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**Lynn** · 25th-February-2006, 12:22 AM

Tonight at Tango was much better than last week.

The cross – we didn’t hear any more about leading it, but several leads in the class did lead it! Yay!

The teacher seems to be applying a layer approach to learning – we did ochos again this week and she began to say ‘don’t lead from the arms’ and started to talk about leading from the chest. Yay again! She also demonstrated how ochos should look which I found very helpful and made me wish that she had a male demo and we could see her dancing the woman’s part more often with a partner.

In fact she talked about lead a lot, and how the woman should wait for the lead and encouraged the guys to try and catch the woman out to make sure they were following. She went over a few sequences and various endings and told the leaders to vary what they were leading and for the followers to dance with their eyes closed.

We rotated a lot at first but less as the class went on – and at one point I was waiting out for ages. I didn’t mind too much but was starting to get cold (the teacher kept her coat and scarf on for the whole class, which gives some idea of how cold the venue is, and the heaters were on!) She did use me to help her demo a few moves and at one point came over and asked me how I thought the leads were getting on this week. Which hopefully indicated she thought I was following (which I was, most of the time) but perhaps she has been able to tell that from any time she has been leading me.

Another good thing was that the more experienced dancer joined in the class this time – I was with him in the rotation for the ‘eyes closed’ dance, which was good! As we were leaving I suddenly thought to ask him about where he gets tango music (not locally, he is going to email me links and album recommendations) and we ended up going for coffee and talking tango for about an hour.

I heard tonight that when this course is finished the teacher is going to run another course at the next level. (Beginners level 2 or something.)

And I’m planning on meeting up with another beginner early next week to have some practice time (just at home).

25th-February-2006, 12:22 AM	#277 (permalink)
Lynn Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Belfast Posts: 8,054 Status: Looking forward to new challenges. Rep Power: 7 Rep.: 2636	Re: Learning Tango Tonight at Tango was much better than last week. The cross – we didn’t hear any more about leading it, but several leads in the class did lead it! Yay! The teacher seems to be applying a layer approach to learning – we did ochos again this week and she began to say ‘don’t lead from the arms’ and started to talk about leading from the chest. Yay again! She also demonstrated how ochos should look which I found very helpful and made me wish that she had a male demo and we could see her dancing the woman’s part more often with a partner. In fact she talked about lead a lot, and how the woman should wait for the lead and encouraged the guys to try and catch the woman out to make sure they were following. She went over a few sequences and various endings and told the leaders to vary what they were leading and for the followers to dance with their eyes closed. We rotated a lot at first but less as the class went on – and at one point I was waiting out for ages. I didn’t mind too much but was starting to get cold (the teacher kept her coat and scarf on for the whole class, which gives some idea of how cold the venue is, and the heaters were on!) She did use me to help her demo a few moves and at one point came over and asked me how I thought the leads were getting on this week. Which hopefully indicated she thought I was following (which I was, most of the time) but perhaps she has been able to tell that from any time she has been leading me. Another good thing was that the more experienced dancer joined in the class this time – I was with him in the rotation for the ‘eyes closed’ dance, which was good! As we were leaving I suddenly thought to ask him about where he gets tango music (not locally, he is going to email me links and album recommendations) and we ended up going for coffee and talking tango for about an hour. I heard tonight that when this course is finished the teacher is going to run another course at the next level. (Beginners level 2 or something.) And I’m planning on meeting up with another beginner early next week to have some practice time (just at home).