Vocabulary - Take 2 - Leaders - Gancho
We think ganchos are a little over-rated. They're cool but, on a scale from 1 to 100 of coolness, with 50 being normal, we would say a gancho is 55 or 60, so it's cooler than normal. But a lot of people think it's much higher. (Nancy says) How can I protect us when people want to lynch us for saying that?
To be fair, until the technique and the other movements become clear, you can't blame people for liking the gancho better than other movements. Because gancho movements are more macroscopic and more unusual, they are easier to see. Other movements are more subtle so it's harder to see their coolness, until those subtleties become clear.
One thing that's interesting that we see as teachers is that, oftentimes, students will like things more the more they understand them. Part of that is liking what you're good at, but part of it comes just from the understanding.
- Artist Name:
- Pablo Banchero
- Song Title:
- Cabo Polonio
- Album Title:
- Tangos Nuevos - Modales y Finura
- Artist Website:
- https://www.facebook.com/pablo.banchero.5
One of our favorite singers of the modern day.
- 00:05
- Now the freno, the chapter we just did,
was one of the easiest chapters… - 00:09
- ..and the gancho, the chapter we’re going to do now
is one of the hardest. - 00:12
- But also, it has lots of extra cool factor,
so that sort of makes up for it. - 00:16
- Some additional technique.
- 00:19
- Before I told you, leaders,
that you want to have your heel popped... - 00:23
- ..and your leg turned out to create room.
- 00:26
- Something I forgot to tell you was that a lot of leaders
have their other leg bent. - 00:30
- And so if you’re like this, with your legs here...
- 00:35
- ..there’s no room,
even though your heel is popped. - 00:37
- So you want to make sure your other leg is straight
so you can create this space. - 00:42
- As we get there...
- 00:47
- ..you’ll see that there are also
multiple leg positions. - 00:50
- So the leg position we taught you earlier
was from here... - 00:54
- ..that you can move your foot out of the way
behind her leg - - 00:56
- And that’s how I lead it.
- 00:58
- And then have plenty of space.
- 01:00
- However, there’s actually three typical places.
- 01:03
- One place, is actually just to leave
the leg there. - 01:09
- It’s harder on the balance but it's actually
more natural for foot positioning... - 01:13
- ..because your foot is already there.
- 01:17
- A second place is after she walks over,
to move it sideways with her. - 01:22
- One advantage of this is it means
you have no risk of being under her heel. - 01:27
- You just go side and you feel her foot.
- 01:28
- And women always worry about that.
- 01:32
- The final thing I want you to think about, leaders,
is that… - 01:35
- ..actually no. One of the few final things.
- 01:38
- I’m famous in class with this,
“The final, final, final thing.” - 01:41
- ...is that you can go to her,
so that you want to support her with your body. - 01:46
- If she is in a precarious position and
I’m holding her just this little lightly… - 01:50
- ..she’s not going to feel very safe.
- 01:52
- But if she is in a precarious position
and I have her like this… - 01:54
- ..with my whole body supporting her,
she’ll feel a lot more secure. - 01:57
- So when she goes to do this gancho on one foot
and a tough kick… - 02:02
- ..you’ll see that wherever I go, I’ll bring my body
so that my body is on one side... - 02:08
- ..and my arm on the other clamping her in place
which makes her feel very safe. - 02:12
- And this idea of me bringing my body to her
is very freeing because… - 02:16
- ..it also means that no matter where she steps,
you can do it. - 02:19
- So if we're here and she steps way far away...
- 02:23
- ..take three steps, one, two three
and she steps there… - 02:26
- ..but turn to face me.
She steps there to do the gancho… - 02:29
- ..I can be like, yes let’s do a gancho
and it works fine, right? - 02:33
- So there’s this idea that
you can go to her and it will work fine.
