Tango Posture Imagery

I've found fantastic imagery applicable to Tango.

Notice the differences between the five posture types represented here, White, Blue, Red, Green Yellow.

For the purposes of tango my preference is the posture represented on this link by the red figures...if I had a tail it would point back, but not up (do not cause yourself pain or injury).  My hat would resemble a baseball cap. My eyes would look straight forward.

The white isn't bad it's just that the red is ideal for leading of following tango (notice that the white figure represents the standing leg being straight rather than slightly bent...bent is good for balance and grounding in tango).

The link is Here

Tango is Not Ballet!

I sometimes enjoy watching Ballet and am amazed by the control and grace that those who dance well exhibit,  this post is not meant to take anything away from the art.

For those of you who took ballet when you were young there are a number of things that you must let go of to execute Tango at  a more advanced level...I've come to these conclusions after many years of dancing tango and many, many different lessons taught by both famous and successful dancers as well as other ... well, not so famous or successful.  I've also watched many of the most successful dancers in innumerable videos which are widely available on the Internet and in person (you, of course, can do the same to prove or disprove these theories for/to yourself).

The energy in Ballet is decidedly feminine (in my opinion this is why men who dance ballet are often put into the "questionable sexual orientation" category, very unfortunate, but true), in tango the emphasis is on accentuating both feminine as well as masculine energies, and the fact that in is an interaction between the two that makes the sensual connection work.

 Turnout is not desirable in tango.

In Ballet the first thing that young (3 year old) dancers are taught is first position turnout, and every effort is made to increase turnout as the young ballet dancer progresses.  It is desirable in tango to increase the distance between partners feet and hips (keep your "sex" at a distance) (hips should be back when dancing tango) when dancing in close embrace (and open embrace, because you many not wish to use entirely different technique when switching between open and closed embrace), the rotation of the thighs required to produce turnout moves the hips forward and decreases both of these distances.  In tango the feeling of the gluteal area should be"open" and relaxed (happy) in ballet "closed".

Standing leg

In tango the weighted leg should remain bent slightly in order to increase balance and maintain ones own axis, and weight should, more often than not, be on one leg only except during weight transfer from one leg to the other (which should occur gradually in a rolling motion with the movement of axis from one leg to the other).  Ones fully extended leg (unweighted) should remain straight (not bent).  In Ballet pivots are often done en point (on the toes, with legs straight or even locked back) in tango pivots are done on the balls of the feet never on the toes (toes should feel as though one could spread them apart during pivots or before the axis is passed by the moving foot).

Spine
In tango the spine should maintain its natural relaxed curve, no attempt should be made to straighten the spine out in the lumbar or cervical regions.  The chest should be forward and the hips back, keeping the sternum vertical (not leaning back away from your partner nor forward into your partner unless an off-axis move is led (even then, the posture remains the same, no planking nor bending).  Your neck should retain its natural curve as well, no attempt should be made to straighten it, it should be held back slightly to compensate for keeping the chest forward and up (the head should not be tilted forward).

Lead

In Ballet the man is used as a barre, in tango both partners maintain their axis (except during off axis maneuvers lead by the leader).  This is a partner dance and both persons dancing need axis and balance because without it you are reduced to being used by the other.

Choreography
Only used during show style performances in tango, used always when dancing ballet.

Performance
Tango is danced for your partner alone, and a very good embrace and connection are very difficult for others to see.  When dancing ballet one is dancing for the enjoyment of the observers.  There are those dance tango that look fantastic but are nightmares to dance with.

Practice

Practice Makes Permanent
Find out what you should be practicing (take a private lesson and ask specifically what you should practice, alone or with someone)
Make sure you are doing it correctly (get checked out and make sure you are executing the exercise correctly)
Do Not just do something over and over, right or wrong, you will have to unlearn it later (this is far more difficult)
Be willing to give up your preconceptions (if you were driving somewhere and found out that you were going in the wrong direction it might be wise to turn around or change course but sometimes it is better to push reset and start again.)

Body Spiral, Three Tracks, Turns, and Pivots.

There are normally three positions for walking:  outside partner left, directly in front of partner, outside partner right.

Use body spiral for effective lead prepositioning and pivot tension in your own body.  This is true for both parallel and crossed systems.

The following video is provided for to illustrate spinal movement discussed in this post (turn the sound down or ignore it).


Lumbar Spine Inter-vertebral Movement Rotation... by MedilawTV

Anytime you are doing a front or back ocho correctly (separately or during a giro) or while using contra body position during the walk while in either outside position your body is in spiral tension (torso down tension) and is set to lead a turn effectively or to pivot on axis.

You may also place your body in spiral tension as a leader by prepositioning your feet and hips to create spiral energy for pivots or lead energy for turns. (floor up tension).

Some possibilities you may consider:

preposition yourself outside left for turns to the right

preposition yourself outside right for turns to the left
pretension the spiral energy in your body to lead a turn by taking a crossing back step close to your own axis on the side of the direction of the turn that you intend to lead.

Remember that the followers back step is common to both linear and circular movement and is a good place to transition between the two (in to and out of the turn), this has the effect of letting the follower know what the next two steps of the turn will be following the normal  (back, side,  front,  side...) way of turning while going in to a turn.

Example;  while walking forward, from the leaders prospective, if the leader positions himself outside of the followers right side when the follower takes a back step with her left he may step forward with his right (contra body position right) and lead a side step and then a front step circularly around him in a counterclockwise direction using his torso only (the follower feels the need to take a front step because she has just taken a back step followed by a side step so naturally she will want to take a front step) .  At this point the leaders body is in spiral tension so that he may pivot to continue the turn or possibly lead a front ocho to change the direction of the turn to a clockwise direction (leaders body is already in the proper spiral tension to do so).

One Degree of Flexibility

The human knee joint has one degree of flexibility, that is to say that it only bends in one direction (straight back from the way that the foot is pointed).  It does not rotate without injury (ask my "ski knee").

This is the reason that I advocate keeping your feet parallel with each other and with the direction of travel (in a line or curve) during the tango walk as if you were walking with skis strapped to your feet) it is also important that the steps be straight back or forward, as if you were stepping on the tracks made by two such skis...or on two small railroad tracks running beside each other (this idea works better than the ski track analogy when you think of the tracks during a turn)(pivot completely to achieve this) (in other words one should never cross their own center when walking even in a turn) , as opposed to stepping back or forward onto one such track as if stepping on  a balance beam.  Consider this... if your foot is turned out and you place weight on the ball of your foot (as followers should do initially while transferring weight to the extended leg during a back step) the axis of your body is now at the outside of the leg rather than the inside because of the turnout.

There is a lot of talk about use of  "Natural Foot Turnout". This technique sends a conflicting signal to the brain because the foot is pointed in a different direction than the line of travel (this applies to followers as well as leaders).  It also sends  improper feedback to the leader as to the direction that your knee will bend and the direction that your body wants to go naturally (without using extra muscles to achieve the walk).  Ones foot should always be pointed in the expected, or the led direction of travel (don't worry followers navigation is the responsibility of the leader and he will correct it with a pivot if needed but that's one more thing for him to think about
...if you catch my drift) (read as... I have enough to think about without having to steer a shopping cart with a wobbly wheel) .

Try this exercise:
Take a back step using "Foot Turnout" (if the feet were side by side they would form a "\/") transfer your weight to the extended foot completely (do not hold a twist in your core or hip) and then bring the feet side by side and completely relax your body...chances are (if you followed the directions for the exercise) you will end up facing in a new direction (the same direction that the weighted foot is pointed).
Now try the same back step keeping the feet parallel and pointed with the direction of travel (||) (you will remain with the direction of travel when the feet are together).

Another exercise:
Stand with the feet completely parallel to each other... place weight completely on one leg and bend the unweighted leg at the knee...It will point straight behind you.
Now stand with feet together heels touching and let the feet form a "\/" (foot turnout),  When you bend the unweighted leg at the knee it will not point straight back, but rather...it will point across your center line (a little extra weight  to counteract against in you struggle to maintain your axis) Can you feel the bend in you spine that this creates?

One more:
Stand with heels together and exaggerate turnout (make the angle maybe 120 degrees or more), now put all of your weight on the ball of one foot (keeping the heels together), transfer all of your weight to the ball of the free leg and notice how far that your center must move to accomplish the transfer.  Now try the same thing with no turnout,  this will require far less movement of your center to achieve the same weight transfer (believe me, this is a good thing).

 Leaders may (and should) use this principle to navigate, by positioning their feet in the intended direction of their next move or perpendicular to the intended direction of the follower (in the case of a side step...they should also preposition their feet if necessary to present the back of the knee in a certain orientation (think ganchos, liner boleos, back boleos, leg wraps, etc...).   I personally use prepositioning to the maximum extent possible and only pivot on my own axis when necessary, or for effect.(planeos, needles, enrrosques,changes of directions...etc...).   As a side note I will use a lead for pivot to the follower, she must continue to pivot as long as the lead to pivot is still being given by the leader (thus making over rotation possible), and complete the pivot before the moving leg passes the weighted leg (because when the moving leg passes the weighted leg the pivot stops...) Try it.

Feel free to express your own point of view with a comment.

Guaranteed Way to Get More Dances at a Milonga (The Paparazzi Method)

It's very simple really...Smile. Smile when you are dancing, smile when aren't, laugh at yourself, laugh at life.

Do this experiment for yourself...look up photos of people dancing online, facebook, whatever...look for people you don't know.... that you would like to dance with, most of the time they will be smiling...look for photos of people that are not dancing, often they will not be smiling. Smiling often just makes people more approachable!

We have all seen photographs of ourselves and if we aren't smiling, many times we will cringe at our own image and wonder why the photographer took such an unflattering image of us, guess what, it's our own fault for not putting our best forward as often as possible. Pretend that someone is just waiting to take secret photos of you while you are at the milonga (Tango Paparazzi), sell yourself to the public.  The paparazzi method I've described will also help you with other very important concepts in Tango as well, things like posture, step technique, etc...

Smiling can actually change your mood. So put a smile on, even if you don't feel like it, and pretty soon you'll be smiling for real.  (Fake It 'Til you Make It!)

When looking for a partner to cabeceo, this is very high on my list.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.  I want my partner to smile, it reflects well on my dancing ability.  And I've seen photos of people dancing and making almost painful facial expressions, no one wants to dance with a sourpuss.

I know, Tango is serious business, and some of the lyrics are well...depressing, but believe me it works.

You don't have to grin like the Cheshire cat, but you can!

Foot Technique for Followers

I recently visited a practica in a small community where at least half of the followers present were dancing with weight on the balls of their feet exclusively (never using their heels at all). I'm not sure if this was due to someone teaching this poor technique or if they had just picked up the habit and the instructor/s there hadn't noticed. Many of these followers were dancing in flats (I assume this was because they were thinking that the heels were causing them foot pain and wanted some relief during the practica). The shoes are bad enough (I don't see how followers wear them at all) but they have heels for a reason: the heels are meant to be used to help support your weight while walking backwards by helping you maintain your balance and axis (thus taking maybe forty percent of the pressure off of the delicate metatarsals of the supporting foot).

Here is an exercise that everyone should try in order to demonstrate why this is such a bad practice: Stand naturally with your feet together and shift your weight forward so that your weight is totally on the balls of the feet, transfer weight to one side so that your weight is totally on the ball of one foot...now extend the free leg back as if you are going to take a back step without transferring any weight to the free leg without using the heel, now try a forward extension without transfering any weight (I think that almost everyone will have real difficulty doing this). Now bring the feet together and shift your weight back so that your weight is evenly distributed along the entire length of one foot from heel to toes, now...once again extend the free leg backwards in preparation for a back step, now try the front extension...Isn't this much easier to accomplish with proper technique?!

Leaders need to be aware of this and bring the followers weight onto the ball of her feet before leading pivots (very easily done, and this will happen without much conscious thought after the technique is practiced properly for awhile).

One of the followers at this practica has been dancing longer than I have, and I have to say that she danced quite well (although I could tell right away that something was wrong when I danced with her). When I explained my position she told me that her reason for doing this was that she had been caught with her weight back on her heels many times, and she was trying to avoid this by keeping her weight forward. (see the note to leaders above).

I hope this helps someone, does anyone have any thoughts or reactions after trying the demonstration above? I would love to hear from you.

Exercise for Good Tango Posture

This is a great exercise for posture improvement, concentrating on the shoulders (95% of non professional dancers need improvement in this area).




Give it a shot, it's really almost painless. (One of the things Tango dancers notice most about people is their posture, this holds true when deciding who to dance with...just saying).

The goal is too eliminate hyperkyphosis (excessive outward curvature of the spine in the thorax region) this is why I encourage people to open their rib cage upward.

It is also important to keep your head centered "on top of" your axis rather than "in front of",or "behind" your axis.

I do not agree with her idea that the hips should be tucked in! ( for examples of proper posture please search Youtube for videos of the most accomplished tango followers or leaders...i.e. Marina Montes, Geraldine Rojas,...etc...     I believe that the hips should be held back slightly to create a space between partners hips and feet and allow for a bent standing leg rather than locked knees and no room at the hips and below (please notice that the hips should be held back slightly, this does not imply any bending at the waist, rather it allows for and accentuates the natural curve of the spine.




For more on posture see
Tango Posture Imagery

and Movement Invites Movement (blog)

Learning Involves Change (Don't Settle for Mediocrity)

During the last six months I have been trying out a new way of walking and I have made a few adjustments to my posture, embrace, and body alignment (more estilo salon, less estilo nuevo, less estilo milonguero), when I started this study of tango I was convinced that the "milonguero" style was the only way that I wanted to dance, later I found freedom of expression and more chance for creativity in the "nuevo" style. I still have those tools in my toy box and will (and do) take them out if the mood strikes me. This is nothing new, I've changed these things constantly over the past seven years all in the name of educating my self and building depth into my Tango, and I've watched as people who were far more experienced than I was have stagnated in their dance to the point where it seems to me that they have not improved at all (these were people I once held in high regard as excellent dancers). I've also witnessed people who started about the same time as I did stop progressing when they settled for one thing or another. How boring it must be to not grow over that many years!

It's impossible to learn anything new if you have already decided that what you are doing is the best, and/or only way. (I've heard it said that you can't add water to a glass that is already full, I like to think of it as getting a bigger bucket to hold several glasses of water). I also feel that adding something new allows a person to focus on the new things and allow the things you have learned in the past to happen automatically without thinking about them. Nature rewards adaptation.

The results of these adjustments are beginning to become second nature and have drastically improved how grounded I feel to myself and the women I dance with often, as well as an improvement in the clarity of my lead to my followers. I also feel that this new style has allowed for more possibility of musical expression for the follower (less about my Tango and more about our Tango). The new style does require the follower to use proper technique (no lazy following) and therefore makes leading easier after the technique becomes second nature to the leader.

One thing that I have noticed over the past maybe three years is that I have not hit any plateaus, just a slow but steady improvement...Where's the Like Button!

Give Her a Chance to Shine

How is this done, you ask, Welll...

Slow Down... when the music calls for it, and sometimes when it doesn't.

What do I mean....

Instead of stepping on every beat or every other beat, take a full bar, maybe two, to make a step (a whole step would be from the time a foot has zero weight on it yet is still fully extended...as it approaches the other foot...as it brushes the weight bearing foot in passing...as it reaches the fully extended position with the ankle relaxed so that the the sole of the the foot is nearly parallel with the floor...as the heel touches the floor...as the weight slowly begins to transfer to the new foot...as the weight begins to roll forward to the new foot and roll off of the old foot...as the weight finally is completely over the new foot and the old foot is still fully extended yet bears no weight).

This will give her a chance to express herself musically, with adornments, foot taps, lapiizes, traspies, or give her the opportunity to make the same type of slow motion step that you are making if that's what she wants...

The point is give her a voice in the dance (more often than not she is a much better dancer than you are)

I consider it a compliment when a follower that hasn't been dancing much starts getting lots of tandas after we dance.

Another Blog to Check Out

When I read this guys blog I couldn't help notice that a lot of what he says aligns perfectly with my feelings about Tango, and I thought, wow this guy must be an incredible dancer I can't wait to see him dance.

Then I saw the video ... Hmm, Not so much.

Oh well, no one is perfect.

I still like many of his ideas about Tango.

Floyd de Buffalo

Grounding Exercise

A few years ago I had a private lesson with Luiza Paes, and she wanted my partner at the time and I to be more grounded here is what she told us to do...

Get four pieces of paper towel about 4X4 inches put them on the floor under the toes of your feet, now dance a without loosing the pieces of paper...this is harder than it seems but really smoothes the dance out (plus the game was a lot of fun and I've won more than a few friendly wagers with it to boot)

I've had other maestros use different methods to try and teach the same ideas, never loosing contact with the ground.

I read somewhere that a good milonguero never shows the soles of his feet, I've found this to be less than 100% true but I have noticed that the really great dancers (especially of the Villa Urquiza style) always seem to keep contact with the ground most of the time. In that style they will lift thier heels but normally they will maintain contact with the toe as they walk.

Makes for a very smooth and elegant looking and feeling dance!

A very good example of a well grounded couple.

A Different Approach to Learning

A few years ago a friend of mine (Just someone I used to dance with, not an instructor) commented that by learning open embrace I could fix a problem I was working on at the time with my posture and balance, guess what, it worked.
Everything I know about dancing close embrace I learned from dancing open embrace.
Everything I know about dancing open embrace I learned from dancing close embrace.
Everything I know about improvising I learned through patterns and emulating others.
Everything I know about dancing fast I learn by dancing slowly (very slowly).

On a different note,I watched a video produced by a very famous pair of brothers (the Maers) many years ago about learning to downhill ski, they had an interesting teaching technique. Basically because sking (and Tango) is an engramic activity (your brain learns to do it eventually without much conscience thought) it is very difficult to explain how it should feel, they thought it was a good idea to purposely do something "the wrong way" so that your body could learn by comparison what doing it the right way feels like (very easy vs. very hard, natural vs. unnatural, smooth vs. jerky, balanced vs.wobbly)

I have found this to be a very effective learning/teaching method.

Following (note to self)

(These are notes to myself and will require some experimentation through trail and error)

I danced with several awesome followers this weekend and I am trying to analyze what it was that made those dancers so Delicious while the memory of them is still in my mind!

When following transfer weight smoothly rolling from toe to heel (when walking backwards)inside of foot to center of foot (when doing side steps) heel to toe (when walking forward)try to keep the foot almost horizontal right before landing when taking front or backward steps.

Try and feel the length of stride that your leader is intending, if he is going to do a traspie or syncopa step it will be shorter due to the amount of time it takes to make the step. Better to be a little bit longer than he intended than too short, this will murder the leaders back after one song because he cannot keep his own axis and must also keep you from tripping over yourself.

Always remain grounded, never fall into the step.

Don't take too long of a step or you will not feel grounded at all to your leader and you my hurt someone that you are unaware of, that the leader is aware of.

Don't block your leader on the open side by keeping your arm too stiff, this is gentle embrace, Not an inflexible frame.

Stiff tight legs are hard and nasty and don't feel good to dance with, and will block a lot of possibilities. Relaxed legs are soft and feel wonderful to dance with and they will react to the lead in the way that the leader intends.

Better to be a little behind the beat than ahead of the beat.

Keep a good spiral in the body by remaining relaxed everywhere, feel your core muscles stretching rather than tightening.

Keep your own axis unless the leader takes you off of it by stretching or compressing the embrace, at that point use these counter acting forces to maintain an equilibrium these forces when applied must balance each other out or the whole thing will go off axis, it would be very embarrassing to fall over (trust your leader and make sure that he can trust you not to apply more force than is given) your leader is not there to help you keep your balance unless he takes you off of it nor are you there to help him keep his.

When taking a step be confident that you are doing what you felt (you probably are) and make a good quality step, getting your weight at least over your hip joint, if it feels as if the leader is trying to dance the Phrase, go with it smoothly, a jerky stuttering step is usually not what we are going for.

(If anyone sees something that is completely wrong with the things I have written please let me know so that I don't get too far in the wrong direction)

OK, This is a Very Good Post (not mine)

This is aimed at (from me) those followers whom give their leaders a very stiff (arm wrestler like) stiff as a board right arm, expecting them (or me, more importantly) to push or pull them through what they should be doing on their own, and leaders/teachers whom teach this damned foolishness.

On either side of the embrace (open or closed side)the arms should be like antennae, that is to say they are there only to give either partner extra information about what the other partner is trying to communicate or how they have received the other half of the communication. A competent leader should be able to lead almost anything (with the exception of off axis turns, colgadas volcadas and soltadas) without arms.

I for one was guilty of leading with the "killer right arm" for a very long time, And I apologize to the many, many, many women that I tortured with this awful practice a few years back (you know who you are). I learned the error of my ways because I was willing to accept instruction from a couple of very competent instructors (Luiza Paes, Deb Scalar).


movementinvitesmovement.wordpress.com
Click the link to find out what the hell I'm talking about.

Another Experience in Following

Last night at the weekly Tango lesson in my small city I had another chance to assume the role of follower. Here are a couple of observations;

I found it fairly easy to follow a couple of volcadas, they weren't very extreme still I found it to be much easier than I had imagined (and much easier to follow than it is to lead, I know this because when I was trying to learn this as a leader a couple of years ago it took me a very long time to get)

In order to follow the enganchada (which is what I call a back cross lead with a small hooked shape from the back, a good way to set up for a backward volcada) a very clear lead was necessary, my instructor was leading several in a row and the first one was easy to get, but after that the lead didn't seem as clear. So when leading this one must make sure to follow through, and make sure that the follower is with you.

An Experience In Following

Awhile back I was experimenting as a follower in a workshop, here are a couple of observations;

1. A couple of the leaders did not give me enough time to do what they had led me to do.

2. One leader had no concept of what the embrace should be (I was solely dancing in an open embrace)

3. More than one of the leaders led from very high in their chest. (I am fairly tall and can only imagine how difficult it would be to follow this type of lead if I were of shorter stature) Leading from the solar plexus would gives a much easier lead to follow.

4. Almost all of the leaders in this particular class had almost no disassociation in their bodies, ie; they did not move their upper bodies independently of their lower bodies,(fused spines?) these leaders were very unsuccessful in leading anything other than linear movement.

5. Most of them almost never looked at their partner (me in this case) this makes it very difficult to connect while dancing in open embrace.

6. Musically all but one did not have a clue.

Granted this was a class dealing with fundamentals, and as such the experience level was fairly low,(especially mine as a follower) still I am beginning to feel the pain of the followers out there and HOPEFULLY learning a thing or two.

A Few Thoughts on Your Feet

1. Your foot is about 6 or 7 inches long from the heel to the balls of the foot.

2. By landing on the heel and transferring your weight to the balls of your feet you move your axis forward (or backwards) by that distance, assuming that you keep your axis over your foot.

3. Your follower is doing the opposite of what you are doing when she is walking backwards (landing with weight on the balls of her feet first and transferring weight to her heel) as indicated by your lead.

4. If you try and put your weight on your toe first (as a leader) you are effectively telling your partner to put weight on her heel as well as stopping the indication that you want to continue forward motion. If that is what you are trying to achieve this is one good way of doing that.

5. Followers should use their heels (as opposed to keeping weight solely on the balls of their feet all of the time) to avoid serious foot problems and possible injury.

6. Pivots should be done with the follower while her weight is on the balls of her foot.

7. As a leader you are responsible to make both of these things happen as required for what you are trying to lead.

8. During single axis turns (when the follower is keeping her shoulders with yours) the follower needs to have her weight on the balls of her feet while her axis is leaning away from the axis of the turn, knees must be bent at least slightly for these things to occur at the same time.

Breathing and Tango

Being centered is essential to good tango, and breathing and self awareness are essential to being centered.

I have found that breathing in the way of Tai Chi, is the most effective way to create this internal self awareness.

To start with you should be relaxed and stacked up, head, over heart, over pelvis over feet, like a stack of blocks. Secondly your head should feel suspended as if it were filled with helium, or hung by a string from above. Your feet should be very grounded as if they grow roots into the earth each time you take a step. Finally the tip of your tongue should lightly touch the pallet just behind the ridge.

To describe what I am talking about think of it this way (I am only a casual student of Tai Chi and do not consider myself more than a beginner, but I have gleaned some very useful insights even through this limited study). First of all think of your breath as being able to go down much further than your diaphragm, think of it being able to reach the area near where your bladder is. When you breath in try to visualize the air taking a path down the inside of your sternum and reach the area I have described (Tan t'ien), you "belly" should be relaxed and expand outward (this allows more room within your abdomen for your diaphragm to deflect downward as well as lowering your center of gravity, a very good thing when it comes to maintaining balance). Additionally you pelvic floor should relax and expand downward during the inhalation.

Visualize the air following the path I have described and gathering into a spinning ball in this area maybe the size of a large tomato or small cantaloupe, this is your center in my thinking, and where your movements should initiate from, the position is not static and may be moved in many directions, for example forward, backward, diagonally, up, down, or sideways.

When exhaling the opposite of what I have described should occur with the air flowing up your spine, your "belly" contracting (exhale from the bottom up, never completely retract your abdominals), and your pelvic floor rising to complete the cycle(all our muscles should remain just right, that is to say nothing too tight nothing too relaxed). One should always think of this ball I have described as being in position and spinning (down in front up in the back) with some amount of weight (not floating as a balloon would, more like a ball of energy sand, if you will). By maintaining the position of this ball of energy a person will be able to control weight transfer more effectively.

This is a very simplified description of what I want to get across but I think it is sufficient to get a person thinking in a positive way about breathing control and centering.

When leading I try to always be aware of my breathing and use it as an indicator of when I am about to do something for example taking a deeper breath before doing a traspie, or sacada etc... I'll also try and tune in to my partners breathing as another level of connection, very satisfying!

Enjoy the experience, and I hope you get as much out of it as I have.

Leading from the Ground, Up

All energy in tango comes from the ground (it is what we push against to move and it is what we push against to stop or change our acceleration/deceleration to remain smooth), this is why we strive to remain grounded.

I have found that foot placement is one thing that is very seldom taught to leaders, or followers, in the workshops and lessons that I have attended. What I am talking about is placing your foot in a way that pre-leads your body to be in tension (read as twist energy) to lead your follower to do the thing that you are going to lead next, Leading from the ground up.

Many times teachers will tell their students to place their foot in a certain way with out explaining the reasons for doing so. For example they may say place your foot at a ninety degree angle to you other foot, or to the direction of your secada.

What is needed is to make people understand the idea of circular movement (you around her, her around you, each of you around the other, her around her own axis etc...) and the role that creating torsion in your body to make the lead work in a dynamic fashion, this is also true when it comes to creating the same type of forces in your followers body to make the lead "irresistible", in other words getting your follower to do what you intend without pushing or pulling her, make her think that what she did was the only natural thing to do (of course it is).

This being said it is also possible and desirable to put the tension in your body by leading from the top down,(this is what we as leaders usually do with our followers and something that followers should strive to intensify in their dancing, Following from the top down, Another topic often neglected). Leading from the top down is far more difficult but can be done.