Festival NaturalTango 2011

Great festival!

http://www.naturaltango.com/festival/page/home/

and for facebook users
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=251446858220268

Dancing the Phrase

In my last post I put up a video in which the speaker demonstrated the development of a musician from the age of seven, at which the young player struggles to hit each note and Really accents each and every note of a classical piece. The speaker then goes on to further demonstrate the development of the musician and at each step the student's accents grow steadily further and further apart, with the end result being that he is able to play the entire piece with out hesitation. It is at this point, that the beauty of the composition shines through, and the emotions of the listener are stimulated quite dramatically.

I am correlating this to my own development as a Tango leader, sadly having only recently (within the last two years) being exposed to this idea, it has taken some time for me to fully express this idea through my dance.

The results are amazing!

In the beginning I stepped and led (often very badly) each beat of the music, stopping and hesitating, unable to feel the passion that was there in the music all the time.

Eventually I was able to dance an entire bar without accent.

Now, it is beginning to flow and I am often able to dance through an entire phrase, caring less about whether or not the follower does exactly what I have suggested, rather working together with her to let the music carry us into the passion.

What a Way to Go

Nick Jones and Amy Anderson VERY FUNNY!

I think I saw this guy dancing in Buenos Aires.

Live Orquesta Tipica!!!! (or Bill Takes a Musical Tour of Heaven)

Orquesta Tipica D'Irelandia

Last night at the Merc. I think I died and went to heaven!

Look for me dancing in the crowd at 0:58, 1:20, 3:20

Five Bandoneons

Five violins

Bass

Piano

Vocals

and even a Trumpet, played one of the people responsible for my own tango Journey, Scott Betts.

(there may have been even more instruments than this, but I was blinded by the incredible sound)

After the live music an incredible DJ, John Miller.

and an amazing, outrageous, performance by Nick and Amy that had me rolling on the floor!

Nick really knows how to throw a party!

This festival is going to be one of the best in the country, I can tell already!

Best Tango Workshop So Far!

Today I attended a last minute workshop from one of my favorite instructors, Nick Jones, along with his current partner from Denver, Amy Anderson. I say last minute because it only came about last Monday when Nick called Scott and let him know that they were going to be in town for a demonstration, and wanted to know if they were up for a workshop.

Nicks classes are always fantastic, this one was out of this world. during the class he never showed us one step, or pattern and basically assumed that everyone there had proper technique (except that they did point out that without proper posture and balance none of what they taught would be easy and they said that if something isn't easy you weren't doing it right).

The classes had to do with leading through disassociation, for almost the entire day all of the leading was done with absolutely no contact between the leaders and the followers. Toward the end of the class it was almost effortless I've been thinking about this principle since the first time I saw a video by Murat and Michele, here (there was another video that was better, but it is no longer on youtube).

Anyhow, if you ever get a chance to experience a class with Nick teaching do it, his style of teaching is so relaxed and easy, fun and dynamic, like I've said before he makes what seems impossible seem easy.