De-Tangoing

Didn’t have a double lesson last night so I just showed up for group class which was the Waltz.  We ended up doing a step that I hadn’t done before but I think I heard them saying that OwnerGuy was going to add it to Tex’s routine and so that’s probably why it was done.   Kind of like giving them some extra free practice for this step.

Actually, the first part is something I’ve done which is just a spiral turn to a check.  But instead of doing a second spiral turn, you give the lady an underarm turn so you end up side by side.  Then we both do a forward, side, together but stay stretched apart.  That leads to another inside turn to bring the lady past you and then you can close up the distance using any number of figures.  The only problem was that the step moved quite a bit and we ended up invading the space occupied by the newcomer group from time to time.  There were no collisions which is a good thing but those poor people just had a very small sliver of the dance floor to work with and we kept coming into their space.

On the lesson, OwnerGuy made us dance the Viennese Waltz cold just so he could see what it looked like.  He actually recommended that we do it again on Thursday before the demo.  He does have a lot of experience with competitions and getting yourself in the right mental place to do that so I he had good reasons for asking us to do it cold to music.  He made a few comments and we did it a second time and then he said we should put it away and focus on Tango.

The Tango lesson was very much like the Bolero lesson I described earlier.  At first, I only remembered bits and pieces and it wasn’t going very well.  I think it ended up OK but I’m still confused in places where the timing seems to get a bit odd.  Tango is a strange dance.  When I can get into the mood, it can be fun.  But, when I’m not, it is a struggle.  It kind of requires you to dance with your knees slightly bent which is no fun but then that makes me want to compress my whole body so OwnerGuy was yelling at me to keep my head up.  So my top half needs to be tall but my legs need to be slightly bent which is just weird.

And I think Tango just takes the longest to really find the groove with a new partner.  Its that whole part of me that wants to capture the character and feel of the dance.  Tango is supposed to have a bit of aggression (maybe more than a bit) and some passion and that can be hard for me to display.  It is weird because it seemed easier in Argentine Tango but that might be because we never really got beyond the basics.  I don’t know.  This is one of those things where I can’t find the right words.  I’m not sure chemistry is the right word but it is close.  Maybe it is just getting to a comfort level with a partner where it can be easier to express that part of the dance.  Kind of like Rumba and Bolero in a way although different because I think I can pull the aggression out a little easier.  Just not quite at a place where I can do that with JoNY.

So we were sharing the floor with a couple practicing their wedding dance.  At one point, as we were near them, I overhead her say something about how hard it must be to remember all the steps and I naturally agreed with her.  I do like watching wedding couples though.  At least when they are both really into the dance lesson and relaxed and having a good time.  Nothing worse than seeing a couple taking lessons when one of them isn’t in to it.  But I do like seeing people start on their dance journey when it is all new and exciting.

That meant we were sharing music and basically trying to avoid them.  But, for some reason, towards the end of the lesson, we put on a Tango and they decided to watch rather than continuing to practice.  I think they were taking a break and were going to get back to it after we did our Tango.  So we got to perform a little bit.  It was kind of weird having a small audience but they seemed to enjoy our Tango.

Tomorrow is the open house and our “debut” if you will.  Will let you know how it all turns out.