An Intro to Close Embrace - Walking to Go Nowhere Ochos
(Nancy speaking)I bring a classical dance orientation to tango. And I love tango because it gives me a way of expressing myself through dance now that I am older and don't have the conditioning for classical dance. Because of this "tango as art" orientation, I very much didn't appreciate dancing tango in close embrace. I felt that it gets in the way of bringing all that I know about movement to tango. In some ways, that's true.
Close embrace tango really is about something different. And, of course, many people have many different answers to the question: what is tango? or what is tango in close embrace (which some would say is the only way to really do tango)? But, for me, it's about a more internal dialogue between two people. It's very about being physically close to someone as well as about sharing a potentially very emotional moment with them. When I dance close embrace with David, I love the sharingness of it. I love how it accentuates the perfect music sync and perfect movement sync we sometimes achieve.
When I dance in close embrace with students, and they can move with their whole body, especially walking with me, I love how easy the walk can feel (ok, it's very hard but eventually it can also be very easy). I love how proud I feel at their achievement that they have learned enough to make something wonderful out of something which is intrinsically so difficult.
- Artist Name:
- Adriana Varela
- Song Title:
- Uno
- Album Title:
- Trottoirs De Buenos Aires
(From Wikipedia): Adriana Varela is regarded as one of the main Argentine tango singers of recent times, with a prominent singing career that begun in 1991.
- 00:30
- And I'm wondering if right about now you're saying to yourself
- 00:33
- "What are they doing?"
- 00:35
- "Why did she cross?"
- 00:36
- "It must be the hands on her back, he does this and then she knows"
- 00:40
- Whispers in my ear
- 00:41
- Yeah, *whispers*: "Cross, cross"
- 00:43
- And really, what it is, is that in my...
- 00:48
- I'm going to... For the leaders, if we zoom in, and you watch from the side, really what I do, is I say to her:
- 00:55
- move a hair forward, a little bit to the left, and now move back. And then I shift her over her leg. It's that subtle.
- 01:05
- It's very subtle, but it's really clear.
- 01:08
- So one more time, from the side, as we're walking, wherever she is, just collected, just put her feet together
- 01:13
- I'll shift her a hair forward, well the foot a hair forward, I shift her a hair to my left,
- 01:20
- and then I take her back, so there's a small scene.
- 01:23
- And then after she crosses I shift a little bit more to the left, to get her to shift weight over that foot.
- 01:28
- And for the followers, you want to think that you are... Make your foot part of your body.
- 01:32
- Instead if you're... If your body shifts forward, your foot shifts forward
- 01:37
- If your body shifts back, your foot shifts back
- 01:40
- He makes it sound easy, doesn't he?
- 01:42
- Right, right
- 01:43
- So, as a leader takes you just a hair forward, you move the leg a hair forward.
- 01:47
- And if he takes you a hair inside, you move your foot a hair inside, and as he shifts you back, you move it back, and then he takes you just a hair over the foot.
- 01:55
- So it's very subtle, and it's a very small movement.
- 01:58
- And for the followers, you want your body very connected, and for the leaders, then, you want to think that this is all you need to do, that subtle.
- 02:06
- So really, all I'm doing is I'm walking straight at her
- 02:13
- and I stop anytime our feet are collected
- 02:16
- And I take her tiny hair forward, a tiny hair to my left and a tiny hair back, and then I shift her to the leg by turning a little bit to my left.
- 02:24
- And then we can go on.
- 02:26
- I'd like you to do it at home, just to get sense for this
- 02:30
- is, just very softly, leaders, I want you to just
- 02:33
- follow your weight on your right foot, leaders, you're going to move just a hair backwards, te foot moves just a hair back, an then
- 02:38
- a hair forward, it collapses, moving a hair forward, it goes forward. So I want you to have the sense, that you can control the foot.
- 02:46
- You can move them a hair to your right, to her left, and foot goes that way, then you can make shapes,
- 02:52
- and cross, and then shift her over the leg.
- 02:55
- And so once you find that sense of the control of the leg, just separately
- 02:59
- then later on, when you're on the body, you can do the same thing.
- 03:08
- So you can try to learn this in a sort of easy and an isolated way. And main quest for the followers is the connection of the body.
