Practicing at Home - Practicing the Lean With a Partner

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Why is it worth practicing at home, anyway? Studies have shown that giving oneself completely to the study and mastery of any art is uniquely happy making.

Many say flow is the state of being completely engrossed with all of your attention in the mastery of a difficult technique in an art that you love. Some of us have heard stories of the crazy famous fine art painters who lock themselves in their attics and paint without stopping to eat or sleep for 36 hours at a stretch. Why do they do that? Well, they do it because it makes them happy.

Many people want that feeling of flow without the investment. They never realize that the experience of flow is hiding inside that investment of attention and energy.

Here's some inspiration for the lean:

Here's some inspiration for the lean

Artist Name:
Eduardo Rovira
Song Title:
Majo Maju
Album Title:
Que Lo Paren

(From google translated wikipedia): Bandoneon player , arranger and composer, Rovira was the creator of about 200 tangos. Rovira was a pioneer in the use of electrical distortion in the sound of the bandoneon.

00:05
In this chapter, we’re going to give you a
few exercises to help make your leans better.
00:10
And, while this series is about
practicing at home…
00:14
..this one is practicing at home
with someone else.
00:18
So, what I want to start with, is this idea that
the lean in tango...
00:24
..is the same as the lean not in tango.
00:26
That’s right.
00:27
Yes, it’s all the same.
00:29
So if you were leaning and it’s not tango,
you'd be here…
00:32
..and you'd be like, "oh". Do this with a wall
I want you to just go find a wall and lean.
00:37
And you feel very relaxed and very comfortable
and it’s not hard.
00:40
Or you know you could do it with both.
00:42
And then after you do this,
I want you to find a partner…
00:46
D: Hi partner.
N: Hi.
00:48
D: And I want your partner to become a wall.
N: Hi. Fancy meeting you here.
00:52
And then I want you to lean against them
the same way you would lean against a wall...
00:55
..which takes a certain amount of trust.
00:57
You have to sort of believe
that they’ll hold you up.
00:59
And then you can lean in turn configurations.
01:05
So that’s exercise number one;
lean against a wall or a ballet bar.
01:09
D: This time you have the good equipment.
N: And either one of you can do that.
01:11
Either the follower or the leader it’s the same.
01:13
Yes, it’s the same for both.
01:14
And then lean against someone and
then feel what that feels like.
01:16
Then after that, I want one person
to lean against the wall...
01:20
..and the other person to look at their body
to make sure that it’s straight.
01:25
So, because we say it’s a lot like a plank...
01:28
..and you’re here doing your plank,
and your back is straight, right?
01:32
You don’t want to be here...
01:33
.. and you don’t want to be here.
01:35
So, you do the same plank, but against a wall.
01:39
And then I want you to do this with a friend...
01:41
..and the friend can look at you and
say, "is that straight?"
01:43
Right. And what we’re going to measure is
through the center of his thigh,
01:48
All the way down. That’s what we want to be straight,
the very center there.
01:52
So, I go and I look, and of course it's David,
so it’s completely straight.
01:55
N: Show a not so straight.
D: Is my neck completely straight?
01:57
You’re straight.
01:58
Show a not so straight.
02:00
I’m going to do it subtle this time.
02:02
So okay, so now I would look
and if I took the centre of his thigh...
02:06
..this way, I would see right here,
it’s not straight.
02:10
So I say, "You have to tuck in a little bit to get straight,"
like that.
02:14
So, you can give each other feedback.
02:18
Final exercise - two, two final exercises
02:22
The final final exercise.
02:24
D: No, we're not there yet.
N: Okay.
02:25
This is only the first final exercise.
02:27
As we lean, I want the followers to have this experience
almost as if they’re pushing.
02:31
So I’m going to brace her.
I’m just going to go back very slowly…
02:34
..but as I go back, I want her to
consciously be pushing.
02:38
He wants me to push from my chest.
02:39
D: Yes
N: Which I'm doing.
02:43
Because what happens is, if you don’t learn
how to push with your chest,...
02:46
D: ..you feel off balance.
N: Right.
02:49
And that will let you relax,
being able to actually, in a lean, push forward.
02:54
I’m really trying to push.
02:56
It, actually wouldn’t be a bad exercise.
02:57
Do this once with a slight push - do it once
with a big push, just so you feel what it's like.
03:03
Here's the final final exercise.
03:05
"Final final final," this is what we do
in class the whole time.
03:08
And for the leaders, this, unfortunately,
is a terribly hard thing...
03:12
..and involves lots of suffering…
03:14
..but it builds characters, so it’s okay.
03:16
What I want you to do is I want you to
push forward while you go back.
03:21
So, the thing is, as you go back,
as I do any sort of lean, as I’m going back…
03:27
..with my foot, I have to be
going forward with my chest.
03:31
So, if I do this, if I go back with the foot
and I go back with the chest…
03:35
..you see all the space down there.
03:37
She won’t fall,
but it will be very unpleasant.
03:41
Or she won’t go.
03:42
D: Or she won't go. One of the two.
N: Depending on the follower.
03:43
So you’ll see, maybe I’ll put my foot out there.
03:46
But as I go back, you’ll see my chest
doesn’t move back that much.
03:49
And the sensation…
03:51
He has to keep feeling like he's pushing me.
03:52
..is that I’m pushing forward,
even though that’s not the actual case.
03:57
So, what I want to do now,
is I want to have the followers push on the leader…
04:01
..both hands like this, one foot forward.
04:04
You’re not going to be leaning, followers.
04:07
And for the leaders, as you go back,
I want you -
04:10
...followers, as they go back, I want you to
push more so they have to push more.
04:14
So, push harder and harder as I start to go back.
04:17
So, I get this sensation of the resistance
that I have to apply as I go further back.
04:22
That’s pretty hard.
04:23
Yes. So a large collection of exercises to improve your leans.
Series:
Practicing at Home
Tags:
Lean, Exercises
Practicing at Home