Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. What do you think about on the dance floor before you actually start dancing? If you're a leader, are you trying to remember what really impressive YouTube steps you're going to try? If you're a follower, are you trying to prepare yourself for the acrobatic roller coaster ride your leader might have
in store for you? Are you wondering whether your dancing compares favorably with other dancers in the room? Are you worried about what your partner will think of your dancing? Do you wish you were thinner? Fatter? Taller? Shorter? Are you having a good/bad hair day?
Preoccupations like these are commonplace among students of Tango, but, frankly, I don't think they're very useful in setting yourself up for a successful experience on the dance floor. Over the years, I've found
that it's much more useful to begin each dance session by consciously directing your attention to a few fundamental elements, which help put you in the right frame of mind, and get things started on the right track.
To this end, I usually offer my students four basic checklists of things I think they should be thinking about during the initial stages of the typical dance interaction. Each of these checklists can help focus your mind very specifically on bringing individual
elements of your Tango technique into the forefront of your consciousness.
Here are the names I give to each of the four checklists:
1. Me at rest
2. Me in motion
3. Us at rest
4. Us in motion
Today, I'll concentrate on the elements of the first checklist; i.e., "Me at rest." During the next several Tango Tips, I'll move on to
descriptions of the other three.
What does "Me at rest" mean? Well, of course, "me" refers to you, or, in fact, to anyone who's getting ready to dance Tango. This initial checklist itemizes things I believe you should have in mind before you ever even get near the dance floor. Probably the best place for putting this checklist to work is right in your own home or apartment. Pick a time, when you feel you can concentrate on the job at hand – without a lot of
distractions. All you need is a chair with a straight back, and you’re ready to go.
Here are the elements of the "Me at rest" checklist:
Take a deep breath
In fact, take a few. After you inhale, hold the air in briefly, then exhale somewhat energetically -- in order to help release any tension you might be carrying at the moment. (This may sound superficial and unnecessary, but it's really very important in getting things started in the
right way.)
Free your mind
Try to consciously free your mind of other concerns, and start thinking only about Tango. (For most of us this is not easy, given the complexity of our daily lives.)
Adjust your posture
Lots of people develop an unconscious habit of letting their chests sink, their shoulders sag, and their heads project forward. (Eventually, this can become very difficult -- if not impossible -- to change,
if you don't start working on it now.) Here's a way to begin fixing the problem. (If you're working with a competent teacher, it's a good idea to let him/her help you with this the first few times you try it.)
Sit on a hard chair; sit forward so that your back doesn't touch. Pretend that there's a hook attached to the center of your chest, and that someone is gradually pulling it upward. As your chest rises, breathe in. At the same time, open your shoulders, allowing them to
move backward gently. Try to move the shoulders not only out, but down (without letting them start sloping forward). Gently move your head straight back over your newly positioned shoulders. Keep your chin down rather than allowing it to elevate. Once you've found your ideal upright position while sitting, stand up, and try the same thing. Do this every time you begin a dance session. After a while, you'll find that good posture works its way into your muscle memory, and starts to
become part of your dance habit.
Put your heels together
One of the crucial skills in learning to dance Tango is to develop "neat feet." This starts with consciously bringing your heels together at the end of every step you take. Some people like to close both ends of their feet (which is perfectly acceptable, but in contemporary Tango the toes are usually left slightly apart, creating a slight "V" shape at rest). Parenthetically, when you bring your feet
together at the end of every step, you'll have to stop race-walking through the dance (what a shame!) in order to perfect this new discipline -- and you'll also have to give up looking like a gorilla as those feet spread oafishly apart. But those are the breaks, folks.
Create the "neutral" position
Whether you're a leader or a follower, you need to become acutely aware of the absolutely critical importance of balance at rest. Many leaders (maybe most?)
rush their follows unthinkingly from one step to the next during the course of a sequence -- often throughout the course of an entire dance. By the same token (many, most?) followers alternatively hang onto their leaders for dear life, often executing two or three steps for every one that's actually led. None of this behavior is in any way acceptable in Tango, and yet it continues to plague the American Tango community.
The "antidote" for this behavior is to focus on the
"neutral" position, which occurs (or should occur) at the end of each step in the dance. For today, we'll talk about creating and recognizing the neutral position at rest. Next week, we'll address this technique while you're in motion. Basically, the neutral position simply refers to being in resting, upright balance while on one foot. You're not falling forward, backward, or to the side. You haven't made an unconscious weight change so that you're now on two feet. You're not even
thinking about whatever might theoretically happen next in the dance. You're just there, at rest, settled, finished. All things are now possible. This is the neutral position. When we get into motion next week, we'll be addressing how you form the habit of returning to this place after virtually every step you take in Tango.
The big question now is: Are any of these elements more important than kicking butt with your favorite YouTube fantasy
figure?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yessssssss!
Longer answer: Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyesssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!
Get the idea? Next week, we'll take a look at "Me in motion." This is where you get to put some of these principles into action by yourself, before you engage a partner. See you then.
