All posts by Ben Lovejoy

EU Editor of 9to5Mac. Sometime novelist. Likes words, tech, photographs, bicycles, drones, places that are London, places that aren't London.
Not Tango, Private lesson, Tango

Ballet fitness, musicality, and a truly shared dance

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Ballet fitness class

You’ve got the tango bug pretty bad when a friend talks you into doing a ballet fitness class.

Bridgitta’s argument was that ballet training offers a lot of benefits for dancing tango. It was hard to argue against this given that I’d already booked a ballet taster class next month for exactly that reason.

I’d expected the class to be all women. As it turned out, a third of the class was male. But that third was me …

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Group class, Tango

Three things

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three things.jpg

I tonight did both the beginner’s and improver’s classes again – though the order is reversed on Tuesdays. All four classes taught a different version of a 180-degree turn:

  • Monday beginners: Three rebounds while pivoting
  • Monday improvers: Three back ochos into a pivot, ending with both leader and follower in a cross
  • Tuesday improvers: A cross into a medio-giro
  • Tuesday beginners: A rebound into a medio-giro …

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Group class, Practica, Tango

Changing direction

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Tango Space sends out a weekly email letting us know the theme for that week’s lessons. Usually these reveal the actual figure we’ll be learning, but this week’s email invited us on more of a magical mystery tour! The beginner’s description revealed only that it was on changing direction, while the improver’s class merely added that it would involve a cross … 

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Private lesson, Tango

What goes up …

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not feeling it.jpg

That was a long tango high! But what goes up …

Today’s lesson with Mariano wasn’t a full-on tango crash. It wasn’t like I couldn’t do anything any more. But I just wasn’t feeling it. My movement felt clumsy. I was getting mixed up with a simple sequence of steps (a new-to-me form of ocho cortado). My pace was off. And I was really inconsistent …

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Practica, Private lesson, Tango

Dancing the corrections

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Saturday saw me at Tango Garden for some guided practice with Bridgitta in the practica – plus a floorcraft exercise in the milonga.

Bridgitta started the latter by discussing some scenarios – like someone walking backwards into our space – and different ways to handle them. Then we just walked arm-in-arm so we could focus purely on floorcraft, with Bridgitta having the same view of the ronda as me.

I felt somewhat self-conscious about this strange arm-in-arm thing we were doing in a busy milonga, but it was obvious from quite a few knowing and approving smiles that this was a recognised and appreciated technique …

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Group class, Milonga, Tango

Awarding myself achievement points for three things

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tango achievements.jpg

Tonight was the second Tango Space class of the week, again on the medio-giro. In hindsight, I should have gone to the improver’s class rather than the beginner’s one, as that would have further developed my skills; it just didn’t occur to me in time.

But the beginner’s class was still great to get lots of practice, and in a rather crowded room that included adjusting the size and angle to suit the available space, so that was really useful …

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Group class, Practica, Tango

A more successful variation

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Regular readers may remember that the Monday Tango Space classes have a beginner’s class, a 30-minute practica and then an improver’s class. The topic is the same for both beginners and improvers – the latter doing a ‘variation’ on the theme.

You may also recall me deciding last week to stay on for the improver’s class, with what might best be described as mixed results …

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Private lesson, Tango

Giros, Pugliese and Practice

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Pugliese.jpg

After last night’s drunk tango, I had the kind of hangover commensurate with the amount of wine consumed. Which made for a somewhat more challenging two-hour lesson this afternoon than would otherwise have been the case.

In principle, we were just working on technique, and I’d asked Maeve to work with me on two things: improving my dissociation in ochos, and aiming for some fluidity in giros. However, in my hungover state, the lesson included some remedial material too …

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Socialising, Tango

Achievement unlocked: drunk tango

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drunk tango.jpg

I’ve never drunk alcohol at a milonga, partly because wine-breath doesn’t seem a great idea in a tango embrace, and partly because I have a finite quantity of coordination available even when stone cold sober.

But we had dinner with a couple of good friends last night, one of whom was a follower who hadn’t danced for a long time. So after way more wine than is reasonable between four people, she and I danced …

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Group class, Practica, Tango

Variations …

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This week’s Tango Space class theme is the forward ocho. Although I have spent a … certain amount of time working on ochos, it was going to provide me with one thing I’ve consistently wanted: practice at pivots. I diarised two classes this week: Monday and Thursday.

Getting some practice really was great. It was a luxury to be doing something where I didn’t have to think about the logistics but could just focus on technique. I was comfortable enough that I was able to play around with the both speed and size of the ochos, and to begin to get a sense of the flexibility available in expressing quite different things with the same core movements …

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