Yesterday we talked about musicality in the walk, so today I wanted us to dig a little bit deeper into capturing the essence of the music. And we will be using ochos and boleos to do that.
It is not though a video on technique. But a video on flavour, taste, and style…
Why did I choose ochos and boleos..?
First of all they are a vital part of Tango, especially ochos.
The main reason though was that they come as a package with so many rules, do’s-and-dont’s and styles that the more we learn the more frustrated we get…!
Look at the beginning of this video for example…
Yes it is me…unfortunately…haha
Look at that grim expression on my face… You can actually see what is going on in my head…
- Keep the body to your partner
- Hips stay square
- Hold that posture
- Step-and-turn (put a robotic voice to this…)
Who wants to be dancing like that?!?!
I look awful! It looks like I am doing military service here… hahaha
Thank fully I didn’t stop practising…
What am I doing differently, in that second part..?
Firstly, even though in the first video I am focused, you can see I am not in the movement, I am in my head thinking about the “should”, “could”, “would”…
Compared to the second video, that I am in the moment, commited to the movement
Secondly, my whole body is participating in the movement. The ochos are more about connection and upper-and-lower body dialog than disassociation.
That is exactly what I meant yesterday when I said that if you leave all the work to the legs, you will never stop feeling like a robot.
In order to have an effortless, efficient, enjoyable dance, your whole body needs to be active.
And in order to be able to FEEL, embody the music, you need to allow your whole body to move, to dance, like I am doing in the second part of the video.
Thirdly, I am matching the energy, the style, the dynamics and the feeling of the ochos with that of the boleos.
This, interestingly enough is a big issue for followers…
How are we supposed to do a boleo?
Where should I place my knee?
How powerful should it be… etc etc
Good boleos come from a good ochos, those two are intimately connected!
So find THAT connection first and then the right boleo will come out of it. All the 3 boleo versions you can see in the video are correct, so you can use either one depending on the energy, the music, your mood, the space etc
Choosing between techniques
Because I know that many of you will see this video and think: “But MY teacher says your ochos shoule be like this… and your boleos have to be like so…”
I don’t care what your teacher says… And you know why?
Because your teacher is probably correct!
This video is not here to prove your teacher right or wrong though. This is not the issue…
The issue here is to encourage you to try different techniques, different ideas, different styles… And most importantly to get your whole body moving, to get your WHOLE BODY dancing!
Then and only then you will be able to fully express yourselves, through movement. You will be able to attempt a taste of the different styles of Tango, and choose the one that feels better for you depending on the music, who you are dancing with, your mood etc.
This way every dance will be a special experience for you and your partners.
The scariest question of the video…
Is this going to take 2 YEARS?
hahaha
It is true… THIS is how long it took me AND I practised every day for 2 hours A DAY.
You can imagine how frustrating that must have been. You can actually see the frustration in my face, in the 2015 video… its insane!
But you don’t have to go through that for 2 years…
You don’t have to make the same mistakes I made, you can actually save yourselves some frustration and anguish by practising a lot smarter, with the right material, sequenced in the proper way, here at bautanz.com by subscribing to this page and getting more goodies and Tango tips on your email weekly
Or through joining Intelligent Tango– the course, where I have sellected the best exercises from my practice and I have sequenced them for you: https://bautanz.com/
Hope to see you there,
Chrisa
