3818  Cabeceo in Aiki ;-) and "the political economy of passion"

Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 11:59:47 +0200
From: norbert <norbert.weinrichter@CHELLO.AT>
Subject: Cabeceo in Aiki ;-) and "the political economy of passion"

1) an association - I have been trying to learn Aikido for a while (you
know, the martial art with the sexy trousers as a friend of mine says...) -
and first, there is cabaceo there. The lessen unsually goes like this: the
teacher mightily smitens an unlucky student to the floor (showing a
technique) and then the other students (sitting in a row on the side) look
to each other (shortly contemplate flight), and the moment two of them
accept the eye contact of each other - they go off on the mat and try the
technique themselves. If you know that you dont want to try with this guy
(because he is too advanced, or he is not good enough and you want to try
with an advanced, you avoid eye contact). However, I think this only works
because the distance is quite small - people really sit alongside each
other, and since after the technique one returns not to exactly the same
place so that one sits beside somebody else all the time.So much for "only
the argentines do it" - aiki is a Japanese thing.

2) Another similariy between Aiki and Tango - the combination of
"techniques" (= figures, moves) and "elements" (=things like stance,
embrace, etc.). In Aiki there are central elements like "hara" (center,
axis, balance), tegatana (sword hand, like embrace the point of actual
contact to your partner), ma-ai (distance), kamai (posture, body tension)
etc.

In teaching, the theory is likened to a Cartesian room: techniques are one
dimension, elements the other and both together create aiki (like a matrix).
So both need to be developped in relation to each other (kind of: both are
equally important)

It might be interesting to compare other concepts, but the mail is long
enough already. Any former threads here comparing movement concepts (if
there is such a thing) between tango and sports?

3) Completely unrelated but my legitimation to bother all of you with an
email: have you read: Tango - the political economy of passion? And thoughts
about it?

(roughly: tango today is the product of commodifying imperialist
consumerism - the center (probably the US) uses an "exotic" display of
"uncivilized raw" dance, eroticices it and so works around the capitalist
alienation. Something like this. The auther is an argentine women teaching
at a US university.)

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