Tango Vals, Javier Diaz & Daria Nikolaeva

Tango vals, danced by Javier Diaz & Daria Nikolaeva in St.Petersburg, Russia, 21.04.12.

Dance Conmigo is teaching Tango vals this spring session 2012

When we dance regular tango, there is a lot of room for interpretation of the music, the leaders constantly switch from the tempo to the melody, make long pauses, do contretemps steps or simply dance to the music inside of their head, and somehow, it all seem to work out.

When we dance Tango vals, we have to be more aware of the music and the tempo.  Tango vals is danced to 3/4 time and the tempo could change from slow to very fast within the same song.

Although most of the steps are taken from traditional tango, dancers tend to choose more turning steps, and also choose not to pause as they frequently do in Tango.

So how do we dance Tango vals?

Generally the music is too fast to step in each one of the 3 beats of every measure, to do so would be exhausting. The most common solution is to accentuate the beat 1 of the 3 beats.

Once that we have gotten used to the rhythm stepping on "1", the next step would be to do some syncopations and step twice per 2 beats of music instead of the more traditional tango walk of one step per 2 beats of music. Dancer would generally step on "1" and then either on "2" or on "3".

Although not a regular tempo, in class, I prefer to teach in series of "slows" and "quick-quick". I find it easier to explain to students and for myself as well. That would be 1 step of the 1-2-3 tempo, or two steps within the 1-2-3 tempo.

In the dance floor you might find dancers who never syncopate and who would only make steps on the "1" and this would be perfectly fine, but I have never seen a dancer who syncopates on every beat. Here comes the liberty of interpretation, where a leader can switch from stepping on every "1" and occasionally switch to the quick-quick syncopation.

Sebastian Arce & Mariana Montes - Amurado - Palermo 2012

Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes dancing Amurado in Palermo Italy.



From searching youtube, I am getting the impression that the best tango videos are presented in Italy. The speed and grace of this dancers is spectacular.

Dance Conmigo teaches Tango Classes in Montreal.

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I just saw this video and I thought that it was worth sharing with the following observations:

1. The Leader steps forward with his whole body, the follower stretches her leg back and then transfer her weight. 
2. The leader pushed himself with foot on the ground ant with the other one, he steps on his heel. 
3. They use close embrace for walking and open embrace for doing other combinations. 

A few of the most elaborate move, we have done it in class. Do you recognize some of them?

Tango and Blues, a beautiful marriage

Tango demo by Nick and Tara at the end of class at the Denver Blues Summit 2008

To learn Tango in Montreal Canada, Dance Conmigo offers private and group classes. In addition, Dance Conmigo organizes a party the first Saturday of the month with three dance floors, one of witch is for Argentine Tango. The next party will be April 7th 2012.

Back Volcadas

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I use Back Volcadas as a decorative step or as a complement to some other move.

The way I do it is by doing my regular 1 & 2 of the basic. On 3, I step outside partner and after transferring my weight on the right foot, I guide a small but dry and firm "J" movements with my torso.

If my partners' right leg is loose enough to be guided, her leg would do a small (or big, depending on the energy given) circular movement that would culminate by hooking behind her left foot. At the end of the circular movement and the hooking behind, she will transfer her weight to her right foot.

The leader would rotate her shoulder to help her liberate her left foot and he will guide her out by doing a regular 3,4,5 or by guiding many other back volcada.

To see our class calendar go here: http://www.danceconmigo.com/schedule

Body Rotations and Colgadas #1

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In this class we started with a rotation after a "Pasada"
We also did a rotation when both leader and follower were stepping into a back ocho.
Finally we did a Colgada. After stepping to the side on two, the follower created a sandwich with the leader foot creating a common axis. The leader rotated her shoulder as if guiding a back ocho and then created a rotation with the momentum of his body. Very fun step that can be exaggerated to different degrees.

One of the best time of the week is when we teach this tango class. we have to thank our students for putting up with us and the out of the ordinary interpretations that we put on body movements.

Dancing is just another way of communication, expressing yourself with your body, feeling and interpreting the music as we feel inspired to do. Tango classes is just an enrichment of the vocabulary of movements that allows to communicate with our partner.

When we find that ideal communication with a dance partner, then a smile comes to our face and the joy overwhelms our hearts. This is what makes dancers so passionate about their dance. Then it becomes a gospel and we want to share that joy with every one that we encounter.

Tango 2 lesson 5 Giros, Barrida, Gancho

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-In this video we did a basic Giro exercise,

-Then we did a Giro in which both, leader and follower, walk around each other.

- We did the same exercise by leader staying in place and follower walking around the leader.

- Finally we added some sacadas, Barriada and Ganchos to our giros.

Changing directions with a Carrusel

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Dance Teacher: Alain Guillot and Jade Pollack

Carrusel is a wonderful way to change directions. Once you get used to it, you can change direction on a dime.

Grapevine exercise, Back Ocho, Cross System. Tango 2 lesson 1

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In This video we introduced the idea of the grapevine, by traveling in a straight line doing tango's three basic steps (front, back & side).

We incorporated the basic grapevine exercise into our basic tango structure (we started the grapevine on "3" and got out on "3".

Finally we added a "Back Ocho" and a "Cross System" to our figure.

Dance Teacher: Alain Guillot and Cheryl Williams

The Square, lesson #13

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Dance Teacher: Alain Guillot and Jade Pollack

This is the simplest step that I know. It is called Square. It is a great exercise that will give us the flexibility of many more movements to come.

Tango Giros. Giro for both partners, Giro for her, Giro with Sacada

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Giro is one more way of walking for the follower. She goes front, open, back, open. Like in everything in Tango, there is no set routine. She just follows the leader's shoulders and his energy.

Two important elements are the constant brushing of her feet between each step and the pivoting so that she can step with ease.

Cross System of Tango. Lesson 11

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Cross system occurs when the leader and follower are both stepping simultaneous with their right foot or their left foot.

In its more fundamental form, the leader does a syncopation on "2" to change his weight from one foot to the other. At a given moment, the dancers go back to their regular "Parallel System"

In this video, the leader does a syncopation on "2" , they both do 3 and 4 and then, either the leader make a pause to allow time for the follower to go back into parallel system, or the follower does a syncopation on "5" to catch up with the leader.

Changing directions. Lesson 10

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Very often a leader needs to change direction (mostly to avoid bumping into other couples)

A simple way to change direction is by doing a bounce on "5" and then doing a pivot on 2 and 3. The change of direction could be as much as 180 degrees or as little as one eight of a turn.

Also, the bounce could be initiated from the simple walk. The leader could create the bounce at any time that he is stepping forward with the left foot.

Try this exercise several time and let me know how it woks out for you.

Jiros

In this videos, we did Giros.

In this video we started the movement from our "5" of the basic, but there are a great variety of moments from which the jiros can be initiated.

The whole purpose of the jiro is for the follower to walk around the leader while following a common pattern, although there are exceptions, the most common pattern is for the follower to step forward as in a front ocho, brush her feet and open her legs (about shoulder length), brush feet and step back and repeat this pattern until she has done a complete turn around the leader . All this movements should be executed while keeping her shoulder towards the leader.

Variation of back ochos, Lesson #5

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In this video we worked on Back Ochos and their variations. On Back Ochos, we are not obliged to stay in one place. We can make a gradual progression or we can progress in a manner that allow us to advance even more.

In Tango, we are supposed to advance in the dance floor. This Back Ochos variation allow us to do just that... Advance while you are doing an interesting movement.