AT Lessons: What are you working on?

bordertangoman said:
you will notice that this is a more traditional embrace: mostly connection at shoulder chest height; it almost separtes at 1:38 because he is sticking his butt out to get his chest forward; the more modern close embrace has the connection "down the shirt buttons" as Korey has put it; so from about navel height there is a torso connection. Like most things it is fluid and has to vary according to relative height, and as mentioned elsewhere where the woman decides to place herself.
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That makes sense. And goes with what my teacher told me.

Korey Ireland? Or some other Korey?
 
bordertangoman said:
the more modern close embrace has the connection "down the shirt buttons" as Korey has put it; so from about navel height there is a torso connection.
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I know nothing about ballroom (thankfully) but this sounds like a straight up embrace when you start it from the navel.:cool:
 
Well, my only restaurant/bar, in town, who plays a night of Tango music has hired a musician who plays half non-tango ballads. So, I'm once again faced with either acquiescing to a 'non tango' situation or doing something radical. It worked last time so I am writing out several Tango Katas...dance sequences to perform alone..like a karate who is fighting 5 invisible opponents... I am concentrating on those moves in which the man walks onto the woman's left and then comes out with different walks and figures. Performed to music it's amazing how these can fit with any song if they are laid out as if in a real dance situation. These katas will eventually make difficult movements much easier to execute. I am taking them from YouTube videos of BsAs milongueros, each with at least 40 years of dance experience. They often leave one or two steps out of the commonly performed sequences and their moves have the smoothness of pebbles in a stream.
 
Hi Mario, if there is a resonable demand for a strictly traditional milonga, why dont you start to DJ? Perhaps it will be a hit! Competition is good for business.

Nice idea with the katas, but your tango-kata involves a perfect partner, the karate-kata involves defeatable "partners" ...
I danced 100 of hours alone and put together my first choreo.
 
opendoor said:
Hi Mario, if there is a resonable demand for a strictly traditional milonga,
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You're right...people here are spoiled and used to live music but we need a DJ Milonga...ok how/where do I start? ..I'm not spending lots of $$$ to amass a 2000 song collection...what do I do? Can you direct me to a thread?... I'm guessing that I'd need a song collection and an application for playing them and ordering them.....I already have a laptop but that's all.:confused:
oh, is there a DJ specific forum somewhere on the web? thks
 
Re: to start

Mario7 said:
....I'm not spending lots of $$$ to amass a 2000 song collection.....
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After one month, no one will remember, that you are going to play the same tandas again, so never mind. Perhaps you have read this recent thread:

http://www.dance-forums.com/showpost.php?p=750645&postcount=8

The list may take 3 hrs non stop playing and fitts on 2-3 CDs. Invest and order 3 CDs of your favorite orchestras/singers. Also buy one of these cheap compilations. Download 3 songs from iTunes, and your milonga backbone is ready. Ask here in the DF for special titles per e-mail. I also tracked down audios, stills, or vids from YT to complete my playlists for free.

By the way, I always carry around 3 tango hrs in my mobile for "unforeseen events" ´:D` and an audio cable, of course.

http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=34722
http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=35013



http://tangodj.blogspot.com/
http://www.tejastango.com/milongas_djsrole.html
http://english.la-potranca.com/partner/dj-guide/index.html
 
I've been reviewing my notes on walking from the different teachers I've asked, and damned if I'm not more confused than ever. I've been told that my walk has been improving, by several different people. But I'm not sure HOW it improved, or where to go from here. Sometimes the advice is to just walk naturally. But then people say, keep the heel close to the ground... shift your weight all at once... turn your toes out for balance... walk like a cat... collect the feet... brush through the center...

What the hell is natural about all that? It seems like with every stylistic thing people add, the walk becomes less natural. But if you just walk like you do on the street, that doesn't feel like dancing to me.

I've been re-reading the Quantal Shift thread in the BR forum, and it seems to me that there's a big gap in understanding between people who pick things up by feeling and those that don't. I think the key is context. I need to know why something works the way it does or I don't get it. Sure there is a difference between the walk of someone who's been dancing for 1 year and someone who's been dancing for 10 years. But what? And there's a difference between someone who has been dancing for 10 years and someone who's been dancing for 30. But again, what? What is it we're working toward? I need some freakin' goal. I am NOT content with just sitting back and letting things develop. ok, we've been over it a billion times... the number of figures you do does not represent your knowledge of tango. The important things are the embrace, the walk, and musical interpretation. I'm now understanding why people just teach figures to their students. It gives them a measurable feeling of accomplishment and progress. All of the three majors important things are subjective to a degree. How do you measure progress then? How do you stay engaged when you have no real idea of how well you're learning?

Arg. ok, that's my rant for this evening. :tongue:

Edit: I just realized this is a more extended rant than my same one from last month. But I guess the difference now is I think I understand a little more why I'm frustrated... the lack of milestones is not good for me. I work much better when I have a goal in mind. When I reach the goal, I get a little boost that keeps me going. I just don't know what that goal should be right now. It feels like there's nothing to grab onto in AT... that I'm just flailing around in the dark, occasionally bumping into something that's real. Even though I know that's not what's really happening.
 
@Sub

Maybe you can't feel imporovement of your walking, but your partner do.
Maybe you don't walk better that before, but you feel more relax while you do.
You are more into the music while you walk i.e. you feel that music more.
 
Subliminal said:
I work much better when I have a goal in mind. When I reach the goal, I get a little boost that keeps me going. I just don't know what that goal should be right now. It feels like there's nothing to grab onto in AT... that I'm just flailing around in the dark, occasionally bumping into something that's real.
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I'm wondering how you dance and if you vary the embrace, would the walk change for each variation?
I can speak for my own close-embrace dance. The walk should feel better and better as you progress. You should know when you 'nail it'. It should feel like you are really expressing the music in a powerful way. The walk does not exist in silence but expresses the particular song being played.
 
Subliminal said:
I've been reviewing my notes on walking from the different teachers I've asked, and damned if I'm not more confused than ever. I've been told that my walk has been improving, by several different people. But I'm not sure HOW it improved, or where to go from here. Sometimes the advice is to just walk naturally. But then people say, keep the heel close to the ground... shift your weight all at once... turn your toes out for balance... walk like a cat... collect the feet... brush through the center...

What the hell is natural about all that? It seems like with every stylistic thing people add, the walk becomes less natural. But if you just walk like you do on the street, that doesn't feel like dancing to me.
Click to expand...
For the most part now, when someone tells me to just do what is natural, my eyes just glaze over. IMO, most of the people who say that, seem to think that what's natural for them is what's natural for everyone else. It's not. I've even had a teacher during a private try to explain to me why what I was doing wasn't natural. I finally had to tell him to stop telling me what was natural for me, and simply explain what he wanted me to do. The rest of the private was much more productive.

Another thing with advice about the walk is to find out if the recommendations are for a functional reason, or for a style preference. Advice related to style preferences are often contradictory across different teachers, as we all have somewhat different style preferences. Although, I think pretty much any advice from a respected source is worth trying out. In the end though, it's up to you to decide what works best for you. Of course, feedback from followers is one of the factors in deciding what is working best for you.
 
This thread has got to be incredibly intimidating to anyone new. I haven't read the whole thing myself. Is it time to start a new "what are you working on?" thread? This one has been growing to mammoth size for over 3 years!
 
Mario7 said:
I'm wondering how you dance and if you vary the embrace, would the walk change for each variation?
I can speak for my own close-embrace dance. The walk should feel better and better as you progress. You should know when you 'nail it'. It should feel like you are really expressing the music in a powerful way. The walk does not exist in silence but expresses the particular song being played.
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Of course the walk changes depending on the song, the follower, etc.

Again, I'm not looking for a subjective feeling. Maybe for you it worked that way, but not everyone is the same.
 
dchester said:
For the most part now, when someone tells me to just do what is natural, my eyes just glaze over. IMO, most of the people who say that, seem to think that what's natural for them is what's natural for everyone else. It's not. I've even had a teacher during a private try to explain to me why what I was doing wasn't natural. I finally had to tell him to stop telling me what was natural for me, and simply explain what he wanted me to do. The rest of the private was much more productive.
Thanks dchester! It's comforting to know someone else feels the same way.

I may try this next time with my teacher. Also ask her which parts are style.
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