3937  reflections on Metin & Vanessa

Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:27:07 +0000
From: Jay Rabe <jayrabe@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: reflections on Metin & Vanessa

Disclaimer: I have no financial or other interest in Metin & Vanessa or any
of their workshops

Metin and Vanessa taught several workshops that I attended at Portland's
TangoFest.

An observation on embrace: He taught volcadas with a much different frame
than I'd seen before. The follower made full torso contact, and arched the
lower back to enable the "lean" into the volcada, while still keeping her
back straight except at the very base of the spine/pelvis. This presumably
prevents lower back strain that is normally prevented by tightening abs and
keeping the body entirely straight, as is done in the more typical way of
doing volcadas. But an interesting consequence of his approach is that they
could perform volcadas with no hands, just with the body contact. It was
amazing to watch.

I was reminded of a workshop he taught several years ago in Portland, where
he looked around the room to find the leader with the biggest pot belly, to
demonstrate what he called the "belly lead." If a leader has a big belly,
that's unavoidably where he's going to contact the follower. It works well
to focus on leading from there, at least in energy. It is the dan dian too.
Alex Krebs once taught a similar concept in what he called "leading from the
belt buckle" in doing milonga trespie. And it is exactly how Cacho Dante
contacts his partners due to him also having a large belly.

Observation on balance: Watching Metin and Vanessa perform ganchos and
volcadas without using any arm embrace, and in another workshop watching el
Pulpo do his complicated entangulations again with no arm contact,
emphasized dramatically for me the necessity of both leader and follower
having excellent balance. I've started doing my balance exercises again.

J in Portland
www.TangoMoments.com