Genesius Redux
New Member
So today I had my second Argentine lesson, only this time I pulled my ballroom teacher and pro-partner Anna into the mix.
Anna and I both share a fairly cynical and dim view of Valentine's Day, although we've made a point of dancing with each other on that day for the last three years--commiserating on singlehood and such. I've always made the effort nonetheless to bring flowers and chocolate.
This time, though, I wanted to do something different. For one thing, she's cutting sugar out of her diet--which means that I only brought her a small box of four truffles rather than a big box of, like, forty. But since she knows nothing about Argentine Tango, I took the liberty of double-booking her with my new Argentine coach. So today, she didn't have to teach me anything--we got to just play and learn something new together.
It's very different when you step out of your regular patterns, especially when it's not expected. She had a blast. The holds, the movement (where you extend a leg before moving a body for instance) are so different from ballroom, that it was really like dancing and discovering each other for the first time. Working with steps she'd never studied, a hold she wasn't used to, and no absolute count, forced her to focus on following. It also forced me to focus on the lead--since Anna didn't know the steps, she really couldn't backlead anything even if she wanted to.
We only really worked on basics--the Paso Basico, the Ocho Parrados (is it?), the left turns and right turns, and some of the little leg thingies (okay, okay, so I don't know all the terms yet--but I'm working on it).
Afterwards, we talked about continuing to get Todd to coach us in Argentine and learning more about it. Anna's great for this sort of thing, because while she's great in ballroom (she and her partner Jeremy won the Rising Star event at the Ohio Star Ball last year), she knows well enough that there's a world outside of ballroom. A lot of her early training is in show dancing--especially jazz and tap, and she loves learning new stuff.
For me--quite different, like I said, to have someone to dance with whom I know can follow, but who doesn't know Argentine. Dancing with Todd on the first lesson was instructive, but it was really different dancing with Anna, when she didn't necessarily know what was coming.
And as for Valentine's Day--well, an hour of Argentine with a great partner and a great friend has helped me park my little cynicism by the door. I mean, I'm still cynical, and I'm about to go home to a South Park marathon for the evening. But it feels good to have had that one hour.
So I'll keep everyone posted on where we are with AT. And all the rest of you have a great evening, wishing you the content and relaxation I feel right now!
Cheers,
GR
Anna and I both share a fairly cynical and dim view of Valentine's Day, although we've made a point of dancing with each other on that day for the last three years--commiserating on singlehood and such. I've always made the effort nonetheless to bring flowers and chocolate.
This time, though, I wanted to do something different. For one thing, she's cutting sugar out of her diet--which means that I only brought her a small box of four truffles rather than a big box of, like, forty. But since she knows nothing about Argentine Tango, I took the liberty of double-booking her with my new Argentine coach. So today, she didn't have to teach me anything--we got to just play and learn something new together.
It's very different when you step out of your regular patterns, especially when it's not expected. She had a blast. The holds, the movement (where you extend a leg before moving a body for instance) are so different from ballroom, that it was really like dancing and discovering each other for the first time. Working with steps she'd never studied, a hold she wasn't used to, and no absolute count, forced her to focus on following. It also forced me to focus on the lead--since Anna didn't know the steps, she really couldn't backlead anything even if she wanted to.
We only really worked on basics--the Paso Basico, the Ocho Parrados (is it?), the left turns and right turns, and some of the little leg thingies (okay, okay, so I don't know all the terms yet--but I'm working on it).
Afterwards, we talked about continuing to get Todd to coach us in Argentine and learning more about it. Anna's great for this sort of thing, because while she's great in ballroom (she and her partner Jeremy won the Rising Star event at the Ohio Star Ball last year), she knows well enough that there's a world outside of ballroom. A lot of her early training is in show dancing--especially jazz and tap, and she loves learning new stuff.
For me--quite different, like I said, to have someone to dance with whom I know can follow, but who doesn't know Argentine. Dancing with Todd on the first lesson was instructive, but it was really different dancing with Anna, when she didn't necessarily know what was coming.
And as for Valentine's Day--well, an hour of Argentine with a great partner and a great friend has helped me park my little cynicism by the door. I mean, I'm still cynical, and I'm about to go home to a South Park marathon for the evening. But it feels good to have had that one hour.
So I'll keep everyone posted on where we are with AT. And all the rest of you have a great evening, wishing you the content and relaxation I feel right now!
Cheers,
GR
