In Today’s Building Block Episode (#2) we have three pieces of tango vocabulary that are used frequently in most people’s dance:
1.) Follower Linear Back Ochos.
2.) Lead Extensions (sometimes called “projections”). and
3.) Lead Linear Back Ochos.
The first of these elements is used so often that most people don’t even realize they’re employing them. The second gets used with some frequency as accent idea. And the last one does not even get a thought because most Leads never even conceive of it. Today’s Building Block episode discusses these ideas in relation to your dancing experience.
Let’s get something out of the way almost immediately: This video series and everything in that follows is not a steps/patterns/figures video series. We believe that these things have their place but in the long run, they don’t really help you to become a better dancer. While the choreography removes the worry of wondering what to do next. The problem with learning choreography is that it is the same dance constantly with little variation! Tango is an improvisational dance. So it’s important to explore how to improvise, and more importantly WHAT to improvise with. What Tango Topics is offering you in this video is a way to expand your dancing repertoire using the vocabulary you already know today, in ways you hadn’t really thought of, and more importantly for use on a social dance floor.
That said, let’s dive into Today’s Tango Building Block.
What is a Tango Building Block ? In many ways, Tango is a lot like a set of Lego™ Building Blocks. With just a few simple blocks you can build very complex and intricate structures. Tango is the same way. With just a few basic moves like forward, side, and back you can build very complex movements that can later be applied in very different ways. That’s what makes Tango so amazing. It’s never the same dance twice even with the same partner and the same music!
A Tango Topic Building Block goes one step further. This isn’t just about showing you a move or a step, pattern, or figure but giving you tools that you can integrate into your dance immediately. Ideas that you hadn’t even thought of or considered.
Frequently when we dance, we get very ‘stuck’ in our repetition of the same piece of vocabulary over and over and over again. This series is designed to give you ideas, options, and opportunities to employ differences to add a bit of spice to your dance using very simple ideas.
Let’s get something out of the way going further: This video series and everything in that follows is not a step, pattern, or figure video series. We’re not going to teach you a series of patterns. We believe that steps don’t really help you. Tango, for lack of a better way of putting it, is a dance that is choreographed on the fly, meaning that it is improvised. While that improvisation has some elements to it that are common (the building blocks) how you put those elements together is where the real artistry is at. Put another way, the dance is not ‘canned’, meaning that it is mapped out precisely in time to the music as though you would choreograph a ballet. That would be a performance. What Tango Topics is offering you is a way to expand your dancing repertoire using the vocabulary you already know today, in ways you hadn’t really thought of, and more importantly for use on a social dance floor.
A Few Options. Here’s a few more ideas of what you would see if you were an actual subscriber to this page, something for you to think about not so that you’ll subscribe but so that you can think about adding it to your own dance:
1.) Linear Forward Ochos for Both Roles!
2.) Calesitas into Walks for Both Roles, Molinetes for Both Roles.
3.) Anti Ochos!
However without examples, and without the visuals on the page to help you with these ideas then that’s all they’ll ever be words on the page.
About The Video. This video is 3 sections and when combined create a singular viewing experience of 44m:11s.
Part 1 (19:37) – Explains the 3 pieces of vocabulary with options and variations.
Part 2 (12:57) is with a Metronome to show you how some of these ideas can be set to a time signature. And part 3 (11:37) is with a piece of music. There is no Technique discussed in the video.