Vals Essence - Ebb and Flow | Learn to Dance Tango

Vals Essence - Ebb and Flow

One thing I didn't remember to talk about in the video is the way that tango vals usually has 2 3 counts, almost a six count, almost as if there is a swinging up and then a swinging down or a going and a coming. There seems to be 2 pairs of 3 or 2 measures. When people are beginners, if they are very musical, they can dance it a lot like something 2 (stepping on the first beat of each 3 as if these 2 steps are part of a pair).

Nancy says: Tango is like life: Life ebbs and flows much like the ebb and flow we dance in vals. And, for us, there is something optimistic about tango as a dance of life. We believe that most people have optimism as a choice they make:

The Optimistic Dancer

Artist Name:: Trio Garufa
Song Title:: Palomita
Album Title:: Tango En El Mate
Artist Website:: http://www.triogarufa.com

From website: Trio Garufa is an international ensemble dedicated to performing authentic Argentine music. They have performed across Argentina, Canada and the US. Trio Garufa performs traditional Argentine tango, modern tango styles such as Astor Piazzolla's music or electro tangos, original tango compositions, and Argentine folk music. Their music is exciting, virtuosic, and rooted in the dance. They are the only tango ensemble in the US to have performed extensively in the milongas (tango dance clubs) of Buenos Aires. The group includes Guillermo García, guitar (Argentina) Adrian Jost, bandoneon (Switzerland) and Sascha Jacobsen, string bass (California).

00:04: When we talk about ebb and flow, we talk about a dam, which holds water, and then gets so full, and then releases it.
00:13: But that, maybe, doesn't tell you exactly what to do muscularly to make it happen.
00:18: N: You can tell us what to do.
D: And she looks at me!
N: Right.
00:21: N: Well, he get thought stuff, I get the fun stuff. It's so fair.
D: Right, of course, of course.
00:26: So, we come in, we build up energy, so that we can go on.
00:31: In the body, there's this sense that I go, "Ah!".
00:35: N: It's kind of a lifting.
D: And, you see the way, in my hips, I go in and up, and I suspend, and I build,
00:41: And then I begin to fall where I'm going to go, and then I go.
00:45: And after you go... So, you build, you begin to fall, and then you keep going that way.
00:52: So, you don't cut the momentum.
00:54: It's kind of... So, we say you lift, and then you kind of let the momentum take you.
01:00: But it's kind of a controlled "let the momentum take you".
01:03: And I... For me, the control is, partly, through my ankles.
01:07: So, I let the momentum take me with my body, but then I control my soft... I make the landing soft through my ankles.
01:13: D: Right, be careful of using your knees.
N: Oh, yeah.
01:15: D: This is what you'll see people do, I'm going to...
N: Oh.
D: Don't watch.
01:21: You say to yourself, "David said I should pull in and up".
01:24: "Ah, feels so good. And then he said I should fall, and I should keep going".
01:29: Ha-ha!
01:29: Right? So people's thought is that to keep going from when you're up, you go down. And that's not what it is.
01:35: You go up, you fall... oh across. It's a translational movement.
01:41: So, from this up, it goes that way, not... this way.
01:46: That's important. That's really important.
01:51: So, in tango vals, the momentum is going to carry us forward.
01:57: So, if you watch that... Let's scoot a little bit, there we go. We've got... Just little bit, there we go.
02:03: We've got: in, up, over and falling that way, to come back, to go the next way.
02:12: That was fun.

Series:: Vals Essence
Tags:: vals, Technique