Find the ONE when you need it!

to recognize the ONE
why  and how
taping and stepping
speed up the song
low volume
Julio & Juana
Joaquin Amenabar

For the first ten (!) years I was dancing and even leading without *hearing*, being aware of the musical structures. In other words, I couldn't tell you when the ONE....One .... One was sounding in music, not even on a most simple song. Surpricingly my feet knew better and I was appreciated for my musicality, my ability to step on the accents and fit the phrases. This gave me enjoyable tandas with musical partners but was a hell at musicality workshops! I didn't understand, I wasn't able to do anything of the stuff a teacher asked! The lessons became easier when I learned to recognize the retuning ONE in the music structure and the workshops became bearable! The retuning ONE is a fundamental base, giving me valuable anchoring points in music and organizing the sometimes overwhelming musical chaos. It was so for me and therefore to make it easier for you I have written down some guidelines which I used to break through the sound barrier in tango!

How to recognize the ONE and series of them!

The most important guide for me has been Joaquin Amenabar's book Tango: Let's dance to the music! When I got it I had been dancing for 10 years without never recognizing a single ONE. After doing the exercises for two weeks I first time knew: THIS is ONE! and HERE is another ONE! and there!  and here again!

The exercises made me sound, tap, sing and step - to approach the music from different angles and I was put to express the sounds my ears could catch. For me this has been the most important tool for development - to do something when I hear the music, to train my body to become synchronized with the sound, to connect my ear and foot! That's what the dance is about, isn't it?

The book will be available again later in autumn! This time digital and in seven languages!

There are a lot of other things dancers can do by themselves at home. Youtube provides some helpful features for aiding the learning and I have used these possibilities! When listening to youtube songs I do it sometimes at a higher speed because that emphasizes the sound structure and the One is more audible. Another trick is to put the volume down so you hardly hear the weakest parts and this highlights the ONE structure to be easily recognized. .... and all the time I am tapping on the table, on the edge of my laptop to clue the music and body together!

On youtube you also find JuanayJulio website with several examples presented with rhythms and suggested steps. Here is an example of tango and milonga! Tap you through these examples several days in a row! Leave them for a while and return again for some additional days! On an adventurous day, you can test the steps too or test the songs with more variation on the structure.

tango: https://youtu.be/pZzLqvpeuA4Aa
milonga  https://youtu.be/rQ5m1z2ebXM


I work happily at home but If you like to work together with others, form a group and learn together or maybe the teachers are with you! There may be an occasion, time for such a course! Ask them! During a workshop teachers can help their students forward by using a short exercise or a game for learning and then even the music educated can survive the training moment without getting dead bored!  

I have also noticed that when the base is stable many additional patterns can be developed more easily. Just this now: 1-3-1-3. When you know the ONE and step on it you can place the next step in the middle on your way to the next ONE. Try the milonga above with this in mind!

My initial drive to work on music was to become a more skilled dancer! Music was part of the path. Later on, the motivation and goals became more diversified including the enjoyment for me and my partner, understanding the lessons, to hear more details as well as larger structures in music. The persistent basic training has even increased my enjoyment in listening to other music and the enjoyment seems to continue growing . . . . 

 

How to orient among all these options?

Surprises and Challenges when learning

When I started to relearn tango the landscape surprised me! There were things I thought I could already but when trying they crashed quite totally. Some new complicated figures were just complicated for me but the follower continued taking the cozy old steps. Then we had some old figures I knew very well and could perform with most of the followers but this time we were supposed to do them in a synchronous manner with the partner and this was demanding. Here are some of the issues!

Change the system

When dancing I never thought of the changes from the parallel system to crusada and back but during the class I became aware of my habit to fix the change by myself. To let the follower's feet fix the change felt like an effort! Now I had to plan it in advance!

Contraposition leading

I am a leader, born into nuevo tango and there the open, counterposition ochos were the very basic skill. When she was moving to the right my sidestep was advancing to the left. Later on I learned the old milonguero style small counterposition ochos and all that was ok. On nuevo training, the teacher was even astonished that I could make them that well.

So all this in my pocket I wanted to lead this!  

 

(8.44min if the link is failing us!)

In the video, Cristina is walking in line but my teacher wanted us to lead the follower to a series of sidesteps left/right/left, a kind of advancing ZZ. It is a good way to manage the figure in a small space! We did it in the leader tech class and then I was going to lead it on a private but it all was a big splash, crash! For some reason, I wasn't able to lead a follower in one direction and go myself in the opposite direction. I could not find a way to make it work. I was just standing there wondering How come? and What happened? I had done it before, why not now?

Enrosques

I think the enrosques are the most demanding skill a leader can achieve.  He needs to be able to isolate the shoulder, hip, feet movements and have complete control of the upper body and abraso. His frame control is combined with a different pattern in his free leg and foot.  The teachers said that many of these figures are impossible to process with followers if they are not advanced. I wonder if it is true? The follower needs to know the giro and ochos. She needs to be sure, stable on the basics and always reach to the space in front of her leader - that's enough I think!
We will see if I need to change my mind later on . . . .

Baridas

My early baridas were of the type: stop and drag the foot or let the follower drag my foot. No problem there! This time we were supposed to do it simultaneously in a flow while turning or walking in line. The simultaneous version puts demands on both in the couple, we need to have balance, to be able to stand on one leg and move the other parts of the body freely. We need to come together with a partner to train so we become comfortable with all common variations in different settings.

So some things are standing tall and some collapsed down!

 but also

Some found, sound and working!

 

 

 

 

Tango Lesson: Syncopated Snake-Walk & Beyond in Vals

https://youtu.be/510RV8cVEAo?t=524

Why would an advanced leader train with me?

This question a follower was wondering about!

I don't think that the advanced social dancers have all techniques at top level and if the leader wants to lift up something the problems can be similar to those at my level. When I want to add a variation of a known figure to my milonga vocabulary there are just a short rough period and then we can catch up the normal flow. If I instead want to introduce, develop a for me totally new technique the situation is quite different.

The day I want to expand to a new skill I start to work on it at home up to a level I remember the steps for me and the follower on the chosen figures. After that I can have a private lesson with a teacher but later on I need to train them with a partner and Yes! At this point the problems start!

In my world most of the followers start at beginner courses but as soon as they can atract sufficient number of tandas most of them stop regular courses and trust on that the leaders will teach the rest of the needed skills. There are not many at a practica who wants to sparring dance with me not even if I promise to dance the same number of songs so they can train the steps of their choice!

When it is time to introduce the new elements to an informal milonga there is a clear drop of skill on several areas. Even if I can move ok on pista the flow is not so smooth, not so effortless. When I am tweeking in the new steps the variation of other content gets lower as well as my focusing, selfconfidence and musicality.

There are followers who do not accept this drop in the tanda quality, but want a full dance experience always! This forces the leader to seach new partners and here is an opportunity for the followers willing to cooperate in learning and learn themselves. Maybe you are interested to get new friends also! Here the changes are quite obvious!

Are you training with me now?

 A follower asks irritated at a milonga

Nooo, I just dance badly today!  

A suggestion to the leader

I have been asked and others have confirmed the same phrase at milongas

 

Feeling for cultivating or for composting learning?

It is crucial for your development to know what type of learner you are, before choosing your long-term learning process. I am a visual learner, who has an enormous appetite for training and tango is my main hobby. Are you also towards those patterns then you may have use of these my experiences!

Do you too recognize this?

I participated in a lot of workshops. Afterward, I talked sometimes about the content with my partner and we tried to run it occasionally. Time passed by and little by little other things occupied my time and mind. However, some figures and techniques survived and became part of my pista vocabulary but the extensive majority of them have withered at some remote corners of my mind.

It looks like this! All my forgotten figures . . .

What about frequently reactivate the knowledge history?

I was not happy about my routines and started to cultivate the workshop content instead! I use my camera to film the class summary and I try to memorize the verbal instructions and teachers' feedback on my issues. At home I watch the video material/run through the memories and decide what to keep and update into the training log**.  That log is maintaining and organizing all the material for my coming reviews at practicas and solo training sessions! Those two are my knowledge cultivation events!

To develop a decent physical fluency on sequences requires repetitions but not so much time. The bottleneck slowing down and lengthening the repetition sessions is the memory* - or anyhow my memory for me! Use any tricks you know to memorize the steps and the groups of sequences - pictures, stories, whatever you have learned during a lifetime, to support your memory!

How much time is needed?

To get an idea about the time needed for repetition we assume that you want to keep 60 of your favorite workshop figures for social dancing. If you still remember the steps from the workshops your solo training will take about 15 minutes and some longer with a partner. This is realistic when you can the steps by heart but if you need to check the video often then two hours will not be enough!

In a 5 mins micro training session you are able to run through a lot of details you want to improve and maintain. I watch also the videos regularly and the time varies. It can be 10 mins but it can be longer if not properly prepared. I run all these activities several times per week and after a rest period of 4/5 weeks, they are activated again! The key is to pick them up before you start to forget them!

When you prepare your review material do it carefully and edit your videos so only the important pieces are on the final compilation. In this way your review time will become shorter and your learning becomes focused. You get faster to your goal!

 If you choose to work with the figures, micro train your technique consistently and review the material regularly you will develop a stable technical base. When you cultivate systematically the chosen part of tango, you will feel the difference in your body and I am pretty sure it will become visible too!  

What do you think, are you interested?           

This routine will have an impact on certain parts of tango, I mentioned the technical development, but there are more to tango and you will always be surprised and challenged by new learning possibilities!  :)

*The memory is highly needed at practica but it should be shut down in a milonga!

** Via the link below you can read about a Training log I use

https://offpistaaction.blogspot.com/2021/05/get-training-done-tango-training-log.html

Tango path vs True tango: Your deepest tango experience.

When we talk about tango we want often to define the true tango, what tango really is and most of the time I agree with the descriptions! Still, I would prefer to present my experience of tango as a path the dancers are advancing on, a mental landscape I am passing through.

When I started out the tango WAS about steps and ochos and turns and figures for me. Fast music urged me to move fast forward and a slow song gave me more calm steps. To manage the difficult figures made the joy burst hilariously out and l was looking for more challenges! My dance was external and the music expression was external! Everything in my dance was easily visible to others!

The paradigm shift was the change from the external dance to an internal one!

One day my partner was rising tall at the end of a musical phrase and I felt that it was the most beautiful thing ever! For me, this was the first time I clearly experienced the external movement and its internal equivalent. During the external years, I had developed the internal equivalents for tango and an ability to recognize them within me. Now we could just stand there with small movements released by the music and enjoy a tanda! The best ever! :)

Today I can fall off to a totally external dance during a fast milonga but a heavy Pugliese could tease me down to the most internal dance instead!

Tango keeps surprising me! The sources of joy during the first years were different compared to the delights now. The scenery of today will change and the path will run through different landscapes during the coming years and I am curious!

It is wise to find pleasure from every period of tango, from every section of your path! 

Paris 2011

It grows! My attempts to add an annex to my tango house!

 

 My plan       

 

I started leading as a nuevo dancer with open hold and large, space-consuming steps. That developed by the years to a close embrace dance with enquentros as my home events. However, I still felt that the more dynamic, figure-rich dance was calling me to come back home. Not to nuevo anymore but to tango salong.

My early hopeful idea was to squeeze down the large nuevo movements to salong size and via this short cut to reach my goal fast. But no; it did not go that easy!  

I know that in March 2018 one of my followers and I were working on a number of figures from Torres and some other teachers keeping our eyes on the tango salong goal. By practica hours we managed to learn figures but then there was a clear halt. A few obstacles which I had not anticipated at the beginning, turned up!

Challenges     

 

One of the challenges was the power of rewards the old style of dancing could bring us. When a wonderful tanda started how could we continue training with no reward in sight compared to the bliss the old way could take us to for sure!

Another challenge was the routine followers and I had developed during the years  - we had our best abrazo which we fell into so naturally. It felt nasty to - even if done in the most gentle way - to push her slightly away to a more salong type of abrazo. It was my project and my responsibility but it was hard and I failed often.

There was also fear of losing something during the change process. A renovation or rebuild of one room has often an impact on how happy you are with the rest of your house. It could be some delicate change in my musicality, or some other valuable aspect quietly disappearing forever.

Thoughts in solitude      

My goal was and is to maintain the old way of dancing with all its positive aspects and add the new salong to it. The new questions my mind is elaborating on now are about how to choose the style for a tanda? Should I choose the style according to the music or prioritize the follower's style? Shall I fit the Milonga or to the mood of the night? If followers see me dancing differently with others do they have some interest to return my cabeceo or will they avoid me? At the end of the day, I don't think there will be real problems to place the new dance but these are some of the questions my brain is tumbling around during this year of isolation. 

Inspiration!

 

History

The renovation of Tango House I wrote about in 2019 has taken this form now! 

Here are my thoughts back then!

https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2019/11/renovating-my-tango-house.html

  

Develop your skill and land at the tango heaven!

 

 

This is only about skill!
There are a great number of other aspects 

adding to tanda experience.

But not this time.

The skill differences have an impact on our tanda but these issues are difficult to discuss. I like figures/numbers and math so the idea here is formed as a calculation! I suggest that both dancers have a maximum number of resources to offer the partner for building up the enjoyment. Lets set it here as 10. The maximum enjoyment value for a dancing couple is then limited to 20 during a tanda. That's the ultimate heaven!

If you are an experienced leader, well trained in technique the scores get nicely up. We say that this leader has an estimated score value 7 so he can give a beginner follower an enjoyable tanda of 8, (7+1). If this leader is able to relax and smoothly lead a follower he can maybe offer a good tanda to a partner at the highest level, a fully developed follower at 10. The enjoyment will hit the 17 bar for this couple!

On the internet and the talks around the pista are continuously complaining about the leader skill levels. There are also followers who have a strategy not to pay for their learning. They expect that the leaders will for free teach them all they need to know for the local pista. They are also totally confident to tell the leaders about this. I suppose that this drives followers to chase tandas with leaders a lot of levels above their own. It's because this maximizes the learning, the enjoyment!

I wrote earlier about the training needed to stabilize and make your tango movements, forms strong and endurable. This was and is the advantage of dancing with partners at different skill levels. Keep in mind that your skill level is always depending on your own personal effort. You work with your technique at home, you take lessons and get experienced by hundreds of hours at the pista. You maybe get your skill very easily, by a few hours,  compared with me who needs countless hours to get some progress. But a dancer needs profound, personal own skill to contribute,  a way to add your personality to a tanda.

You never get to the highest heaven by riding only on the partner's skill but you need to develop and offer your own stable and independent skill and personality to the tanda.

Your personal skill impacts the tanda enjoyment calculated below!           

 

1+1=2  
7+7=14
7+10=17
 10+10=20   

Bored? When and how to get benefits from it?

Some workout channels on YT advertise sessions put together for people who get easily bored. These workouts had new movements all the time keeping my attention at a higher level than comfortable for me. It really wasn't my favorite workout! Obviously, there are individual differences and it could be useful to think about your personal style and if it has an impact on your learning. So what is your way, your actual style to get bored?

Do you get easily bored?

There is a need for repetition when you want to grow your muscles, brain structure, or nerve paths. In tango, many skills need quite a lot of rehearsing and if you get bored on those drills before you reach your goal it will keep you back on the tango path. If this happens often on your projects take a look at the situation and find a way around this hindrance. There are for sure ways to push your boring limit later!

Bored at the correct moment!

There are definitely situations when boring is just a correct indicator that you are not captivated by your goal and it is maybe best to skip the training! Or it just indicates that you actually have reached your learning goal and your mind cannot find anything interesting left to explore on the subject. It's time to move on!

Or do you get bored (too) late as I easily do?

Hard to get bored is not necessarily a good alternative either! I have noticed that I easily continue repeating things far beyond the moment I made the last active effort to learn something new on the subject. When the repetition has an air of exploring I would continue or if I feel that there is a stabilization process of the knowledge or a movement, going on I would continue. On contrary, if the repetition is just a dull rolling on a daily routine it should be checked out. I have learned to recognize these change points but earlier I was continuing too far and losing time!

Move sideways or push deeper when you get bored!     

During an ordinary training with TangoTools milonga steps, (which are easily added to a training routine without any preparations. I'm just saying!) I became aware of something new. I do not remember the exact clip but it was one similar to this.

Usually, I change to a new video on Sunday after a number of repetitions during the week. Normally I was doing the steps reasonably well so the shift was ok, based on the fact that I couldn't find any new details to add to or correct on my repetitions. A stable routine to grow my basic step-pool!

Then for some reason, I continued to repeat the old video longer than usual. In the middle of a later session, I suddenly noticed that my steps were not clean!. I didn't just land on my feet but there was also a tiny little flex, an extra movement I had not been aware of earlier. I remember that some teachers had talked about a problem with my walk but at that time I didn't get it. - I wasn't aware of the flex at all, but this simple, repetitive movement pushed my brain to find something to work with and it started to track the detailed step process deeper and new information about the movement became available.

The thoughts about the student's boring points were inspiring but not bringing any radical change to my mind. On contrary, the idea of my possibility to choose at a certain level of boringness to advance sideways or drill deeper has became a new instrument in my learning toolbox!

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun 1. boringness - extreme dullness; lacking spirit or interest
dreariness, insipidity, insipidness
dullness - the quality of lacking interestingness; "the stories were of a dullness to bring a buffalo to its knees"

Merriam Webster  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boring
bor·ing | \ ˈbȯr-iŋ  \
Definition of boring
: causing weariness and restlessness through lack of interest : causing boredom : TIRESOME
a boring lecture

ADJECTIVE
dull; repetitious; uninteresting
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Derived forms

https://youtu.be/Q370yGIqFE4?list=PLuZgN3SYIPX5hO3BS8iUpJOToo-GUCruo

Me, tango and it's teachers

During the dancing years, some aspects about my relation to tango and it's teachers have become visible. When I first time entered a milonga and saw how ages were mixed on the pista I was struck by the thought: T h i s  I could keep up for a long time! Today it seems that I had the rest of my life in mind.

Limited or lifetime in tango?

You maybe feel that you will stay just a few years in tango or you have a clearly limited goal then you could pay some extra attention to the choice of a teacher and the style. You maybe want quickly become a member of the local community in that case it is wise to follow the style and teachers for that group! Ask for advice, talk with people and stick to your plan - that teacher and those people!
Your goals will define your learning, direct your development until you reach the goal!

Another possibility is just to start in a way and place most comfortable for you. That was the choice I caught! By testing the possibilities I have found out what I like and what inspires me. A vast number of techniques and sequences will be available on that path!

A long stay itself will create pressure for change. New ways to dance will develop refreshing the old steps and give a new look to the pista. That learning will create a new edge for your personal expression in tango.
In other words, the learning will reveal to you your tango and develop it!

In both cases keep in mind that you need somehow check and monitor the technique to be ok for your body and mind.

The relationship to teacher's knowledge - apilado; in axis; colgada

 

apilado - no own balance, towards the teacher        

In the beginning I believed and learned everything my teachers told me and so did my classmates! I wonder now if anyone has skipped this mode? Usually we got just one version of a figure and it becomes the only, the only right way to do it. In other words we were leaning heavily towards our teacher and his/her ideas, knowledge. One common consequence of this was that the alternatives we saw around us were all errors, signs of bad learning and unskilled teaching!

 

That period was the prime time for critics. When we watched the pista we repeated the technical details and tried to map the ochos in our mind to the variety of ochos performed in front of us. Some of them showed hardly any of the traits we had learned and kept in mind. We wondered if someone could educate those poor dancers!

 

The funniest story was told by a laughing follower who during her whole first year felt deep sorrow for a couple who had totally misunderstood the way how to dance tango. Could someone help them? Later on she learned the reason -  they were the absolute best canyengue dancers in our community! So different but still right.

in axis - solo, own balance                 

During the following years, I knew better what I liked and took more control over what kind of movements I wanted to include in my skills. I picked the suitable parts of the teachers' offerings and became aware of the choices others did, how different variations came alive. The deeper I came on this path the clearer it was that I will never again be able to find one teacher who totally responses to all my needs and goals. My future learning was more like finding the puzzle pieces a teacher could offer and it was my responsibility to fit them to the rest of my skills. All the different ideas about tango and the knowledge now built in my body became a platform to understand and manage my tango and tango life. I found my own balance in it all, I was in balance on my mental axis; not running around so much but staying where I belonged.

colgada - hanging out, away from the teacher

In spite of all learning this dance has it's secrets and some of them I have become aware of by coming across the opposite ideas. I call it for Colgada learning and it occurs when I disagree with the ideas and offerings a teacher or fellow dancers have.  It is not just that the stuff is not ok but it is not my thing.  This gives me the possibility to recognize the edges of my personal platform, opinions, and ideas. You test the offering but feel that it is nothing for you and develop instead a variation which will fit your milonga night. Now you also know more about where the others are, what they prefer and enjoy!

All these aspects have passed by and will be met again! It keeps me activated and maybe you also! 

 

Why Achaval and Tangomeet for me?

Roxana and Sebastian have always been among my top favorite performers, but it was for a time ago when I decided to develop my enrosques - at last - I started to pay even more serious attention to them. I am dancing as a leader and Sebastian's skill and art of turning, his skill to coil his spine and body was mindblowing to me. I had found my high rising goal and it inspired me to work hard to get better, growing in that direction!

Youtube

I started to save youtube clips for future homework and saved them in my online library to manage the growing collection. From these videos you get the form, the shape of a figure and if you pay attention and are working carefully you can perform them reasonably well after some time. I had earlier noticed that when I work on 20-30 figures of a specific teacher I could hit some basic principles in their style and many times that is enough, that is what I want to achieve. Though in this case I knew that there were deeper-lying details which I could not even imagine and therefore not develop on my own!

Workshop

When Roxana and Sebastian visited the town giving workshops I was there for sure! They were very professional and had an unusual well build structure on the course material. They were also circulating around well but with that number of students what could they do? I was surprised that they managed to give us personal feedback so I could lead one of the figures with Roxana and my follower was lead by her too! But in these situations the whole room is filled with excitement so really deep learning is hardly possible.

Tangomeet

My third try was an online course! During the closedown autumn I bought two sections of Sebastian and Roxana classes on Tangomeet and that has been the best thing I have done for my long-term learning. The content of the classes is put together with great care and understanding of what a student needs to know in order to reach the goal. Through the years I have become extremely sensitive to power unbalance between the teachers but here we have just a clear focus on the students and cooperation to help them forward. Both are seamlessly adding information and advice helping me to proceed! Systematic video watching is the core of my learning method and therefore I really need content that I can watch over and over again and after that repeat it once more!

Local teachers

To learn from youtube, DVD, an education channel or from visiting teachers is kind of unsynchronized learning and it is not enough for me. I need also local regular courses as well as privates to reach the dance I am looking for. I need to combine the INFORMATION on how to do things and the FEEDBACK how am I doing, how does it feel for a follower. When we are back to couple dancing and private lessons I will go to my local teachers for feedback about how comfortable my lead is and how to improve my performance so it will be comfortable for tandas in the future!

Some comments on the Tangomeet courses I work on

I have been working on enrosques earlier with other teachers but his section gave me the exact timing of the steps as well as other details. Grateful for that! The biggest surprise was though that this section gave me so much more to learn - boleos sacadas and other goodies!
https://tangomeet.com/sebastian-achaval-roxana-suarez/the-traces-you-leave-lapiz-enrosque-sacadas-and-boleos

The second group of courses included the baridas on a *second level*! At the first level I could stop the follower, do a barida and continue the dance. This I knew already! Here I learn to do the barida as a skillful cooperation/shared decoration during the flow of the dance. No stops anywhere and that is much more complicated than I thought!
https://tangomeet.com/sebastian-achaval-roxana-suarez/captivated-by-a-beautiful-moment-barrida-and-rebote

 

 

The weights in a tango gym?

After getting to a certain level of dancing a private teacher told me that I should pick my partners with greater care and focus on the more skillful and highly ranked followers. The problem is that this is an advice for performing artists or teachers who need to build up a unique artistic air and iconic power to attract students to their events!
When a social dancer applies this on their cabeceo strategies s/he will easily end up on the top of the skill pyramid and cannot find partners anymore -  the number of suitable partners is growing low on this road. It is maybe ok for a performing teacher but a catastrophe for social dancers who need several enjoyable partners to fill the milonga night.
So it could be worth an effort to find an alternative mental model to better maintain a broad variety of attractive dance partners.

New image suggestion

I have heard some stories about leaders who through practicing with or teaching followers at widely varying skill levels have developed a firm but versatile lead. It is stable but still sensitive to the differences in the partners' movements and can be easily adapted to them.

A leader is challenged in different ways and in my mind there are similarities between a person practicing dance and a person training in a gym. A Personal Trainer teaches you a form, a correct way to do a move and follows up how you use the weights, how your strength develops. In the same way a tango teacher will guide you to find the right way to do a move and monitors your development. The weights in tango are the different qualities - length, weight, personal ability, skill level and so on - which come with the partner, challenging your form. Do you have the strength to keep your axis in the right position, to stay relaxed even when your partner is continuously challenging you?

How to proceed

When you are learning a new skill, a move, a sequence or technique you will most easily get it right with your teacher, or someone who knows it and is able to keep the correct form through the entire process.

Through practice you will learn to maintain the correct form  in spite of an insecure partner or a challenging partner performance - your technique will get stronger through the repetitions in situations when there is pressure on your form.

Think of how the muscles grow when you are repeating an action/form in a gym machine. You can maintain the correct position and proceed through the repetitions correctly and slowly adding more weights. I am convinced that this is a valid idea for a practica too! When your skill on a move grows you will be able to challenge the form by a variety of different partners.

If you always and only dance with top skilled partners your strength is not developing so much.  It is as challenging as if you choose 1kg weights at the gym! Compare it to what happens when you repeatedly take as heavy challenge as you can hardly manage?

But keep in mind! No pulling. No pushing. No squeezing. But soft, stable firmness and a correctly flowing pattern.

Pay attention!

You need though pay attention to your own level - start with light weights and dance with easy partners when developing a new skill. When the form has stabilized search for tougher situations, challenge your form. Can you keep it stable in spite of the pressure from a less skilled partner?

If I get pain in my back the challenge was too large, I need to revert to lower weights or a less challenging partner to maintain the correct form. Or I need to change the dance hold to lessen the stressor.

Results

Your training with various partners will improve your existing skills and when you want to proceed you can do so more easily. At the start you need supporting and good partners but this image, this way of thinking opens up a broader group of potential dance partners and training partners later on. I have noticed that this has also had an impact on my enjoyment level and dance flows more smoothly with an earlier rough partner! When people accept partners with varying skill it will have a positive impact on the dance level and atmosphere at your  community too.


I have written this from a leader's point of view but it is well valid for the followers too! And when your skills grow you will pass the leader/follower period and reach the dancer/dancer situation when you create the shared dance as equal partners.

Focus on Students or Techniques?

A long time ago the students were assigned to different groups based on their assumed development levels. It was often a quite arduous situation for the instructors because the participants were eager to sign up on a course level above their actual skill. This forced the instructors to blend different teaching contents or take the pedagogical responsibility by advising the student to a correct course.

Later on the visiting teachers started to welcome students with different skills and experience to the same workshops and they developed pedagogy to address that situation. This praxis changed the earlier student-focused approach to a technique centered one. The course requirements were presented as moves you need to know and manage if you wanted easily follow the workshop. Some teachers open up the door some more by stating that if you are for challenges then you are always welcome!

There are still occasions where the course description focuses on the student level, especially at the entry courses where the word Beginner is used. For me it works like a barrier keeping us old-time dancers away from those courses. But we oldtimers need to rebuild and refresh our tango technique and we need to do it more fashionable, up to date too.

But hey what has the word fashionable to do with tango? It is more a word for clothing but think about this! Think about a coat for example! The function of it is the same but the style is new for every other year, decade. If you stick to your old coat it looks more and more old-fashioned when times go by. The same for the tango moves! They need an update at least every 10 years!

When you are an experienced tango dancer who needs to update the moves and techniques the idea to enter a beginner class again can be an unpleasant one! So was it anyhow for me! It would have been much easier to sign onto a course where the FUNDAMENTAL techniques are presented, trained and refreshed. I was updating my skills and integrating the new material with the existing skills of a long-time dancer.

So organizers, schools and teachers update your offerings so they attract even us who need an update after many years of dancing!

Renovating my Tango House

I have been dancing Argentine Tango for twenty years and I have been even leading for a long time. This need for renovation became very obvious when I had tried to change my dance to a more dynamic one. Unsuccessfully. During that process I had also become aware of the generation gap in the skill and style between the younger dancers and me.

I have seen a dancer use sequences from my first dance years and became aware of how old fashion his dance looked and I heard the others comment on the conservated years. I heard also how new dancers commented on styles fully recognizable for me but unknown to them. They said it was not tango. (I could count backward when they had started to dance  . . . :))

So there was a need to update the look of my dance by adding new steps and techniques which the younger dancers also could recognize!

Another way to describe the situation is to think of what a house owner is experiencing!  You maybe are living in a house or your friends have one. Usually there are continuously some renovating project going on but then after 20 years stay you noticed that a more profound, more large-scale actions are needed. You maybe must rebuild the fundament or a basement renovation is needed before some other changes can be processed!

That was the case of my Tango house!

I wanted to change my dance and therefore a better fundament was needed to be clear and strong enough to carry the new top floor. I had been planning and working for a new type of dance for some time but the new additional floor to my tango house did not get completed.

What was keeping me back?

At the time I started to tango the techniques for a stable and solid base were not available. I grabbed and put together material I could found somewhere.  It was not possible to make a plan or choose a style but you got a basic figure here and later on something else with a totally different technique. The wind was blowing through the cracks when different techniques did not fit together. Some figures were with center oriented techniques while others were using centrifugal principles and you were continuously forced to move from one technique to another during a tanda. It happens also that the dancers in the couple have different techniques on figures they try to fit together during a tanda. In other words, it was hard to create a harmonious dance on that base of unfit blocks, unfit moves.

To start with I would have needed some kind of evaluation of the situation but it was hard to get. So I planned the content and set up the lesson structure as I needed with cooperative teachers. Lucky me to get teachers with good skills and pedagogical insights for this project!

I am building, I am renovating!

September was the busiest month with 3-4 lessons a week combined with the preparation and repetition hours at home. The later part of October was easier with 2-3 lessons instead but as busy as earlier at home and it goes on . . . .

Dance Like No One Is Watching - WROOOONG ?

I agree that an excessive search of audience approval is not good but so is the total neglection of audience opinion.

I see the process of forwarding the tradition (or creating something new) as a dynamic balance between individual dancers and the community. When dancers make their dance visible during a tanda the community approves it by accepting their cabeceos later on or it disapproves the dance experiment by focusing on other dancers or they speek out their disapproval!

On the personal level my dance should look from the outside like it feels during a tanda. For a while ago some followers were positively surprised by the feeling during a song and that triggered some new learning initiatives for me. I need to do my dance more visible for the audience to attract other dancers. Teachers have given me positive feedback but when some experienced followers do not get my skill right i need to do what I can to make it easier to recognize.

I have a friend who has a background in music and a strong opinion about how to express the beat. When we were on a ws with appreciated local teachers with 20 years of experience he made the fastest/erliest landings of us all. Clearly before us all. I talked with him later about that but he just stated - That is the way I want to have it! His own inner experience was the only guide for him but here it pushed him off to a totally private solution.

So IMO there is a healthy level of audience/dancer attention vitally forming the future of the dancer, the tango community and the tango.

The Partnership in tango is like an aquarelle

paper water - the music
dancers with different colors
new colors and totally new steps

The Partnership period

At the partnership stage the leader and follower know how to move in tango, how to take steps and adapt to each other. At the beginning of this period you slowly grow out from the leader/follower roles and are transformed to dancers with much more equal impact on a tanda than earlier.

In many important changes in my life, the relevant aspects of a situation come together in a picture embodying the values playing at that moment. So was the origin of this metaphor. I still remember the follower and the spot on the pista where I was struck by the idea about an aquarelle as an equivalent metaphor for our dancing.

The sheet of paper is the base and together with the pure water they represent the music.

When we start to dance, her colors are trickling from one side of the paper and mine are coming in from the opposite side. Our movements make the water move and blend our colors to totally new ones. There are new paths, forms creating themselves on the paper as well. 

In a milonga, the same tanda would feel different with a new follower, because they come with a different personal set of colors. Followers have also impact on leaders steps but the effect is not always easy to recognize. It can be easier to notice with a new partner. Totally new combinations and forms evolve when the personalities fit.

I would call it inspiration and that happens! 

We have seen and heard about it.

 Many times!

The road & The car as Following & Leading metaphor

music as the landscape

the leaders construct the road and fix the signs

the followers drive their car on the prepared road

 

Following & Leading period

From the very beginning, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of following to be a passive role but it has been a challenge to find a way to describe the active parts included. It has also been impossible to find one picture integrating the whole life of a dancer. The feeling during the first years was totally different compared to the experience of a tanda 20 years later.

What kind of a metaphor could then describe the first years when the leading and following roles have the strongest presence in the couple. In the beginning, we are learning how to move our bodies to Argentine tango and how we relate to music so the dance becomes enjoyable even during your first years!

In classical music, the idea of a musical landscape is common so the idea of tangos creating their own sound landscape was a logical development. Even if some of the song texts are about soccer, heart, blood, and difficulties the music still creates different parallel paths the leaders can choose their favorite among. This is the leaders advantage or often a responsibility during the first years.

The Road Constructor

It is also easy to think a leader as a road constructor when he is choosing the musical path for his feet and body, building the road, which he is offering to the follower too. His skill to navigate and adapt to the other couples will create a safe road on the pista for the couple. Is your road rough or has it a smooth surface? How can your follower recognize the signs for speed limits? Other signs? Are there spaces for scenery stops?

The Car Driver

The follower is not a car as suggested so many times but the driver. It is the follower's decision how to drive that car! It is her decision to keep the vehicle on the offered road and to follow the speed limits and other road signs from the leader during the journey. What is your style of driving? Is it slow or fast? Is the driving occupying all your capacity or are you able to enjoy the path, the musical landscape around you?

The lead/follow period is about learning how to create the tango movements and sequences with your body and how to communicate all that to the partner. It is much more about learning and not so much about improvising yet.

Yes, this is just a metaphor and it doesn't meet all the leading and following aspects but it shows a possibility for a dynamic experience in both roles.


This is the metaphor for the first period on a dancers path! You can here below find the different possibilities there are for us!
https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2019/05/three-stages-of-tango-followlead.html

Three stages of tango - follow/lead, partnering and mature pista periods

Following - Leading

Partnering

Mature pista

It took time but when I discovered this 3-stage development in my dance it facilitated the acceptance of certain difficulties. I knew it was not forever but for now!

This development chain can be activated in different situations during the dancers' life. It is the main tendency but it can also be activated when you want to learn a new skill or technique. Sometimes you maybe need to adapt your dance to a partner or pista at a different stage.

Following - Leading period

I consider that these two roles were created just for learning purposes! When we were starting up no one knew how to take the steps together in tango so the process would have been chaotic - to organize the learning the split of responsibilities was activated as well as the leader/ follower hierarchy. During this period the dancers learn to manage their own body and tango moves as well as the communication with, to and from, the partner.

I still remember how I was physically moving the follower during my first leading year. When she started to recognize my lead and we were able to complete the sequences then the lead, the physical impact could be lessened. Back then the leaders talked about moving a piece of furniture during a tanda but I am sure we were many, who acted as a moving service even when the follower was doing her part beautifully.

Later on we learn to communicate more effortless but my ability to adapt to surprises was still fragile. If the follower didn't respond by the book, if her response was not the one I expected the dance crashed, we stopped and restarted the sequence from the beginning.The same happened when another couple disturbed us!

Both groups will learn their own movements and communication. On top of that the leaders work on some additional responsibilities - they need to know the follower's steps, create the content and musicality during a tanda - making the leaders learning period longer. When the followers had learned their own part they could start to enjoy the dance with those leaders, who could offer some flow and smooth steps. Some followers will take this further and start to fully rely on the skilled leaders, who provide the musicality and more complex movements.

When we have developed our tango movements, a stable communication and we can manage surprises then we are well prepared for the next stage where we will meet more like equal partners. The leader/follower structure is changing to a dancer/dancer structure.

Partnering period

One day we will notice that the material is enough, the movement vocabulary and rhythmic patterns are enough so we will have satisfying variation during a tanda. Our ability to adapt to partners' unexpected moves and to react on surprises from the other couples grows and we will be able to manage the most situations on the pista without losing our dance flow. This increases our freedom and we can lessen the hierarchical structure of the roles and the dance will be a more equal type of partnering. In the beginning, I led every step but later on I knew that she was able to place her steps to music so I just communicated positions and directions. I actually danced with her upper body only and she took care of her own steps according to music and how our torsos were moving.

Because both dancers are now dancing more intuitively without constant mental control so there will be free capacity to pay attention to the partner and music. After 10-15 years of leading I was blown by the diversity among followers.

I have met the active partner followers as well as the relaxed, meditating followers and it is equally fantastic to dance with them. It seems that followers (leaders ?) who have been meditating or active in yoga have easier to relax while moving. In those cases my role has been to provide a flow of steps which is not boring but not too energetic either, just leaving the follower in the relaxed state of mind. If the dancing crowd is experienced then even I can relax and trust on the other couples' navigation skills.

A partner follower can create steps without the lead but she needs to follow the navigation lead which we have to maintain on an immature pista. If she is doing a Noelia, a rhythmic drill, she should develop a skill to continue even if the leader has to navigate or starts to dance too. It is the same demand as on the leader - I need to be skilled enough to change direction, speed and so on if the pista conditions force me to but keep our dance going on.

It was a rhythmical tango tanda where I was doing a quite fast path in the song. Suddenly I felt how she softly fall into a slower path also available in the music. It was a good choice so I hang on to the same path. I could have continued and she could have followed her choice but this time we went together.

We can also melt together when the following and leading are lost and the intuitive dance takes over. The dancing is not controlled, planned by the intellect but just happening, following the music playing. You often loose the feeling of time!

We are not any more leaders and followers but two dancers and we both listen to music and choose our steps. The challenge now is how to combine these two individual dances to one dancing couple. How should the arrangement be done for these two bodies?

Mature pista period

I had been dancing for some hours without a collision. Then suddenly I bumped twice to the same couple before me. He told me later that they were beginners - to my eye quite good dancers. That moment created the idea about a pista skill the experienced dancers have.

If you are driving a car you also know how smooth (some) experienced drivers can advance together. At the moment when you have a newly licensed driver before you the situation changes - the reactions can be too fast or too slow. They react differently and you need to pay special attention to those cars. The same can happen on the pista!

Experienced dancers are doing different steps but still they share a musicality, pista rhythm, so the movements are predictable. They go when the music is driving forward and they advance slowly when music is asking for that. They feel how different crowds move on a pista or what kind of speed certain orchestra creates on the ronda.

One of the navigation skills must be about musicality but it is also about the ability to turn your figures so you are coming out and continuing in a planned direction. The ability to vary step lengths within a figure gives you also flexibility to adapt to ever varying pista situations.

All these skills are needed to get a mature pista providing you the feeling of total freedom in your dance and the feeling of dancing to the music, with your partner as well as with the total pista!


The mature pista can pulsate! You can see it on some videos, here you have one!

How long time does this main development take? I have an estimate just for the lead/follow period coming from a tango teacher. She said that the preparation to partner stage usually takes five years and if the transition has not happened by eight years it will probably never occur.



URL for the video
https://youtu.be/tXBmuh3De24

Solitaire learning: Am I growing weeds?

beginner luck - long development

are you gardening weeds?

the need of a teacher to tell apart crops and weeds

Have you seen how someone near you starts a new thing and performs really well but on the second try an ordinary beginner struggle takes place? Beginner luck with high results - then a long development period until you get there again.

Why is it so?

Could it be so that you are actually as good as the results showed at your first try but you are causing the flashback yourself? I got this idea when learning a new solitaire game and facing a downward tendency after some high score start games. It was so obvious that I had developed a skill or skills which were harmful to a good result. After a while, I understood that my tendency to organize the cards in rows was the reason - the cards should be moved as few times as possible.

It is like gardening - you start to work on it, fertilize the soil and all kind of plants start to grow and it looks wonderful and it feels wonderful. Everything is growing - but do you get the right results? or are you growing some weeds?

This episode made it very clear for me how important it is to have a teacher telling me what moves are the correct ones to continue with and which one I must let go. This is quite a difficult fact for me who always want to proceed on my own, find my own way . . . .

Solitaire
any of various card games played by one person, the object of which is to use up all one's cards by forming particular arrangements and sequences.

Here you find an earlier experience!

https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2018/10/solitaire-learning-feeling-of-winning.html

Solitaire learning: The feeling of winning!

pleasurable pastime activity
change of mode
now I want to win!
to know the feeling for winning 

Usually I get restless just listening to the music. I need something more and a solitaire game has been a good company to me for many classical concerts on the radio. Usually my hands are quite mechanically moving the cards on the screen when the auditive is getting more attention. Many nights I was losing game after game and it was ok when the music was my main goal. There was though nights when I suddenly shook my shoulders and wanted to win.

I remember at that moment I changed the way I sat, I was more alert, I was focusing on the cards and I started to win!

It was not a new thing; everybody knows that there are different attitudes giving different results. So I knew the facts but the revolutionarily new thing was that now I knew how the difference FEELS.

How it felt in the body to be alert for winning and what kind of state the mind needs to be in so the result comes.

That is valuable when learning steps, posture, movements and what so ever tango puts on the table for me to learn. I know the difference when just moving and when I am fully LEARNING.

I am sure that you also have this kind of experience - give it the recognition it needs and let it become a tool when developing your best version of a dancer!

Solitaire
any of various card games played by one person, the object of which is to use up all one's cards by forming particular arrangements and sequences.


You find another experience if you click the link below
https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2019/03/solitaire-learning-am-i-growing-weeds.html

The bloody heel

Ten days ago one of my followers was involved in an incident where her leg was peeled by another follower's heel. There was definitely some blood and still after ten days she is not able to carry out her life long daily routine. She can dance but not swim according to medical advise!

What happened? 

It took place during one of our weekly milongas. According to those involved and a few around the couple behind my friends was dancing vigorously. The back boleo of this younger follower was not performed with a relaxed leg only but it was powered by her back muscles in the way the some dancers do. So instead of a bruise my partner got her calf peeled off! Afterwards the leaders tried to help to take care for the injuries but the follower wasn't there.

After an accident you are usually quite shaken and more careful with your steps. Not this couple.

There seems to be two different responsibility systems around the pista of today. The older system loads all the responsibility for the couples actions on the leader. What ever path the follower heel takes it is the leader's responsibility.

The other system is more based on individual responsibility. The leader is supposed to adapt his dance to the crowd but here the follower should also take a look around and consider if there is space for high boleos. If she finds the pista too crowded she would resist a high boleo lead and transform it to a low one! She is an independent dancer!

My partners leg 10 days after the incident!

I wonder what are you willing to give up to be able to share the same pista with different styles, ages and skill levels?

Who is responsible for heels on your home pista?  Leaders only?

Your opinion on what should an organizer do to prevent these incidents?