- Artist Name:
- La Chicana
- Song Title:
- Baldosa Floja
- Album Title:
- Ayer Hoy Era Mañana
(From a review): La Chicana is a wonderful small tango band with an original, creative composer (Estol) and a captivating singer.
Milonga Combinations to Build Essense - Quick Leg Switch
Many of our students have found this step difficult to learn. Nancy thinks it's hard to get your mind around what it's about. Practicing slowly many times and then slowly getting faster will make it easier to get comfortable with the coordination.
- 00:13
- That's a really fun one. Yeah.
- 00:15
- And it's about as hard as it looks.
- 00:20
- Yeah. Well there's some technique.
- 00:22
- I mean, it's not that hard to do, but to do it.
- 00:24
- So it looks good. It's not so easy,
- 00:25
- but that's why we're teaching it, right?
- 00:28
- Uh, so for really it's just a step up, um, for the leaders.
- 00:32
- You have prep maybe side forward, and then
- 00:34
- after that you're gonna point
- 00:36
- and shift away just a little bit.
- 00:38
- So you've got side forward point
- 00:40
- and shift just a little so that she points to.
- 00:42
- And then really what you're doing is you're
- 00:44
- going jump change.
- 00:46
- So you jump up. So you bring your feet together,
- 00:48
- you change weight, and you put the other leg out.
- 00:51
- So you've got jump change and out.
- 00:54
- Now this is in slow motion, so I'm not being airborne.
- 01:00
- Now also, as you do this, um,
- 01:01
- you don't really wanna jump really high.
- 01:04
- No. Um, Milon goes fast.
- 01:05
- And, and while it can have maybe the tiniest bit of balance,
- 01:08
- you don't want it to be like this, like that.
- 01:12
- So instead, right, I'll just sort
- 01:16
- of have this minor little jump
- 01:17
- and it's really quick so that, uh,
- 01:19
- I don't go too, too high. Would
- 01:21
- It help if they just did step change like that first?
- 01:25
- So in slow motion, just behind me, uh, this for both guys
- 01:28
- and girls, I'm just gonna go back and forward.
- 01:29
- Yes. For both, for both of you point
- 01:32
- and with a little bit of weight, then go up,
- 01:35
- change out, change out,
- 01:41
- That gets comfortable. Then
- 01:42
- the little hop is easy after that.
- 01:45
- And then what happens is as you do this up, change out,
- 01:48
- I want you to very slowly make the up smaller
- 01:52
- and make the change a little bit faster.
- 01:54
- Um, which, which means do it without music, right?
- 01:56
- So turn off the music practice in front of a mirror
- 01:58
- or something and gradually less
- 02:02
- bouncing and more speed.
- 02:05
- So that looks like, so you see now I'm still doing
- 02:08
- that up in my body, but it's not as high.
- 02:12
- And then I'll start to jump and it'll become higher.
- 02:15
- But then as you get it faster,
- 02:16
- the jump doesn't become so big.
- 02:28
- Now, in terms of lead follow,
- 02:30
- In terms of lead follow, it's really easy.
- 02:32
- We hold on for dear life with our left hand here.
- 02:35
- And we make our bodies one,
- 02:37
- and then we let him do both our bodies.
- 02:39
- 'cause I never know when David's gonna be doing
- 02:40
- That. And let's actually,
- 02:41
- um, let's define
- 02:43
- what make our bodies one means.
- 02:44
- Yeah. So for the followers, let's say you put up your arm
- 02:49
- and I told you, don't move that arm for god's sake.
- 02:53
- Don't move that arm.
- 02:54
- We pick a place and we keep it there, and
- 02:56
- I start to pull.
- 02:57
- Then I have to Pull. And you'll feel
- 02:59
- through your whole body, all these muscles engage
- 03:01
- so that arm doesn't move.
- 03:02
- Right? And so when she says make our bodies one, really
- 03:05
- what she's saying is she chooses not to let her arm move so
- 03:08
- that she can feel the pressure
- 03:09
- and the movement in her body instead.
- 03:11
- And that's true both for this side and this.
- 03:13
- And it's not just true of the arm,
- 03:14
- but it's true of the whole midsection.
- 03:16
- So you don't wanna be too loosey loosey.
- 03:18
- That's what I mean. You hold on for dear life
- 03:21
- and then he can do both of us.
- 03:25
- Oh, so the followers know
- 03:27
- exactly what to do and the poor leaders.
- 03:29
- Yes. So the leaders, I
- 03:30
- was gonna talk about how to lead this.
- 03:32
- Really what you do is you wanna imagine
- 03:34
- that the follower's spine, so
- 03:37
- that your back arm has the follower's, uh, very fuzzy back.
- 03:42
- So your back arm is here
- 03:44
- and that you can shift this way or that way.
- 03:48
- And so when she's shot out, she's out that way
- 03:50
- and you'll go in this way to change it.
- 03:54
- So one more time, she's here
- 03:55
- and I go in this way to change it.
- 03:58
- And so when I'm holding her, there's this,
- 04:00
- and there's this in throw That way.
- 04:03
- This is really a lead that
- 04:06
- it's better if you have someone teach it in person,
- 04:07
- but hopefully this will help anyway, you know, review
- 04:11
- or preview either way.
- 04:13
- So we have side forward for him, side back for her.
- 04:17
- We take it out a little bit and then it goes up over.
- 04:21
- And then it can just repeat.
