Why I keep coming back to Tango

There are no mistakes in tango.  This has meaning on so many levels.  The simplest is that without set figures and steps, nothing is off the table - you can

attempt anything, and hopefully you can make it beautiful (some movements make this easier than others of course).

Tango is sexy and passionate and intimate and filled with longing and strife and anger and tenderness and beauty.

It's uniquely challenging and difficult.  I like difficult things, it turns out.

It demands a level of balance and awareness and body control that I didn't experience in other dances.  Not that other dances lack that, I just think that it comes later in the learning sequence.  With Tango it begins on day 1.  I danced ballroom styles for over a year and didn't realize that I was essentially falling onto every step the whole time.  Once I started tango, I figured it out in about a week, and started correcting it in the first month.  And this vastly improved all my other dancing.

The music is beautiful.  And various.  You can dance tango to nearly anything, because it's so improvisational and flexible.  You can tango to classic tangos (Bahia Blanca is a favorite of mine, along with "Por una Cabeza" (Scent of a Woman" and "True Lies"), or modern tangos ("Whatever Lola Wants", "Roxanne") or waltzes ("valz" in spanish), to pop music.  I've tangoed to Adele "Make you Feel my Love", to Elvis Costello "Watching the Detectives", to Lorde "Royals" and Amy Winehouse " I'm no good" - a wonderful fit for tango.

The Gallantry and old school chivalry of dancing in general holds very much in tango, and that appeals to me as well.  The man leads, and the woman follows, but the goal is to provide a pleasant and fulfilling experience for the woman.  She should be intrigued, happy, and feel like she is dancing beautifully and that all are looking on her with amazement and envy.

I'm most familiar with the leader's role and responsibilities, but the woman's is no less daunting.  I've tried to follow, and being on your axis and prepared to move in any direction requires an alertness and a kind of a zen mind that I found supremely challenging.  Another factor (shared with other dances) is the fact that when something is led, the woman must aggressively pursue and execute the step or move.  A combination of stillness and motion, of waiting peacefully, and moving confidently, and a willingness to essentially trade the lead with the man as the music inspires is required.

The man must quickly learn and dance to his partner's level of experience and vocuabulary, and his lead must be authoritative and unmistakeable while still being gentle and considerate of however long her response may take.  If any signals get crossed (either through a vague lead or difficulty following), the man must seamlessly accommodate whatever has actually happened, ideally without ever letting on to his partner or observers that anything unexpected has occurred.  The woman should always feel that she knows what is being asked of her, and should never feel like she performed anything less than perfectly.  The man must be able and willing to give her time to dance as the music inspires her, and there will be times when she is inspired to change her pace or include embellishments or even perform something that was not explicitly led.  A leader must always have a plan, but when the lady requests time or even takes the lead, he must smoothly and elegantly accommodate that.  At all times the man must dance with confidence.  There are no mistakes in tango, and the man must ensure that.

What's the point?

"My Methodist Grandmother Said" by Mary Mackey, from Breaking the Fever



My Methodist Grandmother Said

My Methodist
grandmother said
dancing
was adultery
set to music

how right she was

in that sweet sway
breast to breast and
leg to leg
sin comes into its own

[...]


Read the whole thing...

I'm such a sucker for a Waltz

Spent some focused time waltzing last night in preparation for an upcoming seekrit projeckt.  Some notes to myself.

Turning your box happens on side-together (2-3 and 5-6), not the forward/back steps (1 and 3).  I have a tendency to curve my backstep in particular.  I don't even think about it, now I have to.  Which resulted in some confused leads yesterday evening.

Leading on twinkle is a lot about rise and fall and planting us both on the landing on count 3, creating an opportunity for my partner to change weight and be on the proper foot.  My partner kept ending up on the wrong foot, and having a hard time distinguishing between my leads for twinkle and for promenade hesitation.  You'll say (and I was tempted to) "well, can't she count, can't she pay attention to what half of the box she is in" and the answer is yes she can, and maybe she should.  But If I'm going to become the dancer I want to be, my leads must be definitive and unmistakeable, and I have to know at all times what beat we're on and where in the box we are, and tell her all of that with my body.  Being indecisive and unclear is not acceptable.

Leading promenade is about right turning action with my right arm, and possibly about a little positive pressure with my left to snuggle her in as my right arm rotates.  Plus, I really, really need to consistently lead or signal with my head.  Not only does it help my partner, but it looks fabulous.  And we want to look fabulous.

And I'm still working on automating rise and fall.

I'm listening deliberately and consciously to a lot of waltzes these days.  Thank god for amazon mp3 sales/downloads and for YouTube.  There are just so many waltzes I love, and so much of the music I love, and react most emotionally to, is waltz music.  I'm starting to really wonder how much the song, the lyrics, the instrumentation even matters - whether it's just the waltz rhythm and the feeling of motion and flow and romance it inspires in me.  In other words, I thought I liked, and was moved by particular songs, but now that I notice they're all waltzes, maybe it's not the individual song I like, maybe it's the category "waltz music".  To wit, some of my favorite waltzes include:

Saturday Sun - Nick Drake - Most of Nick Drake's stuff is pleasantly depressive and morose, but this piece is wistful and romantic and hopeful.  Turns out it's a waltz.

Sweet Baby James - This seemingly simple song is surprisingly moving, and turns out it's a waltz.

Play me - Neil Diamond - There are about 4  or 5 Neil Diamond songs that I like moderately well.  This one is by far the most moving.  It's a waltz.

Valz after Jan-Olof Olsson - JPP   JPP are a Finnish folk group that I ran into at a folk music festival I attended with a friend.  There are a bunch of fiddlers, a bassist, and they often use a nyckelharpa, which is like a keyed fiddle with drone strings (I swear it's true - google it) that make it sound a lot like a set of bagpipes.  Plus, it looks like a bear to tune.  Anyway, these guys were fiddling along and I was enjoying it moderately well, but nothing particular was standing out.  Then they started this tune that began with a lone nyckelharpa singing out wistfully, and when the other fiddlers and  bassist joined in, it was like blown-away man.  The sound and emotion hit me in the chest and woke me up and I was suddenly and very emotionally engaged.  Turns out the Finnish word is "Valz"...


Take it to the Limit - Eagles - I'm a big Eagles fan, this is one of my favorites.  Waltz.




Blue Spanish Sky - Chris Isaak   I'm a Chris Isaak fan too, but favorites... Waltz.


If you Don't Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, or Simply Red, or Seal, or many others.  Let's just say I don't even know any other songs by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (I don't think...), but...   Waltz.

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica  Far and away my favorite Metallica tune.  Waltz

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot.  I didn't know I cared so deeply about the Great Lakes maritime tradition, and the risks that merchant mariners take in the name of commerce.  Maybe it's just the fact that it's  a waltz.  Actually, it's a *Viennese* waltz which is like the triple espresso of waltzes (so are a bunch of the above....)

The Rainbow Connection - Kermit the frog.  Seriously?  I'm getting a little emotional over a song by a muppet???  I blame the waltz.




Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin
Come Away with Me - Norah Jones
Moon River - Andy Williams
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
(I can't help) Falling in Love with You - Elvis
Eidelweiss and My Favorite Things - The Sound of Music (Viennese, naturally)
Lara's Theme - Dr Zhivago
Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce
Kiss From a Rose - Seal
Que Sera, Sera - Doris Day (Viennese)
You Light Up my Life - Everybody
Three Times a Lady - Commodores
House of the Rising Sun - Animals
Annie's Song - John Denver (Viennese)
Themes from Romeo and Juliet, The Godfather, The Cider House Rules, even Finding Nemo

If you want a romantic, wistful, moving, flowing song with a lot of momentum (emotional and physical), you want a waltz.

Waltz - Promenade and Twinkle

So here's the data dump on my Waltz group class the other night.

It was a fairly full and almost perfectly balanced class, we were short one lady. We spent the first half of class working on promenade - most of us had some familiarity with the move, but we all could use work on it. The latter part of the class we spent on twinkle and left and right twinkle (or as we called the move, "George"...) I hadn't been exposed to twinkle and left and right twinkle, but I managed to pick up the basics and footwork fairly quickly. Just the last half of promenade, starting at the other end of the box, on the other foot. The nuggets I was most in need of were those having to do with my frame and lead.

The mantra "nose and toes" is something I'd heard before, and my interpretation is that the point is to signal definitively with your head and toes, without getting your hips too much out of square. I definitely have a tendency to not lead the promenade with my head, and one of my partners really helped me understand how important that is to her following, because she just had a much harder time following when I got sloppy with my head. The other thing I need to remind myself is that it also looks fabulous.

The Young Turk really helped us pay attention to what the leader's right arm was doing during the "nose and toes" setup phase of promenade/twinkle. I'd been elongating my frame somewhat, but TYT pointed out that the gentlemen should actually be executing a right turning action with his right arm, resulting in a lady that's slightly more behind in frame, and slightly pivoted open - set up perfectly for promenade. Plus she ends up cradled in your right arm which gives her the stable, supportive structure she needs to really cut loose on her develope'.

The other thing that seemed to help a lot is my focusing on maintaining a positive connection with my left hand. The right turning action and frame elongation often felt like I was taking away the strong connection we had, and a positive left hand connection made that feel much more secure and definitive. This also made it feel like I was shifting slightly inside a strong, stable frame rather than it feeling sloppy.

Tango Face. Waltz Face. Noob Face.

About face

Dancing is so much about the details.

Tango face:  Tango is dramatic and passionate and serious.  Grinning takes away from the drama of the performance.  So you'll hear things like "get your tango face on!" from dancers.  It's encouragement and correction.  It's a light-hearted funny little in-joke and they're mostly kidding.  Mostly. 

It's just one of the hundreds of little details that you have to learn and get right if you're going to be any good.  Or even decent.  I love the hell out of the Tango, and whenever I'm tangoing, I'm grinning like a fool - I can't help it, I'm just having too much fun.  When some one tells me to get my tango face on, I laugh.  It's on my list of things to work on, I swear.

I only think about my tango face because it's a running joke.  I'm sure my facial expressions while dancing include "thinking too hard", "not getting it", and the ever popular "Please stand by while smoke comes out of my ears and my brain reboots".  Occasionally, "Hey, this is a lot of fun!" and "that went pretty well"  and "I actually know how do do this - mostly".  And, of course "wow, that was amazing!"  and "I really, really want to learn how to do that" - These last two while watching others, of course.

But in general, I have no idea what my face is doing while I dance. For once in my life, I'm not watching myself, censoring myself, monitoring myself and judging myself.  Mostly.  Most of my time I'm very self-conscious, and occasionally on the dance floor, or in the dojo, I'll just let myself be whatever I am.  Not often, I'm way too cautious for that.  But if I get busy enough, or am thinking hard enough, or am distracted and engaged enough, I quit watching myself, briefly.  The point of Dancing (one of them), is getting out of my head.  Sometimes I make it out.

And then they pull me right back in.  In a recent group Waltz class, we had a full, unbalanced house and two of the gentlemen had to take turns sitting out or dancing solo while the rest of us danced with the ladies there.  I was doing the dancing solo thing, I need all the drilling I can get.  Then we rotated and I got a partner again.  The Young Turk (who's a much better dancer than I, because he practices like a fiend) was partnerless, and was amusing himself by watching the other dancers.  Including me.  I was working the figure with my partner and was getting it, I thought.

He laughed and said "You just had the dorkiest expression on your face!".  My partner laughed, too, which I took as agreement.   Dang, I need to figure out my frame, footwork, leading, floorcraft, rise and fall, timing, and now I need a waltz face?


Apparently.

Thanks, buddy.  Thanks a lot.

The Party

So I mentioned that I was signed up to jitterbug in public. It went well, not least because it was a much easier and less stressful situation than I had imagined. I was definitely jitterbugging in public, but it wasn't "all eyes on me" as I'd feared. I was in a crowd of other noobs jitterbugging at the same time. I tried really hard to get out of my head and just have fun and see what happened, with mixed success. I did notice that I didn't attempt the double arm lift / arm slide combination that I just barely feel I have a handle on. If I had tried that (even if I'd failed miserably), then that would have been something. I tell myself that it's totally appropriate to avoid a technique I'm not sure of in a performance, but honestly, it's not like it really would have mattered. I'm happy that I'm at least doing some stuff mostly by body reflex rather than thinking my way through, but I'm not thrilled with my tendency to play it safe. I am happy that I didn't let down the team.

My enthusiasm for the waltz led me a bit astray (again) during the party. I heard a waltz starting up, and found a partner and asked her to dance. As we got out there everyone started spinning and moving and flowing and I realized that this was a Viennese waltz, which (as I've mentioned) is currently out of my depth. And the music didn't feel like the slow waltz was an option. At least I have some coping strategies to mitigate the problem caused by my dancing limits. I headed to the middle of the dance floor so as to minimize the obstruction we were about to become, had a chat with my partner that was equal parts apology, explanation, and brainstorming, and we clunked our way through it despite my error. She was a very good sport, made a few suggestions, and then just locked in to try to follow whatever I was trying to do. Since I was making stuff up, this was a considerable challenge.  Respect. By the end we were doing something that was more or less keeping up with the music, but I honestly couldn't tell you what my feet were doing and there was nothing else going on, other than focusing on footwork. I don't think any toes were lost in the escapade.

This all was part of a party the Dance studio was throwing for students. It was a much, much bigger thing than my little bit, with workshops, and performances by students with lots of feedback from itinerant experts as well as the staff, lots of social dancing, good food, and dance demonstrations from the staff pros. It was a really good time. The pros did some awesome numbers with complex choreography and snappy costumes, and those were very fun to watch. I'm sure I'll be even more impressed as I learn just what it is that's going on.  They're a long, long way from quick, quick, slow....

The other thing I'm very impressed by is how hard the staff worked to make sure everyone had a good time. It had to be a very long day, and they were dancing their feet off, and they kept hitting it hard right to the end. In one small example, during the awards ceremony at the end of the day, the men at the dance studio were making a point of escorting their female students up to receive their awards and recognition, in a very gallant and chivalrous way - Making it a little flourish. Not in a show off, "look at me" kind of way, but in a wonderful, masculine, generous "Look at her" sort of way. It was considerate and admirable, and it looked good too. It's a joy to watch a man who's really in touch with his body move, and it's wonderful how much can be communicated by every movement.

I want that too.

Waltz, Rumba and Salsa lesson notes

Tonight I had a private lesson, we worked on Rumba, Waltz and Salsa. Some of this was review, but a little new stuff. This post is mostly just my lesson notes - Converting this stuff into words helps me remember it, but probably keeps me too much up in my head. So if lesson notes sounds like an uninteresting post, you'll want to click ahead.

Waltz:
We worked on Promenade. I've done Promenade in Tango, where it is similar, and, frankly, trickier. I need to remember to elongate my frame, and I think I'm opening my hips too much in promenade. The hesitation during promenade felt very natural, but then I'm a slave to the beat.

We also did an open break - underarm turn combination. Aaaarg, the critical details are already fading!! Let's see, 1st half of a normal box then sidestep? is that right? Then back rock step Left, and lead the turn, back rock step Right, (turning...) then another hesitation before we're off to the waltzes again. I'm starting to love the hesitations in the waltz, they're subtly dramatic and they're what makes it human and to me they add so much to the flow of the dance. Without the hesitations, it could be done by clockwork dancers (which I probably resemble, but not for long....)

Salsa:
We reviewed cross body lead, and I needed the review, I wanted to start it on 3 (back step), but it needs to be set up on 2, otherwise my partner can't feel it coming. We also did a double face loop, I tend to hang on too long, in which case I tend to turn my body out, but that's not the end of the world, it's a decent set up for a cross body lead. I think getting into the Right-over-Left handshake hold to start this all is probably my biggest problem right now.

We also reviewed coaster action, which I was fine with, but I had a surprisingly hard time knowing what to do with my right foot after my left foot comes up. I need a thousand reps, as usual.

Rumba:
We also did an open break, underarm turn combo, Teach is obviously building on the Waltz lesson. I need practice rolling my left hand from the closed grip to the low open grip. And I think I am often too high with my Right arm - Teach very insightfully helped me understand that if our arms aren't nice and straight, I can't provide a strong lead. I'm starting to get my lead together on the "close the door" finale to this combination (the same motion also completes the cross body lead), and I love the way that feels when I'm leading it confidently.


The DanceEvangelista has drafted me into a little dance competition on Saturday. I'm the token noob on her team, and we're going to do a Jitterbug. I'm pushing my comfort level here, Though I'm decent at Jitterbug for all my noobness, if I do say so myself. But I'm nervous about the spotlight. Making mistakes in the middle of a crowd of other people who are all working through their own dance issues is one thing. All eyes on me and no other distractions is intimidating.

Music you can dance to - (Part 1 - Ballroom & Country)

OK, one of my current problems is that I don't yet have clear, separate mental categories for different dances. My other problem is that I am having a hard time picking a few dances to focus on. As you might expect, these problems interact a bit, resulting in confusion. Maybe if I blog about this, I'll start figuring them out. Here's hoping...

One of the things I'm liking most about learning to dance is that it's making me approach music from a new perspective... What dance is this?? How would I move to this??


Here are the dances that I've tried and remember, and the music they need:



Waltz - one of my favorites dances to watch/learn, and the distinctive 3/4 time signature makes it one of the few I recognize immediately, and always have. Of course, it turns out that the really fast, impressive, fluid, beautiful Waltz that I most want to do is the Viennese Waltz , which is not something you try without a bunch of instruction and practice. It's like a chainsaw - don't pick it up until you know what you're doing - somebody will probably get hurt. OK, that may be a bit of hyperbole, but honestly, you'll just end up in the way, blocking the grace and flow of the real dancers. Trust me, I know. So I'm learning the "Slow Waltz" also known as "Waltz for normal people". But Viennese Waltz is coming, just as soon as I'm a Dance God (tm). In the mean time, Slow Waltz and Country Waltz are recognizable, and something I'm interested in, both because they seem beautiful, fun, and reasonably social. Waltz tunes that surprised me a bit: "Take it to the limit" - The Eagles, "Kiss from a Rose" - Seal, and "Natural Woman" - Aretha Franklin (though once I noticed they are Waltzes, it was obvious...) The All time Classic Waltz: "The Blue Danube" - Strauss (Actually, a Viennese Waltz, it turns out...)

Two Step - So far, this is two similar dances (in my head, at least). Progressive two-step, which I learned at Dance Class (a little!), and some other two-step (Texas two step?? Not even a two step?? - dunno...) that I picked up one evening in about 3 minutes of totally unprepared combat dancing / faking it at my local Saloon and Dance Hall (hey, she was REALLY cute, and I warned her that I didn't know what I was doing... ). Socially, this has a ton of potential - I'm clearly going to meet a LOT of different people two-stepping, and experience indicates that one can probably learn it well enough and quickly enough that you can just show up on the dance floor, in public, totally unprepared, and just "monkey see" your way through it. Not that instruction and practice wouldn't help, but... Maybe that argues for spending time on it in dance class or maybe it's about just hitting the dance hall regularly, but it clearly needs to be in the mix, one way or the other. It seems like every country song ever written is a two step (unless it's a country waltz. Or Texas Swing. Or...). Anyway, Two Steps I've heard: "Guitars, Cadillacs" - Dwight Yoakam, "Past The Point Of Rescue" - Hal Ketchum, "Every Time You Say Goodbye" - Allison Krauss, "Amarillo by Morning" - George Strait, "Life is a Highway" - Tom Cochrane/Rascal Flatts/Chris LeDoux, "A Better Man" - Clint Black, "All My Ex's Live In Texas" - George Strait


Foxtrot - OK, I've danced this one a bit, and I think of it as an bent progressive two-step or an abbreviated Tango, (which tells you how much I'm focused on my feet right now. And Confused...) My other mental image is a Knight on a chessboard (feet, again...) Fortunately, the music styles are distinctive enough that I rarely try to Tango to a Foxtrot, but I have been known to Progressive Two-step when I should have been Foxtrotting (which almost works OK, though the feel is all wrong, or would be, if my either my foxtrot or my two step had any style - I really need to foxtrot to foxtrot music). Speaking of which, there's a lot of foxtrot music out there. "Sweet Caroline" - Neil Diamond, "It had to be you" - Harry Connick Jr, "New York, New York" - Sinatra (lots of Sinatra, it seems to me) "Moondance" - Van Morrison. If it Swings, it's probably a foxtrot. This is a dance I didn't think I was interested in until I started to realize how much fun, swinging foxtrot music I've heard through the years, and there's lots of social/meeting people potential here. This is not helping me narrow down my choices....

Jitterbug and Swing - We're deep in the Mental Gray Area, here. Jitterbug, East cost and West coast Swing are a jumble for me - as dances and musically. Maybe there's not a great deal of difference, or maybe I've just got a lot to learn. Lots of Fun music in this general area, though. 50's rock, doo wop, beach boys, Elvis (Presley, not Costello...) Such as: "Crocodile Rock" - Elton John, "Footloose" - Kenny Loggins, "Hey Ya" - OutKast, "In the Mood" - Glenn Miller Orchestra, "Old Time Rock and Roll" - Bob Seger, "Lido Shuffle" - Boz Scaggs, "Rock around the Clock" - Bill Haley and the Comets, "Heat Wave" - Linda Ronstadt, "Good Lovin'" - the Young Rascals, "What I Like About You" - The Romantics, and "Brown Eyed Girl" - Van Morrison.

OK, better head South before my ignorance embarrasses me severely... And explore my ignorance in a whole new culture! In Part 2, Latin...