Back sacada

[Numawan]

Went to a summer tango seminar on Thursday and Friday. About 6h of tango lessons in total. Got to do a back sacada for the first time of my life. Not really high on my priority list but ... well, why not? I expected that the main problem of this move would be to find the right spot between the feet of my partner. That went rather well in fact. My challenge however was to feel that a number of things got seriously stretched in my body. First time that I find a tango technique a bit physically challenging.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Went to a summer tango seminar on Thursday and Friday. About 6h of tango lessons in total. Got to do a back sacada for the first time of my life. Not really high on my priority list but ... well, why not? I expected that the main problem of this move would be to find the right spot between the feet of my partner. That went rather well in fact. My challenge however was to feel that a number of things got seriously stretched in my body. First time that I find a tango technique a bit physically challenging.

Was it fun? I've never had much of an urge to practice them but when well executed they look sort of fun. A bit too showy for my taste though and there's so much else one can do with the music.

 

[JournalInTime]

The "trick" is to lead your partner to where your back sacada is just another back step. Stretching is a sign that the angle is too extreme.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

The "trick" is to lead your partner to where your back sacada is just another back step. Stretching is a sign that the angle is too extreme.

Isn't there also a pivot involved?

 

[Numawan]

Was it fun? I've never had much of an urge to practice them but when well executed they look sort of fun. A bit too showy for my taste though and there's so much else one can do with the music.

I always find it fun to learn something new. Should be fun once properly mastered. Feels that this is still a long way off. I don’t plan to focus on that for the time being. In fact, one of the things I would like to learn and use more next year are simple forward sacadas. I feel that this would really add something more useful to my vocabulary at my stage of development.

 

[Numawan]

The "trick" is to lead your partner to where your back sacada is just another back step. Stretching is a sign that the angle is too extreme.

I suspect I haven’t yet found the proper trick. How many back sacadas can you try out in about 30-45 minutes? 20? 30? No idea.

 

[Numawan]

The exercise that we did: bring your partner to the cross, then forward cross step to right of leader and another forward cross step in the other direction to complete ocho, then back sacada into that step.

 

[JournalInTime]

Isn't there also a pivot involved?

Not always much of one. You can lead the follower to step where you're going to take a back step anyway, say in a mutual molinete. Back sacadas from the Americana also involve very little pivot.

 

[Numawan]

Indeed, back sacada into Americana. Slightly different start in this video but same move in fact:


It’s the position at 00:29 that I found particularly ‘stretching’. My legs and underbody are at a clear angle away from my partner, while I had to keep my chest and upperbody broadly parallel to hers.

 

[Numawan]

I am wondering whether I should do some exercises at home to achieve that kind of dissociation more comfortably.

 

[Rabbit]

I am wondering whether I should do some exercises at home to achieve that kind of dissociation more comfortably.

You can practice back ochos, the underlying technique is the same.

 

[Mladenac]

This is a time when leaders and followers technique merge

 

[Numawan]

You can practice back ochos, the underlying technique is the same.

I have no problem doing a back ocho. The back sacada that I did felt much more dissociated than a back ocho. But perhaps that I don’t need to dissociate that much.

 

[Rabbit]

If you can do an advanced follower level of dissociation in the back ocho where your chest stays with your partner, you're most of the way there - in order to get the rest of the rotation you open up the embrace into a V and then finally let the arms flex a bit to get the last few degrees if needed

(Forward sacadas are much easier)

 

[Numawan]

If you can do an advanced follower level of dissociation in the back ocho where [...]

Quite illogical to expect an intermediate leader to be able to do dissociation at advanced follower level.

(Forward sacadas are much easier)

Yea, I know. But so far, I didn’t get a systematic approach to forward sacadas in my lessons. They have been popping up here and there in some of the teaching sequences, but without being the focus of the lessons.