An Intro to Close Embrace - Walking to Go Nowhere Ochos

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(Nancy speaking)I bring a classical dance orientation to tango. And I love tango because it gives me a way of expressing myself through dance now that I am older and don't have the conditioning for classical dance. Because of this "tango as art" orientation, I very much didn't appreciate dancing tango in close embrace. I felt that it gets in the way of bringing all that I know about movement to tango. In some ways, that's true.

Close embrace tango really is about something different. And, of course, many people have many different answers to the question: what is tango? or what is tango in close embrace (which some would say is the only way to really do tango)? But, for me, it's about a more internal dialogue between two people. It's very about being physically close to someone as well as about sharing a potentially very emotional moment with them. When I dance close embrace with David, I love the sharingness of it. I love how it accentuates the perfect music sync and perfect movement sync we sometimes achieve.

When I dance in close embrace with students, and they can move with their whole body, especially walking with me, I love how easy the walk can feel (ok, it's very hard but eventually it can also be very easy). I love how proud I feel at their achievement that they have learned enough to make something wonderful out of something which is intrinsically so difficult.

Artist Name:
Adriana Varela
Song Title:
Uno
Album Title:
Trottoirs De Buenos Aires

(From Wikipedia): Adriana Varela is regarded as one of the main Argentine tango singers of recent times, with a prominent singing career that begun in 1991.

00:30
And I'm wondering if right about now you're saying to yourself
00:33
"What are they doing?"
00:35
"Why did she cross?"
00:36
"It must be the hands on her back, he does this and then she knows"
00:40
Whispers in my ear
00:41
Yeah, *whispers*: "Cross, cross"
00:43
And really, what it is, is that in my...
00:48
I'm going to... For the leaders, if we zoom in, and you watch from the side, really what I do, is I say to her:
00:55
move a hair forward, a little bit to the left, and now move back. And then I shift her over her leg. It's that subtle.
01:05
It's very subtle, but it's really clear.
01:08
So one more time, from the side, as we're walking, wherever she is, just collected, just put her feet together
01:13
I'll shift her a hair forward, well the foot a hair forward, I shift her a hair to my left,
01:20
and then I take her back, so there's a small scene.
01:23
And then after she crosses I shift a little bit more to the left, to get her to shift weight over that foot.
01:28
And for the followers, you want to think that you are... Make your foot part of your body.
01:32
Instead if you're... If your body shifts forward, your foot shifts forward
01:37
If your body shifts back, your foot shifts back
01:40
He makes it sound easy, doesn't he?
01:42
Right, right
01:43
So, as a leader takes you just a hair forward, you move the leg a hair forward.
01:47
And if he takes you a hair inside, you move your foot a hair inside, and as he shifts you back, you move it back, and then he takes you just a hair over the foot.
01:55
So it's very subtle, and it's a very small movement.
01:58
And for the followers, you want your body very connected, and for the leaders, then, you want to think that this is all you need to do, that subtle.
02:06
So really, all I'm doing is I'm walking straight at her
02:13
and I stop anytime our feet are collected
02:16
And I take her tiny hair forward, a tiny hair to my left and a tiny hair back, and then I shift her to the leg by turning a little bit to my left.
02:24
And then we can go on.
02:26
I'd like you to do it at home, just to get sense for this
02:30
is, just very softly, leaders, I want you to just
02:33
follow your weight on your right foot, leaders, you're going to move just a hair backwards, te foot moves just a hair back, an then
02:38
a hair forward, it collapses, moving a hair forward, it goes forward. So I want you to have the sense, that you can control the foot.
02:46
You can move them a hair to your right, to her left, and foot goes that way, then you can make shapes,
02:52
and cross, and then shift her over the leg.
02:55
And so once you find that sense of the control of the leg, just separately
02:59
then later on, when you're on the body, you can do the same thing.
03:08
So you can try to learn this in a sort of easy and an isolated way. And main quest for the followers is the connection of the body.