Magical Improvement

The idea of a Practica is ‘theoretically’ to Practice what you have learned. To try out what you have been shown, with multiple partners, as if you were in a class rotation. It is ‘theoretical’ because while the theory is nice, the reality is a little different.

What should be a place for you to practice your extensions, your walk, to work on your stability issues (as a Lead or as a Follower) it is not that at all. What should be an obvious space to encourage an open discussion about technique, music, and codigos for both roles, never happens. What should be place where a Follower can invite a Lead for a song or a series of songs, is viewed as absolute heresy! What should be a safe space to invite suggestions about how you feel as a Lead, or as a Follower is never discussed or broached or even considered. What should be an opportunity for you to explore vocabulary options and opportunities so that you can refine things and how they work with different partners is replaced by dancing with partner after partner after partner as if it were a Milonga and no discussion or actual ‘work’ happens. What should a place where the dj is playing musical genres and not tandas is replaced by tandas and constructing of an entire night of music that is planned out as if it were a Milonga. What should be a place where you should be focusing on your embrace, posture, hands, head, pressure, tension, force, compression is thrown out in favor of just the dancing socially part with no discussion of what’s actually going on. This is space where people invite as many people as possible dance with, and there’s absolutely no feedback that happens. This should be a space where you can go by yourself (say it with me, ‘ALONE’) and focus on you and what you’re doing but instead it’s a Milonga that is called a ‘Practica’.

In the United States, the idea of a ‘Practica’ is really just an excuse for a Milonga. In Germany, Denmark, Finland, the UK, and the rest of europe, the Practica is usually a guided class where you practice a step/pattern/figure with the same partner, over and over again. But there’s no open practica. The very idea is a foreign concept.

In Buenos Aires, there are only 1 real Practica where you can actually stop and engage in a healthy conversation about what you’re doing. The DNI Practica on Saturday afternoons. The rest, no offense intended, of the venues you’ll see things listed as ‘Practicas’ but are really just Milongas that have extended hours with better food and the bar is always open. Always. 

The role of the Practica is to give you a place to expand, to try, to fail, to try some more, and to fail some more….to ‘play’ with ideas, concepts, to put them into the real world and see how they can fit into your dancing ideas. The role of the Practica is to forgo the rules of the Milonga which would prevent you from engaging in a conversation about Technique. This is done so that you can work on yourself and create some kind of mirror feedback as a check on reality instead of the echo chamber that so frequently happens for people. The confirmation bias that is makes you believe that what you’re doing is ‘ok’ when in fact it’s more than likely marred by any number of issues. The role of the Practica is to create a space where you can watch, learn, try, fail, explore, fail again, fail some more, succeed a bit, watch some more, rest, relax, and then get up and do it all over again. That is the role of the Practica.

The role of the Practica is to PRACTICE, not Milonga.

MORE REMINDERS

Musicality Vs. Interpretation

Welcome to the Department of the Obvious Department. Today’s menu of the Obvious includes: Men not asking for directions when lost, Men over talking Women, Men squeezing the living daylights out of their partners, and last but not least the Age of a Man has nothing to do with his ability to get dances!

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Learning The Other Side

Let’s get right to the heart of the question, "Why on earth would anyone want to learn the other side of the embrace ?". The answer to that question is actually not a singular answer, there are actually 5 good reasons why you learn the other role that you may or may not disagree with. They are as follows:

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The ‘Classy’ Move

Truth be told, the beginner dancer that does this will make themselves, and their dancing partner look absolutely fabulous regardless of how the dance went. What is it ? It’s The ‘Classy’ Move.

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It’s Too Late

Frequently most dancers after they ‘learn’ something will fail to solo practice it, as well as use it at a social practica, which as a result fails to deepen their fluidity when dancing so that when X, Y, and Z is led or followed they ‘miss’ it and hesitate. Thereby creating the impression that they’re inept dancers.

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Fear of Milonga

The fact is that some folks have a justifiable fear of Milonga! No not the dance party, nor the music at the milonga, no…this fear refers to the abject fear that is expressed by some people when Milonga music is played because now they must dance ‘Milonga’ moves to milonga music. The reason ? Either it’s the speed at which it is seemingly danced, or the music that is perceived to be ‘fast’, movements/steps/patterns/figures that are associated and specific to Milonga. Some people just freak right out when it comes to milonga. Some people actually break out in a cold sweat at the very thought of it, Lead or Follow.

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Getting Into The Encuentro

This is a FIVE step process, that you will want to follow religiously, which does not necessarily depend on where you live. If you’re an American dancer and want to break into the scene in Europe, then this is a post for you. If you’re already living in Europe then you have a slightly different pathway, but the suggestions are exactly the same.

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Rejection

What follows relates to the verbal ask for a dance and the rejection, this thought does not talk about the reject from a failed cabeceo or mirada. Let’s lay out some facts before we get to the heart of this stuff. Fact: The ask, no matter how ‘sly’ you think you’re being, is going to be awkward.

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Presentation Tango

There is a very popular idea in Tango that gets paraded around a lot, an idea which gets confused with Social Tango which is NOT Social Tango at all but rather it’s about the steps, patterns, and figures is known as ‘Show’ Tango, ’Scenario’ Tango, ‘Stage’ Tango, ‘Fantasia’ Tango, or Presentation Tango.

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Keep something in the back of your mind: What you’re seeing in a youtube video is a couple that is performing for the 15th row for a room full of people. They’re not social dancingWhereas this website is all about ‘Social Tango’  or how to make things function on a social dance floor. Social Dance floor ? Your local milonga! They are showing you flashy moves as a presentation, to show off! But not stopping and talking about how this works which is what you need to see. This website and all of it’s content show you the how and  why you’d want to put that piece of vocabulary there, or how to make things work. This website is all about those things and more!

You could watch Tango YouTube videos and thereby spend your time, trying to infer, and figure out how things may work in that particular situation. Bend your body this way or that, twist and force this position or that. Place your foot here or there and figure it out. This is known as Tango Twister.  Which can be a lot of fun, but more than likely it won’t help you, because you’re missing something: The explanation from an experienced teacher showing you how to properly excute this stuff from a Leading Perspective as well as from a Following Perspective!

The goal of YouTube videos is to get you to study with those teachers in person. The goal of Tango Topics videos allows you to work at your own pace, in the comfort of your own space, so that you can play them over and over again to improve your understanding of the vocabulary or technique being described to therefore better your dancing experience. The goal of classes and workshops is to get you to come back over and over and over again, thereby spending more money with that teacher. This website and the videos under it are here to act as a resource for you to help you to improve your dance. Pay once and you’re done.

Eventually, one way or another you’re going to pay for this lesson, either here and now, or with them. TANSTAAFL! The difference between that lesson and this ? Is that you get to play this lesson over and over and over again. Further still, there are supporting materials (other videos) that help to explain the language and the underlying technique of how and why things work, so you can easily reference those things in the corresponding articles that go with the material, and or any language in the Tango Topics Dictionary. 

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