Week 9

By week 9's class, I have targeted my weakness in my learning of the Tango dance.  I am not quite sure why but I have the tendency to want to lead even when in and practicing the follower's role.  It is not easy for me to always feel my dance partner's inner intention to lead and pick up on their guidance choice of foot to move forward with.  I just came to realize this struggle of mine, and would love feedback of how I can try to fix this minor issue.

The fire

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been inwardly and outwardly expressive of my concerns that the passion that so many tango dancers have raved about on movies and in class might not be experienced by everyone. More specifically, I was worried that I would never catch the Tango bug. I have really struggled dancing this quarter and have quite honestly been pretty frusterated in parts. Yesterday, something amazing happened that made me realize that sometimes patience is truly a virtue, especially when it comes to things that are worth being patient for. I was in the shower and was letting my mind drift and, all of the sudden, I realized I was practicing the 'sandwich' dance move that I had been practicing the day before in class. This moment gave me confidence that maybe I was more right for Tango than I give myself credit for. I sure hope that I experience more moments in the future where Tango infiltrates the out of class moments of my life, and hope to see the passion burn even after I leave Tango class.

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...