[Tango-L] How to lead volcadas

[Tom Stermitz]

> What it tells us Jack is that some people have got the idea that one
> particular predefined sequence is the only thing that is called  
> volcada...
> because that's the only volcada that those particular people are  
> learning
> or teaching in class, and featuring in the promo videos you see.
>
> Volcada is a description. In real dancing, there are countless  
> different
> volcadas. The word refers to any move that meets the description.  
> Only in
> the world of paint-by-numbers tango classes does anyone mistake the  
> word
> for the name of a single sequence.
>
> --
> Chris

Yes, of course Volcada just means lean. It comes from the Spanish. You  
can do a big lean, or do it small, break her back, or throw her to the  
ground. Or, maybe she throws you to the ground. Watching the older  
dancers, you see they are always changing around the angle of the  
lean, so volcada is nothing new.

Same problem with learnung the boleo.

Many people think boleo is a kick of the leg, when in fact the kick is  
a decoration of the boleo. The basic boleo is (usually) a spiral at  
the waist, that results in the supporting leg pivoting and the loose  
leg floating behind and perhaps wrap before coming around to the front.

If you learn the boleo with one specific kick, then you are learning  
both the decoration and the boleo at the same time. This is less  
flexible than learning them separately.


Certain fads sweep through tango every couple of years.

I remember the dreadful parada, sandwich, shoe-shine, gancho scare of  
the mid 1990s. How kitsch that move looks today, as the woman rubs her  
shoe with pretend skankiness up his leg.

A bunch of people will go to Buenos Aires and see a woman with her  
nose pressed against his cheek, or her left shoulder cranked up with  
elbow poking up at the ceiling, or her butt sticking way out, and  
start imitating it.

Each year it seems like a particular new move is the rage: big  
sweeping volcadas (2003), or a 45 degree plank (1995).


Tom Stermitz
Denver, CO 80207