Richard Ariza rocks the house!

 

It’s the music, folks! Richard Ariza treated us to an evening of seriously scintillating sounds last Thursday that literally kept us glued to the dance floor all night long. Sue Dallon is in Buenos Aires for the week, and that means hosting duties for the festivities were taken up by none other than our own Terri Lopez and Steve Turi – both of whom did a masterful job of keeping us well fed, well heeled, and mightily entertained. We look forward to having Sue back next week, and, if you’re not otherwise engaged, we hope to see you, too!

 

 

The Turi report

 

Hi everyone, Steve here. A big shout out to Terri Lopez for leading the charge in set-up and clean-up for the evening – joined by stalwart helpers Tsipoyra and Barbara. Thank you, ladies for your tireless efforts in seeing to it that things are always shipshape!

 

 

No. Sorry. I’m not talking about the sexy allure of our favorite dance.

My subject is the air temperature in our dance room.

The air conditioning unit on one (door) side is not working. Ferklempt.

It is difficult to convince the “Knights” to get the A/C fixed in the middle of winter.

Meanwhile, we’ve been opening windows to try to keep the room at the

optimum 68-69 degrees. We know this creates some cold drafts and chilly

spots. A seat away from the windows will likely be more comfy.

Please bear with us while we try to maintain an ideal Tango environment.

Thank  you for your understanding,

Steve

 

 

 

 

Tango Tip of the Week

 

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Did you get a chance to try out that graduated series of exercises I outlined in our post last week? As mentioned, the idea behind each of these exercises is to make you more conscious, more confident — and eventually more competent —at implementing what I believe is the single most essential element of skilled Tango dancing; i.e., balance.

 

Yeah, I know, you thought the secret was how much flash you could throw down at the drop of a hat. “Watch me nail this triple molinetewhile executing an endless planeo with lapices, while my partner is killing it with every adorno she ever learned in her life!”

 

Right?

 

Wrong, my friend. The key to Tango excellence is balance. I know, I know, b-o-r-i-n-g. But TRUE!  If your balance isn’t there, neither is your Tango.

 

Last week, we identified a series of exercises, which addressed each of the six essential elements of social Tango movement. I propose that you become familiar with the Spanish names for these crucial elements, which is why I’m about to throw a bunch of fancy terminology at you right here:

 

Standing still - la pausa

Changing weight from one side to the other — cambios de peso en su lugar

Steps to one side — pasos al lado (al costado)

Forward steps — pasos adelante

Backward steps — pasos atras

Pivots — pivoteos

 

These are the six basic “linear” movements you need to master in order to dance social Tango with any degree of skill. And now you’ve got their Spanish names in your pocket. Are you thrilled to receive this knowledge? When I was learning Tango, it used to bother the hell out of me that I had no idea what my Argentine-born teachers were talking about, when they routinely threw this vocabulary at me and my fellow students. Now, you can avoid that kind of confusion yourself — and possibly impress your friends with your vast knowledge of la terminologia autentica.

 

Moving right along … 

 

Once you’ve become adept at finding and maintaining balance on your own, it’s time to start working with a partner. This is where the rubber really meets the road. You’re going to find out that even if you’re able to effect balance yourself — but your partner is off — everything tends to just fall apart.

 

Bearing that in mind, I’m going to spend the next few weeks talking about each of these basic elements in turn, discussing how each one presents its own specific balance challenges for leaders and followers alike.

 

To be continued.