Reliquias Porteñas for a friend...

Impeccable dancing from Javier & Andrea, but to be honest, the hand form is distracting from the dancing, all the fingers sticking out akimbo...what's up with that?

The song is a cover of Canaro's "Reliquias Porteñas".

And an even better one she sent me...this is actually one of my all time favorites...with two very understated/rated dancers...Oliver Kolker y Luna Palacios...

Nuevo Hand Forms

Korey and Mila
Originally uploaded by mariongreenwood

What I call the 'waiter with a tray', with the palm anything less than vertical in the "Y" axis, although usually more horizontal than Korey's hand in this photo, is a Nuevo-esque anomaly/influence, in my opinion...

I hate to continue the whole traditional v. nuevo debate...but hey, what can I say? I am an admitted purist.

I'll even throw a little gas on the fire. If your hand is less than vertical, okay, I'll give you a few degrees.... if you are holding your left hand more than 15 degrees off of vertical (in the "Y" axis), then you are dancing NUEVO, which makes you a Nuevo Dancer!!!

(grin)

Have at it my nuevo friends...

Hand Forms :: Ney & Jennifer

passioned embrace
Originally uploaded by leone.

Palm vertical in the "Y" axis, rotated toward the leader's face in the "X" plane...

I rest my case...

Photo by Leone...

Hand Forms :: pablo veron e lorena ermocida

pablo veron e lorena ermocida
Originally uploaded by leone.

AHA!

Pablo's palm is vertical in the "Y" axis, and rotated slightly toward his face in the "X" plane...

Just like mine!

(grin)

Photo by Leone...

Hand Forms :: appassiunatamente

appassiunatamente
Originally uploaded by leone.

Photo by Leone...

Handforms :: Tete' Rusconi

tete' rusconi
Originally uploaded by leone.

Photo by Leone

Actually when this subject first cropped up in a tango forum/discussion list, and my hand position was referred to as odd/quirky, I did a little research and found that my hand form is very similar to the following dancers:

Tete Rusconi
Ruben Harbyamat
Gavito (when not doing a show) (deceased)
Dany 'El Flaco' Garcia
Osvaldo Cartery
Ricardo Vidort

Gustavo Naveira
Fabian Salas
Osvaldo Zotto
Omar Vega (deceased)

Ney Melo
Detlef Engel
Murat Erdemsel

I only found Julio Balmaceda's hand form to be different, leaning more towards the 'waiter with a tray' form...

All these guys are the examples from whom I draw inspiration...

I'm man enough to be open to the possibility to possibly admit I might be wrong, perhaps....or, it's always the leader's fault...

Because I complained about getting the "thumb guillotine" sometimes, where the woman grasps my thumb like a baby chimpanzee, even to the point of the tip of it turning bright red, and thought it was a follower axis/balance issue, where she was "hanging" on for dear life kinda thing...which I do more commonly get this with beginning followers...

I've been getting some feedback on the position of my left hand in this photo ::



I looked at all the photos I have of myself dancing, and my hand is pretty much in this position in all of them...okay, scratch the "pretty much"...

Here's the "excuse" I offered ::

98% of the time I get a "normal" hand situation with the woman, where her fingertips are up in the crook of my thumb and index finger, with my fingers lightly clasped around hers...this follower always does this (with me anyway)...there's another woman here who always does this, but lets her hand slide down to my wrist, which always feel problematic to me...

I was using the photo to illustrate my thumb position (in space) more than my hand position...usually my wrist is cocked back a bit, but not into the full waiter with a tray position, which is unnatural to me...

But, all that said, I will be more aware of what's going on in that department...


[more excuses before my full blown "guilty" admission}

But see, the guy in this photo has the same hand position [palm perpendicular to his body...mine is perpendicular or facing my face a bit], and she has sweetly slid her little soft hand up into the crook between his thumb and forefinger...that's what I get, or end up with, most of the time...

I don't know who the dude is, but he's gotta be good, and gotta know what he's doing, because he's dancing at Canning, right? (grin)



So, I'm man enough to be open to the possibility to possibly admit that I might be wrong about the position of my left hand, perhaps, maybe...and, that the thumb guillotine could actually be my issue, and not a follower issue...or, "it's always the leader's fault"...(grin)

I'm dancing tonight at the first milonga of the Fandango, so I'll pay attention to what's going on...and report back...

Check out Johanna's post on this subject (of my hand position), and the resulting commentary here....