Tango 3: Weird, original moves

At the beginning of all of my classes (except my beginner class), I ask my students what they would like to get out of the class.  I then use that information to plan the class. C. asked for "weird, original moves" and "new ideas from normal places" to keep his followers from anticipating upcoming moves.  R. asked to work on gaining precision "on everything." M. wanted "body placement and loose legs."  G. wanted to do follower and leader sacadas--ah!  something easy!!!  As the rest of the class had not yet chosen goals, we started with the idea of sacadas, and quickly ended up at weird and original.

Basic Patterns
1. Leading the follower to do a front sacada through the leader's front cross.
2. Leading the follower to do a side step sacada through the leader's front cross.
3. Leading the follower to do a front sacada through the leader's back cross.

Focus: using these steps on the dance floor
Using Chicho's great cross-system grapevine exercises for moving around the room, we adapted it to the sacadas. This way, each sacada that happens moves the leader from the inside or outside track, to the other track around the room (think concentric circles). All three sacadas can be led with the leader starting with his/her back facing the center of the room, or facing out of the room, but ALWAYS continuing line of dance (LOD).

Weird and original: the variations
Once the basic patterns were working to some degree, we started messing around with my favorite question: what movements flow from this movement? what makes organic sense from this point?

1. (G's idea): adding a linear boleo immediately after the sacada is strange but fun. We worked on the quick timing needed for the leader to ground before the follower's leg goes past vertical, in order for a really nice, snappy linear boleo to happen. 
Note: If you do this variation, the rebound wants to go reverse line of dance (RLOD), which can be dangerous. In order to stay with the feeling of progressing around the room, the rebound needs to be shaped into an overturned back cross and sent LOD.
1a. C. and G. liked the possibility of recurring front sacadas for the lead after this.

2. (C's idea): adding a volcada.  This is much harder than 1., a bit weirder, but fun.  The important factors are: you must use the sacada to get closer together, lift the follower slightly to make them stay on the same foot & not travel, and then guide them in the volcada & reground them.  The only tricky part is convincing the follower to remain on the same foot!

Following tips:
It seems to me that many tango classes ignore the followers and focus on what the leader needs to do, and we didn't talk a lot about following in this session, BUT these crazy moves are a great place to work on your axis and using breath to balance/ground.  Because you don't know what is going to happen next, you must be ready for anything, and that requires pinpoint accuracy in technique.  M. found that, if she breathed and focused on staying on balance, all the moves became easier than when she tried to figure out what was happening ;-) More on following next week.

For those of you who didn't make it to class this week, don't worry: we're on to other, weird stuff!

What is important in a dance?

I thought choosing a title for my blog would be easy, but after an extended period of time poised at the "blog title" part of the registration process, I have realized how difficult I find it to condense all my beliefs about dance and teaching dance into one word or one phrase.  Why I dance and why I teach dance are subjects that I could fill pages discussing.  You would think that twenty years of teaching (and two theses of 100+ pages) would have forced me to distill this into a succinct phrase, but NO!

I learned to dance at nineteen, way past the age at which most professional dancers begin to dance.  I was told I was "too fat" and "too old" to learn to dance.  I was laughed at by a close relative who had danced since childhood: "You, dance?  That's the funniest thing I've ever heard!"   Later, when I told my family I wanted to pursue a master's degree in dance, widespread panic resulted: "That is an avocation, not a vocation!" my father insisted.  Still, the pull to dance won, over all the voiced displeasure at my choice of occupation.

My first winter in college, I signed up for social dance as a way to fulfill P.E. requirements.  My class was fun, but what really held my attention were the dance teachers and their friends, who stayed to dance after class until dinnertime.  They put on folk dance records, and whirled and twirled and squealed with delight until the last possible moment to get in the dinner line.  I stayed longer and longer, watching them dance, and after a few weeks, they invited me to dance; I was hooked.  I joined the folk dance troupe, kept doing ballroom dancing, and gradually took all the classes available in ballet, jazz and modern dance.  By my senior year, I was dancing twenty hours a week and teaching at school and in the community.

Why did I start dancing?  The intense joy I felt while dancing exceeded any other physical connection I had ever felt.  Moving to music, with other people, filled me with happiness and energy.  The people I met dancing understood my need to express myself physically, and honored that part of me.  When we joined hands to dance, we connected on levels of heart and soul as well.  Dance has provided me with balance in my life, adding flavor and texture to the other parts of my life.

Why did I start teaching?  I wanted other people to experience what I had experienced.  I also wanted more people with whom to dance!  I enjoy teaching adults to dance because I know how intimidating it can be to try something new as an adult.  Many of my students are professionals who excel at what they do in life.  When you are good at everything you do, it is doubly intimidating to try a new thing, something that you might not find easy--and couple dancing means you have to do that in public!  There is no way to avoid making mistakes in front of other people when learning social dance.  My job is to make that learning process rewarding, to create space where it is OK to make mistakes and to guide a new dancer into this adventure that is dance.

So, how do you say that in one word, or in one sentence?  I still don't know.