Milonga Introductory Vocabulary - 4 Count Basic
Now that we've gone away from the styling chapters, where we want you to explicitly work on styling, we want you not to do too much. Try to make it feel natural and, inside the naturalness, find the styling. But make it small styling.
Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.
- Artist Name:
- Aníbal Troilo
- Song Title:
- La Milonga Y Yo
- Album Title:
- Che Buenos Aires - 1969/1970
- Artist Website:
- http://www.troilo.com.ar/
(From Wikipedia): Anibal Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, arranger and bandleader in Argentina. His orquesta típica was among the most popular with social dancers during the golden age of tango (1940-1955), but he changed to a concert sound by the late 1950s. Troilo's orchestra is best known for its instrumentals and also recorded with many vocalists.
- 00:09
- So, the Argentine tango has a family of dances, the same way ballroom has a family of dances.
- 00:14
- So, for example, in ballroom you've got waltz and foxtrot and quickstep.
- 00:19
- Well, in the Argentine tango, we've got tango, but we've also got milonga, which we're doing now, and vals.
- 00:25
- And, in milonga, you just step on every beat, like we're doing now.
- 00:30
- Very small and tight.
- 00:32
- And so, we'll have chapters about that, but this chapter is just to introduce the first step for milonga.
- 00:38
- 4 count basic.
- 00:39
- A 4 count basic. And so, for the leaders, what you're going to do, is you're going to...
- 00:45
- So, there's sort of this changing weight, just to get in sync, and then after you are in sync,
- 00:50
- You go back, open.
- 00:53
- And notice how my back-open, I go back, open.
- 00:58
- But I'm not taking a very big step, so I'm going to go open, and she's going to step side, around.
- 01:03
- So, the followers, what you do,
- 01:05
- Is you go forward, around him. And notice that my step is wider here, because you're going around him.
- 01:11
- If we just do that, we've got...
- 01:18
- And so she's past me a little bit.
- 01:21
- But his heels stay almost together, so I can get past them.
- 01:24
- Now, after that, I'm going to go through, so I'm going to take a small forward step to the outside of her.
- 01:30
- And I'm going to step around, as she changes in place.
- 01:34
- So, there's this sense that, at the beginning, we go back, and then she passes him, and then forward, and then he goes around her.
- 01:43
- So there's this constant switching from one person to the other.
- 01:46
- So, that's a little bit hard for people to get their minds around.
- 01:49
- The fact that you just... When this person is going around you, the person is going to be standing in the same place, just opens the front of their feet
- 01:56
- But... Yeah.
- 01:57
- And keeps their heels together. so that the other person can get around.
- 02:01
- If I took a step...
- 02:03
- So, imagine I'm trying to get around her.
- 02:04
- If I take a step like this, he has to get around me...
- 02:07
- Nancy: like that which really
David: I have to work hard. - 02:08
- Doesn't work.
- 02:09
- But if she makes it small, then it's very easy for me to pass her.
- 02:16
- So, we've got: small, she goes around, forward, I go around.
- 02:21
- And then it repeats.
- 02:23
- So, now... Right now, we're doing it to tempo, which is really quite fast.
- 02:28
- Sometimes it's even faster, this is a medium milonga.
- 02:31
- I know, I mean, I don't want you to suffer, but... at the beginning, milonga music can be fast, and this is actually a moderate paced one.
- 02:38
- So, as you do milonga, I want you to think, "Small means fast becomes easy". So I'm going to show you that.
- 02:44
- If we're dancing large, we'll suffer.
- 02:46
- Hm.
- 02:47
- So, watch this. If I take really big steps,
- 02:50
- Oh, boy.
- 02:55
- And it feels like...
- 02:57
- That's way too hard.
- 02:58
- Yeah, it feels like the song is really fast.
- 02:59
- But if I do this, I'll be like, "Oh, look, there's all the time in the world, all the time in the world".
- 03:06
- Actually, you could probably do double-time.
- 03:09
- Right, you know, if I'm doing it that small.
- 03:17
- And that's double-time.
- 03:18
- So, the bottom line is, the faster it is, the smaller step you take. And that will make it a lot easier.
- 03:23
- Yes.
- 03:24
- We're going to show it half-time, though, so you have a chance to catch it.
- 03:27
- So, we're going to dance it, but half-time.
