Category Archives: Progress update

Group class, Milonga, Progress update, Tango

Kicking off the Just Dance phase, and a new approach to the blog

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Just Dance

I’d decided that moving fully into a Just Dancing phase – as in ceasing all lessons for a time – was just a bit too radical for now. In part because pre-milonga group classes are the best way to meet followers and decide which ones I’d like to cabeceo given the opportunity.

But my focus at present is very much on enjoying the dance, and worrying less about what I’m learning. Which also, I think, needs a new approach to the blog, but I’ll get to that …

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Group class, Milonga, Progress update, Tango

Fewer classes, more dancing (though not in 37C temps …)

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fewer classes more dance

As someone put it today, it’s 37C in London and Boris has just been appointed PM: we have officially entered hell.

No more so than in the back room at the Shield Cafe, which is an oven at the best of times …

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Private lesson, Progress update, Tango

Getting the last piece in my ‘simple, musical dance’ jigsaw puzzle

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jigsaw puzzle

This week has been an eventful one in my tango journey!

On Monday, deciding to finally put Pablo’s actitude advice into practice, and set aside my inhibited Brit persona during dance – and immediately seeing how well this worked even in a class.

On Tuesday, verifying that I can actually do this in a milonga, albeit with some caveats. On Thursday, finally being able to drop maths from my tango syllabus. And today, a lesson with Diego which put into place the last piece in my ‘simple, musical dance’ jigsaw puzzle …

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Progress update, Tango, Theory

There’s no tango maths required after all!

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tango maths

Sometimes a tango teacher will say something that’s blindingly obvious once they’ve said it, but which hadn’t occurred to me before then.

One earlier example was the times I was unsure where my follower’s weight was. The blindingly obvious solution to that, of course, is to lead a weight-change – then you’ll know where it is because you just put it there! And yesterday Irina Zoueva kindly messaged me in response to my previous blog post …

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Progress update, Tango

Where next?

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where next

Now that I have a clear focus for my tango, and the necessary reassurance that it’s a good idea, it seemed a good time to look at where my learning should go from here.

At the end of the current Tango Space cycle, I’ll have completed it twice, at mixed levels …

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Group class, Practica, Progress update, Tango

Finally losing the future tense in ‘You’re going to be a very nice dancer’

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breakthrough

Tonight was a real breakthrough for me.

Have you ever made a decision, carried it out and then got immediate and undeniable evidence that you made the right choice? That’s what happened to me tonight …

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Progress update, Tango

My nine-month appraisal – a rather different beast to my six-month one

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assessment

Three months ago, I gave myself my six-month appraisal, and made what I felt at the time was a level-headed decision:

So I think that’s where I’m at with it. A year of lessons, culminating in a trip to Buenos Aires. If I call it a day at that point, I’ve experienced a whole new world, been able to share in a part of Steph’s universe that was previously unknown to me, made some lovely new friends, and had a glorious adventure. But if I feel that I’ve reached a point where what I do in a milonga feels like dance, then I’ll stick with it.

Nine months in, things look very different …

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