[Tango-L] under-turned and over-turned ochos

[larrynla@juno.com]

The year after Fabian Salas was last here in L.A. "Chicho" Frumboli came here 
several times.  One of his classes covered under-turned and over-turned ochos.

Up to then, despite having maybe three dozen teachers face-to-face 
(though most just for a few hours) and seen lots of videos, ochos just 
meant two 180-degree turns after another that returned the dancer to 
(usually her) starting position.  Frumboli explained that 
there is a whole family of figures with pivots in them.  

________________________________ under-turned ochos
Suppose instead of two 180-degree turns the man leads two 90-degree 
turns.  They produce a zig-zag figure that travels (usually) along the 
line of dance.  He called these under-turned ochos.  So the man, 
instead of standing in the same spot to lead the ocho, must travel with 
the woman.  If he leads her to step backward he has to step forward.  
They mirror each other.

Or if he leads her to step forward, doing under-turned forward ochos, 
he has to step backward.  So he should first lead the two of them into 
a half-turn to remain moving along the line of dance.

________________________________ over-turned ochos
Leading ochos where the woman does greater than 180-degree pivots 
creates over-turned ochos.  If her pivot is 270 degrees (a 3/4 turn) or 
360 degrees (a full turn) the leader may only want her to do a single 
pivoting step, not two the way one does the normal ocho.  But such is 
possible, just not easy.  And the man is going to have to do some 
movement from his starting spot as with zig-zags.

________________________________ sideways ochos
If the man leads his partner to pivot and step across behind (or in 
front) of her supporting foot he can lead ochos to the left and right 
instead of along (or opposite) the line of dance.

________________________________ grapevines/braids/cadenas
If you take the half a forward ocho and half a backward ocho and stick 
them together (along with, perhaps, other individual steps), what do 
you get?

Several possibilities.  Among them is the cadena, which I first 
encounted in a modern dance class under the name of the braid, and in a 
jazz dance class as a grapevine.  It might be of this pattern: side, to 
the side crossing behind, side, to the side crossing in front, and 
repeat.  The man typically mirrors his partner.  When she steps side 
crossing behind he steps side crossing in front.  Or he can duplicate 
her step, so both are crossing behind at the same time.

Another possibility: a man can lead the cadena so the woman makes a box 
or hexagon or octagon around the man while he stands in the same spot, 
turning to remain facing her.  This is the molinete (wheel), where he 
is the hub and she the rim.

________________________________ colgadas
Further development of these ideas leads to the colgada, where the two 
partners lean away from each other and the woman spins on one foot 
while the man steps from side to side on each side of her supporting 
foot.  With her free foot she can do several kinds of adornos, most 
often just a long kick back that leaves her free leg extended until he 
stops the spin, maybe after just a half-turn or maybe after several 
complete turns.

________________________________ Nuevo?  Or not?
I don't know if all these possibilities can really be included under 
the umbrella of "nuevo" tango.  I seem to recall seeing a few of these 
combinations before Naveira and Salas began widely teaching after "The 
Tango Lesson" made them well known.  But it was a revelation to me that 
the combinations were all related.

And significant historically perhaps that it was teachers identified by 
others (but not by themselves) as nuevo tango teachers who taught these 
classes.


Larry de Los Angeles
http://shapechangers.wordpress.com



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