804 3,3,3 - Rocksteps, ochos, elasticity, ...
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 11:15:21 -0700
From: Tom English <tom@TANGONOW.COM>
Subject: 3,3,3 - Rocksteps, ochos, elasticity, ...
DO MOVEMENTS IN THREE DIFFERENT WAYS
From an earlier email, the rock step was just an example.
My teacher, an incredibly beautiful dancer, frequently
said to try everything 3 ways. It opens your mind. Stops
you from doing the same old thing. I kept complaining that
I was boring. She was working on (1) allowing me to become
more dynamic and (2) make me realize that I was far from
boring. Psychologically speaking, what a teacher!
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THE ROCK STEP:
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Do your "normal" rock step
THE ROCK STEP - Three ways in time:
1. Rock step to 2 beats,
going all the way into a pause at her back step.
(single time)
2. Rock step as a quick-quick (double time)
3. Rock step with a pause in your front step.
(half time)
THE ROCK STEP - 3 ways with a pivot:
When you get to your front step, pivot to your left
(remembering that your other leg should stay behind
your hips and, thus, be reaching around the circle
as your hips turn.
When you rock back, pivot to your left,
remembering that your other leg should be staying
under your partner, but turning to the left.
The second and third way would be to vary the way that you
move your foot or hip or how much you pivot or the
direction or how close you get to your partner, etc. Where
are your legs in respect to hers? You can study the move
as a whole, the connection, your body parts, which
instrument in the music to use for the rock, ...
THE ROCK STEP - with fake steps
Hmmmm.... they're called trespias in milonga. What are
they called in tango, fake steps? Somewhere in the rock
step, play with fake steps.
The rock step is just an example. But, a good one, for me,
because I found myself always doing them in double-time.
They never felt right. I felt like it was rough on the
follower. To my teacher's surprise, she told me, to the
contrary, that it felt great. But, then she told me to try
it three ways. I struggled with my three ways and she gave
me some tips.
THE ROCK STEP - Experimenting with her backstep
I see that so many younger dancers are doing what I was
doing, cutting off her backstep. I always felt like I was
jolting my partner.
Solution: Move further forward onto your front step.
1. Go all the way to your partner's center.
2. No, really, go ALL THE WAY to her center.
3. Go past her center. See if she bites. See if you can
communicate that you want her to do a little bit of an
embellishment as her loose foot swings back.
Stay at her center (her pivot).
1. Pause and enjoy it. They don't expect that.
You can feel the reaction in thier body.
You can feel a mix of things:
- anticipation (wanting to guess what to do
next because they don't trust you, probably
because you don't have it right, yet.)
- comfort (like in any other pause)
- off-balance (because, well, I guess we
should practice some more), ...
2. Add a twist or small pivot to the music.
Add several. Enjoy it.
3. Fake stepping back. Then, go.
This is a good one, because:
- They think you made a mistake
- They think they made a mistake
- They liked it
- They learned something?
In anycase, this is a good one to work on
musicality and connection.
.....
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BACK OCHO
---------
How about the 3 places to stop in a pivot during the
woman's back ocho, to D'Arienzo. My God! You know when
you add a facet to your dance and the woman really, really
notices it and loves it? Mmmm......
Do you realize that if you can stop the woman at the
- beginning,
- middle, or
- end
of an ocho, that you don't, necessarily, have to finish the
ocho? My God! Let the musicality begin!!!!
OCHOS - The end of the ocho:
1. Make it into a boleo
2. Stop suddenly, pause and continue
3. Stop suddenly, pause and fake step,
allowing her the opportunity to do a linear boleo
4. Stop suddenly,
turn her back to the middle,
stop suddenly,
turn her back to the end,
..... continue, or not.
I don't care. Its your dance!
This one is nice in open embrace because you get to see the
woman smile. :)
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ELASTICITY
----------
Someone asked me, as a response to a previous email, to
write more about playing with the woman's elasticity.
Well, go back to the ochos and study them. Then, as you
learn about how the woman reacts to your starts and stops,
you will also be learning about her elasticity. How does
her body stop and start? A more advanced follower, or a
natural-born dancer, has more elasticity. A newer follower
has less and is afraid to use it. It is up to you to find
her comfort zone. She can have 1-percent of the elasticity
of the best follower, but if you can feel it, a song will
come along where the two of you connect, and it will
magnify! She learns to trust you and give, musically, to
the dance. As that happens, the musicality goes back and
forth, between you, like she is made of elastic. You will
both walk away thinking, "Did everybody see that?". It is
such a glow!
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GOING TO THE CROSS
------------------
How about 3 ways to do each and every step on the way to
the cross? A local teacher, we call him the Body Mechanic,
told me (when he knew I was ready, after a series of
private lessons) to never go to the cross. He was trying
to get me to stop resolving my "patterns". After that, my
mind became free. After that, I could truly say that I
really don't think of myself as doing patterns, anymore.
After that, I taught myself enough about control that when
I would suddenly have to change direction to avoid a
collision, I gained the finesse to be able to choose
amongst the 3 directions for my follower's step, the
variation in the angle for each of those 3 directions, the
dynamic or range of that step, whether it was linear, or,
even better, circular, so that I could take her around me
and protect me. 3, 3, 3.
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ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
---------------------
During a section of a dance, try a step, or a 2-step
sequence, 3 different ways.
Vary:
- the length or
- the angle, or
- the speed, or
- the tightness of your hold, or
- the amount of contra-/non-contra-ness
(ha! I'm starting a new vocabulary!).
- the attack ( how you enter the step )
- the upward or downward tension
- whether you touch her foot at the
beginning, middle or end.
- (this list is endless)
Try the above ideas individually, usually. You want to
understand what has happened to your connection with your
partner as you try 3 variations of one kind. For sure,
combine them, at times. But, we are talking about studying
your dance. Here, the exercise is to study a specific
element.
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LEARN FROM OTHERS
-----------------
It's funny. On one hand, I feel like I'm giving away my
secrets. On the other hand, I have always known how to
watch others dance and learn from them, so if I teach them,
I can, then learn from them. I know so little. I know
that when I learn from those who are ahead of me, behind
me, and my peers.
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THROW THIS EMAIL IN THE TRASH
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You don't need to remember MY ideas. Look around you. I
am beginning to realize how many teachers I have. When I
was newer, I would sit there, at a milonga, and watch this
teacher or that teacher. Another leader would walk up to
me and ask what I am doing. I would tell him, and so many
times, he would say, "Why? I don't like his dancing." My
response would always be that I'm watching because he is
better than me.
I have then learned to watch my peers, then newer dancers.
Now, I flip with joy over watching new dancers because
they are learning to deal with the person in front of them,
right in front of my eyes.
Now, I take all of that and if I want to try what someone
did, sometimes, it helps to just emulate it and sometimes,
it helps to make it into an exercise where I do "that move
or step" 3 different ways. What comes out of the latter?
I learn that someone has an interesting take on a move.
It is catalogued away. How can I forget when I respect
someone so much for doing something so interesting? When I
try "what someone else did" 3 different ways, I might come
up with something new that is comfortable for me.
3,3,3
Tom
