Tango is improv... Tango is a style. There is nothing to remember
other than that. There are no 'patterns'. No 'routines'. Nothing to
memorize...
Tango is a 'walking' dance only to the extent that it's left, right,
etc. for the most part. The rest is to 'look' like Tango and you
can't do that with normal walking. What is needed is style,
smoothness and 'attitude'! To show you have one, the walk needs to
be a 'refined' version of a normal walk. One needs to add finesse..
An attractive and classy look. That's what gives it 'style'. I
tell my students that if you look like you're doing Tango.., you are!
There are other reasons... People walking forward and touching
downward first on their heel will have a harder time keeping their
head smooth. You can see heads bobbing all over the place when you
watch a crowd walking along a sidewalk.
Then too, heel first presents more possibility of stepping on your
partners toes. In general, keeping the toe to the floor insures you
meet your partners foot from the side rather from the top. It
certainly insures against embarassment.., and that's something that
historic Tango 'attitude' never allowed for. Insurances were
provided against it as with the Cabeceo and other items of tango
etiquette.
To me, sliding the foot totally flat on the floor is the way to go.
The weight being applied to the front half of the foot as you step
onto it, but keeping the heel to the floor.
This is not very hard to do at all. Forward or to the side... Just
practice, eh? One's ankle is an amazing universal joint. Its only
limitation is how far back one can step while keeping the entire foot
flat to the floor... But of course leaders do not do this to any
great extent and the follower walking backward is certainly allowed to
come down toe first while applying the weight to the front half of her
foot.... That's the whole point in the first place, eh? Not to
keep *switching* the weight between the heel and the ball.
As for newbies running? :-) I like to see them run if they can't
deal with what needs to be. It improves the Tango breed so to speak.
Tango is not for everyone, and those who need to be schmoozed into it
only do it damage. They have no real desire to learn anything as it's
taught and they take away from those who do. I look for quality, not
quantity.
Abrazos..
Floyd
On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:32:58 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:
>>From a student of Detlef (another great walker.)who just came from a miloguero workshop
> .>"Your feet never leave the ground (except perhaps in the old milonguero style) as though
> there are rooted in the ground. The feet have roots in the ground. When you take that step
> forward, backward or side your toe is never lifted off the ground. So take a deep breath,
> open up your chest (arms extended out), hold that open firmness in your upper body,
> practice twisting the torso while you are holding that open/firm posture, and then take that
> first step lifting you heel slowly (a slight bent foot/pointing toe to the right without lifting the
> toe from the ground) and moving slowly to the position you want. I can sympathize with you
> about balance but I think it can be achieved..
> Let me know how this instruction feels to you. OK? It seems simple until you try to
> execute. Everybody was having trouble with these seemigly simple and elegant steps
> during the workshops over the weekend. And most of them think of themselves as
> seasoned tango dancers. Where does it leave us?"
> ...good question...as Tom has often pointed out, on this forum, walking toe-first is not
> for beginners...well, is it back to the toe first for the intermediate to advanced dancers?
> Both sides of the polemic call the other side 'old fashioned'...as for my own thoughts;
> I'm just a beginner (6 mos now!) and I find it curious to refer to a Milonguero style of
> walking as 'old fashioned' when in a milonguero workshop..oh well, I've heard that the
> toe-first style was taught by the show Tango dancers..and now that is being called
> 'old fashioned' by some
>
>
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