Too Many Damn Classes

So Naveira was great the other night at Practica X, although perhaps it's not the most emotional tango around.

Anyway, I've been keeping up my rhythm of 7 classes or more per week, and today I tried two new ones. The first was great: Tango 4 at DNI with Sebastián and Eugenia. I like the way they teach, and the figure was really cool: I finally understood how to get the barridas to always be lateral or frontal or whatever. The second one was Tango Salón with Fabián Peralta (at Carlos Copello at 6pm for , which was more like Bailar como Fabián Peralta with Fabián Peralta. The idea of the class was cool: he basically focused on rhythm. But the way he did it was kind of retarded, although I think I'll be able to use those concepts soon. Basically, with syncopation you have more options than quarter- or eight-notes. You can also do eighth quarter quarter eighth, which is must easier to handle in terms of movements than straight eight notes.

But anyway, I've been analyzing my dancing for two weeks now and there are a few things I want to clear up. First of all, as my friend Agnes from one of those Baltic countries says, you don't wait for the woman to get to her axis. You lead her to arrive at her axis faster (No esperes que la mujer descargue. Hacé que descargue más rápido). And then I'm having this other problem where I'm just sucking and dancing weakly and unsurely (whatever). So I'm trying to get back to my onda, which has to do with learning to dance and making the transition, and putting everything together and dancing.

But one of the things I've decided recently is that I really do need to focus on repertoire. I really need to start getting a handle on the figures that I know, how to connect them, the figures that I don't know and need to know. Now, most of this would be better with a dance partner, which I do not have yet (though you can always get somebody to come once a week, which you could also do in the prácticas without a problem, in fact you could just ask them to try something, it's no problem) but it's also just a mental practice. One of the best things to do while you're falling asleep is to think of some of the figures that you've learned recently.

I'm wondering if I should keep a log of the figures I've learned, or a Kbase.

This last week Download.com and Softopedia.com (and others) finally published the Trashpad by Confusionists, Inc.. It's a tool to be able to do freewriting without anybody being able to read your stuff, ever, because it deletes the text as it scrolls off the screen.

Naveira in PracticaX

I'm off to Practica X to see Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne dance. They're supposed to be the best for real, so we'll see just what that means. In the meantime, I hope to dance a bit, and try out some of the stuff I've been working on, both in terms of my position and in terms of hers.

Today in DNI was cool, yesterday was cool too... it's all cool, and I think that estoy empezando a cerrar el cerco (around tango, I suppose).

Still Sucking At Tango

First off, there are only about 7 or 8 users that ever see this blog, so I can't really be too worried about keeping my writing up.

I'm still doing at least seven classes a week and going to one or two prácticas (usually Práctica X and Tango Cool on Fridays, although last week I did Tango Discovery on Sunday and this week I might do Tango Motivo tomorrow night although it's quite variable). And I'm still concentrated on DNI and Copello Tango 2, and I'm pretty convinced that it's a good group of teachers. Gonzalo and Mariel from DNI are going to be gone for a while, which is a loss.

So the following things have come up:

• I'm moving my arms a lot, even though I'm also moving my torso a lot too (which isn't really a common problem: usually you move your arms too much because you're not moving torso). The problem is that "keeping your arms still" and "keeping your head with your torso" are obvious only according to some ways of looking at it. For me, moving my head with my torso is quite unnatural. It's hard for people to understand when they say, "okay, look you moved your arm" it's obvious, of course, but since my torso is moving the obvious thing for me to do would be to extend and contract the arm to keep it in one place, and not have it move with my torso. I think I'm REALLY close to a breakthrough on this... at least I've found my torso, so it's not going so badly.
• I've kind of found a way to start dancing, which is some mix between listening to the music, making sure my steps are truly right and left and backward and forward, working very carefully with the woman, and taking advantage of spaces on the dance floor and trying not to think about the figures I'm going to do. The idea is not to avoid using your vocabulary of figures, but rather to let your vocabulary come out a bit more naturally. I've practiced some figures a lot and I've also done a lot consciously on the dance floor a bunch. I have enough figures to get moving, the idea is to dance with the vocabulary I have plus one or two more figures that I've learned recently.
• After that breakthrough I went to dance with my chica who said that I'm indecisive, my leads are incomprehensible, and that I've even forgotten everything I learned about my caminata. Now this is weird because I went over this with Jose (from Copello) and he said that he doesn't feel my leads as weak. Now it's true that I'm working on getting my leads to be more dynamic with Pedro from DNI, but I'm not sure whether my chica is just expecting a lot, or whether she's sensing that, or whether she's sensing something else. But in any case, the point is that there's some weird Eastern stuff going on in tango: it has to do with flexibility and firmness and all that bullshit.

I talked to El Indio at Catedral the other night because I like how he dances. He's giving classes at La Catedral on Monday 20-21.30 and on Thursdays 21-23 at Avenida Lacroze 4181 6o piso (chacarita).

Well, chilling out tonight and tomorrow I head to DNI and then maybe I'll check out the night class with El Indio or maybe at Canning or... well, there are always options. This is Buenos Aires, after all.

Still Rocking On, But Very Little Blogging

I have some amazing findings, and while I haven't blogged much about my tango -- or anything else -- I'm still in the thick of it. Though I could do more, of course...

First: even the simplest exercises, like doing quarter turns in both directions on one foot or the other, pay off! I've been spinning around in my apartment for a while -- I think that the mirror doesn't even help, because if you fall over you're out of eje -- and it's really working. This comes up in classes or practicas just about every day: some small kind of turn. If you don't have "balance," they won't work. The good news is that you can develop balance.

Second, I've decided that practicas and milongas are quite important for me now. This may represent a change of phase, or rather just be my backing off to a middle position. I'm definitely emphasizing group classes first, and practicas second. I don't take private classes though I can't give you any clear reasons as to why. But anyway, the emphasis is still on classes, where I spend most of my tango time. Second emphasis is on home practice alone. And the third most important thing is practicas.

I'm mostly heading to Practica X on Tuesdays and Tango Cool on Fridays. I also like the practica at Spell Cafe on Sundays, but there are so few people there that it could just as well NOT work out.

Third, I've decided that I'm using the tags wrong for Blogger which explains why I get no hits.

Fourth, I've decided that writing down figures is totally not worthwhile, especially since all the stuff I learn now just repeats. I did a lot of list memorization in Italian and very little in Spanish (I admit, I had already learned Italian) but I think that in the end you learn to speak with a decent vocabulary anyway. Sorry about the analogy, but the point is that if I need vocabulary, I can start memorizing figures now. For the time being, I need to focus on technique and general stuff and not get caught up in memorizing figures.

Fifth, today I had an amazing aside with Mariel from DNI who basically showed me why my leads to not work with women who have no body control (and probably bigger women, too): because my leads are way to big for the woman. She wasn't talking about my movements but rather about my right and left arm and their lateral distance from the woman. She totally changed my abrazo. I'm pretty excited to try it out, which I'll do tomorrow in class and then later at Practica X.

Tango 1 at DNI

Last night I did Tango 2 with Jose and Viky and today Tango 2-3 or whatever in DNI with Gonzalo and Mariel. Of course Jose and Viky are teaching compatible stuff with DNI, since they studied with Dana and Pablo (which I did not know). But more importantly, I got together with Pedro from DNI to go over a few concepts before class. He really understands stuff and has a great way of teaching, even if his dancing is still a bit verde.

Tango in Buenos Aires is so great because there's always a new crop of people coming through the system, most of them being foreigners who come in and then eventually leave. The first time you ask somebody to dance you don't know them, but then subsequently you do. And if you're nice and even just okay, women are glad to dance with you because a good man is hard to find.

Tonight I'm going to try to get to the práctica at Tango Motivo, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to swing it. Life isn't all just tango. For one thing, I think I'm going to hit another heavy programming phase on the TheKbase (www.thekbase.com) and TheKBase Web (www.kbaseweb.com). For another, I'm here with my chica so who knows what'll happen next. This is Argentina, where the mundane is unpredictable and nothing much ever happens except for a big disaster every few years, for which no one was planning even though the warning signs were not particulary non-obvious.

Tango Tango and The Southfest

I haven't been writing much, but I've been keeping my tango at a high volume. And I've even gotten some time -- with talcum powder -- to work on balance and spinning at home. I don't know if it's a good idea to be working with "help," but it sure feels right. I remember that when I was 11 learning to play snare drum, the surface made a big difference. Now I can do really fast doubles on any surface with or without drumsticks.

I've been checking out the class at Tango Cool (www.tangocool.com) a lot, and it's interesting but I do have questions about whether it's compatible with what is now considered "traditional" tango salón. According to Gabriel from Tango Cool, his stuff is actually more traditional, going back to the old Milonguero stuff. Basically, the man moves his base (knees which move feet and waist) instead of moving the torso to move the woman around. The torso keeps connection with the woman, which is how the woman eventually moves... ? Well, I don't have it that clear yet. But in any case, the Tango Cool prácticas are the best aside from Practica X, which is really the coolest around.

Then I've been going to DNI a lot, and I hope to check out a class later today at Tango Brujo (early, something like 19.30). And I'm still hanging around at Tango 2 at Copello (Jose and Viky, who are dancing with Tanghetto at Sabor a Tango this Thursday early, at like midnight). I have to say that as far as what I've seen so far, DNI is ironically the most conservative: lots of emphasis on the abrazo cerrado, and although they talk about vínculos (links) they do try to lead from the torso. Actually, if you watch Gonzalo dance -- he's the best after Pablo, who I've never seen -- his arms move way less than Christian's (the youngest of the dancers).

And in between all of this I went to the Southfest to dance on empty water bottles and see David Guetta, who said it was, "the best gig of the year!" I have to admit that although the place was too full because it was raining outside, and people inside were moving around a bit too much until about 4am, it was a great time. You can't just do tango.

One of the great differences is that after a real night of joda you have coffee at 7am to relax after the war. Breakfast at 7am after the milonga is just sustaining an already calm night (even if you dance all night). Once in a while a good night of joda is really great.