ALBERTO PAZ R.I.P.

I wrote this post  as a distraction from the very sad news of a great loss to the tango world. Alberto, where are you? Please, I hope you made  plenty of time for small talk with Valorie before you went on your way to teach that tango lesson and  on your way to places beyond.
Attacking the Problem of “Small Talk”
Small talk is my weakness, I think. Mike doesn’t know where to start with it and my dear friend HS can’t make it.  I envy Sherry who makes small talk with total sincerity and finds interesting conversation with everyone.

Mike is sharing John Holt with me, a book called Instead of Education. He highlights portions for me to read  and  I write notes in the margin. We are both thinking and talking about the development of language and the purpose of communication. Holt says it’s to move people and get things done. Holt states, "Only in a place like S-chool where we are seldom allowed to talk, much less talk about anything interesting or real, and where our words seldom make anything important happen, and may only earn us humiliation and failure, does our growth in language slow to a stop."

Anyway I was sharing something I’d read years ago about conversation starters. It is something like this.

Picture the other person so you are NOT talking about yourself. How to start the conversation can come from a picture in your mind of the person’s house. So now ask “house”  questions -where they live or maybe about remodeling, ETC.  Next picture their family in front of the house. Here’s an opening for “How many children do you have? ETC. This leads to where they work, education, ETC.

Mike looks at me this morning and asks about this technique. He says dryly. I can picture the house and I can picture the family outside, but I see them standing in the rain.

I said, “So here is an opening to talk about the WEATHER”

His response was “Why would I want to talk to or know anything about  anyone who is too dumb to come in out of the rain.”
I LOVE MY HUSBAND
VALORIE LOVED HER HUSBAND
I hope Alberto talked to Valorie about the weather, about their silly plans for the day and gave her a huge hug and a huge kiss before he closed the door on the way to his last tango.

TANGO in Charlotte NC. THE BEST

Daniel Arredondo. We needed exercise after packing and getting on a last minute flight to Charlotte. The only tango lesson I could find  on Friday night was at the Metropolitan Ballroom at 6:30. What a surprise. Because we've studied with so many teachers here and in Buenos Aires, I didn't expect anything more than the needed exercise. SURPRISE! This is one of the best lessons we've had. Daniel built all of the exercises into the final simple 6 count step using torso, rock steps and a sequence of 10 movements to help us get there with fluidity and rhythm. What looks so simple is a challenge of walking the woman around the man OR side stepping the woman around the man. Mike was able to understand this and returned on Saturday for a private lesson with Daniel.
Maybe next winter we'll end up on Lake Norman to study more with Daniel.

Another "STEAL" from Tioma

The greatest reason to dance tango, in my opinion, is that it can be practiced as an evolutionary art form – the concept that I discuss in detail in the Tango and Conscious Evolution section. Tango is an interaction that involves our senses, our motor skills, our instincts, our feelings, our intuition – our whole psycho-physical totality – to such a degree that it can be used as a tool for a general development of a human being (especially if “being” is used as a verb). Tango is a creative interaction which can teach us deeper principles of interacting in general. In this way, like the best of Eastern martial arts, tango can act as an instrument of positive transformation of an individual’s mind, body and spirit. When practiced with this goal in mind, tango becomes a culturally significant art form of a rare kind, improving the well-being of individuals and of culture as a whole. But in order for this potential of tango to manifest fully, a correct approach to it is necessary. It started for me with the realization that the biggest key to progress in this dance was improving such fundamental abilities as standing, walking and controlling one’s mind. After that I started trying to understand how to practice this art form in such a way that it most directly connected to a general self-improvement. This is, in my opinion, what it means to purify an artistic practice. It is through this approach that I ended up experiencing the biggest improvement in both my dancing and my general well-being. Developing such an approach is the main motivation behind this website.

 

What Went Around Came AROUND

2006 with Gabriel Misse at the first Copes Festival in San Telmo and we were lost. Looks between the 12 of us, all beginners, were wide eyed and questioning. It became more complicated as the week went on. I expected more from my dancing after a year of learning the basics.
                                   NOW
2013 with Gabrile Misse at Dardo Galletto in NYC and we are finding our way. I loved the walking exercises, the pivoting and then learning to use my diaphragm to balance forward and backward. The 4 hours flew by and we were back on the bus, same day, to talk about and practice all we had learned. Again Mike is glued to YouTube and those gorgeous Misse pivots.

Lost HUSBAND = Marcela y Mike *Bellisimo*

Miguelito
He sits at the computer and watches Marcela Duran on YouTube.
He had the real and lovely Marcela in his arms on Saturday in NYC and the dancing was passionate but simple. We all cried at some point during the hour. There was no "step".
           This is and was the tango that Gavito described below.

Un tal Gavito

"If I could suggest a theme for our walk it would be : Tango es entre paso y paso. Tango is between one step and the next. Steps are not tango, steps are memory and choreography. Tango can never be in the things that are said. It is in the improvisation. The steps learned in dance schools are not improvisation, they are choreography. Small choreographies, brief ones. Then you learn how to connect one figure to another but one thing is still missing – tango. There is no step."
Gavito in “El Farolito”, Oct. 2003

Stolen WORDS

When Walter comes to the Tango TENT early to help us prepare food, etc., we often have an extra 30 minutes to practice some walking or his favorite milonga steps.
Last time he was here, he was scratching his head and saying with some concern, "You are dancing tango on the UPBEAT!"
That's right and I think it confuses others who watch us dance.
Here's a little explanation, though I've modified it by taking out the videos that were in his original blog.
                            closembracetango.com
With a little research I can hopefully find the name of the owner of this excellent blog.
              Can someone help me learn how to embed videos?
5 Types of Musicality                  Waiting" vs. "Listening"
                  How to 'Hit' the 'UPBEAT'!

Published May 15, 2011

Finding the beat in a piece of music is a daunting task for some, but can be done with practice, time, and patience. I’ve already written a treatise on how to do just that. However, there are times when you as a lead and or as a follower will want to go OFF-BEAT for a reason. Which is not the same as going counter rhythm, but is a kissin’ cousin, which is a whole other animal.

First find a flat surface, and place your hand flat, fingers together, palm down on the surface.


Start a song from the beginning and find that same beat again, and this time, what I want you to do is pay attention to something that’s happening all by itself…without you doing anything at all. With your hand flat on the table Tap out the beat with the palm of the hand. As you’re tapping out the beat, note that your hand goes UP and then DOWN on the beat ? Notice that in the tapping you have to take your hand off the table, or go UP, and then down. That UP part is the UP beat that we’re wanting!
Now that we’ve identified the UP Beat. Now we actually want to hit it. This is a 3 step process to getting you into the upbeat.  Try it first with any sample piece of music where its so clearly defined what the beat is!
Step 1.) Find the Beat.
Step 2.) Double Time IT! What you’re going to do is instead of going up to lift your hand off the table, your going to double tap twice. That second tap, is NOW the upbeat!
Step 3.) Hold this upbeat steadily throughout the rest of the song.
This method takes time, patience, and at first a lot of mental energy to NOT tap on the downbeat or the 1. The first few times you do it, its gonna really throw you for a loop and seem like a daunting task. The reason for this is simple, because of the need for the mind to conform to order, and the beat is ORDER, the UPBEAT or OFF beat is CHAOS, the seemingly opposite of order. I have found that this method will get your mind around the process….and that’s the starting point, getting your mind around the process of learning the upbeat!
Ok, if you’ve gotten *THAT* far. Now we try this with a piece of tango music! Start with something VERY VERY simple and very rhythmical. Juan D’Arienzo’s “Pensalo Bien”

I’m not asking you to watch the video, I just wanted you to hear the same version of music that I’m hearing when I’m talking about this stuff.
Take a break, walk around a bit with this stuff in your head. Because the last step in this process is to walk with your partner on the off beat CONSISTENTLY

Makes me LAUGH

I watch tango on YouTube. For years I watched the feet and the legs of the women.
                 Now I watch the elbows and ankles.