I wanted to stop them and said to them: "Guys, please, dance like a man."
I had a milongaless weekend. And I only went out one night in the week. The weather hasn't been nice enough: snow, freezing cold, rain, and strong wind. The thought of going out in the weather and having a bad or even a so-so night deterred me further. I still remembered driving on the icy side streets of Manhattan to attend milongas last year. Now the desire of dancing with all those "hot" women is waning. Tango, for me, is no longer to dance till my feet hurt.
My enthusiasm is still here and growing strong. Besides working on the technique in my living room, I am undertaking the work of putting lyrics to my 4000 song Itune library and building my own tanda list. It is to help me with my musicality, which has always been raved by most of the followers. Now only if I understood the lyrics, had I have more control over how to express music. At the mean time, I am expanding my Spanish vocabulary. Maybe by November, my third trip to BsAs, I can finally converse in Spanish.
Two of the bloggers have taken down their blogs. I think that I can relate to it. I wiped out my posts from March to October 2007 without backup. At that time, I felt that I needed to move on and there was no need to look back. Two weeks later, I found myself posting again, only that it was changed to a journal to my first trip to BsAs. Amidst my post BsAs blue, I wanted to close up shop again. A few days later, I couldn't resist but voice my opinion again... I do hope one of these days they will find the desire to write again and share their voices.
Part of the reason I am so into tango is because it is a life long experience, like martial arts. There is always another level you can reach to. In the end, it is not so much about the physical aspect of the game but the mental one. One doesn't stop learning if one chooses not to.
It is rewarding to have a blissful tanda once a while. And it makes the whole experience more cherishable.
"You want to put woman into sleep in the music with you." Javier said and Andrea translated. Hence the adjustment on the embrace, the posture and the walk; get rid of the little nuisance that disturbs the tranquility and learn to respect her space and her balance.
Use the body to lead, use the mind to dance, listen to the music, listen to her body. Keep these in mind, then one would not fixate on leading the steps but the quality of each step. It may sound abstract and it is difficult to do. One's body has to develop the muscle and strength to move smoothly.
If you watch old milongueros dancing, their upper body maintain at even level regardless what they are doing with their feet. Upper body movement is smooth, circular and calm even though D'Arienzo is playing. Less is more: less movement, deeper connection.
"Let her dream in your embrace and in the dance. Don't wake her up..." ---Javier Rodriguez
A lot of people say and teach close embrace as two persons hugging each other, like friends, lovers and family. That is probably the biggest misconception. Granted, there are many different ways to embrace in tango, and the embrace is changing and readjusting throughout the dance. If you watch a lot of youtube clips and pay attention to the best (or ex best) dancers' embraces, you will find similar characteristics.
This is the embrace that is taught by Javier and Andrea. Man, the leader, opens his chest, feels it expand grande but not to stick out his sternum; left palm faces his left ears, relaxes his shoulders and chest; tucks his navel in, tightens his abs and rib cage (requires works on your core); and breathe in your chest. Then he invites the woman to come to his embrace, by holding her right hand up and over without any tension of pulling, embrace her at the level of the bottom of her breasts line, as if he places her breast over his chest and lift/support them by natural expanding his chest.
The woman, the follower, comes to the man, places her chest over his, as if she hangs herself on his chest with hers; and her left arm places naturally over the man's shoulder or upper arm, sometimes her left palm presses in and upward to allow better connection with the man without weighing on him.
In this embrace, the contact and connection is on the chest and no other parts of the body. I find more freedom for both to move. And the woman gets much better sensation which I will talk about in "Don't wake her up". This is just the technical aspect of the embrace. It is just half of embrace.
A perfect embrace starts with the cabeceo, through the eyes, which also called windows of the hearts, of two persons. The man takes her right hand and invites her to the embrace. At this moment, he should show his confidence that he is the best of the floor and he could take care of her in the crowded pista and give her two wonderful minutes. The confidence is so strong that the others on the floor feel it too, so they will respect his space when he dances around.
It is when the woman feels the confidence in the man, she takes the last step towards him and allows him to embrace her. Then she completely surrenders into the embrace and waits for him to show her two blissful minutes.
"I can teach you how to dance, but I can't teach you embrace." Maestro Carlos told me once."...I am glad that you've found your own."
Shy, intimidated of dancing with one of the best, and nervous of making mistake or causing injury to her. Not until I put away those emotions and started envisioning myself as the best, did Andrea Misse tell Javier and me that the embrace was "Perfecto".
" keep this embrace. Don't lose it." Javier nodded at me.
A man does not automatically embrace the woman. Instead, he takes her hand; invites her and waits for her acceptance. The woman takes the last step to allow the man to embrace her.
Steps were/are/ will be created by dancers, mostly the leaders. If you fixate on the steps, spend much of your mind of memorizing the steps, and try to recreate these steps in your dance, then you are forever trapped in the tango labyrinth. At a certain stage of your tango journey, you would realize that you are the creator of the steps, not the slave of them.
"How to do a nice(perfect) giro?" I asked Javier after my imitation of one of his moves. "What's a giro?" He answered. Instead, he had me standing relaxed, feet together, in practice hold.
"Close your eyes" Andrea translated "now try to remember this movement."
Javier slowly drew a counter clockwise circle with my upper body. "This is the sensation. Remember that." Then he and Andrea danced to show me the body movement and energy, but not the steps...
I used to be fascinated by Javier's unique footworks (steps). I had spent hours loading his Youtube clips in Flash and watched them frame by frame, tried to break down his steps. I wanted to dance like him.
After the private lessons with him, I realized that I didn't want to dance just like him any more. I want to dance like myself. Of course, I will carry certain distinctive/signature Javier features, ones which he probably learned from his maestros: the embrace, the energy... It was what he taught me, however, freed my mind, my fixation of those fantastic steps of his.
The repertoire of tango is muy grande. But it is also very simple: natural: listen to your body, your body will tell you how to dance...
Your mind tells your body how to move, your body then tells your feet...
Think of whereabout of the fellower's foot (always on one foot), not your feet during the dance.
---Javier Rodriguez
Understand how to dance elegantly, how to dance sensually, the essence of tango, the connection between the two.
Think of the feet as paint brush, the floor as a canvas. You dance as painting on the floor with brushes.
---Maestro Carlos De Chey
Understand these, I begin to dance with more freedom.
your lead, follow your musicality, execute your figures. But most importantly listening to the woman, in the embrace, in her figures, in her embellishments, what she wants." excerpts from Lonewalk's , who by the way is a damn good dancer himself (cream of the crops by American standard), latest post about Javier Rodriguez talked about musicality.
A very interesting post, the way Javier talked about musicality in a deeper level. I will let you read about it from Issac's blog yourself.
Tango, at a higher level, is very intriguing, to say the least.
"Its not all about trying to do what you want anymore. Its letting her body and her emotions lead you..."
Indeed, this couple of days I found myself, being a "leader", actually following the followers in the dance. It is actually quite simple.
In the dance, when woman walks back, we follow. "She goes, then you go" Maestro said. The lead is on the leader's intention. The follow is on the leader's movement. Sacada in giro is an another good example.
When I actually follow the women's body and movement, I find more dynamics in the dance. Then come those playful moments, a little see saw: taking turns in the speakers' role of tango conversation, a little cat and mouse: sacadas in giros, a little twist of the body... the list goes on as your vocabulary increases and understanding of music improves. The fun is endless.
That's why sometimes I feel so depressed. Few understand this seemingly simple thing.
