Argentine Tango Lesson Notes

See Also:   Argentine Tango Embrace     Argentine Tango Walk     Argentine Tango Technique

Lesson Notes

Exercises

• Knee: slight knee bent, switch, knee following another knee, not bending forward. Not moving center.

• Walking forward and back: In this particular exercise, keep hips flat (not twisting hips)

  • extend leg across in front or back (crossing line), e.g. lower R hip to extend R leg across in front even more. Foot turned out (toe not pointed straight, but turned out).

  • Move onto the extended leg, still keep the originally extended leg straight, not bend the knee. The passing leg has a slight bent brushing standing knee and then extend straight.

  • Upper body thinking about stretching up, from tummy to lower leg, think about muscle going down to floor which makes leg stretching more fwd without twisting.

• Ochos: in this exercise, rotate the hips

  • when rotating to R, keep L shoulder open (and vice versa).

  • Torso is very twisted. Twisting torso and then hip follows and hip needs to do "extra" rotation/pivot to reach a very twisted position (keeping the feet together at this time). Afterreaching maximum twist, then extend moving leg straight, go the other direction with torso, then hip again. 

  • Keep upper body straight, do not lean back.

• Practice more extreme slide arm to open and close

  • Back Ochos Practice, for Lady:

    • Basic after pos 2, RF to side

    • LF back ocho

    • RF back ocho

    • Weight stay on RF, LF Boleo (L leg don't come out too soon), twist (R leg axis), both Man and Lady mirror. Lady's L leg fwd straight point

    • Keep weight on RF, twist L, LF back ocho

    • RF back ocho, repeat the twist

    • To finish, when L leg is pointing fwd straight, next step onto LF, RF back, resolution or  LF cruzada and then resolution.

  • Forward Ochos practice, for Lady:

    • Lady RF fwd ocho, open embrace on Lady's L side,  twist, to closed embrace

    • LF fwd (normal one), repeat

    • RF fwd, open embrace

    • LF fwd, deeper, very closed embrace (lower L arm, not too high), Lady R side open up a lot (hip perpendicular to Man),  L leg straight forward (but more away from Man). Wait till Man place his foot in between Lady's legs and Man moves Lady's weight to her front L leg. 

      • Man moves Lady first before he moves, but it will appear more seamless together, more continuous movement.

      • Lady: lower L arm when R side is open to Man.

      • Lady does not turn herself to Man. After transferring weight to L leg, Lady moves weight "forward" and head facing forward and just let Man rotates her. Keep R should rolled back. When moving forward, relax L arm to create space (and not bring Man with you), 

      • Man: feels like a spiral going up, lifting her.

    • Lady moves weight to L leg, keeping R leg behind, straight, thighs tight as Man rotation around her new axis (L leg), a lot of rotation (about 180)

      • Lady's head face front when transfering weight onto, do not turn head to Man too early. Wait till Man rotates Lady  and then head to Man's chest level.

      • When closing to face Man, still keep R hip open a bit, so Man has room to walk. Keep shoulder rolled down.

      • When rotating, Lady doesn't close hip, only at the end of rotation, Lady cloes R hip a bit, but not fully parallel to Man, still a bit open.

      • After rotating, Lady is slightly pitched forward, both legs straight, leg line, RF "T" position, R shoulder and hip open to R.

    • Lady R leg back resolution, or cortado (rebote) and repeat this again

  • Rebote/Cortado: 

    • Lady RF back: elasticity. Keeping going back a bit more before changing direction. Man stops at 50%, Lady keeps going back and doesn't stop and bounce back.

    • Lady also "pull" her R hip back more for elasticity. R knee bent.

    • then RF fwd, RF really crosses in front, so it won't hit Man, more room. R hip lower. Don't put hip fwd, hip is quite flexed, bent, vertical, just lower R side to extend R leg further across.

    • When Lady's LF fwd and turn, 

      • L hip goes a bit more as well ("bounce" elasticity). R leg straight, can have foot pointed or flip up/turned out (embellishment). Man sends Lady a littler further than himself for elasticity, makes her L hip go further.  L hip side and out.

    • Then bring Lady to cruzada, end with resolution (softer action, lift Lady), or if continue with another cortado, the action going back is stronger (changing energy, more energy).

  • Resolution, Lady:

    • R leg, bigger step, not too small. Open up R hip, lower into L knee, bigger R leg back.

    • L leg brush L thigh with R thigh first (collecting LF to RF, LF turned out a bit) before step LF to side.

 Lesson Notes - Leader's Perspective

- In embrace, we form V, looks a little like promenade position, except that lady is *not* behind me, her left side is on my right front.

- Always step in CBMP

- Last ocho is one moving to my right, for smooth exit

- Lead comes from pulling shoulder blades back. In certain figures, left hand is active in leading

- I need to brush my feet, my movement looks like crap

- In beginning of lesson, my arm was not far enough around, we were perhaps too square with each other. Looks like I am trying to do ballroom tango frame

- When I'm on lady's right, walking, she always crosses left in front of right. Last lesson, Miriam said on 4th step, this would be position 5 in salida

- Leonardo: always try to exit backward ochos on your right side

- I can exit back ochos either continuing with 8-step basic where I left off, or continue with baldosa ending

- Lady's left arm is always connected to my right upper arm

- Lady puts her left hand on my shoulder blade, so that she can know exactly where my weight is

- My hand is "always under her shoulder blades". Always under, not on top, because on top will tip her over toward me

- getting into v shape in embrace allows us to have close embrace. Not square to each other

- "Close embrace, a little distance for figures, close embrace again"

- When I rotate her, as in front ochos, I need to let my hand slide on her back

- When I am releasing her in right side, letting my hand slide, I am leading with tension on left hand, pulling back my left shoulder blade

- "Dont make her step, just send her leg out". I do this by lowering. We always want to showcase her leg before she steps.

- Lady communicates that she needs space (let arm slide) by rolling her shoulder

- 17:37 of recording

- Practice: Start like backward ocho, instead do boleo (whip), then bring lady around to mirror position, where my right leg and her left leg are extended forward together

- Start with backward ocho movement. When lady is going backward to my left, I have a little bounce action off my left foot, I do not collect my feet on the left, and I stop the lady's turn with my right shoulder blade, so that her leg keeps going and whips up.

- Then pulling back with right shoulder blade, lead lady to turn back so that she is facing to my left, leg extended, my right leg extended next to her left leg

- There seems to be implication that I am always pulling back on one shoulder blade or the other to turn the lady. "Everything happens because you are pulling here" - Miriam

- Now Miriam has said explicitly that I do a rock step to lead boleo

- Boleo is a matter timing, I have to cut off the movement in time before the lady starts to shift her weight. This connects to idea that I have to be intentional about lady stepping. 

- I step too far to lead boleo

- Leonardo puts his left heel down for boleo, but keeps foot up, and is sitting back on right leg.

- He says to create an "outer circle" with right side, don't pull lady towards me, pull her around in an outer circle

- Next practice move, out of first front ocho, bring lady to mirror position, have her extend her left leg, then I step with my right leg between her legs, and then when I have her transfer weight, use my left side to turn her to pivot to her left

- Another way, is to start like first half of ocho cortado, bring lady to mirror position, lead her to extend her leg forward, step between her legs, have her transfer weight, leading with my left side have her pivot, so that we change our direction by a quarter turn.

- Leonardo says that as we are leading the lady to pivot, we are "surrounding" her, sounds like "outer circle", but going to the left this time

- And as I "spiral" around her, I go up. 

- I was letting Jackie get behind me on step back after rebote, I need to turn my body towards her on that step

- They keep telling Jackie not to close too much on pivot, but I think I might have been closing her up

- When I do a rock step, Leonardo says to send her a little farther than I will go

- Less energy given to the step to do resolucion as opposed to rebote

- Have to learn to change the energy of my torso for her to understand what I am leading.

- Rocks and boleos are stronger lead, walks and ochos are softer lead

- My lead needs to go through her solar plexus, not through her shoulders

- On rock steps, should feel some elasticity, some rubber band effect. On the back rock step in the ocho cortado, provide tension in left hand, connected to left shoulder blade, to lead lady to do rock step, and not full step

- Always stepping CBMP

- I still put too much weight on leading leg on rock steps