What steps should never be taught?

[dchester]

Ha Ha! I wonder who you mean? The Birmingham scene is very odd. I caught this observation on Facebook, the other day, about a very recent Milonga - and this was written by one of Birmingham's teachers about another...

I didn't mention [blank!]. The guy running it can't dance to save his life, yet he teaches, private classes and all. He told me at his milonga last saturday that he can teach as well as any other teacher in the UK and that he doesnt need a dj. That was to reply to my suggestion that he should employ a tango teacher and a dj. Well, I must agree, he doesn't play tango music at his events, so I guess he doesn't need a tango dj... O he also said that non tango music is the future of tango (?) and he charged us £8 for a tango-less, dj-less milonga.

If you didn't laugh, you'd cry.

Strictly speaking from a business perspective, if his his milonga and classes are well attended, then he is correct. Now the challenge for the people that don't like his milongas (and I likely would be in that camp), is to create a market/demand for a more traditional tango environment.

 

[Zoopsia59]

ha, most of the time it is the other way round. Men try to lead them, but the women refuse them and do an saludo or something else instead.
.

IME what happens most is the leader THINKS he's led one because he creates a space for her to get her leg in. But he doesn't follow it up with anything that leads her to move her leg into the space. He plants his leg apart from his other leg and figures she'll see it and hook her leg through his.

This is the flip side of followers who execute a gancho by lifting their leg and shooting it through an opening they see. Since they often don't get led properly for it, they don't learn the feeling of the interruption of movement that results in a hook. The leader expects her to do it on her own, and she learns to do just that when she sees his leg there.

 

[Zoopsia59]

There's a variation of this one I learnt, with a diagonal sidestep - there's a review here, with a diagram which hopefully makes it clear. That version opens up far less space. But it still opens a little.

This is exactly how my first teacher taught it, but I've never seen anyone else around here do it that way! I was going to try to post about it as a solution, but your diagram makes it far more clear than I could have in words.

 

[UKDancer]

This is exactly how my first teacher taught it, but I've never seen anyone else around here do it that way!

As that's the only way I know it, this perhaps explains why everyone else seems so dead against it. It's quite harmless really, but not very interesting...

 

[Zoopsia59]

IMy leader's side step is taken not to the side, but diagonally forward (with the feeling of stepping around my partner).

The way my teacher did this, it wasn't really a step around the follower. Because he pivots to be angled to the wall, it steps directly side from his body, but at a 45 degree angle to line of dance. Am I being clear? I

f you took away the line of dance, it would not be considered a diagonal step. It is to his side. It is only diagonal to the perimeter of the dance floor, not to his body or direction of travel for the step itself in relation to the couple.

It also eliminates the need to do the resolution after the cross to get back over to the right and avoid slowly migrating to the center of the room.

 

[UKDancer]

The way my teacher did this, it wasn't really a step around the follower. Because he pivots to be angled to the wall, it steps directly side from his body, but at a 45 degree angle to line of dance. Am I being clear?

I think so. The direction of my LF is diagonal to the LOD, but to the side for me, because I have rotated to keep the follower in front of me, and we have both turned. I would describe that as a step 'around' my partner, though, because I am on the outside of the turn, and have stepped further than she has, because she is on the inside.

I usually wouldn't dance 678 of the 8CB at all, but walk straight out of the cross, or lead something else from the cross.

 

[opendoor]

..This is the flip side of followers who execute a gancho by lifting their leg and shooting it through an opening they see...

Right, that also exists

 

[bordertangoman]

Originally Posted by UKDancer
Ha Ha! I wonder who you mean? The Birmingham scene is very odd. I caught this observation on Facebook, the other day, about a very recent Milonga - and this was written by one of Birmingham's teachers about another...
Quote:
I didn't mention [blank!]. The guy running it can't dance to save his life, yet he teaches, private classes and all. He told me at his milonga last saturday that he can teach as well as any other teacher in the UK and that he doesnt need a dj. That was to reply to my suggestion that he should employ a tango teacher and a dj. Well, I must agree, he doesn't play tango music at his events, so I guess he doesn't need a tango dj... O he also said that non tango music is the future of tango (?) and he charged us £8 for a tango-less, dj-less milonga.

on djs; I have experienced imported and paid djs play music that wasnt appreciated by the local community. Another DJ played a decent selection of traditional music but the volume was in the threshold of pain so I think he must have suffered hearing loss and didnt understand the dynamics of bodies absorbing sound, but he did lower the volume when I asked. Another dj I know mixed up different orchestras in his tandas with the view that "they're only jivers they dont know any better.."

Fernando is one of my favourite djs,(Mike Lavocah is another). he seems to have a knack of creating different moods. I havnt heard anything special from imported DJS like Damian Boggio; its just hype for the event.
As to the person referred to above, he does play some traditional music as well, he's a decent dancer

 

[UKDancer]

As to the person referred to above, he does play some traditional music as well, he's a decent dancer

All I would say about the music (I was there) was that it gave me the impression that his iTunes collection was on shuffle play. I could find no pattern, and there were no pauses between the songs all night, which is a real problem with using iTunes directly. A DJ might have chosen exactly the same music, but would have paced it properly, and given the dancers the occcasional opportunity to clear the floor and start again.

I agree, by the way, that he is a decent dancer, and his classes are well attended. But if one teacher will write in such terms on Facebook about another teacher in the same town, there is something very wrong about the dance community in that place. But then we knew that already!

As a postscript: you obviously know that Damian Boggio is in Birmingham this weekend and is DJ for two milongas and is also doing two workshops (and very expensive they are too). Part of the hype surrounding his appearance is the novelty that he is going to play 100% LPs. I suppose we won't be getting much tango fusion (good!), but instead rather crappy transcriptions of original 78s. The best transcriptions have been on CD for decades.

 

[bordertangoman]

As a postscript: you obviously know that Damian Boggio is in Birmingham this weekend and is DJ for two milongas and is also doing two workshops (and very expensive they are too). Part of the hype surrounding his appearance is the novelty that he is going to play 100% LPs. I suppose we won't be getting much tango fusion (good!), but instead rather crappy transcriptions of original 78s. The best transcriptions have been on CD for decades.

"Dont believe the Hype" as the song goes..


*snort* i shall probably go to Hereford; Jenny & Ricardo are lovely teachers, and the Hereford tango community is very welcoming..