Another Day, Another Dollar (Well, Not Really)

Another intense tango day, where I did everything except what I'm supposed to do, which is to work on balance at home alone. Although I did do my Iyengar Yoga class as usual (I go three times a week to an excellent place in Barrio Norte), which was quite painful and nice. Now that I've been at it for over a year it's taken on some real meaning.

So tonight I went to DNI and had class with Sebastián and Eugenia, which was a great class. They just worked on some simple figures, working on weight and connection and that kind of stuff. I'm trying to think of what I learned... hmmm....: suck my gut in, don't pass the mujer on the left (keep the connection), and then with Eugenia there were different things about leading the woman. The real issue is that you have to (duh) lead the woman into what you want her to do. It's a bit hard to figure out how you're fucking up the lead without somebody who knows telling you, but probably not impossible. You just need to try everything slow and see how it works out.

Then I went with my friend Julia -- who is a classically trained dancer who has done shows in tango and everything, but she's fatally bad to dance with... not sure how to explain this yet -- to Villa Malcom to the class for Tango Cool. Although it's not that close to DNI, it's a great option because you get 2 for 1 (class and práctica), and it's one of the best prácticas de la semana.

Anyway, I really like to take one weird class a week, and Tango Cool is definitely it. Today we did pretty cool stuff: just basically getting the woman to cross (in all different directions). So today Gabriel was basically taking the same tack as Carla Marano but breaking the teaching a bit more into stages. Getting the woman into back crosses to the side are apparently the same as ochos milongueros, which unfortunately I'm not familiar with.

Oh yeah, then he worked on another concept which was really nice, which is how the man can cross to break the woman's turn and turn the direction around. Really nice stuff.

The practica was absolutely great, with really good people and a really good vibe. Some of my favorite people were there, especially Kathalina who is now very very old (birthday). She's got to be one of the most generous people that I've ever met in my life, but she's also got a really good eye for stuff in tango. A lot of her comments are spot on, which is really exciting.

I was dancing pretty well tonight for a bit, but sometimes I just start repeating myself. I'm beginning to think that the problem is not vocabulary, but a bit deeper (and perhaps easier to solve). I have enough figures and ways to move.