[Tango-L] Posting & open discussion on Tango-

[Tom Stermitz]

NOT LUNFARDO

Sacar is regular spanish, meaning "take away". To displace is not a  
bad English translation, but desplazar has more the sense of move  
through space.

Sacada is often taught specifically in the turn, but the concept  
certainly applies in other situations. I guess in the nuevo sense  
they're all turns.

Here's an example of a sacada in a straight line: heading to the cross  
in cross-footed, you can deny the cross by entering between the  
follower's legs using the leader's body, leg and foot. This could  
initiate a left turn if a pivot is applied at the same moment, but  
that isn't necessary; you might simply continue the walk.

That raises the point that each stride of a regular parallel walk  
could also be thought of as a sacada, i.e. as the leader steps between  
the follower's legs, he displaces her axis and leg.


AXIS, NOT FOOT

The sacada really refers to displacing the axis. The foot or leg  
action is more of a visual element, an optical illusion as someone  
said. The power of the sacada comes from the axis of the leader  
effectively displacing the axis of the follower within the proper  
timing and energy of the movements.

Precision of axis, which in one sense is as simple as just walking in  
a straight line, is a somewhat essential skill.



On Feb 22, 2008, at 9:56 PM, Keith wrote:

> Well, they say you learn something new everyday. I'm certainly
> not going to argue about what words mean because my Spanish is
> limited and my Lunfardo non-existent. But I like to use the correct
> terminology and I've never heard before that a Sacada must
> interrupt a turn. I always thought a Sacada was a displacement of
> a leg or foot by the partner’s leg or foot. This can occur at almost
> any time and not just during turns. I checked this site, which I
> usually use to check terminology:
>
> http://www.tejastango.com/terminology.html .
>
> Part of the definition of Entrada is ... 'without displacenment' and
> the definition of Sacada makes no mention of interrupting a turn.