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Originally Posted by jivecat  Having gone from blank incomprehension about "decorations" to compulsive over-use of them like a tango nervous twitch I'd like to know how other people are getting on with them. |
Ok this was my approach and so far (fifteen months of regular dancing) it's worked well for me.
I decided right at the start that I would totally ignore the whole question of decorations until the little ones started to happen all by themselves without me even intending to do them. And sure enough after about six months of following nicely I went "oh, what was that?" and found that whenever I was relaxed and dancing naturally, there they were. Just little toe taps and things when enough space in the dance coincided with an accent in the music, but there, just part of me dancing around to the music and not really an intentional thing.
It would probably take you a lot less time that that - I'd never done any kind of dance before and I am a very cautious person.
So when that happened I decided I was ready to watch
Jennifer's Ornaments and read her
tutorials so I would get some ideas of what to work on.
But my basic rule is still that I never do them unless I feel like it, because if you do they can get totally pointless and clichéd and amusical, which bores me, and I don't do ones that don't feel natural because I think I'm supposed to be having fun and not scaring myself (I'm easily scared).
For example I can't really do the "beat in front" that she demonstrates in the video there, because I'm not fast enough and my free leg technique isn't quite what it needs to be for this to be a natural movement. I'm really really cautious with it and I'd only try it with certain leaders and when I'm feeling really secure. I want to be able to do it, but to get there, I'm working on my free leg technique, not the ornament directly.
But that's just my approach, it could be that it only works for me because of the way I learn.
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Originally Posted by jivecat I'd also like to know more about the protocol of when it' OK to allow your foot to be cocked toe upwards instead of parallel to the other foot, |
My take: Do it when you feel inspired, like when the music goes "!"; otherwise don't. There are no rules, it's your personal relationship with the music and that's it. Ears, feet, twiddles. No rules. I think this is a really sweet, sexy little no-effort ornament and I do it a lot.
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Originally Posted by jivecat and ESPECIALLY when to rake your 3.5" stiletto along the floor in a jaunty but tetchy gesture of dance domination! |
I've never done that. It looks cool though. Do it if you feel inspired, just don't damage the floor!
What some people say is - "in tango, the man has style, the woman has personality." As a follower you have to be able to cope with any style, as that's imposed by the leader and his ideas or limitations. But the personality is yours.
As for how long you've got to do them, some friends who are much more experienced dancers than me had a discussion about it recently in the comments on my blog, it's a bit confused (I was totally lost) but really interesting. I think it's a bit rude to post my own URLs on somebody else's discussion board but if you want to click through on my profile it's the one in February about "how long should I wait for the lady to finish her ornaments?"