Tango and Health (week 7)

I was sort of surprised after watching the link from ABC News in Australia about the recent medical breakthroughs in relation to Tango dancing and health benefactors.  We had talked a little bit about these new studies and findings in class.  From the story linked in the email we received, I learned much deeper detail about exactly how Parkinson's disease patients are being encouraged to try the Tango.  It provides not only an outside support group, but also helps patients deal with their mental health from being on all of the medicines.  I am excited and interested in where these studies will go once more information is gathered to predict what might come next in Tango's progression into societies.

Last Friday, I went to the Mercury Cafe for the 7-9:30 lesson. It was quite a lot of fun! We learned a double time step. I found that it was hard for me to lead the step though. I felt like I was giving the attention to move faster, but  a lot of the times, it didn't work. However there were a few followers who I could do it with so that was exciting. We also learned a pivot step which I thought was cool. It involved giving the intention to move the woman backward, but before she took the step back, pivoting her back around into a front-ocho-esk style step. I stayed after the lesson for the milonga with Jared, Camilla, Carmen, and Maddy. Early on in the night, I asked Carmen to dance a tanda because there weren't too many people on the dance floor yet. It was quite a lot of fun, although I struggled a little bit with the line of dance. After that dance though, the floor got quite crowded and it was intimidating to dance. So I just observed couples dancing and talked with the others in the class. It was quite a nice evening!

Going to the big leagues

Tonight, after eight weeks of learning and studying tango, I finally went to see what the real world of tango is actually like.We went to the Mercury Cafe in downtown Denver, a favorite of Ann's and a hot spot for Tango dancing. Even though I did not think I was ready to dance yet, I was still excited to go to the restaurant and watch other people dance. I was absolutely enthralled by the amazing sense of community that seemed to exist at the Mercury, and the passion was absolutely evident in all of the dancers that we saw during the evening. My experience watching and enjoying the true culture of Tango affirmed Matt's research paper on tango as an addiction. It was obvious that people were hungry for dances, and disappointed if they were sitting on the sidelines. One case that stood out to me specifically that reinforces Matt's hypothesis was a woman who was Ann's friend who was very obviously trying to find a dance partner. After moving closer to us in hopes that she would find a dance partner in a new position, the woman stood up and proclaimed that she was sick of waiting so long and that the night was a lousy one. This strong portrayal of emotion shown in this case is indicative of how badly many of these people need Tango, and the negative effects that come from a night that is not full of as much Tango dancing as they hoped for or anticipated. Although I marveled at the passion that was displayed tonight, I worried that I might not ever have the fire needed to be a good tango dancer. After 8 weeks of dancing and learning about this historic dance, I was absolutely content to sit for two hours and watch every body else dance, without feeling like I was missing out on much. Although I justified this through the fact that dancing in a real milonga is a tall order for a beginner and the reason that I was not dancing was because I was not yet confident enough to dance, I am starting to wonder if I will ever tango fire that I see in my teachers' and classmates eyes.

Struggle and Stride (week 8)

Unfortunately this week I did not make it to tango club.  I was planning on it, but free food and an open bar at the BFA Senior Exit Show left me full and uncoordinated.  When I got home I danced with the imaginary milonguera that inhabits my kitchen, though this proved much less fun than an actual partner.  However, in class I did make some improvements.  There was the obvious improvement of adding to my repertoire of dance moves, but more importantly there was also an improvement in my comfort with the dance.  This comfort allowed me to listen to the music more intently, anticipate its changes, and dance accordingly.  This was a large improvement from last week where I was convinced that the feet attached to my body weren't actually mine... and I did not have the excuse of an open bar to ease my frustration.

There were also struggles today.  When a milounga came on I could not keep a beat, remember dance moves, nor innovate.  I don't think I've ever danced that badly to a milounga before.  I could not be more relieved when the dance was over.  This time I am not going to attribute it to my adding complexity to the dance, but rather just the fact that I was unable to change styles from tango to milounga without over thinking and overcomplicating the dance.  I will work on becoming more flexible in the future.        

What progress??? (week 7)

Last week I commented on how much progress I was able to make in such a short amount of time.  I was ecstatic because I was finally able to bled the complexities of the dance with the harmonies of the music.  This week... not so much.

Tango club did not go as well as I expected it to.  I was unable to re-conjure the the ability to connect music to the dance moves that I could so well the week before.  I was off balance, out of step, and frustrated because it was much harder for me to tango than it was the week before.  Class was similar in that it was not my best dancing.

In my previous post I mentioned the fact that learning does not occur in a linear process.  While I still believe this, I don't necessary believe that the graph of learning should function like a cosin curve (or is that sin... I haven't taken a math class in 5 years).  With that said, I may be being too hard on my self.  Tango requires an incorporation of so many things and maybe my off week shows that I have added new complexities to the dance that will in turn improve my dancing.

Until next time...    

Struggles

This week's lesson was fairly frustrating, as my dancing did not reflect how much progress I feel that I have made in the last few weeks. For some reason, immediately upon starting to dance yesterday, I felt off: I don't know if I had not had enough sleep, I was run down or the dance moves were too complicated, I was just off, and my dancing definitely reflected my affect. As you can imagine, it can be fairly frustrating to dance for two straight hours when you feel like you have not gotten anything right all day, and that is exactly how I felt yesterday for the first hour of the morning. Although the dancing was admittedly much less fun than it normally is due to my hefty struggles, I really appreciated my classmates being so supportive, proving constructive feedback in a polite way that helped spark a better second hour of dancing for me. Yesterday's tango lesson reinforced the importance of support among those that you are dancing with, especially in a dance where frustration seems to merely be a normal part of the learning process.

week seven

This weeks lesson really gave me confidence. Although I am still not dancing the way I want to, I was able to identify what I am doing wrong and can go home and work on  those things. I still find myself struggling with posture, as well as not looking down. However the more I dance the more familiar I feel with the steps and the more I am able to look forward. I also realized how powerful and useful the chest is in the close embrace. You can literally feel your partners chest so it is so easy to tell where one is going with the movements of the chest. I find my tango posture leaking over into my real life posture. I really enjoy this, I feel like overall I have a bad posture so tango is really helping me. The research time was also helpful. It is a real puzzle to navigate through the libraries' data base so it is always nice to have someone who can show you the ropes around. I found some really cool articles and information about tangos African roots as wells the social context of tango during the time when it was primarily danced by blacks.