Tango Student: Class Notes and Clips

Vals – Syncopation and Turns

2026-08-28T20:32:24.592-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
Tango Monterey Bay Marathon
Saturday, August 22, 2026

This class will focus on:
-developing awareness of syncopated vals rhythms
-exploring different dynamics in vals turns
-helping both leaders and followers better interpret and create musical syncopation

We began with a warm-up vals.

Next, we began with a phrasing exercise with Leaders behind Homer and Followers behind Cristina, doing Vals Chacarera, where in Chacarera formation of two lines of dancers facing each other all in one line, arms up and eyes making contact with each other, we took four steps forward and four steps back, similar to the Avanzado and Regreso initial steps of the Chacarera. The 4 forward steps were done in 4 beats, and the 4 back steps were done in 4 beats. During this game, Maestro played a very regular, well-behaved vals (Calo’s Bajo un Cielo de Estrellas) so we could clearly hear the musical phrasing and sentence, the goal of which was to get us all onto the same musical page, stepping on the strong beat. It was basically:

4 forward
4 back
Comma (pause)
4 forward
4 back
Period (stop)

At the Period (end of a sentence/phrase) is where the dancers, both Leader and Follower, should do various accents/fancy things in their dancing.

Next exercise:
In partnership, we began with walking to the transition (comma), then wait. Then walk to the end of the sentence, then wait, to hear if there is an opportunity in the music to embellish (such as doing a series of taps to the side). This was an exercise to improve our listening and to help us be more creative. The music will guide you to pick a phrase of music and let the embellishment happen. We drilled this in partnership to a very regular, well-behaved vals (Calo’s Bajo un Cielo de Estrellas).

4 walk
4 walk
Comma (wait)
4 walk
4 walk (embellish if you hear there’s an opportunity in the music).

In partnership, we were to walk, pausing in the middle of the phrase, hitting the end of the phrase and getting ready for the next phrase. We were to embellish at the end of the phrase and be ready to start at the beginning of the next phrase.

There are fills and transitions at the end of each phrase.

Followers: can help convey the musical phrasing of the vals to the leader to help identify the middle of the phrase by using her breath to help indicate the phrase.

In Vals, usually the first minute is instrumental with no lyrics. Then the vocals come in and tie into the melody. The first minute of a vals will explain a lot about the intention of the song.

Vals rhythm is 1-2-3, 1-2-3 (boom chick pause boom or boom pause chick boom -- 1-2-1 or 1-3-1).

Independently (not in partnership), we drilled with walking, just stepping on the Boom and on the two Chicks (Boom Chick Chick), going forward and then backwards on the boom only first, and then the boom chick boom.

Next, we added a syncopated footwork to this rhythm of Left Foot Forward, Right Foot Back Cross (but not tightly), Left Foot Side, Right Foot Forward, Left Foot Back Cross (but not tightly), Right Foot Side, etc. Note that the back cross steps are not tight, it’s just marching on beat. We walked by ourselves at the Boom, stepping on the Boom and then the Boom Chick Chick. We drilled this to Canaro’s Cuando Estaba Enamorado, which was a bit fast, so it was switched to Canaro’s Soñar y Nada Mas.

Next, we skipped one of the Chicks in the Boom Chick Chick rhythm. The question was which one? 1-2-1 is the usual Vals rhythm, so Boom Chick (Pause) Boom.

In partnership, we were to do it in place with just weight changes, or walk a bit, then syncopate a bit doing Boom Chick, pause, Boom. A good syncopation to do is a Rock Step. We drilled this to Canaro’s Soñar y Nada Mas.

Then we tried in partnership to walking on boom only or boom chick boom (1-2-1). The way the Leader tries to project acceleration is to stay very horizontal, and be almost aggressive in the acceleration, but have control in the stop. He should not put all of his weight in the first boom. It’s just a touch, so maybe 5% of his weight, with a reach to mark the Boom. The last Boom is when the step finishes.

Try not to change height when doing the syncopation. And don’t move your upper body too much in space. Keep the inner thighs together as if they have magnets together activated to quiet down the forward momentum in your upper body.

The faster the vals is, the more we dance on just the boom, and we may syncopate just 3 or so times during the entire song.

We did not drill to the 1-3-1 (Boom, Pause, Chick, Boom) rhythm as it is weirder than the 1-2-1 rhythm.

Next, we were to make this rhythm in the turn so that we could express the Vals Rhythm in the turn. It was assumed that everyone knew fundamental Turns techniques for their respective roles, so we didn’t verbally repeat them. Working in open and close embrace, the goal of this class was to make the turn more dynamic. The underlying theme of the class was for the dancers to be really active in hearing the music and making a good effort of knowing the vals rhythm and cadence.

Building on our previous exercises, we did the turns footwork of doing the grapevine pattern stepping in the boom - chick - boom (1-2-1) rhythm. We started in promenade as if walking in the park, and then Leader would make it circular by initiating the turn while he did PacPerson (PC of PacMan) footwork of open and closing his feet while he was the center of the circle, to emphasize the Follower's syncopation as she walked around the Leader doing the same Boom Chick Boom rhythm. The Leader does not push the Follower faster, she moves on her turn. We drilled this to Canaro’s Soñar y Nada Mas.

Our goal is to fit the turn to the music.

Finer points on how the Leader leads this so that the Follower makes an actual step. The move comes from the floor into the Leader’s body. The Leader turns on the open side, the left side, so the Follower feels that’s where the energy is, almost as if the Leader pulls her there, by how he connects to the floor and how it translates into his body.

The Follower needs to engage her right hand to hold the Leader more so she can feel the Leader’s acceleration in his upper body. When the Follower feels the Leader accelerate the turn, he is probably looking for the rhythm. Since it’s integral, it’s important for the Follower to have control to contain the movement and try to stay with the Leader. Follower should match the Leader’s tone in his body, and her steps are long and around the Leader to match his steps.

The Boom can be difficult to lead after the Chick syncopation because you have to slow your partner down.

Follower should lock herself to the music to know where the Boom - Chick - Chick syncopation is, and to pay attention to the music and the lead. The more the Follower’s body locks into the music, the more she will be with the vals cadence.

Follower should not fall on the Boom, but be controlled, and not transfer the weight too fast, otherwise she will arrive too early. She needs to really lock her body onto the music for better control.

We drilled this to Calo’s Bajo un Cielo de Estrellas, trying to syncopate in the usual places and in the unusual places as well.

Maestro concluded with Q&A summary and a demo to Canaro’s Soñar y Nada Mas.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Copyright 2026

Playing in the In Between (Intermediate)

2024-06-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 21, 2024

This subject covered the Intangibles in tango, the “glue” or how to enhance our dancing and communication with each other. A lot of these intangible ideas can really come from our attentiveness to the music and how the music affects us. It has to make sense with the music and to both partners. It has to be in context. Our class focus is to enhance our ability to translate the music and influence our partner.

We began with the Statue Game:

In partnership, we simply walked, with the Leader initiating a stop in the middle of a step, and both dancers were to comfortably maintain it for two beats.

Level 1 of the game: Leader initiates the stop.

Level 2 of the game: Follower initiates the stop.

During the stop, we were to engage the body and be super grounded, hug and compress the body to really stop/freeze. Our connection is deliberate, and we move with the floor. We can stop/freeze in a parada or the middle of a boleo or leg wrap. Our goal was to suspend or pause the movement, have a Kodak Moment, to enrich the flow of our dance, creating pauses. In this class, we are to exaggerate to understand the concept.

Next Game:

The Follower Initiates

She does not change the step the Leader is leading, and forces her to go between being subtle to being more obvious. The Follower is 100% a partner of the musical interpretation, as is the Leader. The Follower adds her own take on the music, and does subtle things that capture the Leader’s attention, so that the dance becomes a conversation. In the Follower’s upper body, she can do things with her lungs, arms, hands, fingers, and shoulders, to influence the Leader in communicating the musicality via her upper body.

Two more chapters:

The Follower should inject playful footwork into all the places where she can do a little something, perhaps even doing bigger and more complex things that are not led. These are embellishments, but also extra steps, accents, or catches. She should not be obnoxious to the Leader and his lead when she does these things. She should find the “safe spaces” to do them such as paradas or when they are in outside partner position. The Leader should hold back and allow the Follower the space and time to do these things. (Don’t worry, Leaders will have their moment, too.) We were to connect well with the music. The Leader should create open spaces for him to propose to the Follower to do a little accent. Followers should spend time dancing with themselves to become more familiar with the music. We were to try to do these little accents, catches, and embellishments during the parada before she steps over.

The Follower should periodically engage eye contact with the Leader. This is one way of being playful, as if the dancers are sharing a joke, or to tell the Leader she is just checking in. She should not shoot laser beams at the Leader from her eyes.

Last chapter:

Leader moves independently but does not move the Follower. We practiced this in partnership in regular hold in open embrace with a fair amount of space between them. Follower is on one leg and the Leader moves from side to side, changing his weight or taking a step, but leading the Follower to remain where she is on one leg. He can help do this by releasing his right hand from the Follower’s back so he can still hold, but does not accidentally push her or move her while he is moving. He does not go too far away in his steps.

To apply this concept to our dancing, the Leader can lead an 8-Count Basic to the cross, and add a few pitter patter steps in between, keeping the Follower on axis and not disturbing or changing any of her steps. Do this on the Follower’s right foot and left foot so she doesn’t get overtired on one leg.

Putting it all together:

(1) Stop (Leader or Follower initiated)

(2) Follower interprets the music with embellishments or with changes in her embrace or by looking at the Leader periodically

(3) With the Leader moving independently of the Follower and not disturbing his dance.

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to El Once (A Divertirse) by Osvaldo Fresedo

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Cross Explored (Intermediate)

2024-06-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 21, 2024

We began with a warm-up dance that included crosses.

Our lesson would focus on walking to the cross (in the context of the 8-count basic).

Individual Exercise (which we were encouraged to do once a week):

Cross behind to walk forward. Lift our heel by bending our knee to get past the other knee. Do not change height or bop up and down, and imagine that we are holding a giant fishbowl in our embrace and the fish are sleeping and we don’t want to disturb them.

We also did this exercise the opposite way: Cross in front to walk back.

Parts of our body need to be engaged, but not our whole body. There’s softness in the body, but we need to squeeze our upper thigs and articulate the metatarsal.

We can lead the cross in three ways:

(1) Diagonally (how we are all taught as beginners; this tends to drift if doing consecutively)

(2) In a J

(3) The subject of our class.

In partnership in open embrace, we were to walk in parallel system, with the Leader trying to touch the side Follower’s opposite weighted foot (not the one that is moving simultaneously with his) with the side of his stepping foot. Then we would gradually close the embrace, and the Leader would walk farther in, his stepping foot aiming to step farther in, closer toward her ankle. The embrace would close even more so that the Leader would aim to step beyond the Follower’s foot.

The Follower should squeeze the top of her inner thigh to help create a straight line, controlling the metatarsal as her back heel goes down.

Exercise in partnership:

Walk to the cross, but eliminate the unnecessary steps, which we did by the Leader doing a weight change.

Leader right foot steps forward to the open side / Follower left foot steps back.

Leader left foot steps forward / Follower right foot steps back

Leader right foot collects / Follower’s left foot crosses in front of her left foot

Out to resolution

Moving on…

The Leader starts in front.

In his first right foot step outside partner, he rotates a little as he steps but faces toward her. On his next step, his left foot forward step, he rotates even more. On the next step, they settle and square up as the Follower is in cross.

This is the diagonal way of getting into the cross.

The Leader’s step before the cross needs to be close to the Follower and not drift. To be more stable and have more balance in his step, the Leader should have a little turn out in his forward steps, just like the Follower has even turnout in both feet in her back steps.

Follower: On her right foot back step, before the cross, she needs to have control with a strong standing left leg to push the floor as she transfers weight to her right foot, and her right foot should be solidly connected to the floor.

The close embrace method of getting to the cross

We can do a series of crosses so you get a sawtooth shape.

The Leader does a sneak attach weight change to be on his right foot. His left foot forward step touches the Follower’s thigh. He steps right foot forward outside, twisting from his abdomen to get the Follower into cross. He collects with his left foot to square off in front of the Follower.

For both dancers, we can engage our embrace and be intentional in our breath to communicate with each other better in leading and following the cross.

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to El Aeroplano by Cuarteto Guardia Vieja

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Turn vs Ocho Leg Wraps (All Levels)

2024-06-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 20, 2024

Concept: A Leg Wrap is also known as a Gancho. They can be circular (round) or sideways. The focus of our class with be Turning Wraps, where the Leader is the center of the turn.

We were to do a warm-up dance in open or close embrace, doing lots of turns and ochos, and include any ganchos or leg wraps we know.

Tango has an inherent shape.

Individual exercise to free our legs:

On our weighted left leg, rotate in our hip socket without pivoting. Really use the ball socket in our thigh. Arms were out, as if holding an imaginary fishbowl.

Level 1:

Our free leg goes out in a small floor front boleo

Level 2:

Our free leg wraps around our standing leg’s thigh

Level 3:

Our free leg wraps around and whacks the side of our butt as in a front boleo

In doing wraps, the Leader’s leg is like a chicken leg, with his thigh the meatiest part of the leg, which is where the follower should aim.

We worked on the Leader’s footwork technique to free his leg to be able to enter her step at the appropriate time. With the leader on one weighted leg, his other free leg goes out in a circle (lapice), while he rotates around his spine. So it is like a block turn with big rulo technique for him. We practiced this on both legs. The goal of this exercise is so that the Leader gets used to moving his free leg around while being very stable on his supporting, standing leg, which will be important since the target (Follower’s open side step after the forward step as she walks around him) will be moving, and he needs to be good with his timing.

When the Leader steps into the Follower during the leg wrap, his target will be the inside of the lead step of her foot, not her trailing foot. He should aim to step in during the side step after her forward step. The Leader does not try to touch the Follower’s foot. He is trying to touch the Follower’s thigh with his thigh as she is arriving on her lead leg, even before she lands, so it’s a little earlier. The Leader slides his leg in, articulating his leg and opening his hip. On these wraps, the Leader needs to be in just the right place, the sweet spot. If the Leader's step in is too deep, the Follower has the potential to knee herself (right heel to left knee). If the Leader’s step in is too shallow, Follower won't be able to have full range of motion in her wrap, wrapping at the wrong spot on the Leader's leg. Leader should be off his heel to maneuver more. This is a continuous motion of the turn/rotation for Leader as he moves around the Follower to get a smooth wrap effect as he remains on his axis.

After he steps in, but not too soon (he waits and holds back a little), the Leader then transfers his weight but keeps his upper body rotating to continuously lead the turn. It is a full turn lead, but his leg is in between hers, interrupting her back cross step, which causes the wrap, and then she concludes to complete her back cross step. The Follower should be like a tiger, and not hesitate on her exit.

The Leader cannot force the Follower to wrap her leg against his. It’s a move that is half led, have embellishment. If the Follower does not wrap, the Leader pulls his leg back.

From the clockwise turn, on the Follower side step after her front cross step, the Leader steps in with his right foot toward Follower's left foot, forcing her right leg to wrap his Captain Morgan right leg. The Leader’s step in is like a sacada, but toward the Follower’s lead (arriving) foot, not her trailing foot. For the Leader, a little bit of his weight is forward in his step in, and then more of the weight shifts forward as she moves around him as she wraps. Here also the Leader's thigh is open.

We practiced this wrap in the counterclockwise turn as well, with Leader's left foot step in toward the Follower's right foot on her side step, forcing her left leg to wrap around his left leg.

The easy side is the Leader’s right (close side of the embrace) (clockwise)

Leader’s Captain Morgan Leg Is Key

The Leader’s Captain Morgan stance with heel lifted off the ground:

- Gives his leg more flexibility.

- Gets his knee closer to her knee

- Creates space between his legs for her to wrap

In the wrap from the cross, at the point of the Captain Morgan stance (which in this case is with his leg forward instead of the off to the side), and where the Leader has to come in to meet the Follower half-way on her return after he has sent her out, both his feet are weighted. The weight is at the center, and the Leader is on axis. The Follower is also on axis during her wrap. His thigh opens as the Follower goes around, giving her room as she wraps his leg with hers. Because of the joint, her knee bends. “The thighs have eyes” so the Follower feels the invitation to wrap because of her thigh contact with the Leader’s thigh.

The non-Captain Morgan leg is the elevator leg, so the Leader can change the height of his leg to accommodate different height Followers and where they wrap on his leg.

Follower’s Technique during the Wrap

The Follower should try to always keep her foot on the floor, even when it goes forward. Only when she feels the obstacle of his leg should she wrap around the meaty, fleshy part of his thigh (so higher than his knee).

The Follower creates the shape of the wrap. The Leader leads it, but the way the Follower answers is all in her control.

Wraps can be challenging, not because of the entrance of the Leader, but because the Follower must remain stable and in balance after her wrap and prepare to make a long reaching back cross step. Follower is responsible for her own axis until she feels the Leader disturbs it.

Follower’s Exit after the Wrap: 2 Options

(1) regularly collect, or

(2) after wrapping the Leader's leg, and have her leg go up and caress the side of her standing leg as it goes back down to the floor as it returns.

Either way (Follower’s choice), the Follower should not anticipate the next step as it could be a back step or a back ocho.

There is a transition from open to close embrace at the point of the wrap (close) to when her leg goes back out to complete her interrupted back cross step (open).

In our class, due to time constraints, we ended up only doing turns leg wraps and no ocho leg wraps. However, Maestros did demonstrate an ocho wrap and a linear wrap. The ocho wraps have more energy with a strong invitation. The Leader leads the Follower to pivot and turn her hips to lead the Follower to wrap.

In the linear wrap, it was similar to the prior day’s figure: Leader opens the embrace to send the Follower straight back out a little in Colgada energy, freeing her right leg to go back out and away.

Leader closes the embrace to bring Follower back in toward him, as well as her right free leg, which wraps around his right leg.

Her right leg then goes back out to normal resolution.

We can also do double or triple wraps, which the Leader can lead by small, quick rotations (micromovements) in his spine, or the Follower can steal it like an embellishment if it is musically appropriate.

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to Dancing With Your Ghost by Sasha Alex Sloan

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Who’s Axis Is it? Exploring Alterations (All Levels)

2024-06-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 20, 2024

We began with a warm-up dance doing a lot of turns.

In teapot embrace (Leader right hand as the handle, left hand up and open like the spout of a teapot), with the Leader doing either Pacperson or kick around footwork, the Follower holds the Leader’s handle and tip of spout as he rotates around his spine in a block turn. During the turn, the Follower should stay behind the Leader, and equal long steps around. He changes direction. We were to avoid doing any ochos. The Leader should just stop the Follower on one of her steps and change the direction, but not on her back step.

In drilling these changes of direction, we were to also include walks periodically so we don’t get too dizzy. We were to not do any ochos for the next 20 minutes of drilling.

Still in teapot embrace, the Leader leads the Follower to walk around him in typical turn footwork (forward cross, side, back cross, side). While she walks around, her circle should be nice and tight. Once the Leader starts the turn, he should provide continuous energy, pulling from his left hand (spout), rather than pushing from his right hand. That’s why we are doing this in teapot embrace, eliminating the possibility of the Leader pushing with his right hand and instead forcing him to only lead with pulling energy in his left hand. In the teapot embrace, the Follower should have a good, solid embrace on the Leader’s spout and handle.

The Leader determines the timing of the Follower’s steps to determine where to stop the Follower and change the direction of the turn.

We began this exploration exercise with the Leader also stepping to the side with the Follower steps to the side (called Capturing The Moon). This is the most simple Alteration: the side to side alteration.

2 RULES FOR ALTERATIONS:

(1) Capture the Moon

(2) Change the direction of the turn.

Alterations are a fundamental way to move through space.

Next Level:

Leader side step on Follower’s back step.

On the Follower’s back step, she can collect in an amague with her trailing foot arriving to cross tuck against her weighted foot to position herself functionally and efficiently so that her right foot back step immediately goes into a left foot forward step, and prevents an accidental ocho.

Alterations can be done on any step of the Follower, and any step of the Leader, in either direction, so there are a total of 18 possibilities:

1. In a left turn, Follower side step, Leader side step

2. In a left turn, Follower back step, Leader side step

3. In a left turn, Follower forward step, Leader side step

4. In a left turn, Follower side step, Leader forward step

5. In a left turn, Follower back step, Leader forward step

6. In a left turn, Follower front step, Leader forward step

7. In a left turn, Follower side step, Leader back step

8. In a left turn, Follower back step, Leader back step

9. In a left turn, Follower forward step, Leader back step

10. In a right turn, Follower side step, Leader side step

11. In a right turn, Follower back step, Leader side step

12. In a right turn, Follower forward step, Leader side step

13. In a right turn, Follower side step, Leader forward step

14. In a right turn, Follower back step, Leader forward step

15. In a right turn, Follower front step, Leader forward step

16. In a right turn, Follower side step, Leader back step

17. In a right turn, Follower back step, Leader back step

18. In a right turn, Follower forward step, Leader back step

After the Leader starts the turn and captures the moon, he should not take an extra step.

Musically, we were to drill doing everything on the strong beat, and not double time any steps The Follower should make equal steps around the Leader, and do a big pivot on the back cross step of the turn. She should activate her standing leg to really reach and not fall into the Leader and have lots of disassociation in the spine.

SPICE

To add spice to our alterations, the Leader should get closer to the Follower when he captures the moon on his side step. Then he steps diagonally behind to facilitate the Follower’s next orbit around the Leader.

AVOID THE A.O.R.

The A.O.R. is the Automatic Ocho Reflex.

We were to not do any ochos!

To avoid doing ochos instead of an alteration, the Leader should focus on leading the Follower around his axis as he leads a turn (in doing an ocho, the lead is around her axis).

PROPERTIES OF ALTERATIONS

Alterations can have a slingshot sensation – a dynamic feeling or dynamic action.

We explored this by adding in the QQS.

Because the Leader captures close and steps diagonally behind the Follower, he can also do the QQS rhythm.

In the Leader’s diagonally back step, in the change of direction he adds more energy to the embrace, and he can contain the energy and not lose control. The Follower also adds more energy to the embrace. The Follower only has two steps that are QQ: the forward and side steps.

We drilled these concepts to three Alterations on both sides:

1. In a turn, Follower side step, Leader side step

2. In a turn, Follower back step, Leader side step

3. In a turn, Follower front step, Leader side step

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to 7 Years by Jasmine Thompson

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Creating Seamless Transitions (Advanced)

2024-06-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 19, 2024

In our class we were to create seamless transitions that flow and are not abrupt, with a focus on extreme transitions going from extremely close embrace (like in Volcadas) to extremely open embrace (like in Colgadas) and playing with the axis (on and off).

To one song, we would open and close the embrace with a pattern that works socially and include both a colgada and a volcada. Since this was an advance class, we would not go into great detail regarding how to do colgadas or volcadas or any of the other steps in the pattern.

In close embrace, we began with a Leader’s right foot rock step / Follower’s left foot rock step on the close side of the embrace, to turn clockwise with the Leader’s right foot catching the Follower’s left foot side step. (IMPORTANT NOTE: The Follower’s side step arrives first, then the Leader’s side step catches the Follower’s side step.) Then Leader shifts weight and opens the embrace to send the Follower out in Colgada while her left foot is weighted, so she can raise her right leg and then step over with her right foot around the Leader. This is called the Hard Side Stepover Colgada. The Leader’s embrace shifts as his right supporting hand goes to the outside of the Follower’s left lats. Leader does a cheat step around the Follower. After her right foot stepover, they transition back to close embrace.

Finer point: THE LINE OF POWER: Two points of the Leader’s feet are in a line, indicating the direction of where the Follower's hips will go. The Follower's hips go out straight: that's the line of power. So there is a linear sendoff in the line of power, and Follower has good support.

The Leader leads a turn, which causes the Follower to lift her right leg in preparation for her to do her forward step after her hips are sent out in the Line of Power.

The Leader leads the Follower to just transfer her weight and not do an actual side step. In the Colgada moment, the Leader is the mountain and the Follower is the climber, so he should be engaged in both his left and right hands as she raises her left leg.

The Leader should finish on his right foot to be closer to the Follower and end really holding on to the Follower during the Kodak Moment when she is on her left foot, her left hip is out and away, and her right leg is up while his body counterweights her hip as it is out. He can even hold this pose before moving through the movement.

From the Colgada, after the Follower steps over, the Leader brings her immediately back into very close embrace to lead a left foot Volcada, and driving her left foot back into a front cross of her left foot against her weighted right foot. He then opens up the embrace more to send her back out, freeing her right leg out and back. He then brings her back in in closer embrace to lead her right leg to wrap against his right leg.

The Leader does a left foot side step to supply volcada support as the Follower steps left foot forward.

Pattern summary:

In close embrace in line of dance

Leader’s right foot/Follower’s left foot rock step on close side of the embrace

Follower’s left foot side step/Leader’s right foot catch of Follower’s left foot (captures the moon).

Leader opens the embrace

Leader sends Follower out in Colgada while she is on her left weighted foot.

Follower lifts her right leg as Leader counterbalances her with good support (Kodak moment)

Leader makes little cheat step around

Leader turns, pivoting on his forward heel

Follower steps over with right foot in curved step around Leader, with them turning to get back into line of dance

In open embrace, Leader leads Follower’s Left Foot Volcada

Getting into close embrace Leader drives Follower’s left foot volcada to close against her weighted right foot, going deep enough to touch thigh to thigh

Leader sends the Follower back out a little in Colgada energy, freeing her right leg to go back out and away

Leader brings Follower back in toward him, as well as her right free leg, which wraps around his right leg.

Her right leg then goes back out to normal resolution.

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to Idea 10 by Gibran Alococer

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Refining Connection Via Follower’s Sacada (Advanced)

2024-06-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 19, 2024

All Sacadas (Leader or Follower) are all based on turns.

In our class, we were to explore what we can do versus hanging back a little in the context of sacadas.

In partnership without touching, we began with a precursor to the game, facing each other and transferring weight nice and slow. The Follower should readily transfer weight and go to either side.

The Sacada Game

The dancers face each other with open side steps. The Sacadaing person (actor) does their sacada, the other person (receptor) receives the sacada. The actor transfers weight to their arriving step and raises their free leg while pivoting on the standing leg, and then does an open step in setup to then become the receptor of the other person, who will now become the actor to do a sacada. This is an exercise in creativity with each dancer alternating doing sacadas (his sacada, then her sacada, then his sacada, then her sacada, etc.). Each person needs to create space for the other person to enter. We did this going back and forth, alternating between who is the actor (initiator of the sacada) and who is the receptor (receiver of the sacada).

Level 2 of the Sacada Game

The constraint of being in fingertip hold was added, so we could be connected, or break the embrace when necessary or not. In adding the embrace, each dancer needs to really sense where the other dancer is, but be sure they are really stacked on their standing leg. Each dancer does long reaching side steps, so they can sense the other’s points of contact so both dancers are stable. Actor needs to stack themself really well. Actor rotates only as much as they need to, to lead the receptor to step and arrive on their step. Both Leader and Follower need to turn on their listening skills. Both dancers were to have careful extension and careful transfer of weight, and to pay attention to their partner in their pivots so that they are stable.

Level 3 of the Sacada Game (we did not do this, but just discussed it)

Same as Level 2 of the game, but with 3 people. We can do this in regular embrace and break the embrace.

The difference between Leader and Follower Sacadas are in the timing of the turn:

Leader sacada timing he turns, and reaches while turning, and then follows through.

Follower’s Sacada she reaches first, there is no turn yet.

Exercise:

In Sugar Bowl embrace, the Leader “hypnotizes” the Follower by doing one side step to one side and then a side step to the other side. The Follower follows the Leader’s pace. Both dancers should take long, nice, even side steps. Leader does sneak attack weight change, extending his leg to mark the space, then turns to transfer the weight, to lead the Follower to step forward around. In our exercise, the Leader arrives on his left, then turns to the right to lead the Follower forward around him clockwise. The Leader’s legs should be wide as he rotates his body in the appropriate direction to Lead the Follower to step forward into the Leader in a sacada.

For the success in the both dancers’ forward step in a sacada, they should use good walking technique: extend, push off from standing foot, collect, take a long reaching forward step curved around, make good pivots, activating standing leg, creating projection, have smooth transfer of weight.

The Leader transfers weight and rotates at the same time clockwise, while Follower does right foot forward ocho step. We also did this to the opposite side (Leader rotates counterclockwise, Follower left foot forward ocho step).

The Leader needs to really sense where the Follower is, and be sure she is really stacked on her standing leg, so he can really vacuum and feel her free leg. Follower can take her time. Leader does long reaching side steps in hypnotizing, so he can sense her points of contact so the Follower is stable. Leader needs to stack himself really well. Leader rotates only as much as he needs to, to lead the Follower to step and arrive on her step. Both Leader and Follower need to turn on their listening skills.

Next, we tried doing a few of these sacadas in a row, to wiggle and waggle into the Leader. Follower needs to be clear and use connection in her hands and with the floor. Leader should try to create a vacuum sensation. The Follower is in control with respect to how she arrives with confidence and security to arrive at the sweet spot and connect with the floor and Leader. The Leader rotates just enough to lead the Follower to do a curved step. Leader gets his free leg into Captain Morgan stance:

The Captain Morgan stance is with one heel lifted off the ground, legs wide, weight mostly to one side:

· His nonstanding leg is unweighted and free to pivot in and out in his hip socket so space is offered

· Gives his leg more flexibility.

· Creates space between his legs for her to step into sacada

The Follower’s right foot sacadas the Leader’s right foot when he is in Captain Morgan stance, though we can do this on either side. After Follower does her sacada into him he does a block turn and kicks around. The Follower should really arrive after her sacada and not change weight and not take an unled side step. She should have a good embrace with the Leader and really receive the Leader’s energy but allow flexibility in the embrace to have good reach in her step and be stable. Her embrace should be flexible, dense, and engaged enough.

The Leader should only do Follower’s sacadas with Followers who reach and transfer weight well, and who do not fall into their steps.

Exercise:

In partnership in Sugar bowl embrace, the Leader steps diagonally back and then does another diagonally back step (instead of side steps), so that the Follower steps into the Leader, doing sacadas while she does slightly snaky forward ocho steps.

To get into this, since the Leader is walking against the line of dance for this series of Follower Forward Sacadas into him, he can do several (3-4) of rock steps to turn the dancers back into the correct line of dance, whereby he will be walking backward while she is walking forward into him, but both properly dancing in the line of dance. After the series of Follower forward sacadas, he can either turn or do another series of rock steps to get back into the line of dance with Leader going forward and Follower going back. He can also end with a wrap or gancho or a half-turn (half-hiro) to face the line of dance.

In leading the Follower’s sacadas, the Leader’s turn technique must be more refined, in his reach and transfers of weight and really arriving.

Level 2:

As the Leader arrives, he turns his shoulders.

Level 3:

As Leader arrives, he opens the embrace.

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to Ariele e Calibano by Sineterra

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Developing Connection With Leader’s Sacadas (All Levels)

2024-06-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Tucson Tango Festival
April 18, 2024

We began with an exercise with the entire class, all together holding hands in a big circle. Then we did the turns/hiro footwork counterclockwise: left foot forward cross, right foot side, left foot back cross, right foot side, etc. Then Maestro broke the circle by letting go and he continued to go around, making the circle smaller, like developing the spiral of a snail from the outside in. Eventually we all ended up much closer in the center of the room, also necessitating smaller steps as we got closer to the center.

Next exercise, in partnership, with no Leader or Follower, in fingertip hold, we both did the steps of the turn/hiro: forward cross, side, back cross, side. We were to take nice steps and do long controlled pivots, especially making the back pivot big and juicy. We were to change the direction of the circle so we didn’t get too dizzy. Both dancers did the same steps and tried to stay together the whole time. The side step should be a long reaching step, extending the leg and then controlling the weight transfer by pushing off the standing leg.

Next, we went on to the structure of the open turn in terms of the Leader’s part (center of the circle).

For the Leader’s footwork, the Leader has two options:

Pacperson (from the 1980s video game Pacman) feet, keeping his heels together as one of his soles opens up to one side, and then the other sole closes to meet his opening foot. When doing Pacperson feet, the Leader should keep his radius small by keeping his heels together.

For his upper body, he is doing a Block Turn, with the Leader’s hips and chest staying together. Block turns teach the Leader how to turn using his whole axis and foot from the ground up, connecting the dots. Too many leaders lead the turn totally unassociated, leading with only his arms through the space to lead a turn, or spiraling too much but without the leg or ground underneath him to understand how to connect the dots. So it’s very important that Leaders practice a lot of block turns. It feels really powerful.

We changed the footwork in the Block Turn to Kickstand/Paddle Around feet. The Leader’s weight is on one leg like a kickstand of a bicycle while his free foot paddles around. The sensation is similar to paddling in a canoe but not falling into the water. The standing leg stabilizes like a bicycle kickstand.

When doing either the Pacman footwork or Block Turn with kickstand, paddling around footwork, the Leader should keep a vertical axis.

For the Leader’s upper body, on the open side of the embrace, he opens up and gives a nice continuous flow of energy to encourage the Follower to walk around.

We practiced this in the Sugar Bowl Embrace, whereby the Leader puts his hands on his hips and his arms are out strong and bent, like the arms of a sugar bowl. The Follower holds on to the Leader’s biceps/triceps. Hips are relatively close to each other, and both Leader and Follower should not look toward the ground, but keep their heads lifted. This embrace prevents the Leader from leading the turn with his arms (like driving a bus), but instead using his whole spine/body.

Leader stops the Follower on her side step to synchronize with her and change the direction of the turn. The feeling/intention is like screwing into the floor.

Follower should walk around the Leader with long, reaching steps. Do not rush the steps. The Follower is always slightly behind the Leader’s lead in the turn.

SACADAS

The most important thing to know about Sacadas is that they are an illusion of the lead/follow. The Leader steps in between the Follower’s feet in her turn/hiro, like a ghost in terms of going behind the Follower.

The turn is the foundation to do a Leader or Follower sacada, which is why we began the class with refining our turns technique.

The Follower turns/does a hiro around the Leader because he is opening his open side shoulder turning his spine.

We did an individual exercise to feel contrabody torsion in our bodies by:

Turning to our left (counterclockwise) while reaching (extending) our left leg forward, then collecting back to our original upright position.

Turning to our right (clockwise) while reaching (extending) our right leg forward, then collecting back to our original upright position.

We should have turnout in our reaching/extending foot.

Next, instead of collecting back, at the end of the reach, we transfer the weight. The Leader’s hips are together under his chest in this block turn.

In partnership, in sugar bowl embrace, we walked together in parallel system, then Leader leads a left turn (counterclockwise). On the Follower’s right foot side step to her right around the Leader, the Leader does a left foot sacada into the Follower’s trailing left foot. The Follower should have control and wait for the Leader.

We did this on both sides, starting with a turn to the left and alternating with a turn to the right.

Leaders: In walking together, really listen to the Follower to see how she steps and projects to get an understanding of how responsive she is and if she can control it once they settle.

The Leader should have some contrabody torsion in his body as we practiced in our earlier exercise as he turns to his left and reaches with his left foot slightly turned out toward the Follower’s trailing right foot.

Follower: After her side step around the Leader and he does his sacada of her trailing left foot, she should really arrive and stop and wait for the Leader to lead the next step. She should be fully on the full length and width of her foot, and stack her body on top of her foot so she has maximum stability. In being on the full foot, the Follower uses all four corners of her foot to be fully on top of her foot, to completely arrive, and then wait for the Leader to lead the next step.

After the Leader does his sacada, he transfers his weight and continues to lead the Follower to walk around him in a turn while he does the block turn with kickstand/paddle/kick the heel around footwork,

Next, we were to explore two different options:

(1) Continuous Leader Sacadas, where the Leader can use the same foot or change his feet, while the Follower keeps walking around in a turn around the Leader as he keeps opening up his shoulder to lead her to step around. If the Leader stops leading, the Follower should stop turning around him.

(2) Do just the one Follower right foot right side step, with the Leader doing his left leg sacada, but in close embrace. In close embrace, the axis is slightly tilted toward each other by creating space up top, so we don’t step on each others’ feet. In our class, we start with the Follower right foot side step because it has good size and it’s easier to set up.

For our final song we added the embrace, doing just one sacada either in open or close embrace.

Maestros concluded with a video class summary and demo to Milonga Del Don by Juan Villarreal.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Leader & Follower Sacada Flow & Off-Axis Delights

2023-01-12T13:57:00.003-08:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Playwrights Downtown, New York City
January 8, 2023

Demo 1: Heaven by Callum Scott
Demo 2: Poema by Solo Tango Orquesta

Our day began with Homer leading the stretching portion as each attendee introduced themselves by stating where they were from and how long they have been learning tango.

We began with a game to break down our preconceived notions about the turn. We got into fingertip hold into sweetheart hold. Leader leads Follower to do the turn/hiro around the Leader. The Leader needs to give the Follower space. The Follower does a four-point turn, so nearly square, doing Back, Side, Forward, and Side steps. This is a disorientating exercise, to deliberately remove the visual cues so we can listen more to each other rather than using visual cues.

Next, we played a sacada game.

Constraints: No embrace, No Lead or Follow.

We started with one person with their feet apart in an open step, although this could also have been pivoted to a forward open step. This is to create space for the partner. One partner calls out the steps. The actor (person doing the sacada) touches one side or the other (left or right) of the receptor (person receiving the sacada) foot. The receptor lifts the leg that has been sacada’d, which makes the next step into the former actor (now receptor). The receptor (person who receives the sacada) decides where to go on the next step with no constraints. Each person needs to create space for the other person to enter. We did this going back and forth, alternating between who is the actor (performer of the sacada) and who is the receptor (receiver of the sacada).

1^st Constraint: After initiating the sacada, the actor (person doing the sacada) takes a step around the receptor (person receiving the sacada). At the end, come back and face each other.

Note that the receptor’s sacada’d foot/leg does not touch the ground, but goes directly into actor mode to sacada after the partner completes their step around.

So it goes one person does a sacada, then steps around with the opposite foot, other person sacadas with their free foot that was just sacada’d, steps around with their opposite foot, etc.

Next constraint: Add the open embrace.

We then changed to Sugar Bowl Embrace, whereby the Leader puts his hands on his hips and his arms are out strong and bent, like the arms of a sugar bowl. The Follower holds on to the Leader’s biceps/triceps. Hips are relatively close to each other, and both Leader and Follower should not look to the ground, but keep their heads lifted.

Leader “hypnotizes” the Follower by doing one side step back and forth. The Follower follows at the Leader’s pace, with eyes closed. Leader does sneak attack by touching the side, but rotates his body in the appropriate direction to Lead the Follower to step forward into the Leader in a sacada.

In the Follower’s step forward, she should use good walking technique: extend, push off from standing foot, collect, take a long reaching forward step curved around the Leader.

The Leader needs to really sense where the Follower is, but sure she is really stacked on her standing leg, so he can really vacuum and feel her free leg. Follower can take her time. Leader does long reaching side steps on hypnotizing, so he can sense her points of contact so the Follower is stable. Leader needs to stack himself really well. Leader rotates only as much as he needs to, to lead the Follower to step and arrive on her step. Both Leader and Follower need to turn on their listening skills.

We incorporated three things:

(1) Add the embrace

(2) Leader steps back to start the process

(3) Add a leg wrap

As the Follower arrives after stepping into the Leader, the Leader leaves his leg there, but gets into Captain Morgan stance and uses his leg to touch the Follower’s right leg. Her opposite left leg, which is free, wraps around as a resolution of the forward ocho, as it’s an invitation to do a forward ocho step. The Leader brings the Follower to axis so she won’t fall. The Leader’s Captain Morgan foot is unweighted.

We also tried it on the other side: Follower left foot forward sacada of Leader’s left foot into a Follower’s right leg wrap of Leader’s left leg, directly to pivot A LOT clockwise as the wrapping leg rebounds back around, to do a Follower right foot back sacada of the Leader’s trialing right foot. The Leader rotates after the Follower’s leg wrap to lead the Follower to pivot a lot, and then she steps with her right foot back sacada of the Leader’s right leg.

After the leg rap, the Leader’s Captain Morgan leg steps back a little to allow room for the Follower to do an overturned pivot into her back sacada. As long as he steps back a little and the Follower’s spine is vertical, she has a lot of room for her hips to rotate.

BREAK (video demo below)

The topic of the next session focused on the idea of adding the leg wraps and off-axis positions, using the simple Hurricane idea.

At the Follower’s leg wrap, the Leader can (1) pull his leg back, or (2) step around the Follower so that Follower is in calesita.

The Leader uses the Follower calesita (Hurricane) as a navigation technique at the milonga to get to where he needs to go.

The Leader’s feet turn in, and then the opposite foot turns out, so going from sickled foot to open foot, as he goes around the Follower on her weighted standing leg. The Leader should try to get to the Follower’s heel at his turned-in step.

To get into this position, we started in open embrace, then Leader’s left foot steps into the Follower’s weighted right foot to start it. The Leader’s right foot steps turned in, left foot steps turned out, etc., around and around the Follower, who remains suspended on her weighted right foot.

The Follower needs to engage her left hand and really connect with the Leader’s back. The Follower’s hips are back, with her chest over her hips. The Follower should keep her free leg a little behind so the Leader doesn’t run into it.

There is a transition from close to open embrace so Follower can get into hips under position.

We can go directly from wrap into an opposite direction Hurricane.

There is colgada motion in this as the Follower’s axis is slightly back as her body goes out in centrifugal force, as the Leader counterbalances the Follower’s off-axis position. So there is counterweighting of the centrifugal forces that are happening. It’s a spinning counterweight, functional colgada.

If, after her wrap, her hips are a little back, it sets up for the Hurricane colgada. Leader should keep the Follower back has he steps around her weighted foot.

This class went by fast and concluded with some more remarks to clean up our technique and a demo video.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Pivot or No Pivot Back Ocho

2018-09-05T22:44:00.001-07:00

Song: Cara Sucia by Carlos DiSarli
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
The Beat, Berkeley, CA
September 3, 2018

Theme for the Month: Opposites Attract

Topic for the Evening: Pivot versus No-Pivot Back Ocho

In our class, we were to do no pivot back ocho to pivoted ocho to extreme, with test in between to transition.

Warm Up #1: Hook behind and try to walk forward.

Secret: Lift heel by bending the knee, which creates space for our hooks to go deeper.

Make feet so that they make a letter A or arrowhead

Hold arms out as if holding a giant fishbowl.

Thighs should be in "I have to pee" tightness (or holding a quarter).

Big toe stays on the floor.

Be compact and tight.

Do not pivot, just hook your foot one behind the other.

Warm-Up Exercise 2: Full open back ocho.

In partnership in fingertip embrace, a little offset to each other

Both dancers do ochos.

First is a no-pivot step

Then a giant pivot

to finish the step

back cross step

swivel/pivot while collecting the step

In this warm-up exercise we were to do regular ochos (hence the pivot).

Outside leg reaches back cross

we transfer the weight

then pivot

We were to do it together, enjoying the moment of the spiral together at the same time.

We were to have "ice" in the steps, but "fire" in the hips.

No-Pivot Ocho Review

back cross step behind without pivoting

in stepping back, cross over the line by opening the hip

Keep big toe on the ground.

Hold quarter at top of pelvis in "I have to pee"

In regular ochos, the Leader's spine pivots to lead the Follower to pivot in her ochos.

In no-pivot ochos, the Leader's spine stays square with no rotation. Leader keeps spine still and quiet, controlling his oblique muscles to prevent any contrabody motion.

In sugarbowl embrace, be really subtle in your leading and following as we drilled the no pivot, walking back ocho.

Leader begins with a sneak attack weight change on his left, then left again rollerblading.

He does not rotate his spine at all.

Follower collects quickly but reaches slowly.

We drilled, with Leader alternating between both pivoted ochos and no-pivot ochos.

Leader should be crystal clear with what he does with his body in leading a pivoted or no-pivot ocho.

Leader turns his spine earlier than you would think for pivoted ochos, so Follower can prepare to do an ocho.

Leader leads the hook behind from the no pivot ocho on the open side of the embrace (the easy side).

Follower does cross behind and then hook; there is no pivot in this action.

Leader steps with his left foot, and then his right foot stops midweight. Leader changes the embrace by adding extra compression.

Be clear and timing is key.

Leader: when rollerblading, do not put all your weight on your right foot, otherwise Follower will do more of an open cross rather than a tight cross

(Cross variations can be tight, deep, or shallow, but in our class we want them to be tight.)

Leaders: Try to contain the weight inside.

Many leaders commented that it's hard to feel where the weight is when the Follower is in the cross.

To help, Follower should really settle: do not be too "up" or "light"

Putting it all together...

No pivot ocho

hook behind (this is the transition)

Big pivoted ocho (could be Follower's left foot back sacada of Leader's left foot on the open side of the embrace).

In going from the no-pivot ocho to a big pivoted ocho, the embrace opens up in transition, so that the Leader invites / provides room for the Follower to do a big back step (Follower's left foot back sacada).

Focusing on the transition/opening up of the embrace:

Leader's right arm opens up after the Follower settles on her right foot.

Follower's left hand opens up in her embrace in response to Leader opening up.

Follower needs to be fully vertical and not tiled when she pivots in her big back ocho.

Leader goes into Captain Morgan stance a little to create space for the Follower's left foot back sacada, which also gives him more rotational ability.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and with Homer demo'ing with two students to Carlos Di Sarli's Cara Sucia.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Rhythmic Milonga Traspie

2018-07-17T22:03:00.002-07:00

Song: Cacareando by Orquesta Tipica Victor
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
The Beat, Berkeley, CA
July 16, 2018

Theme for the Month: Rhythm and Musicality
Today's Subject: Rhythmic Milonga Traspie

Our class focus is doing the Traspie on the "2"

We began with an individual exercise, walking forward to the strong beat of a very slow milonga, listening for the accompaniment that sounds like "San Fran Cis Co" rhythm. Our song was Canaro's Milonga Sentimental.

Then we walked backward to the same song, again on the strong beat.

There are four accents in "San Fran Cis Co". We were to walk on the two strong syllables: "San" and "Cis". "San" is on the 1 and "Cis" is on the 2

We could walk, change weight, do a side step, or do grapevines, but we were only to step on the 1 "San" and 2 "Cis".

We did this to a different slower version of Milonga Sentimental, by Adolfo Carabelli.

Next, we explored how to switch from Left Foot to Right Foot when stepping on the "San" or "Cis". There are two ways: (1) we can pause, or (2) we can take an extra step (doing it in double time, QQS). If doing the double time, it should be done around the 2, "Cis".

We tried to change the "San" from one foot to the other by doing double time or by pausing. We tried this to 1 minute of Carabelli's Milonga Sentimental and then 1 minute of Canaro's Milonga Criolla.

For the rhythmic double time, Fran Cis Co San, are the walking beats. In partnership, we were to walk, stepping on "San" and "Cis" and switching from open side to close side. 1-2 and 1.

Partners need to know when they are stepping on the "1" or the "2". 1 is "San" and 2 is "Cis".

Leader has to communicate the weight change. We drilled this to Carabelli's Milonga Sentimental, and then Canaro's version.

We were to think about the two walking beats, 1 or 2, "San" or "Cis".   To change where the 1 is, we have to do a double time on the 2, so "2 and 1".

1 and 2 have different values. 1 is more down and grounded with more density. 2 is lighter and just swims through. Use that knowledge to change the quality of movement to enhance the communication. Both dancers need to appreciate the different values of 1 and 2.

Milonga has an earthy quality.

Next, we drilled to a small micro pattern.

Side step
2 and 1, repeating it, whereby for the first 2 and 1, there is a sensation of going down, and then the next 2 and 1 goes back up. So we change from going down to going up in just the side steps. We drilled this to the faster song, Canaro's Milonga Sentimental.

Next, we drilled to a more complicated pattern to Carabelli's Milonga Sentimental

Open side of the embrace is on 2
1                      Leader left foot forward;Follower right foot back.
2 and               Leader right foot forward; Follower left foot back
1                      Leader left foot forward cross hook (Leader makes a "J" shape with his foot tracing the floor); Follower right foot back cross hook behind left foot.
2 and               Leader right foot straight back step, taking Follower with him; Follower left foot forward step
1                      Leader Left foot forward cross hook; Follower right foot back cross hook behind left foot
WALK             Leader Right foot forward, step; Follower left foot back step
TO                   Leader Left foot forward step; Follower right foot forward step
THE CROSS   Leader Right foot collect; Follower left foot front cross tuck against her right foot

Leader's chest starts square to the Follower, and then when he takes his first step, his chest gets angled to the partner as Leader does the "J" with his hooking forward foot. He should keep this angle and contain it.

Follower should always try to be in front of the Leader and mirror whatever alignment his spine and hips are doing, this makes it easier when the Leader levels out his shoulders to really understand that they are trying to create a cross.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and demo to Orquesta Tipica Victor's Cacareando.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Vals Phrasing and Rhythm

2018-07-14T14:51:00.003-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
The Beat, Berkeley, CA
July 12, 2018

The topic for the month is rhythm and musicality, and today the focus was Vals.

We began with exercises to get ready to dance.

Roll our necks in one direction one way for a few turns.
Roll our necks in the other direction for a few turns.

Turn head to the left. Hold for a second or two.
Turn head to the right. Hold for a second or two.
Take our head and pull it to one side with one hand, raising your opposite arm.
Take our head and pull it to the opposite side with the opposite hand, raising our arm.

Roll shoulders back.
Roll elbows back.
Roll whole arms back.

Roll shoulders forward.
Roll elbows forward
Roll whole arms forward.

Hold giant fishbowl. Turn to one side. Then turn to the other side.

Rotate hips.
Change direction.

Put heels together.
Circle knees.
Change direction.

Keep sternum and belly button together.
Stir the pot.
Take hips with you.
It's a small movement.

Rotate both wrists and one ankle.
Change direction.
Lift the knee high, with thigh parallel to floor, stir the pot with it.
Change direction.

Do the other leg, with both wrists and one ankle first
Knee up, thigh is parallel to floor.
Squeeze the inner thighs together for stability.
Stir the pot with the knee up.
Change direction

We began our class with the phrasing exercise, Vals Chacarera, where in Chacarera formation of two lines of dancers facing each other all in one line, arms up and eyes making contact with each other, we took four steps forward and four steps back, similar to the Avanzado and Regreso initial steps of the Chacarera. The 4 forward steps were done in 4 beats, and the 4 back steps were done in 4 beats. During this game, maestro played a very regular vals so we could clearly hear the musical phrasing and sentence. It was basically:

4 forward
4 back
Comma
4 forward
4 back
Period

At the Period (end of a sentence/phrase) is where the dancers, both Leader and Follower should do various accents/do fancy things in their dancing.

Next exercise:
In partnership, we began with walking to the comma, then wait. Then walk to the end of the sentence, then wait, to hear if there is an opportunity in the music to embellish. This was an exercise to improve our listening and to help us be more creative. The music will guide you to pick a phrase of music and let the embellishment happen.

4 walk
4 walk
Comma (wait)
4 walk
4 walk (embellish if you hear there’s an opportunity in the music).

The music for this exercise was Alfredo de Angeles’s A Magaldi.

In Vals, usually the first minute is instrumental with no lyrics. Then the vocals come in and tie into the melody. The first minute of a vals will explain a lot about the intention of the song.

In partnership, we were to walk, pausing in the middle of the phrase, hitting the end of the phrase and getting ready for the next phrase. We were to embellish at the end of the phrase and be ready to start at the beginning of the next phrase.

There are fills and transitions at the end of each phrase.

Followers: to help identify the middle of the phrase, use your breath to help indicate the phrase.

We changed roles, walking to a well behaved vals that has vocals.

We changed roles again, dancing to an alt song to look at the rhythms.

Vals rhythm is 1-2-3, 1-2-3 (boom chick boom or boom, chick boom -- 1-2-1 or 1-3-1)

In partnership with one person leading and the other person following, we were to just change weight and not step, trying to train our ears and lead to either the 1-3-1 or 1-2-1 for this particular alt song.

We then did a solo walking exercise to Rupa and the April Fishes' Wishful Thinking, going forward and then backwards on the boom only first, and then the boom chick boom.

Then we tried in partnership to walking on boom only or boom chick boom (1-2-1). For the more advanced dancers, they could try leading the boom, chick boom (1-3-1), doing a weight change or rock step to convey the rhythm.

The alt songs we drilled to generally had well behaved sentence structures, though some sentences had an extra fill or beat to them. This regular form remains very common and still being used. (1-2-1 or 1-3-1)

The way the Leader tries to project acceleration is to stay very horizontal, and be almost aggressive in the acceleration, but have control in the stop.

Try not to change height when doing the syncopation.

The faster the vals is, the more we dance on just the boom, and we may syncopate just 3 or so times during the entire song.

Other songs we drilled to and that were played in the beginning of the practica so that we could work on what we learned in class:

Hijo de la Luna by Montserrat Caballe
La Valse de Amalie
Gramafon
Welcome to My Planet by Lori B on the Hurricane Child Album
Mademoiselle Noir
Charlotte Mittnacht (The Fabulous Destiny of...) by Devotchka

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Tango Music Concepts

2018-07-14T14:42:00.001-07:00

Instructor: Homer Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
Athletic Playground, Emeryville, CA
July 7, 2018

I arrived to class late, as I was a first-time student at Athletic Playground, so had to spend a few minutes filling out their registration form and paying my fee.

Class began in barefeet with socks, shifting on the beat, walking back and forth, or to the side on the beat.

In an individual exercise, we were to only step on the beat, and not pause. We could do grapevine feet, though we were to avoid crashing into people.

Next, we played a game, "D'Arienzo Surprise". To D’Arienzo’s Nada Mas, we worked on the concept of surprise. Everyone was to walk around the room, in any/all directions, always stepping on the strong beat to accent it in our walk, with energy going into the floor. Every once in a while, we were to surprise someone by touching them appropriately with both our hands at two points on their body (arms, shoulders, hips), always staying on the strong beat.

The purpose of this game was to get us used to the element of surprise as a musical tool, coordinating our dancing with the music. Every strong beat is a potential surprise. The Follower needs to feel safe and comfortable before she is surprised.

Next, we played a game of "tag" where one person is "It" and they would sneak up on someone and give them a shock by touching them with both hands at their shoulders. We began with two people "It". The goal was not to be the person who was "it" at the end, though it was OK to be tagged "it" duiring the song. We were to do this all the while stepping on the strong beat, locking onto the walking beat.

For our next exercise, in partnership in open embrace, we were to step on the strong beat only, walking mostly, but we could do other steps suck as simple side steps and collecting (weight changes). To convey the rhythmic intensity, you don't need to change the speed, you can change direction to convey it. Step together, weight change, then step in opposite direction. Forward/Backward, Side (weight change in between). We drilled this to No Mientas, stepping on the strong beat.

We added touch steps, where we reach our leg, pull back, transfer almost no weight, but have pressure on the foot. Reach back, stop on ball of foot, reaching to the side with the big toe on inside of the foot.
On the forward step, our foot can land flat or we can land on the ball of our foot.

We should have good reach in our back step. Put pressure, then pull back to fake out your partner to create some interesting moves. Keep your heels together. The Leader tilts at his ankles to initiate the step.

Our next drill/exercise was in hand-to-hand hold, we were to feel each others' weight change and lead the touch step.

Our next drill/exercise was in open embrace, where Follower could have closed eyes to increase sensitivity. We were to change direction/fake them out.

Mastering weight changes.

To put this all in the picture, we drilled to Mil Pasos, doing walking, full weight changes, and touch steps.

DO NOT EVER BLAME YOUR PARTNER. It's your job to work with it and figure out a solution if things aren't going as you lead them.

Final concept is the idea of contrast.

Tango songs usually follow the structure of:
1 minute instrumental
singer
1 minute instrumental
singer

When the singer comes on, we go in slow motion. During the instrumental part, we can go back to dancing rhythmically to add more dimension to the dance.

In Mil Pasos, during the jazz saxophone is when you can go slow.

Class concluded with some delicious home-made vegan popsicles made by the lovely Ms. Kyra.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Dancing to Astor Piazzolla

2018-07-12T17:23:00.002-07:00

Songs: Oblivion, Milonga Tres, and Libertango by Astor Piazzolla
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
SOMArts, San Francisco
July 11, 2018

In our class, we would explore playing with really slow or really fast movement, creating contrast by using deceleration and acceleration in the context of dancing to Astor Piazzolla.

Astor Piazzolla had a love/hate relationship with tango dancers. Piazzolla took the emotion / sentiment of tango and made it his own.

He started out in Anibal Troilo's orchestra (whose birthday is today), and who did the song Nueve De Julio (9th of July), which in 2003 was the first Cellspace (and today is the 15th year anniversary of the event).

In our class, we would interpret the music of Piazzolla in three ways.

(1) Slow
Dance very slowly, drilling using simple movements such as walking, side steps and ochos. No sacadas or boleos.

We were to focus on how to control things in our body to affect the movement. What does it mean for us to dance slow?

We tried dancing slow to Oblivion, which is likely the most played Piazzolla song for tango dancers.

How did it feel dancing slow? It was challenging.

Next, we focused on stretching the steps and doing ochos.

What does it mean to stretch? Not just our legs and how we create a slow extension and collection. It's how we use our whole body to create a more taffy-like embrace. The embrace should be a little softer, more relaxed, but still connected with our partner. Breathe into the floor.

To experience the feeling of caramel, we were to stand with our feet apart, and then shift weight slowly from one side to the other. This is the caramel. It is a wavy, slow, lateral movement.

We did the same exercise with our feet forward and back to get the same quality, and also tried with the other side, opposite feet forward and back.

Next, we tried swiveling on both feet.

Then we did this in partnership where the Leader stops the Follower midstep, Follower pivots while she is on both feet, one side to the other. The Follower's upper body goes first, then her hips follow, to do an ocho. Leader walks around Follower's center where her spine is (between her two feet). We were to try to be slow, articulating the space between the feet.

We were to explore/think about what is involved in the gradual transfer of weight; how to make the collection very deliberate and with intention; create details to stretch the movement. When to slow or stretch the movement.

In the context of the Ocho, we usually drill ochos using the sugarbowl embrace. However, for this exercise, we were to be in regular embrace and do a very exaggerated spinal rotation and active arms in the Leader to lead the Follower to do a big, slow ocho. The Leader can do an extra step around the Follower to get a little extra pivot in the Follower during her ocho. Leader and Follower turn their bodies, stretching their backs to rotate more.

(2) Milonga Rhythm
The song for the 2nd way we would dance to Piazzolla was Milonga Del Angel, which is likely the second most popular Piazzolla song in tango.

Milonga rhythm as a musical concept is super effective. Most of the really slow Piazzola songs have milonga rhythm, as do all of the Piazzola songs with "Milonga" in their titles.

We raised the bass of the 2 tango songs: Oblivion and Milonga Del Angel, so that we could train our ears to hear the milonga rhythm (which was rather faint, but clearly present in both songs).

The idea of our drills is to either
(1) Dance really slowly, stretching the movements using simple steps, or
(2) Dance to the milonga rhythm (also using simple steps).

We were to have control in our musical expression, and be very clear.

The song we drilled to was Milonga Tres.

You can hear all these songs on YouTube.

(3) Dancing Faster (3-3-2 Rhythm)
Piazzolla used as a tool in his faster songs the 3-3-2 rhythm, which is very similar to the milonga rhythm, minus 1 accent.

So it is 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, where in our drill we would just step on the 1.

Libertango has this rhythm, and it was the song we drilled to.

Tango is about contrast, and in our drill, we could either dance really slow, or to the 3-3-2 rhythm.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and short demos to Oblivion for Concept 1 slow; Milonga Tres for Concept 2 milonga rhythm; and Libertango for Concept 3 3-3-2 rhythm

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Touch Steps

2018-06-27T10:49:00.001-07:00

Song: A La Gran Muñeca by Francisco Canaro
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
All-Nighter at The Beat, Pre-Milonga Lesson
June 23, 2018

The theme for June has been Ochos, but today we will deviate a little from that, connecting the dots at the end.

In Touch Steps, there are two methods for leading them. (1) and (2), but sometimes leaders do something in between, like (1.5). In our class, we will try to be very clear and clean in our leading, doing either (1) or (2), NOT (1.5).

We began by drilling really clean side steps.

Reaching, sliding over, Leader's center does a "U". He can also go extreme, by doing like a "U", but on its side. Put curve in your step as you reach.

Exercise: Drill side steps, with Leader's center doing a U or a U on its left or right side.

Use the whole width of the foot, and whole length of the foot, especially when arriving, rolling toward the back, middle, and front, using all four corners of the standing foot.
Leader: be really stable. You need the axis to power the next step. Have maximum contact with the floor.
Follower: have compression/resistance in her embrace so she can feel the Leader's lead better.

Method 1: Go Down, Axis Remains in Place

Rule: Standing supporting leg bends and goes lower as opposite foot goes out; axis remains in place.

In Method 1, the Leader's side touch step is in the QQS rhythm, out QQS and smoothly back in, or Out QQS and In QQS.
Drawing in at the touch step is less common, but we should try it in our drills.

Leader goes down as he goes out QQS as his standing leg bends.
Make the first Q a bit small so you don't run out of leg.
Have energy and attack. Follower also attacks floor with pressure so the Leader can feel her.
Last S has a stronger stop energy.
Use the edge of your foot.
Put pressure on the floor, have a little bit of compression in the embrace as the Leader attacks floor.
Embrace creates the stop energy.

Forward and Backward Touch Steps
Using the Method 1 technique, the Leader leads the step as he steps forward and Follower steps back.
He leads by beginning with a small tilt in his ankle joints.

We drilled the four possibilities:
(1) Leader left foot forward, Follower right foot back.
(2) Leader left foot back, Follower right foot forward
(3) Leader right foot forward, Follower left foot back
(4) Leader right foot back, Follower left foot forward

Follower should have compression/resistance in her embrace so she can feel the lead better.

Talk to each other. Leader should feel Follower's pressure. Follower should let Leader know if she doesn't feel the Leader's floor.

Method 1 is nice to do just touch steps forward and backward because you are not going anywhere and it is easy to recover.

Method 1 exits:
(1) return (come back to collection)
(2) Go (to new leg).

Method 2: Stay Up (Don't Go Down); Move Axis

Rule: Remain up as opposite foot goes out; axis moves.

In this method, the Leader creates extra hug, and Follower hugs back.

We were to try in different directions, and first in close embrace as it is easier, and then in open embrace.

In our partnered drill, if the Leader does the embrace in the wrong way/direction, the Follower should let him know.

Someone asked how to make it musical. Maestros demo'd in class. Bottom line is you should make it your own, make it personal.

Connecting Touch Steps to the Ocho via a Figure

Can we do touch steps in an ocho?

Here we drilled with two options:

(1) the Leader's right foot forward cross touch step directly into a right foot back cross touch step while Follower did a left foot back cross touch step directly into a left foot forward cross touch step.
(2) the Leader's left foot forward cross touch step directly into a left foot back cross touch step while Follower did a right foot back cross touch step directly into a right foot forward cross touch step.

We do not transfer weight. Attack the floor with energy.
The standing, supporting foot lifts a little and pivots as the other foot goes from a forward cross touch step to back cross touch step (or back cross touch step to forward cross touch step) to change direction.

Communicating the change of direction: we were to try to make the transition clean. Leader: use compression, Follower: give extra hug back.

Leader should not use his right hand to communicate the transition. He should use his spine, rotating it, and the standing, supporting leg pivots a little to change direction.

Exit: Leader's side step, together to go back to collect in the up position.,

Doing this from the ocho, with dancers perpendicular to each other:
Leader does side step, Follower does forward step
Leader does forward step, Follower does side step

Maestros concluded with a class quiz and demo to A La Gran Muneca by Francisco Canaro

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Volcada Odyssey: A variety of challenging, exciting and impressive off-axis figures (Advanced)

2018-05-31T16:16:00.003-07:00

Song: Sideways by Citizen Cope
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

This was an Advanced class, so no partner rotation and we got right into it.

Regular Volcada with Windshield Wiper

We began with doing a standard forward volcada, doing one and then multiples with windshield wiper footwork for the leader. In beginning the Volcada, Leader steps diagonally back with his left foot and his right foot is the windshield wiper foot, going into a U shape, forward and back, to lead Follower’s volcada leg to go back and forward.

For the technique, there is an embrace before, during and after. The Leader puts the Follower on one axis, gives her a little bit of a hug (compression), and then suspends her. The Follower gives the Leader an extra hug, pushes down from the shoulder blade so she gets lifted up. The pushing down comes from the standing leg. Try to make yourself tall. This is the sensation similar to getting out of a swimming pool at the edge (without using the stairs ;o) ). Try to create a strong line around the core, so that the Leader can manage you better. The Leader should place the Follower’s foot with energy so she has a definite idea where to go and does not guess where to place her foot.

Preparation is key and starts with the embrace. Suspension + Hugging = Volcada, so be ready for it.

2 ideas: playful resolution.

How can we maintain suspension? The Leader puts the Follower on one axis or another, walks tiny steps back, to the side, do not let Follower transfer weight. Stop and unwind.

Stop.

Down energy.

Leader walks around Follower when she is on 2 feet.

There are many possibilities here on how/where to do this, so we were to explore.

The Sustained Volcada

The difference between the Standing Volcada and the Sustained Volcada.

When the volcada starts to travel, it is a sustained volcada, so the 2 standard rule of the volcada are broken.

Standard Rules of the Volcada:

(1) Whatever angle you have, you don’t change it.

(2) When the Leader steps back with a tilt, he does not change his height.

In Sustained Volcadas, these two rules are broken:

(1) Leader changes his angle to take his axis

(2) Leader's height can go up or down.

a. When the Leader goes down, the Follower’s legs go out;

b. When the Leader goes up, the Follower’s legs go in.

The Leader is completely upright and vertical and very close.

The Leader’s height change is dramatic, so the Follower knows to close her legs from split. They are body to body. Sustained Volcadas can be done with the Follower going forward, to the side, or going backwards. It can be done in a turn/hiro/circle too.

Leader has a straight spine when he goes down. He must use his legs. Follower will feel the change of height and should hug the Leader more.

Follower’s back right foot can turn out a little bit.

Drilling other Volcadas (Back Volcada and Funny Volcada)

Next, we did the back volcada from the back hook.

We also explored the Funny Volcada. It is “Funny” because the dancers are perpendicular to each other. How can we turn the Funny Volcada into a Sustained Volcada? The Leader takes his axis and goes down and comes up. It is “Funny” because the Follower is falling sideways. We drilled this, with Leader taking an odd number of steps, and then making a big step around the Follower.

In the Funny Volcada, there are several Follower free leg options. We explored how long the Follower’s leg could stay in front of her before going to the outside of the Leader. Follower will feel from the Leader, always trying to track where the Leader is. Follower collects and clears the Leader’s feet before going from in front to the outside of the Leader.

In going from Funny to Sustained Volcada, the Leader goes around in a circle, then Leader starts to go in a tangent, taking his axis, then goes down and up. We drilled this.

In the Sustained Volcada, the first thing to do is lead Follower to cross, depending on where Leader drives his axis. So it is doing the windshield wiper, except the Leader walks backward. Left foot goes back, right foot goes in a “U”, with weight change in between, experimenting with getting a shallow cross or wide cross.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/summary and demo to Sideways by Citizen Cope

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Back Sacadas for Leaders and Followers in line of dance (Advanced)

2018-05-31T15:48:00.003-07:00

Song: El Abrojo by Carlos Di Sarli Orquesta
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

Leader’s Sacada.

Exercise for footwork:

Get on left foot. Push into the floor as you reach right foot back, bring back to collection.

Do this on the right foot as well.

Keep heel on the floor as long as you can until it comes up a little. Then bring it back into collection.

Exercise:

Leader steps right foot forward, pivots, then steps backward with left foot. (So Leader goes in a line in one direction.) Control the back pivot so you don’t fall back. Squeeze your inner thighs together.

Do it more dynamically by stepping, then snapping the heels together at the pivot, and then reaching in the back step.

The Pattern:

Begins with 4 steps for the Leader:

(1) side step

(2) steps on balance beam

(3) snap heels together to pivot completely, staying on the balance beam, taking Follower across it and then stepping back with his left foot to Sacada the Follower

(4) collecting and waiting

Follower’s footwork:

Back step (she waits)

Side step (where Leader does a sacada on his (3)

Collect

The Secrets:

Everything happens between steps 2 and 3 for the Leader (the “Two And”), -- this is where the magic happens.

The Leader’s embrace opens. The Leader’s left arm closes and keeps the Follower from moving, maintaining presence to communicate to the Follower that she should stay, and his right arm detaches like a rocket so he is really letting go so he allows his hip to get around. The Leader needs to dramatically communicate to lead the Follower to wait. The Leader should get the Follower to “Two And” and then freeze (smile, this is the Kodak moment).

3. Lead the Follower across as the Leader does his sacada. The Follower’s left arm slides around the Leader’s back so she enables closeness as the Leader does his sacada. In his sacada, the Leader can step diagonally back in his sacada as a “cheat to win” because the hips rotate, so this is a good thing to do for those who don’t rotate that much/well). Said another way, he is doing an obvious back cross step (not just a back open step).

The Follower’s side step should be nice, long and reaching, with a strong base leg. The Leader leading the side step is from his left side giving pull/ turn energy. Do not push the Follower with his right hand.

Second Secret:

There is a little bit of colgada posture, so the Leader’s angle is a little tilted away to create space for him to do a sacada.

Secrets:

(1) Leader’s right arm opens, left closes and stops.

(2) Leader’s heels snap 70% of the way

(3) Leader can pivot a little after to get around more

(4) Leader can “cheat to win” by stepping diagonally (do back cross step instead of back open step) when he sacadas

(5) Leader can lean a bit away / tilt the axis

Special case:

What if we did it to the other side?

The Open side has to be dropped or you can do a judo hold around the Leader’s back. The Leader’s close side of the embrace needs to change too, sliding down and opening up, so both dancers are now holding on hand to forearm to allow room for the movement. The Follower receives the sacada with her feet on the floor.

“Deep Sacadas”

Follower can lift her knee up and go back down in collection. When she receives the sacada, she should do so gracefully.

If both sides of the embrace open up, the Follower may stay put (not move). So timing is important in transmitting a clear message.

Next, we did a sequential Leader Sacada directly into a Follower Sacada, drilling on the easy side and then on the hard side. We became infinite back sacada machines. Doing 2 in a row will generally keep you in the line of dance. After 2, it’s a good test of your precision to try to keep everything straight in the line of dance.

The Follower’s back sacada involves a big back ocho pivot.

The Leader does a left foot back sacada and then directly leads a Follower’s back sacada as she is still on her right leg and sacadas with her left foot.

Secrets:

(1) Leader creates space with the embrace so the Follower can remain on axis as she rotates. Ochos are based on the Follower’s axis, so Leader should give her as much freedom to complete her rotation on 1 leg fully and completely.

(2) Follower’s sacada requires more space, so Leader should step slightly away, tangent to the Follower so she can do a big pivot and make her back step easier. Follower should snap together to pivot and get around better/cleaner.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/summary and demo to El Abrojo by Carlos DiSarli

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Back, Front and Contra Boleos - Exciting & Elegant (Intermediate)

2018-05-31T15:43:00.001-07:00

Song: All of Me (The Voice Performance) by Ray Boudreaux
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

We began with individually practicing the three main boleo foot movements/shapes:

(1) low and continuously on the floor

(2) higher at our knee

(3) higher up toward our thigh.

We first did this with front boleos. With option (3) higher up on our thigh, the ending is with our knee up and then slowly over to the other side. We drilled this on the left leg/foot and right/leg foot, all three shapes/movements.

Exercise: In hand to hand hold with imaginary giant fish bowl between us, both dancers did forward ochos into forward boleos. Do not use the hands for leverage to get yourself to pivot. Do not push down. Keep the chest up and back. Do not look down at feet. It’s not about how fast you pivot, but about being able to pivot fully and completely. The standing leg should be in control at all times, with foot not rolling out to either side. Do not sickle the foot at the point of the boleo.

Exercise: In sugar bowl embrace, the Follower should be close to the Leader. Leader leads forward ocho and forward boleos in this embrace, doing side step and using send or stop energy.

There are two energies needed to lead a boleo: (1) send energy, and (2) stop energy (becoming a statue).

If the Leader gives the Follower enough time, she might do a boleo on her own (not led by him) as an embellishment. (The Follower “takes” the boleo.)

The Leader needs to send the Follower’s hips into the boleo first, before giving stop energy.

The magic point in the boleo and the “Point of No Return” is at the point where the Follower’s hips face the Leader’s hips. Here is where/when the Leader needs to turn the Follower’s hips past to get a boleo.

The Follower knows the Leader has stopped because she feels it as she holds onto the Leader, so she is present. Do not be too light or floaty, and conversely, do not push down on the Leader with your embrace.

When Leader leads the ocho, the Follower needs to amplify the movement in her hips 2-3x as much, as her hips are an “Ocho Factory” – whereby they amplify the Leader’s spinal rotation and pump out beautiful big ochos on demand. The Follower needs to power her hips through her connection with the floor. The amplification is 2-3x, not 1x, otherwise he would never get a boleo.

Back Boleos

Keeping our feet on the floor. There are 4 categorical shapes in doing back boleos:

(1) keep foot on the floor

(2) Blade of Zorro where knees are together, and leg just goes up and down in a diagonal slice of air, with front knee slightly behind the standing knee

(3) semi-circular into drop the axe. This is the most common and is a little rounder with one knee behind the pit of the other so you can’t see the knee cap. Boleoing leg does a semicircle and then drops down like an axe. It is like striking a match, turning at the point where the leg drops like an axe. The beauty of the circular boleoing leg depends on the stability of the standing leg.

(4) in-line Boleo, which depends on how much your thigh goes backward. The knee disappears beyond the other knee. There is lots of extension in the Follower’s hip flexors and contraction in the lower back. This is a big movement, and could be socially unacceptable, so be mindful about where/when you do this. Only do it where conditions allow.

Back boleos are based fundamentally on the back ocho, so the Follower needs to be good/great in her back ocho technique.

Exit: collect and wait for the Leader.

The Leader is after the reflection in the Follower’s foot with what he is doing with his spine. The litmus test of whether a boleo is good is if the Leader feels the Follower’s hips move.

The Point of No Return in back boleos.

Leader takes Follower’s hips past that point to get a boleo. Leader needs to have clear stop energy.

We drilled both sides, with the Follower communicating with the Leader what she needs from the Leader (more energy, etc.)

Contra Boleos

In regular boleos, the Leader employs 75% send energy and 25% stop energy.

In contra boleos, the Leader employs 25% send energy and 75% stop energy.

Exercise: Do side steps, playing with this concept of stopping the energy to feel what it should be like. Leader does shimmy to get the Follower’s hips going, then he steps to the side with send/stop energy, getting Follower to do a contra boleo. The Leader’s side step is around the Follower, as his two feet need to surround the Follower’s standing, supporting leg. It is like their feet are three points in an isosceles triangle (Follower’s foot is the tip; Leader’s two feet are at the base of the triangle).

We drilled doing contra and regular boleos from the forward ocho and back ocho.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/summary and demo to All of Me by Ray Boudreau

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Tango Performance: Homer & Cristina Ladas

2018-05-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

Song 1: Il Mostro by Ashram
Song 2: Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken by Pink
Instructors and Performers: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

Please enjoy this tango performance by Homer and Cristina at the 2018 England International Tango Festival.

Nuevo Masterclass: Contemporary, organic movement and patterns for dancing to Traditional and Modern Music (Intermediate)

2018-05-31T15:35:00.001-07:00

Song: A Thousand Years by Jasmine Thompson
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

“Nuevo” tango is a marketing term. It originally came from a practice group that came together to understand tango.

In our class we will explore our structures to understand how we can move better with our partner.

When we walk, we do so with opposing the energy of our partner all the time. This enables us to have a good connection. If the Leader wants the Follower to walk back, there is an initial resistance from the Follower and she maintains this throughout. This is the Theory of Opposition: If the Leader goes back, the Follower’s tension is back, even though she walks forward. She has initial resistance, and then goes. The resistance comes from pushing into the floor. If the Leader goes left, the Follower opposes with her right. We use opposition so the dancers know where their partner is at all times.

Exercise: In fingertip hold, Leader walks forward, Follower walks back. Leader walks back, Follower walks forward. The resistance can be seen as pulling and pushing, but in a nice way. Both dancers push into the connection, and both dancers pull into the connection. The pulling back is powered by the spine, not just the hands/arms/biceps.

In the turn, when the Leader turns to the right, the Follower opposes.

We drilled the Theory of Opposition in doing the turn, as well as walking and doing side steps.

Tango language with each other needs to be comfortable, clear, and consistent.

In the regular embrace, we incorporated ochos and turns. In the ocho, one side pulls and one side pushes for both Leader and Follower. The Follower’s push/pull is not independent of her hips.

Moving onto a pattern…

We transition from close to open embrace communicationwise, and the Follower should be just under the Leader’s radar. We were to discover how to use the floor for resistance, rather than just using our arms/shoulders or even chest. Try to use/be aware of oppositional forces in the embrace at each step, powering to pivot, etc., of the pattern.

The Pattern:

In close embrace, Leader does cheat step, walks Follower to the cross. Leader steps left foot forward slightly away (he turns his spine, and at the same time his left foot/leg becomes the new axis and gives the Follower room/time to do the pivot and step through) to receive the Follower’s right foot back sacada (after her first big pivot), going into a clockwise turn (so after Follower’s back sacada, she does a side step, then a forward step) to Leader’s right foot parada, to Follower’s right foot pivot, to Follower’s left foot pasada around to the front of the Leader.

Leader should stay on his left foot long enough to be able to receive the Follower’s back sacada with his right leg. The right leg can be in Captain Morgan stance to give the Follower room and time to do her back sacada.

We should keep it flowing, with nice resistance from the Follower all the time. The Follower’s left arm shifts down in her back sacada to give her more room, and shifts closer back to the Leader on the parada/pasada, as she needs to be closer to him as the figure opens and closes.

The Follower’s left side has to be as responsive as her right side, and her arm needs to slide open or get closer as the figure/movement requires it.

The Leader also needs to open and close his right arm to accommodate the space required of the movement. The opening and closing of the embrace uses the Theory of the Human Magnet.

Exercise: Human Magnet.

If the Leader comes forward, the Follower comes forward as they attract each other. If the leader goes back, the Follower goes back as they repel each other.

In this same pattern set up, the Follower can do a gancho instead of a sacada.

Gancho (instead of the sacada). The Leader’s left foot forward step is closer, he sends the Follower in a big pivot, and then he uses stop energy, which the Follower receives with a back/linear boleo (gancho through the Leader’s legs). Leader’s Captain Morgan leg goes slightly forward in leading the gancho. After the Follower’s gancho, she pivots back to face the Leader.

Leader: for the gancho, do not stop Follower with your right arm.

Axis Focus difference between Gancho v. Sacada

In the Sacada, the Leader is the axis as the Follower walks around him in her back, side, forward steps of the turn.

In the Gancho, the Follower is the axis as the Leader goes around/encircles the Follower with his torso/upper body.

CLASS BREAK (it was a double session, 3 hour class)

Building on the pattern:

Follower back sacada to full clockwise turn where she takes her side, forward, side, back cross step at which point the Leader does a left foot barrida of the Follower’s trailing forward left foot (of her right foot back cross step) into a Captain Morgan stance with left leg offer, to a Follower’s (beautiful) right leg wrap of the Leader’s left leg. After the Follower’s wrap, she can raise her knee straight up and over the Leader’s left leg to collect. Ending can be with a Follower’s back cross step, pivoting back into a regular embrace.

The Leader travels up the Follower’s thigh to get a wrap.

The Leader does PacPerson footwork during the Follower’s turn/hiro to catch her footwork at the correct moment to do a barrida (on her back cross step).

Hard side leg wrap. The Follower needs to have good turn and ocho technique, especially on the close side of the embrace. In the clockwise turn, the Follower’s left leg ganchos the Leader’s left Captain Morgan leg (not a straight leg, his leg is bent).

Energy difference between Gancho v. Sacada.

In the Sacada, there is continuous, flowing energy.

In the Gancho, there is a stopping energy.

The Exit

After the Follower ganchos/wraps with her right leg, it goes back into a back cross step to the close side of the embrace, Leader rebounds her so the Follower steps left foot forward to pivot in front of the Leader. Before her step, the Follower’s left foot can do a pretty front cross against her standing, supporting right leg.

In doing the barrida, the Leader should keep turning; he should not stop. The Follower’s left side should be awake so she needs to be good in her embrace and turn technique as the Leader does the barrida into Captain Morgan leg with his left leg.

Breaking the code of the Turn.

Be mindful of where/when the embrace needs to be open and when it needs to be closed, and doing it with a good transition, especially in going into and out of the wrap/gancho.

Alternative Exit

The Follower’s right foot back step can be a hook behind into close embrace, to walk out as normal with Follower’s left foot back.

The Leader leads Follower to do right foot back cross step (hook behind) by closing the embrace and stepping right foot close to the Follower. The Leader does small side weight change to get the Follower’s right foot to hook behind her left foot of her standing, supporting leg.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/summary and demo to A Thousand Years by Jasmine Thompson

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Fast & Furious: Shared Axis Accelerated Turns (Beyond Intermediate)

2018-05-31T15:30:00.003-07:00

Song: Tormenta by Ernesto Fama
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

To summarize, we will do two different types of Fast & Furious turning

(1) open turn

(2) hurricane spin/shared axis turn

Chapter 1 – Open Turn

We began with an exercise on connection and how to develop our embrace.

The Leader can turn two ways:

(1) with PacPerson feet keeping heels together, trying to do this in both directions.

(2) Kick the heel around, where the Leader lifts one heel and kicks around. It takes about 8 kicks around to make 1 full rotation. Try both directions, all the way around

In sugar bowl embrace, the Follower wakes up her embrace on the close and open side, bending the elbows and holding onto the Leader such that he feels the Follower’s body behind both points of contact in her hands. Follower: do not be too stiff or too loose in your embrace. Have density and elasticity. Use both hands. Be alert in both hands.

In the turn, the Follower’s back step is the most challenging one in the turn. Each step of the turn should be of equal importance/significance. Reach and transfer the weight smoothly as much as you can. There are two pivots on the turn/hiro, in the forward cross step and back cross step.

At the moment of collection, the Follower knows she will pivot, so she should gather her legs together to help the pivot.

Have a dynamic/mindful connection to help send the body back in a big pivot without falling. Get thighs/ankles together to help with balance and control at pivot. Have a smooth frequency in getting around in the turn. Have lots of spiral in your body.

Leader: Have hips slightly ahead of the Follower.

To help us get our spiral on, we did the Washing Machine Exercise: First let chest go around in rotation, then let hips go to catch up, going a bit farther than the chest. There are four options in drilling this exercise:

(1) Clockwise on left foot

(2) Clockwise on right foot

(3) Counterclockwise on left foot

(4) Counterclockwise on right foot

Do a block turn.

Leader keeps hips a little ahead of the Follower. Leader does PacPerson feet.

We drilled all these types of turning options for the Leader:

(1) Washing machine body, or

(2) Block turn with PacPerson feet

(3) Block Turn with kick the heel around

Follower, pay attention to maintaining and containing the Leader’s dynamic energy and put it / reflect it in the Follower’s legs.

Follower should take long, reaching steps around the Leader. In our turn, there is no automatic QQS, we will do all steps Slow in our exercise: SSSS.

In terms of language/position and real estate, Homer and Cristina employ the School of Opposition, where the Follower needs to give resistance when the Leader pulls, and when the Leader pushes, the Follower needs to push.

Leader screws into the floor with his standing/supporting leg. The Follower should be close to the Leader at her hips so the Leader can do many things (sacadas, ganchos, etc.). Follower’s arms should be connected to her shoulder blades and back.

We drilled this with Follower doing a dynamic turn so that the Leader can do either a kick around leg or kickstand leg on his unweighted leg.

Breaks in the turn. One side is different from the other side. The Follower’s left side reflects the Leader’s standing leg, how it pushes into the floor as the Follower’s hand gives resistance. The Leader’s right hand feels the same from the Follower’s left leg. The Leader’s right hand/arm can move, dropping down toward the follower’s ribs instead of her on her back depending on her steps of he turn as the Follower’s connection is her left hand at the Leader’s right upper arm.

We drilled the accelerated turn, with the Follower containing the energy and maintaining density that goes through her hips. The Leader’s kickstand leg just stabilizes the Leader’s axis, it does not motor the turn, though he does slightly push into the floor. It makes his standing leg stronger. We drilled this, attempting to turn on one side at least four times around.

Leader will lead the acceleration by using his standing supporting leg, whether he does it with kickstand leg giving power to his standing supporting leg, or washing machine, or block turn. The Follower receives the Leader’s leading energy/accelerating energy and responds/contains it in her hips so she doesn’t go flying around.

Chapter 2: Shared Axis Turning

In a little colgada, the Leader turns around the Follower’s axis. Unlike the Follower, he does not have to look pretty.

In close embrace, the Leader side steps to surround the Follower’s axis as she is on one leg. Leader walks around Follower as his 2 feet sandwiches her standing, supporting foot.

Follower needs to hold onto the leader and let her hips go back so she counterweights. Leader does a somewhat open V to A footwork as he goes quickly around the Follower.

The Follower’s free leg can paint the floor or she can planeo it out to the side. The Leader needs room to walk around the Follower, so if she wants to raise her leg, she should keep it close to the Leader, not outside (which would likely be socially unacceptable). If the Follower’s leg goes back in planeo, the balance will change for the Leader and he needs to adjust for that (or she shouldn’t do it).

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/summary and demo to song: Tormenta by Francisco Canaro

Extra clip of Martyn Phillips leading Homer in the Shared Axis Turn during class.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Leg Wraps into Colgada Turns (Beyond Intermediate)

2018-05-31T15:27:00.001-07:00

Song: Amazing Grace by Blind Boys of Alabama
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

The pattern: Colgada from promenade exiting into a colgada turn.

Get into promenade without doing a colgada. Leader does sneak attack weight change, so Leader’s left foot to Follower’s left foot, Leader’s right foot to Follower’s right foot, as they both walk forward together. Leader does sneak attack weight change to Follower’s right foot, to invite Follower to walk around Leader. The Leader’s right foot touches the Follower’s right foot and he sends her out a little to the right, doing a parada, after which the Follower pasadas with her left foot so she steps back in front of Leader and pivots to face him. The Leader should enable the Follower to make the longest step possible around in front of the Leader.

When the Leader does a sneak attack weight change to meet the Follower’s right foot, his weight is still back on his left foot. He should not try to knock the Follower away to the right. Leader can do a small cheat step if he wants (cross behind with his left foot) to help facilitate the Follower getting around the Leader.

Adding the colgada element.

When the Leader’s right foot captures the Follower’s right foot, he can send her out in the Line of Power, diagonally out. Here the Leader MUST do the left foot cross behind cheat step so the Follower can step around and in front of the Leader.

Try to get a “real” colgada instead of a “fake” or “safe” one.

The Follower hangs from the Leader with both sides of her embrace and weight of her hips out and away from the Leader.

Leader needs to be strong in his left arm/hand – connect it to his back as as he starts to turn the Follower is still in colgada.

The Follower leaves her nose back as her left leg goes forward to reach around Leader.

The Colgada ends when the Follower’s foot lands on the ground and she takes back her axis.

Before the Colgada turn, the Leader can lead the Follower to do a wrap, by offering his right leg in Captain Morgan stance as she is out and away form Leader with her right leg weighted and left leg is free.

We drilled this with the Leader’s right foot to Follower’s right foot capture, sending the Follower out to lead her to do a left lag wrap of the Leader’s right leg in Captain Morgan stance, into a pasada (where the Leader does a cheat step of his left foot diagonally back so she has to step forward around the Leader).

Leading the wrap: The Leader offers his right leg in Captain Morgan stance, sends the Follower out and rebounds her into the wrap. He can do several wraps in a row (though no more than 3), and then lead her to step over in pasada.

At the moment of colgada, the Leader has zero (no) turn. He is just sending the Follower into the Line of Power and then back in. She doesn’t need to look down to see if there is space. She knows because she can feel his leg, that’s how she knows there is space. She doesn’t have to see or guess. The Leader leads it by giving her space with his right leg.

“The Thighs Have Eyes”. Leader sends Follower out in the Line of Power, brings her in so she’s back on axis, and she feels his Captain Morgan leg. The Leader needs to meat the Follower’s height, especially if she is very tall or very short. Leader has no rotation in his spine while leading the wrap. Leader does Captain Morgan with his unweighted right leg as she does her turn/hiro/molinete, he slides his Captain Morgan leg on the Follower’s side step, so she wraps with her other foot. The turn is in the open embrace with the Follower’s steps long and around the Leader. Follower should not fall on the back step.

Turn wrap to the right.

At the point of the Follower’s side step after her forward step and before her back step, the Leader can lead multiple sequential wraps by turning his Captain Morgan leg in and out and rotating his spine/chest. She will wrap with alternating legs.

Exit: After the wrap/gancho, the Leader should continue the Follower’s turn to the right. The Leader gently transfers his weight to his right, and then continues the Follower’s turn. The Follower’s hips should be pointed toward the Leader and remain closed to have a juicy squeeze of the Leader’s legs.

Colgada wrap after a turn.

Timing is tricky, because the Follower’s step is forward after the wrap. Even though the turn continues, the natural step is a back step. The Leader steps side and cross behind to create room for the Follower to step forward and around the Leader. The Leader does cheat step diagonally back with his right foot.

Follower’s right foot wrap. Leader shifts weight and pivots around Follower and takes his cheat step so Follower walks around Leader.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/summary with demo to Amazing Grace by the Blind Boys of Alabama

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Getting to Know Your Own & Your Partner's Axis with Role Swap (Intermediate)

2018-05-31T15:24:00.002-07:00

Song: Dos Corazones by Lucio Demare
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

We began with exercises that will have direct implications in letting us determine who is the axis: Leader or Follower.

In fingertip embrace, both Leader and Follower do forward ochos, with each turning on their own axis. This is an independent movement for each dancer, but we are connected at the fingertips. We should step close to our partner’s trailing foot. We begin slowly at first, so we know where to go and what to do to protect our axis. Our backs have softness to allow good spiraling. In doing our ochos, we should have quality to them. Do not fall into the step. Remain in balance while pivoting on one foot. There is a giant twisting and untwisting of the spine. Do not hold the body too tight or the ocho will become flat. In the ocho, the spiral travels through the space, horizontally and vertically. For the shoulders, one does the send and the other does the counter spiral at the end.

Leader, do not impede the Follower’s ocho with your arms. Otherwise you will prevent her spine from creating spiral.

In the sugar bowl embrace (Leader’s hands on his hips, Follower holding the handles of the sugar bowl – Leader’s triceps), stay close.

Here we explore the “Rule of the Hip” game/concept. The Leader rotates his chest as much as his hips allow. Follower does forward ocho in front of the Leader, using an arc’d, snaky step around the Leader, keeping as close to him as possible with her hips touching his. Then we changed roles after drilling this 5-10 times.

The concept of axis manipulation. The Leader shifts weight, pulling the Follower around him to tell the Follower to do a forward step or back step.

The Sugar bowl Embrace is also known as the “Less Blame” embrace as it gives more responsibility to the Follower to hold onto the Leader properly. The Follower needs to not push down and not pull on the Leader, so the Leader feels the Follower’s fingertips. There is engaged elasticity, so the embrace is connected but flexible.

Next we drilled doing turns/hiros/molinetes in the sugar bowl embrace. The Leader has his heels together in PacPerson (gender neutral of PacMan or Ms. PacMan of the 1980s video game), and through his chest rotation he leads Follower around in a turn into an ocho on her forward step, with each focusing on maintaining their axis (both Leader and Follower). Then we switched roles. It is important that the Leader not use his hands to guide the ocho.

The Leader’s hips get ahead of the Follower’s so he has more leverage, range of motion to turn in that same direction.

The Follower should hold onto the Leader nicely so his lead translates well, making steps equal to each other around the Leader in her turn. The Follower is always slightly behind the Leader. Leader’s hips are ahead or he can do the Leader back ocho swivel.

In the Ocho Cortado, we start with a turn to the right in close embrace, transitioning to a ocho in open embrace. The Follower side steps into an ocho cortado after her right foot forward step to the close side of the embrace and then rebounds into a left foot front cross step against her standing, supporting right leg.

Making or breaking – getting an ocho or side step. Remain in close embrace; Leader has forward intention and should stay that way. Turn to the right and then immediately into a turn to the left. Timing is important when the Leader turns around his axis.

How does Follower know when to do a forward step into an ocho or into a side step in the Ocho Cortado? Leader leads one or the other by turning his spine at different moments:

In the ocho, the lead is as early as possible.

In the ocho cortado, the lead is after the Follower’s forward step.

At the point of the ocho, both the Leader and Follower take their axis so they are in balance and can pivot fully.

The Follower does three things at that moment:

(1) Rock step taking axis

(2) Relocate left arm

(3) Activate the ocho factory (her hips) if Leader leads an ocho.

Leader needs to communicate the transition to open or close embrace, depending on whether he leads an ocho cortado or ocho. The ocho cortado should be done in close embrace, and the ocho should be in open embrace so the Follower can assume her axis.

Maestros concluded with a class quiz/review and demo to Dos Corazones by Lucio Demare.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Cross System Elements Explored (All Levels)

2018-05-31T15:19:00.003-07:00

Song: Que Te Importa Te Que Lore by Miguel Calo
Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
England International Tango Festival
Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
May 26-28, 2018

So the summarize, we explored two different walks in cross system:

(1) Leader’s snake walk while Follower walks straight back.

(2) Leader roller blades while Follower walks back in no-pivot ocho (back cross step).

Chapter 1 – Leader’s snake walk with Follower’s straight back walk.

We began with an exercise to test our ability doing the cross system walk. With Leader and Follower facing each other in the fingertip hold, Leader changes weight, and walks forward touching the Follower’s forward foot as she walks back. We can do this three ways:

(1) Leader whole foot touching Follower’s whole foot

(2) Leader’s back half of the foot touching the Follower’s back half of the foot (so they are more heel to heel)

(3) Leader’s whole foot going past the Follower’s whole foot (so they are more thigh to thigh).

Start with turnout, so V feet. Change weight to inside and outside of the foot. Leader slides foot forward in his walk.

Follower should keep her whole frame, not stiff or static, have a little bit of give, softness, especially in the shoulder joints and knee joints. How the Follower holds her frame will determine the texture of the embrace and how far she needs to step.

In the Cross System Walk:

We start in parallel system, Leader does sneak attack weight change, where he quickly changes weight without letting the Follower change her weight. Leader steps left foot forward in the inside position. The Leader is walking in three tracks. Leader walks outside partner, shift to the left, and then back into parallel walking with the Leader’s right foot forward.

We drilled this in any embrace, open or close, depending on your comfort / level of dance ability.

Cleaning up the sneak attack weight change:

Leader starts with his left foot because that’s where he has the most space.

How do we change the embrace so the Follower doesn’t change her weight during the Leader’s weight change? The Leader changes with weight without shifting to the other side. The Leader can keep the Follower from shifting using the close side of the embrace without dropping his right shoulder, making his right shoulder suspended up. Just hold the Follower, but do not raise her up.

More advanced couples should try this in close embrace.

The Follower should work on making the perfect step. How you articulate the foot, how fast you transfer the weight and being mindful of doing the correct step length. How does Follower know how far and how to maintain the same distance as the Leader in stepping? The Follower’s heel lifts, but she keeps it to the floor as long as she can, until it starts to go up because it can’t anymore. She should have a reaching quality and good extension; it’s not always about stepping long. Walking back starts at the core (not at the hip).

Leader does sneak attack weight change, keeping the Follower on the same foot as he changes the weight to the same foot (so Follower’s Right, Leader’s Right; Follower Left, Leader’s Left).

In Cross System, do the full Snake Walk.

Start in open embrace.

Leader’s upper body is peaceful.

Follower takes perfect back step.

This is easier in open embrace, and harder in close embrace.

Leader does forward ocho (forward cross step).

Leader tips: “I have to pee” (close thighs) at collection and before the next step. Keep big toe on the floor. You can do baby pivot before taking forward step. Leader’s upper body just says to Follower “walk straight back”

Chapter 2: Follower does no-pivot ocho while Leader rollerblades

We began with an exercise whereby the Leader roller blades into the center of the circle starting with his left foot.

The Follower will do a cross way of walking doing a no-pivot back ocho.

In partnership, face to face, Leader does roller blading forward as Follower does a back ocho (back cross step) without pivoting, articulating and opening the hip without pivoting. So they are zigging and zagging.

Follower should push with the left foot off of the floor, open the right hip and keep pushing with the left to step, thighs press together as the weight changes. Leader walks (rollerblades) in the cross system as follower does no-pivot back cross step walk back.

Homer and Cristina have a Swiss cheese theory of teaching, conveying the basics, but intentionally leaving lots of holes so that students’ questions can fill in the holes.

The Leader leads the no-pivot ocho (back cross step) with his chest by not changing his chest/spine. There is no twist. Leader should not overuse his right hand.

In the Follower’s no-pivot ocho, she should just try to stay in front of the Leader, so he doesn’t change his spine, but he steps outside, and she opens her hip. The psychology for the Follower is she reaches slow, but collects quickly in this exercise to perfect the step.

So the summarize, we explored two different walks in cross system:

(1) Leader’s snake walks while Follower walks straight back.

(2) Leader roller blades while Follower walks back in no-pivot ocho (back cross step).

Maestros concluded with a class summary/quiz and a demo to Que Te Importa Te Que Lore by Miguel Calo.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com

Intermediate & Above Class: Follower’s Flowy Back Sacada

2017-05-21T19:53:00.001-07:00

Instructors: Homer & Cristina Ladas
http://theorganictangoschool.org/
May 19, 2017, Genesis Dance, San Francisco

The topic for this class was the Follower’s Flowy Back Sacada, because it is easy to communicate and to get into the line of dance.

We began with a warm-up exercise in partnership, hand to hand hold, doing back ochos.

Dancers hold each other at the hands and both do back ochos.

Dancers are close to each other, with hips in line next to each other going in opposite direction, almost touching. Their pivots need to be big, and the outside leg needs to step back diagonally across the lines, reaching toward the other dancer. Keep the chest up, do not lean forward as your leg goes back. The pivot needs to be complete before reaching in the next step back. Do not step too far. Be precise. In stepping back, aim for your partner’s standing leg. Reach with control. This is not a speed exercise.

Next, we proceeded to get the hard part out of the way.

In open embrace, the Leader does side steps (keeping arms low) while leading the Follower to do back ochos (these are “with” ochos).

Leader does right foot side step, then turns to his left as he leads the Follower to do the Follower left foot back sacada to the Leader’s trailing left foot, which he has left as a “goal post”.

Take care of your axis.

For the embrace, sometimes there are changes from close to open.

The Follower’s Back Sacada is an illusion.

Going from the back ocho to the turn (overturn) is challenging.

When does the Back Ocho become a Turn (Hiro/Molinete)? When the Leader steps on his right foot.

Follower should be sensitive to the lead. Is he leading a pivot or he asking you to step around the Leader? The Leader turns his sine both ways in both instances. Is the lead around the Follower’s axis or the Leader’s axis?

Next, we worked on a simple Leader’s Sacada

The Leader settles on his left foot, turns to the right, Leader’s right foot reaches forward diagonally to the Followers trailing right foot in a forward sacada. The Leader’s spinal rotation is such that the Follower steps around the Leader’s axis.

Then he turns to the left and leads dancers to go back to their original spots.

Next, we linked both steps together, the Leader’s Forward Sacada and the Follower’s Back Sacada.

First, we did the Leader’s Simple Sacada. Then, instead of going back to the original spot, the Leader leads a back ocho, then another overturned back ocho, so the Follower does a back sacada of her left foot to the Leader’s trailing left foot (in Captain Morgan stance).

We drilled doing:

Leader’s right foot forward sacada.

Into simultaneous back ochos for the Leader and Follower, Follower stepping back with her right foot, Leader stepping outside left foot back in his back ocho in the same direction as Follower. Next, Follower’s left foot back ocho into a counterclockwise turn (Hiro/Molinete) or into an overturned back ocho to left foot back sacada.

The technique is very important.

The goal is the process of getting there.

Why are we doing this?

The Sacada is an illusion. It’s more about how we turn and relate to each other and timing involved and rotation in leading an ocho versus asking the Follower to walk around the Leader.

The Follower needs to be sensitive. Don’t be rushed into the next step.

For the Follower’s sacada, the Leader’s position is to get used to the Captain Morgan Stance in his trailing leg, where the knee is able to pivot to be more open and the heel is up to receive the Follower’s back sacada. The Leader can do his kick around as the Follower comes around.

The Follower pivots a lot to step around the Leader, with long reaching steps.

The Follower should employ good walking technique, both linear and circular.

Notes courtesy of Anne at http://scoutingtour.blogspot.com