Learning Tango

[David Bailey]

Ahhh, the cross....

I've been taught to lead it in multiple ways:
- Pattern: Do the Basic 8, and always cross on the 5. This is clearly wronger-than-wrong. Don't do it as a lead or follow.
- Lift-and-lower: lift the follower's frame so that her left leg automatically crosses over her right, exaggerating the slight natural motion of stepping over. This is... mmmm... I'd say "probably wrong", because it instills bad habits. But I've seen experienced Tango teachers teaching the cross in precisely this way, so it's possible they know something I don't.
- Throw-away and push: open up a lot of space between you and the follower, and apply some sideways pressure to her to move her diagonally. I used to teach the cross this way a couple of years ago. Now, I don't think it's a good idea.
- Dissociation: simply pivot the chest ("closing the chest in"). This is the way I prefer, and the way I try to teach and dance it.

It's also quite embrace-dependent. The cross just simply does not work well in a close parallel embrace; you need to adopt an offset-ish embrace to achieve a natural cross. In fact, the more of an offset embrace, the more natural a cross step becones (although the flip side is that the the more of an offset embrace you have, the less you tend to "just walk", and other movements become less natural).

To be honest, I've come to the conclusion that the cross should just not be taught to beginners, as the technique requirements to do it properly are quite demanding (dissociation, posture and free leg movements). I'd say that the cross is at the same level of difficulty as the boleo and gancho - both of which are, at the least, improver-level movements.

[firefly]

Ahhh, the cross....

I've been taught to lead it in multiple ways:

-snip-

- Dissociation: simply pivot the chest ("closing the chest in"). This is the way I prefer, and the way I try to teach and dance it.

-snip-

That's the way we were taught the cross.

[CheesyRobMan]

Having not been for a while except last week, went along this week with the aim of giving the beginner-plus/improver class a go. The beginner class was much as I expected - new teacher, start from scratch again. Lots of good technique though and a few tips I hadn't heard before. The improver class revolved (see what I did there) around a reverse giro - turning clockwise instead of the usual anticlockwise. It was tricky to coordinate all the steps, body leads, timing etc but I was just about getting it by the end. The new teacher is (for once) a man and relatively local instead of Argentine, so at least we can understand everything he says!

[firefly]

I haven't posted for a while, but the tango journey has been continuing.

After a month-long break over Easter, classes have re-started, and we made the step up to the improvers' class. It's fair to say it's been quite challenging, especially when some of our fellow students have been going for a couple of years. I was interested to see that two of the couples are experienced dancers who stay fixed, but in reverse roles ie the women leading and men following. Is this unusual?

The most recent class was our first proper taste of milonga. We did an exercise where the connection was purely chest-to-chest; I don't know if it was as a result of this, but subsequently everyone seemed quite comfortable with getting into close embrace. Us newbies were also given a CD of a dozen milonga tracks, made up by the teachers; a nice touch, I thought.

[firefly]

I haven't posted in a while, but we recently came back from the tango holiday I posted about on my first post in this thread (no.1887). I thought I'd put up a review for anyone who's still interested and reading.

My husband and I had won this tango holiday in a raffle; accommodation and tango lessons were provided, so we only paid for the flights to Portugal, and it was a week long. The holiday as a whole was amazing and thoroughly enjoyable, but since this is the Learning Tango thread I'll concentrate on the dance aspects (PM me if you're interested in any other details).

The lessons were taught by Jessie Kennedy and Monica Tamariz from Edinburgh. Officially there was an hour and a half of lessons every morning, but most days we agreed to have another practice session or even lesson later on in the day. It was obvious there was a lesson plan in place, but this was very much tailored to the needs of the class. We were a small group but with a spread of experience from a complete beginner with no dance experience to several years' experience in tango. Over the week we only covered basics such as walking, embrace, the cross, ochos etc, but because we had so much personal attention from the teachers it seemed as if all levels benefited from each lesson. It actually felt like we were attending a masterclass each day; very intense at times, but also hugely rewarding when we saw how much progress we'd made in a relatively short period of time.

I can't speak highly enough of the teachers. They were clear in their instructions and demonstrations; completely focused on technique but without trying to overload us with too much information at once. They often sat and watched what we did for a while, before coming over to give us some more focussed teaching. They also seemed to get a handle very quickly on our individual styles of learning and tailored what they did accordingly. This particularly benefited my husband, who'd been struggling with tango until then. Since we came back, however, he's suggested that we practice, and review the videos we took, several times (without any prompting from me!).

Apart from the lessons and practicas, a trip to a milonga in Lisbon was organised midweek. This was at night-time in the open air, in the courtyard of an old museum building. It was a beautiful setting, and an obvious magnet for tourists as well as dancers. It was rather crowded; I have little experience of milongas, but when I danced with one of our teachers we had some trouble with floorcraft. Later in the week the organiser invited a teaching couple from Lisbon, Maria and Alessio, to join us for our own mini-milonga, which was more relaxed; they also brought along a couple of their own students. Maria and Alessio did a demonstration of three dances for us. What impressed me was how they varied the mood of each dance. They were also all lovely people, and very encouraging of our tango, as well as surprisingly complimentary when we danced some modern jive.

So as a whole I'd say our tango holiday was a resounding success. We're both enthused with tango, and actually considering travelling to Edinburgh on a regular basis to keep seeing our teachers, as they seemed to get a handle on us so well. I'm hugely grateful to our lovely dance holiday organiser, for donating the holiday in the first place, and for making it such a wonderful experience. Wish we were still there!