My next-to-last session with my instructor dealt again with creativity, posture, and also introduced leading women’s sacadas, which are a cool waltzy-kind of thing to add on.
A group lesson later in the pm with an individual who had been a guest instructor in the states and whose floor I had promised [...]
Archive for the ‘Notes’ Category
Bonus round
Posted in BsAs, Diary, Notes on October 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The black T-shirt rule
Posted in BsAs, Diary, Notes on October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A (short) visit and one set this evening at Nino Bien, a historic floor. Last night found me visiting the milonga Maldita on Calle Peru. It was good to see an orquestra tipica, live, with Argentine young people doing what their parents and grandparents before them have done. Fatique, [...]
Session VIII
Posted in BsAs, Notes on October 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I knew it was a different kind of lesson happening when I came into the studio and Narcotango was playing.
Some emphasis today on things like proper form, etc. but the main focus was creativity and combinations on the fly.
The trick to creativity, again, is to be thinking of small things (minute changes) rather than [...]
The micro-colgada
Posted in BsAs, Notes on October 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When I have found myself in a colgada it is usually because of a mistake on the part of either lead or follow, rarely do I lead this since I have not integrated this figure. However the maestra shows me today an easy micro-colgada which will be useful in these “oh-crap” situations. [...]
More rabbits, Session VI
Posted in BsAs, Notes, sacadas on October 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In combinations in close that start with a volcada, the embrace needs to “slide”. Practice walks out of a volcada into walking to the follow’s (l).
If the balance is falling apart in a close embrace combination, it is probably because yopu have not adjusted the embrace appropriately as the combination evolved.
One should [...]
Yoopers
Posted in BsAs, Diary, Notes on October 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A real “Yooper” is someone from the “U.P. – the “Upper Penninsula” of Michigan; the most rural part of my home state. It’s hard to define, as there are people like myself who want to be “cool” and say we are yoopers when in fact we have only spent some small parts of [...]
Teacher’s Helper
Posted in BsAs, Notes on October 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In Session V the focus was on creativity. By focusing on the idea of “one lead, one follow” for each motion instead of “this figure..then that figure” as well as copius pauses for the follow, the tap was opened up. It is a different mental place, and actually can be hard [...]
Iceing on the cake
Posted in BsAs, Notes on October 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A “group” class in which I was the only one for about 40 minutes developed a nice variation of the basic step male a male cross (stepping forward in the basic with the L. first) that lets you easily do walking sacadas. Something to come back to.
Session IV
Posted in BsAs, Notes, vals on October 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat, the instructor was able to get me to a point of executing plausible looking back sacadas. I may go for a massage at some point to re-attach my ribs to the usual anatomic anchor points. Most excellent fun. To push the envelope [...]
Around and about
Posted in BsAs, Notes, vals on October 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Session III:
Tango: More work with refining my sacadas and combining with other basic figures.
Vals: Working in both close and open with walking “around” (i.e. to her left), and doing turns and returns to normal parrallel system with this. Very good for vals. That elbow needs to move, as does the chest, [...]
