Tango is kinda like...
I've been curious about tango for a long time and last night I finally got around to taking a class, along with moominmolly and dilletante (see the latter's perspective here). It was a "crash course", which meant rapidly learning new things over the course of four hours that would normally have been spread over several weeks of classes. It was the perfect pace for me, or even a little slow, but I have a feeling a lot of the other participants were feeling overwhelmed.
I loved it! The teacher (AnaLinda) was pretty good at explaining things and had a great attitude. I also liked the dance itself quite a bit. Of course, being me, I kept thinking of things that it's like.
Tango is like Go. Its principles and basic moves are very simple, but there's a world of subtlety to be learned and precision to be tuned just below the surface.
Tango is like Mountain Pose in yoga, except with your weight on one foot, and your legs moving.
Tango is like ballet, because of the precision. And the basic movement of the legs, forwards, backwards, and sideways, is a tendu, except with the foot neutral (facing forward) rather than turned out (pointing sideways). I was glad that I'd been drilling tendus for the past few weeks.
Tango is like a wedding march, in the rhythm of the basic step. Whenever one foot passes the other, there should be a slight hitch or hesitation, in case you're about to change direction with that travelling foot. I only got that when I started thinking of moving my foot from behind me to in front of me as two steps instead of one.
I was also happy to see that I haven't forgotten how to follow despite not dancing a structured partner dance for five years. The instructor had brought along extra leaders, having rightly guessed that the class would be follower-heavy. Not to toot my own horn, but the most experienced leader (who looked distractingly like Tim Conway) was dead impressed with my ability to follow. Both times we danced together, he started off doing the things we'd been taught, then decided without warning to start experimenting with moves I'd never seen, just to see if I could follow them. Which I could. ;-)
For instance, I was dancing with him when it came time to practice turns at the end of class. He gave me a couple of excellent pieces of advice (keep my weight always on only one foot; after a turn, close my ankles instead of leaving my swinging foot out*). He led me through a few turns as we'd been taught to do them -- rock step, turn, full step. I was just about to ask him if turns always went into a step when he led another turn -- and then no step. That left me standing in front of him with my ankles together and my weight on my right foot. He pushed me a little on the left side, then on the right, so that I was pivoting slightly on my right foot (kinda like, um, a revolving book display?). Then he pushed a bit harder to my right until I was facing the side and gave a little forward momentum so that I ended up stepping to the side with my left. (After which, he exclaimed, "Wow, excellent!".) I figured out from the vocab handout that that was an ocho.
So, yeah, totally hooked. Fortunately, there's a lot of tango going on quite near me, particularly at MIT (where the classes and "practicas" are open to anybody). And I'm totally signing up for AnaLinda's "Close Embrace Intensive" in August. (Oh yeah, tango is also quite a bit like sex.)
*The emphasis on bringing the ankles together between each step, and the general focus on keeping the legs close together, ironically gave me the impression that tango is quite a demure dance.
I loved it! The teacher (AnaLinda) was pretty good at explaining things and had a great attitude. I also liked the dance itself quite a bit. Of course, being me, I kept thinking of things that it's like.
Tango is like Go. Its principles and basic moves are very simple, but there's a world of subtlety to be learned and precision to be tuned just below the surface.
Tango is like Mountain Pose in yoga, except with your weight on one foot, and your legs moving.
Tango is like ballet, because of the precision. And the basic movement of the legs, forwards, backwards, and sideways, is a tendu, except with the foot neutral (facing forward) rather than turned out (pointing sideways). I was glad that I'd been drilling tendus for the past few weeks.
Tango is like a wedding march, in the rhythm of the basic step. Whenever one foot passes the other, there should be a slight hitch or hesitation, in case you're about to change direction with that travelling foot. I only got that when I started thinking of moving my foot from behind me to in front of me as two steps instead of one.
I was also happy to see that I haven't forgotten how to follow despite not dancing a structured partner dance for five years. The instructor had brought along extra leaders, having rightly guessed that the class would be follower-heavy. Not to toot my own horn, but the most experienced leader (who looked distractingly like Tim Conway) was dead impressed with my ability to follow. Both times we danced together, he started off doing the things we'd been taught, then decided without warning to start experimenting with moves I'd never seen, just to see if I could follow them. Which I could. ;-)
For instance, I was dancing with him when it came time to practice turns at the end of class. He gave me a couple of excellent pieces of advice (keep my weight always on only one foot; after a turn, close my ankles instead of leaving my swinging foot out*). He led me through a few turns as we'd been taught to do them -- rock step, turn, full step. I was just about to ask him if turns always went into a step when he led another turn -- and then no step. That left me standing in front of him with my ankles together and my weight on my right foot. He pushed me a little on the left side, then on the right, so that I was pivoting slightly on my right foot (kinda like, um, a revolving book display?). Then he pushed a bit harder to my right until I was facing the side and gave a little forward momentum so that I ended up stepping to the side with my left. (After which, he exclaimed, "Wow, excellent!".) I figured out from the vocab handout that that was an ocho.
So, yeah, totally hooked. Fortunately, there's a lot of tango going on quite near me, particularly at MIT (where the classes and "practicas" are open to anybody). And I'm totally signing up for AnaLinda's "Close Embrace Intensive" in August. (Oh yeah, tango is also quite a bit like sex.)
*The emphasis on bringing the ankles together between each step, and the general focus on keeping the legs close together, ironically gave me the impression that tango is quite a demure dance.