Amanda y Adrian Costa :: Solo Caminando

I think I saw one cross...

Monica Paz on "that milonguero feeling"

Aight. I'm not a great headline writer. Just watch the video.

Here's her website: http://mptango.com/SocialTangoSchool/en/special-monica-paz/

Somewhere between firming up and melting :: Tango Quote

On the subject of the embrace, or tension in the embrace...here is the entire post...

"Tone without tension, melty but not flaccid, presence VS "resistance", awareness but not micromanagement, assertiveness without force, grounded while also buoyant..."

Catherine Young (on Terpsichoral Tango Addict's FB post)

James Brown Boogaloo Tango

Tango Statics, Strengths, Structural Dynamics and Moments of Intertia

If the man's right hand is located on the woman's left shoulder blade (aka angel wing) a structural deficiency may exist within the psycho-motor-cerebro-cortical-hormonal-pheromonal-energetic-structo-dynamic-cognito-emotive-electro-chemical-synaptic-meta-physical-historical-musico-melodo-rhythmic-primordial-soup-tango-embrace system, resulting in less than optimally balanced dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin systems, interactions, and inter-relationships, and may induce or result in a less than a maximally pleasurable tango experience.

That is all.

Have a good 'un.

Follower Auto-Lustrada

This is the first time I've seen this. I like it.

[Between timestamp 0:09 & 0:11 - it happens fast in the first few seconds of the video.]

Again, I feel compelled to say I like it.



Did I say I like it?

Let's see if this starts a new trend, kinda like when George started eating candy bars on a plate with a knife and fork on Seinfeld.

The Bottomless Pit of a Tango Lead and the Path of EI2T2

Actually, I wish that I had come up with this concept, but since I'm not a follower, and not a lead who follows, that would be hard to do.

Irene over at Irene and Man Yung's Tango Blog came up with the concept of a lead that is full of holes - bottomless ones. Notice I didn't say "a lead who". Let's not make this personal. As a leader, I think I can say we have all been there - where the bottom drops out of our lead. A black hole of tango. Tango Not. A tango-naut thirty thousand feet deep in the blackness of the Mariana Trench. A tango knot, infinitely twisting in on itself, never to be untied.

I think what Irene and Man Yung are trying to say is that there is a difference between dancers who think they are "skilled", or worse "know" they are skilled (when they actually aren't) and those who are on the path of eternal improvement in their tango.

The ones who "think/know" they are skilled are the "Tango Dancers of High Repute" that Irene refers to. I would edit that to be "Tango Dancers of High Self-Repute".

Those on the EI2T2 Path (Eternal Improvement In Their Tango) (grin), recognize that sometimes their lead sucks - "a great big sucking noise" in the words of the infamous Ross Perot. Makes me wonder if Mr. Perot has, or will ever dance tango...? What a visual! But I digress.

Those on the path recognize the voids, the holes, the nothingness in their lead. They are painfully aware of those moments - generally few, but profoundly deafening and reverberating in the mind of said leader. Those on the path seek to fill those holes, and fill the deafening void with something. "Something". Perhaps even silence.

Fill a void with silence!? Wow. Now there's a concept. Filling the void of a lead with silence. Dancing the silence as el maestro Gavito said. I think that was him. I love it when a blog comes together.

Dance the silence. Master the nothingness in your lead. It's called "The Pause".

That's my two cents. Even if those two cents are down over there at the end of this other path of digression.

And dont' forget to check out Irene & Man Yung's post on "SKILL".

Thanks to Elizabeth and Mari both for saying something about this Irene and Man Yung post in their own blogs. It's funny and pertinent and poignant enough to spread the word and spread the post.

Skill and nothingness. Skill v. nothingness? Hmm. I love it when my brain ponders. When it comes to "skill", personally, I think I'd rather master the nothingness in my lead. With a five gallon bucket full of silence. The "less is more" minimalist approach.

The Perfection of the Perfect Connection :: From the Archives

_MG_0428-light
Originally uploaded by Peter Pango

Here are seven (7) posts on the subject of "The Perfection of the Perfect Connection"...which I had occasion to dredge from the archives this morning...

Or click here...


DISCLAIMER AND WARNING :: My "Fuck Me Back Revisited" post is one of the seven. If you find the "f" word, the "F" word, the word "fuck", or "fucking" and/or "making love" in general to be offensive words or subjects or acts, then please click here.

But not before turning your volume down.

Tango Glide de Luxe

[Foto by Alex.Tango.Fuego - from last night]


I DJ'd a live music milonga last night - The Austin Piazzolla Quintet.
They are a talented ensemble and a welcome addition to the Austin tango/music scene.

Being that I don't really do much dancing to Piazzolla (preferring to listen), I had some time on my hands. Or on my eyes, more accurately.

I've always been reluctant to critique what I see, unless it's a fedora or white shoes on a leader. But if I may, I would like to offer a tidbit that hopefully will be perceived as constructive counsel.

I noticed most of the followers were "stepping". On their toes. With heels elevated.

Now I'm not an expert by any means, and I have only taken only one "Follower Technique" class (with Luiza Paes) over the six years I've been dancing tango. But, I have taken lots and lots of classes, workshops, privates, intensivos, blah blah blah. With many different teachers. I was there when they were correcting my partner. I was paying attention to the instruction and feedback they were giving the followers.

As I recall, they all said "heels down" (but not weighted); extend (the leg, to its maximum comfortable natural step, depending on the size of the step being led); and "caress" the floor (just barely caressing - with no real scuffing or shuffling noise from sole contact with the floor). The "heels down" principle is during the step, as the foot is moving backwards, and not an ending default position only after the stepping foot has collected alongside the weighted foot - that one is an embellishment, not a fundamental truth of the tango universe.

Heel down, extend, caress. Glide. Smooth. Liso.

My primary teacher frequently used a story to illustrate/visualize this concept:

"Imagine there are little Lilliputians (from Gulliver's Travels), with ropes tied to your heels, and they are pulling your leg back, from your heel."

Using this visualization exercise, and manifesting this in real time would keep the heel down and extend the leg in a backstep to its maximum comfortable "natural" step.

There are a couple/a few reasons for this as I recall, but I'm only going to focus on one. It really applies only to close embrace - chest-to-breasts. In a more open/separated embrace, "stepping" doesn't really manifest any undesirable effects - except for the aesthetic.

In close embrace, it's a different story. "Stepping" in close embrace imparts a slight verticality to the follower's movement. It can manifest as a "bounce". Gentle-like, but still a slight vertical bounce. Some have called it a bop. At its worst, for me, with shorter followers, it manifested as the top of their head bopping into the bottom of my jaw as we walked. Whenever it happens, the thought actually pops into my head that I should have a mouth guard in my pocket. But that's my own internal tongue-in-cheek overkill twisted humor. Obviously I would never have to resort to that. But it's good for illustrating a worst-case manifestation of the issue.

As I write this, it's dawning on me that I may notice this more, because I am more of a walker in my tango. I walk every chance I get. Every time the music tells me to walk, I walk. Now that I think about it, I (think I) notice most leaders doing lots of other "stuff", but not doing much walking. Maybe this "glide vs. bounce" issue is not so much of an issue if you're not doing much walking? Hmmm.

Heels-down, extending, caressing - "gliding" - imparts a smoothness, almost like a hawk flying in a slipstream in the sky. Or paddling a stripper in the early morning light on a glassy lake. Water skiing on a snake infested cafe' au lait colored Louisiana bayou - so narrow and twisty the ski boat has to come to a complete stop to turn around and go back downstream. So narrow of a channel through the thick cypress that no wind could ever ripple the water's surface. That feeling. Smooth beyond smooth. The word glide is an understatement. Floating. Airy. Dreamy.

How can you tell if it's happening? It's noticeable in the chest-to-breasts contact - the vertical motion can be felt. It's noticeable if there's any cheek-to-cheek contact as well. Or jaw-to-forehead. One might also use a video camera for "diagnostic" purposes.

I noticed it mostly in the women I was watching last night. There were only two or three followers who actually had the caress/glide movement down pat. Two or three out of twenty or thirty. Too few.

My understanding is that followers have to retrain themselves to walk (backwards in 4cm heels), or remake, or reform their backwards movement so that almost all of the verticality is removed - manifesting a much smoother, mas liso, dance. Mucho walking backwards. Mucho practice. Mucho work to get the walk smoothed out.

I could be wrong. Please comment if I am. Share your views and experience with this. Please please purty please.

Again, I'm reluctant to offer "instructional" type posts, and reluctant to bring things up that I see in my own community, because it is so small. Some of the women I noticed this with, I dance with - others I have not had the pleasure of their company on the dance floor. Yet. I hope it doesn't blow up in my face.

This post will be one of the few times I do this. I'm doing it now because I'm selfish.

Yo quiero el tango glide de luxe.

Proprioception and Aliaception in Tango

For some reason, I was thinking of these words today, racking my brain trying to remember them, and their meaning.

Proprioception (pronounced /ˌproʊpri.ɵˈsɛpʃən/ PRO-pree-o-SEP-shən), from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception) is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body. Unlike the six exteroceptive senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing, and balance) by which we perceive the outside world, and interoceptive senses, by which we perceive the pain and movement of internal organs, proprioception is a third distinct sensory modality that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.

The word proprioception can apparently be used interchangeably with kinesthesia.

Aliaception is a recently born protologism, thanks to Bryan de Valdivia over the pond in Bonn, Germany. He defines it as "The [sense or perception or] knowledge of another person's body (tension, [relaxation], positioning, and quality [and character] of movement [through time and space]) via one's sense of touch [or extremely close proximity]."

[the wording in brackets are my additions]

Anyway, I was able to remember them eventually, which is a good sign, especially after finishing the final coat on the deck and inhaling VOC's for eight hours. No tellin' how many brain cells I killed with that swift move. These are big and important words in tango. We should all know them and use them and bandy them about and try to make our bodies and brains actually do the shit that these big important tango words mean. Scientific shit that goes on when we are dancing tango and we don't even know it - we aren't even aware of it - a "rock of eye" or "Blink (the book)" sorta thing. Kindasorta. Same thing only different. Whatever.

Basically I just wanted to stick these words in the blog so I don't forget again and have to search around for them in the future.

My apologies if I got you all fluffed up over something profound, and then it turned out to be something to file under "stupid stuff".

carlitos y karina :: danza maligna

Carlos Espinoza y Karina Antonucci. How did these two miss my radar? Google is devoid of anything about them.

Thanks go to Eduardo for this find - he must have one of those new-fangled Phased Array Pulse Doppler tango radars.

Not that my tango radar is that good, or is even functioning properly any more. (Although I can pick up a flock of sandhill cranes wheeling overhead at 2,000 feet, so it must not be that bad. [grin]) I was thinking just yesterday, as I was driving or working (I can't remember which), that I should do a "life trumps tango, life trumps blog" post. To basically put the word out that I've been busy these days and not writing much. Hell, not writing my ass. I continue to draw blanks about anything to write about tango related. I'm feeling very out of the tango loop - and missing my tango friends in the far corners of my world.

I was able to conjure up a topic yesterday after all, albeit a very old one - "Energy in the Molinete" - old in the time continuum of this blog. I remember our little tango group in Aspen debating this one ad nauseum - having drinks and a late-night snack at Jimmy's after tango class. Perhaps it was me debating and the others experiencing the ad nauseum. The gist of my drift is that in the ideal molinete, the follower takes over the leads "energy" as she takes her "back-side-front" steps. She doesn't take over the lead itself, she doesn't back lead, but just assumes the dominant/active/athletic energy, and then relinquishes it when the lead ends the molinete.

When this happens, it's amazing. It is subtle but intense. Two followers who/m I know can do this. Or rather, do it all the time by default. One in Atlanta. One in Denver.

Anyway, perhaps I'll expand on the subject when I have more time. It's a little more esoteric/abstract and difficult to explain and conceive of in here...I dunno...we'll see.

Happy tangos y'all...check out Carlitos y Karina...can anyone tell us more about them?



Oh, and the song is "Danza Maligna" by Enrique Rodriguez...one of my favorites...

La Cruzada Lenta :: Deep Tango Technique

I just dragged this post out of the archives this morning - with a new title and minor edits. Forgive me if you remember it. I didn't. Sometimes I read old posts and think to myself "Did I write this?". Scary. Anyway, I think it's good and pertinent stuff.

A couple of years ago on Tango-L, there was a thread about followers automatically crossing (la cruzada) without being led.

Here was my post to the list on the subject - actually, more on the subject of the superslow cross than the un-led cross. I suppose you could term it "la cruzada lenta".

Subject: The subject that never dies

Re: Keith’s latest response to Floyd on the subject...

I would venture to say that the key to leading the cross is in the torso. I might even go so far as to say the cross is led entirely with the torso.

It doesn’t really matter (in a kinda/sorta way) what the leader is doing with his feet. I can lead the cross standing still, with my feet together, led entirely with contrabody/torso. I don't ever lead it this way while dancing, obviously. Granted, there are the “norms” of where the lead’s feet are when leading the cross - I just wanted to illustrate my point.

I just wanted to mention this because Keith's post didn’t – the importance of contrabody and what the lead's torso does in the lead to the cross.

There is no “autocross” in my experience - I don't really "get" a cross unless I lead it. Unless she is a very basic beginner in the first month or so – and has just learned the cross. Sometimes they will self-lead themselves to the cross, by accident. That generally goes away with a good lead, and as the follower begins to understand what the lead feels like.

The “auto” that I struggle with in leading a follower to the cross is what I will call the “autopop”. It's where the follower “pops” her crossing left foot into place, without any regard to lead, musicality, or timing/rhythm. Boom. BOOM! Not a good feeling.

To lead the “superslow” cross can be challenging – with the leader leading the rate of travel of her left foot – to the music - as it caresses the floor into place.

Here are the mechanics behind it as I understand it and try to lead it:

While walking, the normal travel distance of her left foot (from first placement to second placement) is between two and three feet long, unless she is being led in very small or very large steps. When being led to the cross, that “normal” travel distance is cut in half – when her left ends up beside her right in the cross - steppus interruptus you might say.

So, if the left foot is traveling half the distance in the same amount of musical time, then it has to travel at half of the normal speed to end up (in the cross) on the beat. Right? (Insert "Aha!!" moment here...)

So, it's very important for the rate of travel of the left foot to be led by the leader, not automatically executed by the follower.

That fast pop (of the left foot into crossed position) is only applicable in the superfast "walkthru" cross, where she crosses and you walk right through it. But again, this is led. With the torso.

Try leading the superslow cross when the music is appropriate. It’s also a good practica exercise for both partners - to help in eliminating/mitigating this unpleasant habit - and it shows her something new in the realm of possibility.

Try it. You might like it.

File this one under "quality and character of motion through time and space".

Happy Dancing!

P.S. I repeat "when the music is appropriate". That is the hard part.

Getting the Eight Count Basic to Fuck with your Head

Your head, or someone else's head if you want to unleash it on them...

There's a flurry of discussion about the eight count basic on Tango-L. Yes, it's one of my frustrations too, leaders who dance the 8CB over and over on the dance floor, back step and all.

I love the free association of life and such. I'm intrigued by the free association going on in my own brain on a daily basis. I had a cyber- free association event a little while ago that plopped me right on Isloa de Pantelleria - a place on the planet that a woman connected me to many years ago. Well, not plopped physically. Virtually. Visually. Such that I laid my eyes on it from a distance. Anyway, I digress. Strange stuff sometimes, that free association.

Here's what popped into my head whilst reading a post just now on Tango-L. It's something I got from a teacher during a private lesson. This was to be an "exercise" in creativity, never to actually be danced.

1] Dance the eight count basic backwards. (start with the 8, 7, 6, 5, etc.)

2] Now mirror it on the other side.

3] Now dance it mirrored and backwards.

4] Now lead the follower in the leader's role, while you dance the follower's role, but you are still leading her, mirrored and backwards.

As I recall, the inside of my skull, or 'skelekin-head' as one of my young nephews used to call it, felt like there were fire ants crawling around and stinging the inside of my skull, or the outside surface of my brain. Or something. Maybe my synapses were shorting out in tiny little microscopic electro-chemical microbursts.

Millions of little femto-brain farts. Femto- is 10 raised to the power of minus 15. "Tee-tiny". Effing small. I think. If my compromised memory serves me. I love to think small. Subatomic. Beyond the subatomic. I love to think big. Ten thousand or five million years. Thirteen point five megaparsecs. Small, and big. Big, and small. "HONEY! Where's the camera!? There's dung beetles in the road!" I'm digressing again.

Anyway. Don't ya'll worry, I'm okay.

Really. [about the 8CB creative exercise and what it felt like]

Try it.

P.S. My feeling re: the 8CB is that there are many more leaders than we are willing to admit who are 'learning' to dance tango via YouTube. Whatever. The nature of the beast?

I'm in a mood.

line of dance by Tony Rathburn

by Tony Rathburn...written yesterday in Buenos Aires...if I'm not mistaken, he's on the tail end of his first trip there with a group of folks from Denver, Colorado...look him up on Facebook and check out his notes - he's written some great stuff...

This is poetry.

line of dance
by Tony Rathburn

a very simple concept...
a most basic element...
it moves forward...

the pace varies...

in a crowded space...
it tends to slow...

in less of a crowd...
there may be more variation...
sometimes quicker...
sometimes...
still slow...
leisurely...

it is a part of your responsibility...
to conform to the group...
to maintain pace...
without overstepping it...

the lead who pushes to fast...
is disruptive...

the lead who fails to keep up...
is simply annoying...

it is not the responsibility of the milonga...
to conform to your desires...

if the style doesn't suit you...
you are simply at the wrong milonga...

try another...
it is your responsibility...
find one that suits you...
not the other way around...

sometimes...
we explore...
visiting many venues...
some will be more to our taste than others...

our preferences...
are very individual...
very personal...

we may both like the same milonga...
for very different reasons...

or...
our paths may never cross...

the milonga...
is reality...
today...
as you see it in front of you...

not as it was last night...
or some distant time in the past...

not as it will be an hour from now...
or at any time in the future...

line of dance...
a very simple concept...
a most basic element...
it moves forward...

we complete many turns...
seeing what is behind us...
what is going on around us...
and what lies ahead...

but...
we rarely take a step back...
and, when we do...
it is with great caution...

life...
has line of dance...

by Tony Rathburn

Looks pretty milonguero to me :: Another vals

I unsubscribed to the Tango-L daily digests a while back, but this morning, I figger'd I'd check the archives and see what was going on.

The original poster of the message "Nuevo Milonguero" feared his posting of the video was tantamount to treason, and went on to express his fear that what is shown on the video would spread like wildfire to the far corners of the world. I'm paraphrasing and embellishing a bit here - for dramatic effect.

First, the video is from a 2006 Seattle workshop with Susanna Miller and Maria Plazaola. So it's nothing new. They are doing what appears to be a didactic demo at the end of a class. A vals class I suppose. Again, nothing new.

I can only guess that what he might be talking about is the switch-up of lead roles during the dance between the two women. Or perhaps same sex dancing? Can two women dance milonguero style? Sure. Can two women interchange the lead during one dance - assuming they both enjoy leading and are good leaders? Sure.

So, from the self-appointed/anointed arbiter of all things milonguero, it looks pretty milonguero to me. I'm not concerned about some new "nuevo milonguero" movement or influence bubbling up somewhere on the planet. El Tango es El Tango. Milonguero es Milonguero. Nuevo es Nuevo. They are different animals. There is no mistaking them.

Admittedly, this is a weak post, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

A couple of final notes on the video: I don't care for the rotational, up-and-down movement of the leaders' hands at times - not-so-milonguero if you ask me.

Also, the demo doesn't feel very "vals-y" to me. It's not the vals I aspire to.

It's still nice to watch - and it would make me happy to see this danced on the pista in my community.

Very happy.

Ampster's journey :: intricacy of simplicity

Ampster posted a nice one on his journey from ballroom to nuevo to exclusively open embrace and finally to milonguero/close embrace...it's a good read and very insightful...

http://ampstertango.blogspot.com/2009/04/intricacy-of-simplicity.html

The chalice of my walk

I've been environmentally ranting and raving of late, with not much to say about tango. I'm not dancing socially much anymore, influenced somewhat by choice, somewhat by higher priorities, somewhat by a chock-full social calendar. It's all good. I do miss it, and I don't. I know it will return in good and proper time.

I was sitting here in the morning darkness, CNN muted on the television, determined to find something to write about on the subject of tango. My mind scanned the dancers (leaders) who inspire me, and I remembered Gavito. I pointed out to my self that no one seems to write about him, or hold him up as a model. (I say, I say, self, no one seems to....) I found one of my favorite YouTube videos of him dancing a show with Maria Plazaola and posted it below.

Then I started surfing and searching and googling for a good quote by Gavito to include in this post. I found the quote below on the website/blog 'Tango-E-Vita', an extensive Dutch (but multi-lingual) site, whose proprietor I know nothing about.



"The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence. This is essential to learn in tango, the real dance, that of the silence, of following the melody." [Carlos Gavito]



Continuing to read below the quote on the Tango-E-Vita site I ran across this:

In Argentine tango, walking is philosophy.

The way of walking can emphasize femininity, or masculinity, showing power by military marching, so constructing an identity image, or a dance choreography. Thus, between boots and high heels, the way of walking goes through a whole life spectrum. Meditation is important in the correct understanding of the act. Movement is living motion and immobility is not the absence of movement, it is a knot, a tight cluster of movements. Dancers will realize that both the movement and the awareness, arise and disappear in a moment. They realize that an intention precedes every movement. Intention is the condition for the movement to occur. Mind and body are unsatisfactory because they are always oppressed by new uprisings and disappearings. There is no soul that can control it. Things appear and disappear according to natural law. It is as if organic chemistry cannot be otherwise.

Motion as a form of touch, assumes a line of communication, a haptic listening and responsiveness to the other’s body, and being touched by the music.
Dancers develop this sensitivity in maturity. Mature ballet dancers acquire an attunement to the other that increases their enjoyment of performing. Performing no longer becomes a matter of ‘being seen’, no longer performing an optical illusion in front of the mirror, it also invokes the reciprocity of ‘seeing’, ‘touching’ the other, the audience. An experimental question can be whether the audience also reads through the literal body movements to the underlying desire of the act of dancing. It is the body and its corporeally inscribed memories of movement that offers the embodied self the possibility of rescue from fragmentation. Discovering the inner self through dancing relates directly to body memory, the lived-body. Dancing can be a way of incorporating past into present and maintaining continuity and inner growth. [From Tango-E-Vita]

Motion as a form of touch, walking as a philosophy, walking as a seduction, the art of the walk. Deep stuff. "It is the body and its corporeally inscribed memories of movement that offers the embodied self the possibility of rescue from fragmentation." Really deep stuff.

This all got me thinking about walking. Then, I remembered a thought I had as I DJ'd the final milonga of the Austin Spring Tango Festival a couple of Sundays ago. I noticed that no one was walking. Granted, on the crowded pista, it can be next to impossible, but openings do present themselves to simply walk. Openings on the pista, and openings in the music. I hear the walk in the music, and I must walk. I MUST walk.

In these places in the music where the rhythm says "walk", where the rhythm SHOUTS "WALK ASSHOLE!, I walk, even if it's only two steps. Everyone does not hear the music the same. Everyone does not interpret the music the same. Everyone does not feel the music the same, at the same time. Everyone does not hear "WALK" when I hear and feel it. I suppose it would look pretty silly if everyone broke into a walk at the same time, but I always wonder why I am the only one walking.

As the DJ, I sat and watched at that milonga more than I usually do. I danced maybe two or three tandas, waiting for my favorite songs with my favorite followers. As I watched, I remember thinking that no one was really walking. Again, crowded pista, less opportunity for walking, but those opportunities are still there. Unscientifically, with no quantitative research to back it up, it seems that not many people "just" walk. Am I dreaming this, or is it real? Is it a trend, or an evolution that the tango walk is disappearing?

We almost never see the walk in "performances" at milongas and festivals any more. It's probably too boring for people to watch two dancers getting into the music, getting into their connection, getting into each other, simply walking. Detlef y Melina walk. Ney y Jennifer walk. Javier Rodriguez walks. Gustavo Naveira most definitely walks. Osvaldo Zotto walks. The milongueros walk. The young bucks aren't walking much it seems.

As we all know, the tango walk is the most difficult aspect of tango to learn, and to teach. It is both the most difficult to learn, and takes the most time to learn. I think it took me three years, maybe two-and-a-half, to "get my walk". But it's important to note, that while I "got it", I still don't "have it". It's like a silver chalice compared to the fucked-up, paper Dixie Cup walk I walked with for those many months. The chalice of my walk is tarnished, and it still has a long way to go. I don't drink from the chalice much, and it needs to be used and polished on a regular basis. Someday, in many more years, the chalice of my walk will hopefully become a gilded, bejeweled chalice. Worn and dented, tarnished in the deep grooves of the detail, missing a jewel or two, but polished from use in other areas, and with an unmistakable patina of age and experience and beauty. Some day. Perhaps. In my dreams.

Methinks it is the difficulty of the walk that few dance it. They give up too soon. Methinks this may be, quite possibly, the reason the new, young dancers (and a few old farts) are sliding into nuevo, abandoning Argentine tango in whole or in part. Who knows? I don't want to start that debate again, but those who know me know how I feel about the subject. Last night I responded to a discussion thread on the new 'ning' dealy-bopper 'Tango Connections' about "the most important things" to teach beginners. One respondent talked of the importance of teaching the basic 8. I responded that I purposely avoid and never mention, and definitely do not teach the basic 8. There are too many leaders dancing the basic 8 socially, back step and all. Plus, the basic 8 is totally unnecessary as a teaching tool, or as dancing vocabulary. In my classes, I focus on the walk, the walk, the walk. I drill it in each week (both lead and follow technique) before presenting new material. So far, they keep coming back for more.

With a solid walk, the other "stuff" comes easier. With a solid walk, you can connect and enjoy and feel good about your tango progress. With a solid walk, you can walk an entire dance. Some songs lend themselves to walking - "walking songs" I call them - how original. I'll never forget the first time I got the balls to walk an entire song. It was at a practica, and DiSarli's Verdemar came on (of course, it was me dj'ing). After walking the dance, she said, "it's so nice to dance with someone who has the balls to 'just' walk...". I've been complimented on long walks in other dances at other milongas. The dance becomes more about the connection, the "stuff" is inconsequential to the point of not noticing that it isn't there. The follower can relax, even rest for a time, in my embrace. She really doesn't have to think and can lose herself in the chalice of my walk.

The best of luck to all of you in 'finding' your walk.

Lastly, the Tango-E-Vita site has a great page devoted to the walk. I'm going to go back and read it myself.




Carlos Gavito y Maria Plazaola :: Milonga a Gavito




Gustavo Naveira y Giselle Anne :: Solo Caminadas en clase
(to Di Sarli's Verdemar, in an Atlanta workshop I attended a couple of summers ago...still one of my inspirations)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgnjOZxVsCw



Osvaldo Zotto y Lorena Ermocida :: Confiteria Ideal :: Indio Manso


My apologies for posting these same videos (posted many times before), but they remain my "walking" inspiration...

*BE* the tango you wish to see in the world...

Photo by alex.tango.fuego...

Stealing from Ghandi's famous quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world"...

BE the tango you wish to see in the world...

On Tango :: Surrender through, not to...

I've been reading "Woman's Love, Man's Freedom" by David Deida off and on for many years now. The copy I have is spiral bound and dog-eared, pre-publication I believe. I think it may have been the precursor to his book "The Way of the Superior Man", but I can't be sure. I've been reading that one off and on now for many years as well. It seems I read all my books that way. Off and on. For many years.

So you've heard me talk about surrender before. Not so much surrender, but "The Surrender". *Not* submission and all that drivel. Some women seem to have it, some women don't. Some nail it on the first embrace of the first lesson, some take more time, some never...never. I was going to say never master it. Or never learn it. Or never get it. Or never do it. Or refuse and refute the concept. It's not a concept. It's a feeling. It's emotional. It's metaphysical. It's hard to say if it can be learned or mastered or taught or explained.

Deida did a good job in Chapter 3, 'Surrender Through, Not To'. As I was reading, it seemed he was talking about tango.

Here it is....intended for men and women, lead and follow...replace lover with follower or leader, and sexual with tango...I suppose...and also, you should understand that 'love' goes beyond romantic love...touched by true love as I have said before...the true, untainted, universal love of the universe...that thread of energy I like to call love...it has nothing to do with romance...that's a separate topic...okay, I digress...

Here it is...

Practice surrendering not to your own fears, nor to the demands of another, but directly to love. Do your best to feel through you own resistance as well as your lover's. Behind all resistive emotion is the motive for love. The desire to give and receive love underlies every emotional action and reaction, including hurt and anger, in yourself and in your partner.

Whatever the emotion - anger, fear, closure - feel through it, breathe through it, relax through it, into the love which lies behind it. And then, actively, surrender to that love. Open as that love. Magnify love by loving.

True sexual and spiritual surrender is not about adapting yourself to what will appease your partner. Nor is it about surrendering to your own momentary emotional needs. True surrender is about relaxing through these secondary needs, both yours and your partner's, and magnifying the primary desire to give and receive love.

I sit here, and wonder, is tango simply a vehicle, a method, through which two human beings can bi-laterally give and receive love? Three minutes. Immersed in the music. Immersed in love? Is that what makes tango so powerful?

I wonder.

Repost from 02/29 :: I think I got my walk last night

I'm not sure if this was ever "out there". I was about to write about how I feel like I have not only lost my walk, but lost my tango altogether - because of a pretty much solid three months without any tango - two or three milongas - two or three tandas, but that's about it.

Anyway, was going to link back/reference a prior post about "I think I got my walk last night", when I found that I had pulled it by changing it to "Draft". Bloggus interupptus.

I'm not sure why I pulled it, so here it is again. I'll write the "I lost my walk/tango" in a day or two. It will make more sense then.

So, without further adieu, here's the original post from 29 February 2008...

I was dancing last night at a huge new studio with these cool mylar film panels on wheels in lieu of mirrors. Anyway, I was focusing on walking a bit - back and forth in front of the mirror (mylar) - and I noticed that my/our walk was looking pretty damn good. More importantly, feeling good. Really good. Natural, comfortable, relaxed.

I went from bitching and moaning a few months ago about not enough tango in my life - not dancing enough - wanh wanh wanh. To now.

As it always is with tango, the change was gradual...almost imperceptible. It's like one day - "boom" - it just hits you. At least that's what it seems like. No good, nasty walk one day, the next day you've got it nailed. Of course, we all know that it doesn't happen like this, even though this is what it can feel like sometimes.

I'm going back to the very beginning to tell a story about the evolution of my tango "walk". After my second divorce, I wanted to take dance lessons. I wanted to be a better dancer. A dancer, period. I didn't really dance much for all those years in my various (two) marriages. If I would drink, my inhibitions would come down and I would get out there and do okay. But, I didn't want to have to drink in order to dance. I reasoned that if I took lessons, then I would "know" what I was doing, would feel more comfortable, and would dance more...right?

Lucky for me, the only dance lessons I could find in Aspen were Argentine Tango lessons. A friend I worked with had planted the AT seed two years before. She had always been going to this tango class and that tango festival - so I called her to find out more about it.

I was such a dancing mess, that I couldn't even take group classes at first. I took four (or was it six?) hours of privates before I started the group classes. Also, I have to say that I met a woman at a party - we were dancing - she was showing me how to swing dance - and I was doing my best at the Texas two-step. I told her about my plans to take Tango classes - and she was up for it.

So, we start the group classes in September - in the usual format of beginner first and more advanced students in the second class. I was going to just sit and watch the second class - but Heather grabbed me and said that since I had taken so many privates - that I could join in - that I would do fine. I figured that more was better, right? Jump in the deep end with both feet, right? Totally immerse myself in tango, right? Big mistake...HUGE mistake!

I did okay for a while - until we got to the molinete (grapevine) a couple of months into it. I just could not get it. My basic vocabulary and fundamentals were just not there - not in place yet. Plus, this woman quit in frustration (with tango, not with me) and I began to convince myself that I was rhythmically retarded or something. If you are beating yourself up, tango doesn't work. Tango is all about confidence - especially in the early days. Remember the story of the little train - "I think I can, I think I can..."?

So I quit after 4 months or so. Gave up. Wussed out. Didn't look back. Been there done that.

Don't worry, stay with me...the part about my walk is coming...soon...

Then I met another woman. We met through work. I was doing consulting work for a yahoo/jerk/prick and she was working in the office. One day, the casual office chitty chat touched on tango. Of course, I chimed in "I've taken tango lessons!" And we were off...starting group classes in September.

This time, it helped to have someone encouraging me to stick with it. She encouraged me, I encouraged her. There were tough times in the early months when we both wanted to quit. But we stuck with it - persevered - supported each other - practiced with each other - and practiced more even when we didn't feel like it. We were at each other's throats at times...but we came out the other side eventually. (It wasn't just the two of us...our little group of five/cinco...three followers and two leaders...we all stuck together...advanced together...practiced together...lamented together...wined and dined together... we talked of tango and sex and the weather...our little cinco...magnifico...I miss those times...)

My partner and I took class after class, workshop after workshop in Aspen, Glenwood Springs, and Denver. Every chance we could get we were dancing tango. We went to every Denver Tango Festival. Then we reached that point where you realize more is not always better. My retention (of workshop material) was zero. My mind was full. So we would go to the festivals just to dance - sometimes no classes at all - sometimes one or two classes. There is an osmosis with tango. It has to seep into your pores, your thoughts, your muscle fibers. The neural peptides have to get reworked and rewired. Hardwired. Muscle memory. Brain ingrained. You reach that point where you are dancing without thinking. The Zone. The Tangasm. The Tango Trance. Whatever you call it, it feels good.

But (and there always is a "but", right?), my walk sucked. From that September, through April or May, my walk sucked big time. Now I say that "I had a fucked up walk". I danced for close to a year with a fucked up walk. The pisser is that NO ONE TOLD ME! Or maybe they did and I wasn't hearing it. Luckily, through YouTube, I could see what the walk was suppposed to look like. It began to dawn on me, then waylaid me like a ton of bricks - "my walk sucks!". It sucked to realize that I sucked. Suckage. I love that word.

The fact that my teachers never told me was source of concern for me. If I am walking like this (with fucked-up-ed-ness) week after week, month after month and no one tells me - especially my teachers - that's not good. I made a decision that I needed outside help - outside of our little box canyon of a valley. So it was off to Santa Fe for a workshop and privates with Cecilia Gonzalez. Good god was I star struck. What a putz. More workshops and privates in Denver. Privates at festivals. Blah Blah Blah.

Then my tango partner moved away in August...2006.

But my walk continued to improve. It was gradual. (Remember that in small towns we don't get to dance much - one year in a small town is like three months in a big city...) It was "okay" enough for me to feel "okay" about going to Buenos Aires a year ago - last April ('07). Six days of intensive study with Gustavo y Giselle. Then G&G gave a workshop in Atlanta last summer - four more days of intensive work.

2007 was the year of tango osmosis for me - everything started to sink in. Even though there really wasn't that much dancing. Eleven days in Buenos Aires, one day at the Denver Tango fest (I almost quit tango again after that - all bad/unpleasant/heavy dances), five milongas in five nights at the Fandango de Tango Festival in Austin, some good practicas & milongas in Austin during the month of November - and that's about it. A few milongas and practicas in Aspen and Denver during the year - once a month maybe.

It was at a practica in Austin in November that I first tried dancing an entire song with nothing but the walk. No side steps, no nothing, just walking and pausing to the music. Of course, you need the right song to do this - something like DiSarli's Verdemar. It also helps to have a follower that you feel inspired to "only" walk with. She said "it's nice to dance with someone who has the balls to only walk". That was three months ago. Just in the past two months of dancing did my walk really come together. And just last night - watching us walk in the reflective mylar - did I realize that it had.

The journey to rid myself of "my fucked up walk" started almost two years ago. And now, I only have another eighteen years to go to perfect it. 2026. I will be 66 years old that year. I'm looking forward to the the perfection of the perfect walk.

[Postscript: One point I failed to make...tango cannot be rushed...more is definitely NOT better...it may even be worse...you can't take classes/practice/dance 50 hours a week for a year and expect to learn tango...it can't be learned in a month...or a year...take a few classes...dance...don't think....let it soak in...take more classes or privates...dance...don't think about it...don't worry about it...don't fret...let it seep into your bones...into your soul...be patient, and it will come to you...]