Tango in Sussex... Two: Sunday 29th May Classes

31st May 2011

Tango In Sussex One | Tango In Sussex Two

Introduction

This section (following on from the class notes for Saturday 28th May) is the class notes for Sunday 29th May, taught by Alexandra Wood and Stefano Fava.

Class: Giros with a difference

"Clap... Not us - to the music!" ~ Stefano

Date / Time: Sunday, 11:30am - 1pm

Well, the key difference was, there wasn't much about giros... :)

The majority of this workshop was focussing on timing; dancing on the main (strong) beat, then dancing on the off-beat also. We spent some time clapping to the beat. We then worked in practice hold, practicing leading and following at different tempos.

We finished with (at last!) an actual giro sequence:

  1. Both open out (like an Americano) - man steps back on left, woman steps back on right.
  2. Man pivots (clockwise) around the woman, and leads her to steps side, then forward
  3. Can then continue into a giro pattern

Class: Tomadas and paradas

"Put in your feedback forms: 'The teachers were lovely but we needed more time for lunch'" ~ Stefano

Date / Time: Sunday, 1:30pm - 3pm

Immediately after lunch (very immediately :) ), we started off on this workshop.

We spent a while revising the sequence we introduced at the start of the previous workshop, to ensure we all understood the movements.

We then worked on a sacada sequence, as follows:

  1. Lead the lady into a forward ocho to the man's right.
  2. Sacada the woman's back foot with the man's right foot, stepping forward onto that right foot.
  3. Over-pivot the woman clockwise, whilst pivotting yourself
  4. Lead her into a forward step to your left, whilst taking a sidestep to your left to match.
  5. And repeat.

We added a tomada (a bit like a parada, but "capturing" the woman's foot rather than blocking it) to the forward ocho (to the man's right), then sweeping the leg back and forth.

Some technique points

  • When doing a giro, it's important to walk around the partner, not away from him / her.
  • When doing a forward step on the outside, don't "curve" the step. Walk straight forwards; make sure you're correctly positioned initially.
  • Practice leading holding an object in your hands, to keep your frame stable.

Class: Dance with Energy + Atttitude

"Here you go. Got that? Good. Scones!" ~ Stefano

Date / Time: Sunday, 3:15pm - 4:45pm

This workshop was relatively theoretical - there were no real "moves" to work on, it was mainly about concepts.

We did some practice work, leading with "no hands" (no contact between partners).

We spent some time on dancing to the phrases of music, practicing ending each phrase with a sidestep.

We even then had an attempt at a singalong (!), humming to the tune to get a feel for the music.

Thoughts about musicality

One interesting - and possibly controversial - comment from Stefano was that you can't dance to a track unless you know it. Now, I can see where he's coming from; a lot of tracks have a lot of musical sophistication that, if you don't know they're there, you won't be able to take advantage of with your dancing. At best, you can react to these subtleties, but your reactions may be too late.

So it's obviously true that you have an advantage with dancing if you're familiar with the track in question.

On the other hand, in the real world, most of us don't know each track being played off by heart. And in addition, musicality is not simply about anticipating a musical phrase, there should also be an element of total improvisation involved - I think.

So I'd say, "you can usually dance better if you're familiar with the track in question."

Some thoughts

Towards the end of the workshop, Stefano really got into his stride in terms of explaining how to dance tango. I won't attempt to repeat his comments, but paraphrasing them, tango is not about the steps, it's about dancing with the woman, in an embrace.

Class: Tango Ritmico

Date / Time: Sunday, 5:45pm - 7:15pm

Unlike the other workshops, this one was downstairs - the main hall was being prepared for the evening milonga. The floor on the downstairs room was not brilliant, but seemed OK, at least for a workshop without much pivotting.

We danced to D'Arienzo - lots of high-energy movements, basically.

We worked on decorations for ochos (for the ladies) and sidesteps (for the men).

We worked on a quite nifty foot-shuffle pattern for the men, then a far more complex pattern involving boleos and giros to finish off.

Some thoughts

I think the first part of this workshop was great, but it got a bit too pattern / sequence-oriented towards the end; it's optimistic to expect students to grab - and more importantly, retain - a complex pattern at the end of a long day of workshops.

And I'm not keen on having men and women split up, learn individual complex patterns, then come together and try to make each different pattern work together. Dancing too much individual patterns feels too much like learning salsa shines to me - flashy, visual, but not really lead-and-follow.

Conclusion

Workshop structure

"We don't want to ignore the workshop titles totally. Just partially" ~ Stefano

As a general point, unlike the classes from Joel and Alina on Saturday, these classes were far more "flexible", in that the titles of the workshops didn't always bear much relationship to the content. That's not necessarily a bad thing, in that Stefano and Alexandra were clearly teaching what they felt we needed to know, instead of mechanically following a topic title. However, I did sometimes get the feeling that they were making the classes up on the fly, which can be a little inefficient.

The class topics were highly varied, and the style of teaching did change quite a lot for each topic - for example, the transition from the highly-theoretical "Dance with Energy + Atttitude" workshop to the following high-energy "Tango Ritmico" one made a dramatic contrast. Some classes suited some styles well, some did not.

There were overall themes (musicality and technique) running through each workshop, which provided an overall consistency for the day, and this was a bonus for those of us doing all the workshops.

Good and bad bits

My feeling is that Stefano and Alexandra are at their best when they focus on technique of a specific step. They both have a great grasp of "what goes wrong", and they're very good at reducing movements to simple essences, saying things like "Step forwards. Straight forwards" to explain a movement.

Personally, I'm less keen on the bits where the partners get separated out to practice sequences, then brought together to try to make those sequences work - as in the end part of the Tango Ritmico workshop. But, possibly, that may be because I'm personally rubbish at remembering any sequence longer than a couple of steps at a time.

I'm very glad that I did the classes, but 4 in one day is simply too many for my tiny brain to process. I think next time, I'd stick to my "maximum of two workshops per day" limit.

~ David Bailey, 30th May 2011