Hi All,

It's time to plan our annual Firehouse Tango Jewish New Year’s feast for our fellow Firehouse tangueros. 

This year, Rosh Hashanah starts on Sunday night, September 9 and Yom Kippur is on Tuesday the 18th. That makes Thursday, September 13th the perfect day to schedule our dinner. 

 

As I do every year, I will make my mother's brisket (the best in the Bronx) with potatoes and carrots and maybe a turkey. Please let me know if you'd like to contribute something. You don't have to be Jewish to contribute. 

 

Sue

 

 Here are some items from previous years:

 

• Sue - brisket with potatoes, carrots, and string beans, gefilte fish, dried fruits and nuts, desserts and honey from Joe's bees. 
• ​Mike and Debbie - Salad
• Marion Levine - Kugel
• Tsipoyra - cake

• Georgina Blitzer - Kugel

• Judy Assisi - Chile

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Last week, we talked about pivots, and how they apply to what we call ocho. Today, we’re going to begin a discussion of how pivots work in the context of one of the more complex and difficult sequences in Tango — giro, otherwise known as molinete.

In Spanish, the word giro means “turn.” In general, the word molinete alludes to a turning action in which something moves around a center. This might be a child’s pinwheel; it could be a merry-go-round. In the case of Tango, molinete refers to a connected series of individual elements executed by the follower as she creates a circular path while traveling around her leader. These elements consist of pivots, forward and backward walks, side steps, and alignments — all in a very specific order — and in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction— depending on how and when the leader initiates the sequence. (Some people suggest that the entire group of elements should take the follower approximately 360 degrees to accomplish. Whereas I’m sure this is generally true in performance, I don’t think it matters in the social dance. It all depends on the lead and the energy and size of the follower’s movements.)

Molinete actually comprises an exact formula. Here is a detailed description of the individual elements as they might occur in the context of the follower having first been “taken” to la cruzada in what is sometimes called el paso basico — the “basic” step — or la salida:

1.     Pivot (in preparation for a forward step)

2.     Forward step

3.     Pivot to alignment

4.     Side step

5.     Pivot (in preparation for a backward step)

6.     Backward step

7.     Pivot to alignment

8.     Side step

We could also look at this series of elements in a more abbreviated way; thus:

1.     Forward ocho

2.     Sidestep

3.     Backward ocho

4.     Side step

In my opinion, it is crucial to define each of the individual elements within the sequence as it actually occurs —in order to account for all possible lead/follow considerations. This is why I break molinete down in the more detailed way I’ve offered above. Your own teacher may not do this. For all I know, your teacher may not break it down at all. But you all know by now how exacting I get in these things (obsessive, some people might suggest? Perish the thought!)

If we look at this series of movements as a continuum, the formula might be initiated by the leader at any point within the series — and might contain only a partial iteration of the entire formula. For example, the leader might invite the follower to begin with a side step, then invite a back ocho, alignment, side step, and finally forward ocho with a finishing alignment. Such a limited group of elements might then be called a media vuelta, media luna or half turn, since it would generally take the follower approximately 180 degrees to accomplish.

In Tango Fantasia; i.e., performance, a couple might execute several complete molinetes in a row as a way of entertaining an audience. In social Tango, however, even a single complete iteration of the molinete sequence might be considered dangerous on a crowded dance floor.

Next week, we’ll discuss the reason why molinete exists at all in Tango, and get into how this complex sequence is led/followed in the social dance.