More than a year ago, I wrote a lengthy post about finding my own dance.
Lengthy mostly because there’s a long pre-amble intended only as a personal reference. The relevant part here is this …
Continue reading Adding oomph: the next step in my tango journey
Sometimes lessons can pay unexpected dividends some time later. There can be things I didn’t really grasp at the time, which later make sense. Or things I thought were minor points, which subsequently reveal themselves to be far more important.
There was one of the latter in a private with Maeve. Indeed, I didn’t even include it in the blog post at the time, as it just felt like a reminder of something I already knew …
Continue reading Something else clicked: a way to encourage weight-sharing
The emergence of my half-speed dance – one step every two beats – has been my single biggest breakthrough in tango. It’s given my dance a distinctive feel, and given me much-needed time to decide how best to interpret what I’m hearing, and to focus on technique to a far greater degree than I find possible at a faster speed.
I’m pretty sure a lot of the miradas I’ve received from new followers have been as a result of seeing that slow-motion dance, and either liking it from a previous experience with another leader, or simply liking the look of it …
While my longer-term goal is truly improvised dance, I am of course mostly dependent on figures for now.
But the two are in any case very closely linked: the more of my existing figures I can call upon in dance, the more experience I’m getting of different movement possibilities …
Continue reading A systematic plan for expanding my core vocabulary
I’ve written a number of times about the problems with sequence-based lessons.
The bottom-line of most beginner and improver group lessons is that both leaders and followers alike are taught steps. Each knows what they are supposed to do, so there’s no real need to lead a figure (only to do enough to identify it to the follower), and no real need to follow (because the follower knows what’s coming) …
I’ve often said that my primary audience for my blog is me. It’s a way of reminding myself of what I’ve learned in particular lessons, so I can revisit them from time to time, and of tracking my progress. Anyone else finding the posts interesting is a bonus.
More so than most, this post is a memo to myself …
Continue reading My parallel learning tracks: a particularly diary-like post
There was a discussion on a tango forum recently about how much focus we should have on technique during a milonga.
There were two schools of thought. One, that technique should always be a focus. Two, that milongas are places to have 100% of your attention on your partner and the music …
Continue reading Technique in milongas, and taking my chances with Troilo
Tonight’s tango itinerary was the Thursday intermediate lesson with Luis and Natalia, and then … a dilemma! It was the monthly Tango Space drinks, which I always enjoy, but also Tango Terra.
It wasn’t feasible to do both, so a decision needed to be made …
Continue reading A really fun lesson, and a great evening socialising
I was thinking about something Maeve said in my last lesson with her. She remarked on the confidence of my walk, and wanted me to bring that to my ochos.
I realised then something that has been holding me back in my private lessons …
Continue reading Confidence, and the paradox of private lessons
Scheduling challenges meant I didn’t have any private lessons last month, but now have three arranged for this month: two with Maeve while she’s in London, and resuming my regular privates with Fede and Julia toward the end of the month.
A lot changed for me in BsAs, so I realised I needed to take a fresh look at what I wanted to get out of my privates. Two elements are easy …
An experienced tango friend tagged me in a Facebook thread by a tango teacher, on what can be done to encourage beginner leaders to stick with it long enough to graduate from Tango Hell.
I wrote a lengthy reply, and then realised I’d just written my next blog post. Here’s what I wrote …,
Continue reading Eight ways to prevent leaders giving up in their first year
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 …
I posted at length last month about the kind of dancer I want to be, the executive summary of which was:
That second bullet is key …
Continue reading A difficult question, that turned out to have a very simple answer
Sunday’s tango-related fun kicked off with a 90-minute talk on Troilo by Michael Lavocah, author of Tango Stories, Musical Secrets.
I couldn’t even begin to do justice to the talk in a brief blog post. Lavocah clearly has an immense breadth and depth of knowledge, and boundless enthusiasm for sharing as much of it as humanly possible …
Continue reading Michael Lavocah on Troilo, and more learning about leading through following
An experience common to most beginners in tango, I suspect, is learning something in a class, feeling somewhat comfortable with it by the end of the lesson – and then struggling to remember it later.
Bridgitta recommended creating drawings as aide-mémoire for myself. There is, she suggested, something about the drawing process itself that helps embed things into our memory …
I’d set myself some musical homework, and Bridgitta had set me some more.
Bridgitta’s was to listen to some tango songs and dance only one instrument at a time. Express only what that one instrument is doing, and when the instrument is silent, be still …
Continue reading Tango stories, musical secrets – and emulating an untalented three-year-old
I’ve mentioned before Iona Italia writing something that really resonated with me, written as advice for giving feedback to a practice partner …
Walking to tonight’s Tango Space lesson, it occurred to me that I could use ordinary walking as practice. Not a full-on tango walk through Waterloo (though I have been known to do that on an empty DLR platform, which I’m sure amused someone on the other end of a CCTV feed), but just practicing really pushing into the ground. And in doing so, I solved a mystery that had been bugging me for a while.
The first time I ever really got that part of the walk right, Mariano could immediately see it. Yet I couldn’t figure out how that could be. How could something that happened purely inside my own body be not only felt but seen … ?
ben lovejoy 