Good habits for tango dancers
Spotify Check out Sophia's spotify lists: Tango (Trad) Best for practicing musicality - walking to single, double and half time. Tango (Neo) contemporary songs (good for practicing technique) Link to 250 songs The following link will download a collection of 250 of the most popular songs (tango, vals and milonga) played in milongas around the world! Focus for now only on the tangos. Also focus on instrumental songs as opposed to vocals as these are easier to find the beat. Di Sarli is one of the better orchestras to start with: 250 songs download This link goes to a zip file (little less than a 1 GB file). Here's a link to help you better understand tango music for dancing. LESSON REVIEWS Here's what we've covered so far... Week 7: starting July 8 Reviewed:All moves of Level 1 Introduced: Backward Ocho from Side Step (Salida) Week 6: starting July 1 No new moves introduced.Reviewed:
Week 5: starting June 24 1. Introduced: - Back Ocho - Added this to Parallel Cross - Forward Ocho Combination (Week 4): 2. Reviewed - Technique for Parallel Cross and C-Step - Inside (in front of follower) and Outside (to Follower's Right side) steps 1. Reviewed:Week 4: starting June 17 1. Introduced: Forward Ochos (entered from Parallel Cross): 2. Reviewed and improvised with:
Week 3 : starting June 10
2. Explored the concepts of:
Blocking The first side step of C-Step and Parallel Cross, which requires dissociation, can be described as a Blocking step: The leader angles his torso to his right to lead follower to under-step him. The follower angles similarly to her right (to connect with her partner 'heart to heart') as she steps to the right. Leaders: Note the first two steps of C-Step and Parallel Cross are the same. As with the C-Step the first side step, due to dissociation, causes the follower to under-step the leader. Outside and Inside steps The Parallel Cross and C-Step introduce the concept of 'Inside and Outside' positions. When the follower is lead to Outside position her back leg (left leg) has stepped slightly to her right - to stabilise behind her front leg, crossing slightly to the right of, or behind, her spine. In Inside position her back leg (left leg) has stepped in a straight line behind her - parallel to her front leg and not behind or crossing to the right of her spine. Two backwards steps (follower) in Outside position leads to the Cross. The first Outside position step is the Leader's right leg stepping forward (Follower's left leg stepping back). The second outside step is the Leader's left leg stepping outside (Follower's right leg stepping back). See Week 1 for C-Step and Week 2 for Parallel Cross videos. Improvisation For your interest, here's an end of class display (North Sydney 27.5.19) . Week 2 : starting June 3 1. Introduced 'Lapiz walk'. This is a drill for improving balance, walking and musicality. Lapiz means 'Pencil' in Spanish.3 steps forward - Lapiz - 3 steps forward - Lapiz and continue this till end of song. A good song to practice this drill to is 'Cara Sucia' by Carlos Di Sarli (see Spotify Tango (Trad) list). 2. Introduced Parallel Cross with Resolution: Week 1 : starting May 27 The focus was on:
The move introduced was the 'C Step': We also worked on musicality, walking to single time and pausing. We used the count 1-2-3-4 walking on the strong beats of 1 and 3. Counting can also be 'I and 1 and...' 1 here is for the strong beats of 1 and 3 while 'and' is for the soft beats of 2 and 4. |