Intermediate Elements - Drag
The thing is, it's easy for me to talk about technique for this one. In a conceptual way, if you're both balanced on your left leg, for example, then the drag can be easy and you can do lots of other foot stuff.
However, we'd like to talk about something more profound. One thing that makes a drag look and feel cool in a subtle, but very tangible way, is the quality of the connection between his foot and her foot and his body and her body. You can lead the drag without the foot at all; you can do the drag without the body at all, but, when you do both, it becomes more three dimensional in a world of flat pictures. But this is extremely advanced so look for more about this in take 3 when we get around to filming it.
It's interesting how often a man and woman have different perspectives about the same issue:
An English teacher wrote the words, 'Woman without her man is nothing' on the blackboard and asked the students to punctuate so that it made sense.
The boys wrote: 'Woman, without her man, is nothing.'
The girls wrote: 'Woman! Without her, man is nothing.'
- Artist Name:
- Julia Zenko
- Song Title:
- Sin Piel
- Album Title:
- Tango Por Vos
- Artist Website:
- http://www.juliazenko.com.ar/eng.htm
One of our favorite singers of the modern day.
- 00:06
- Now we’re going to show you a drag...
- 00:07
- ..which is going to be the third step
in your Introduction to Intermediate Vocabulary - 00:32
- So it starts very similar to the front ocho.
- 00:35
- We’ll both step side.
- 00:36
- Here - or back ocho; I’ll pull rotating my chest to my left,
so she rotates. - 00:41
- And I keep going and then eventually
she’ll step in the circle around me. - 00:44
- I’ll stop her while she’s on both feet
using my hands to keep her from going backwards... - 00:50
- ..freeing my right leg to grab her foot.
- 00:54
- So if you see that again.
- 01:00
- I rotate her, she pivots way around me.
- 01:02
- For the ladies notice how much she pivoted.
- 01:04
- Leaders, I shift all my weight to my left foot...
- 01:07
- ..so my right foot is free to grab her foot.
- 01:09
- Show that at another angle.
- 01:11
- And once again, for the ladies
it will feel like a lot of pivot. - 01:14
- It is a lot of pivot David.
- 01:16
- She’s like, "You won't feel like it, it is."
- 01:21
- So if I lead that again, you’ve got side,
I pivot her a bunch and then more. - 01:28
- And then finally she steps back around me.
- 01:30
- I stop on both feet, shift my weight to my left foot,
so my right foot is free to grab her foot. - 01:36
- Now from here...
- 01:37
- I’m going to shift her back so she’s balanced on her left foot
so we can drag her right foot. - 01:41
- Now for the ladies, you’ll see that
when I collect my legs... - 01:45
- ..I bend my knees, bring the foot in angling
and then push out. - 01:52
- So that when I am being dragged,
it goes through this beautiful arc. - 01:59
- So we’ve got side, she pivots a lot.
- 02:01
- He stops her, grabs the foot,
shifts her back to her foot... - 02:05
- ..so her leg is free to drag
and then we’ll bring her up to the freno. - 02:10
- She’ll walk over and we’ll exit as earlier
or you can do a Gancho; previous chapter. - 02:29
- Now some comments.
- 02:30
- Why do we tell you to do it this way?
- 02:32
- And that’s because if you -
ladies if you don’t stay close... - 02:37
- ..the reason I’m emphasizing that it's big pivot for her...
- 02:39
- ..or for the leaders,
that you need to take her around in a big pivot... - 02:42
- ..is because if you don’t, she’ll end up really far away
which is not the tango way. - 02:47
- For example.
- 02:49
- N: Yes it’s a fun one to show them.
D: What I do for my students... - 02:51
- ..So we're here, I pivot her, she's
- wrong angle. - 02:55
- One more time.
- 02:56
- I’m here, I pivot her and she goes that way
and I’m over here and then I grab her foot. - 03:01
- I can still grab her foot.
We can sort of reach each other. - 03:06
- And then I go to drag,
and you know, "I can make it." - 03:11
- I can make it. And then I’m stuck.
- 03:14
- So for the leaders if you’re here and you pivot her
and she steps over there... - 03:18
- ..maybe you can drag the foot,
but you can’t really drag it out. - 03:21
- And then you’re stuck here
with your feet really wide. - 03:23
- So instead, for the followers, you want to think
you want to go in this circle around the guy... - 03:28
- ...which is why there is so much pivot.
- 03:31
- That was good.
- 03:35
- Eventually, once you get really comfortable with it
you can do it all as one motion. - 03:38
- So instead of stopping her, you’ll get her going...
- 03:41
- ..and then you’ll just grab the leg along the way.
- 03:45
- N: And we can do it more than once.
D: One more time. Right - - 03:47
- - for that matter while we’re at it,
once you’re here you can just keep her going... - 03:52
- ..and just keep grabbing the leg
and then flip back and grab the leg. - 03:57
- And then instead of once,
you’ll do a double flick up.
