Intermediate Elements - Molinette
For the Leaders: A key trick is to get used to keeping an even pressure with both arms through the whole of her molinette. The instinct, especially when you start to do cool stuff, is not to give her enough pull to help her get around. This pull is from both arms: you pull the left arm, you push the right arm, and it comes from the rotation in the torso (hips, abs, chest).
For the Followers: I think one of the items of vocabulary that separates an intermediate follower from a very advanced follower is how well they do molinette. There can be beginners who do front ochos well. You virtually never see a follower who is not very advanced who does molinette well. Note that we're not saying "an advanced follower", we are saying "a very advanced follower." We have a lot of videos about molinette.
- Artist Name:
- Marcelo Alvarez
- Song Title:
- Caminito
- Album Title:
- Marcelo Alvarez Sings Gardel
- Artist Website:
- http://www.marceloalvarez.com/
A classical Argentine opera singer who also sings tango.
- 00:05
- We’re going to show you Molinette.
- 00:07
- And molinette is a very core, intermediate, advanced
Argentine tango piece of vocabulary. - 00:13
- And in a lot of these
we’re going to have a Take two... - 00:16
- ..which explains all the technique in detail.
- 00:18
- For the molinette we’re probably going to have a
Take two series because... - 00:21
- ..there is so much technique to it and
it’s very hard and very core. - 00:24
- We’re going to make this
as easy a version as possible. - 00:27
- Let’s start.
- 00:28
- But there are going to be a lot of other versions.
- 00:31
- For the leaders, roughly speaking,
if you look at my hands… - 00:35
- ..I’m going to say, I’m going to have her
going around me to the left… - 00:39
- ..and this is going to be forward and
this is going to be side... - 00:42
- ..and this is going to be back and side.
- 00:45
- So followers have four steps; here’s a preview.
- 00:47
- I’m just going to step in place.
- 00:59
- And that’s molinette.
- 01:00
- That back step is very similar to the amount of
pivot you needed in the drag. - 01:04
- It’s a lot.
- 01:05
- So if we do it without any turn,
for the followers it looks like this. - 01:10
- Let’s see you’ll start, side, forward, side,
back or you know a different angle. - 01:18
- This is without any pivot.
You can go side, forward, side, back. - 01:23
- But what happens is
we add a quarter pivot... - 01:26
- ..a half pivot actually,
on two of those steps. - 01:28
- So you’re going to end up going,
side, forward... - 01:32
- ..and you’re going to have a half pivot.
- 01:34
- Side and then another half pivot...
- 01:36
- ..back or so you can follow along with me…
- 01:40
- ..you’ll have side, forward and
then here’s your half pivot. - 01:49
- Side, another half pivot, back.
- 01:53
- So the back half pivot feels like
more than a half pivot. - 01:56
- Right so I say half in air quotes because
really the idea is just... - 02:00
- ..you just go around the guy.
- 02:01
- For the leaders as you do this,
right now I’ll show you your footwork. - 02:09
- I’m sure right now, they’re just sighing,
“Yes, we can do that.” - 02:12
- It’s not so easy as it seems right now.
- 02:14
- So the reason
I’m making the footwork easy is... - 02:16
- ..because the upper body is not easy.
- 02:19
- So roughly speaking if I have her here,
if I want her to step side… - 02:22
- ..I’m going to keep my hands
the same distance from each other. - 02:27
- If I want her to step forward
I’m going to bring my left breast bone forward... - 02:30
- ..and my right back.
- 02:33
- And then I become even and then
I bring my left back and my right forward… - 02:36
- ..so she can step back.
- 02:38
- And I want to step back around him...
- 02:40
- ..so I don’t get any further away from him
than I am at any other time. - 02:45
- And so roughly speaking
you will see in my chest… - 02:48
- ..this soft movement this way
as I tell her to step, side... - 02:52
- ..then forward, then side,
then back as I’m pivoting in place. - 03:04
- For the followers you may not get that lead
at every point. - 03:07
- But none the less -
- 03:08
- We have to just know.
- 03:09
- Yes, you’re supposed to know that
if he just pulls you... - 03:11
- ..eventually it’s going to be a molinette.
- 03:14
- Often time people will practice this
at home around a chair... - 03:17
- ..if I’m the follower.
- 03:17
- I practiced around a broom
after I practiced around a chair. - 03:21
- D: So you know, there’s a chair
N: Here, I’m the chair. - 03:23
- And for the followers you’d go side,
forward, side, back. - 03:30
- N: And I practiced staying the same distance...
D: And you can keep going. - 03:32
- ..from my chair, the whole way around,
which is hard. - 03:35
- It’s harder than it sounds.
- 03:36
- We’ll have a few chapters on this.
- 03:38
- Show what you can do with that.
- 03:40
- Oh, okay.
