Tag Archives: axis syllabus

Advanced dancer, Argentine tango, Argentine tango technique, body awareness, body mechanics, Dance, Emboying the rules, hip axis, motivation, ochos, Posture, progress in dance, Tango practice, Tango walks, Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers, Uncategorized

Argentine Tango Practice

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It takes a few years for us to find a good structure for our Tango practice. In the beginning we just do what we did in a class or a workshop. Then we get together with friends and practice different figures probably attend guided practicas
Some of us will keep practicing in some way or form but most will most likely stop after a certain period time.
Interestingly enough in both cases we will reach the same sticky point which is the moment we realize what we have been or have not been doing, serves us no more and that we are officially stuck!

How a Tango practice works

I have found myself stuck a couple of times, feeling that I am making no progress whatsoever. And it is only recently that I realized that for a practice to work it can’t just be plain repetition of steps and rules.

Cognitively understanding and executing steps and being able to perform well in Tango are two very different things.

And so here in Bautanz we invite you to start looking for efficiency in your movement while practicing instead of reviewing rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouC0w31siig&t=6s

Why look for efficiency?

One obvious reason is saving ourselves from unnecessary hardship, injury and pain. The road to efficiency though goes through understanding the structure of our bodies and becoming aware of the way they are built to move. Our practice therefore doesn’t start from the end result but from the structure of the human body.

I know this probably sounds like a lot of work and as matter of fact, it is! However, if you feel that you haven’t found your personal style in Tango; that something just doesn’t fit; or that you are stuck or missing something…wouldn’t it make sense to assess your own body and build your practice on the finding of that assessment?

Every one of us has a slightly different body, so what makes more sense:
1. a one way fits all or
2. identify unique strengths and limitations and build on that

I believe it is the latter… and so the videos above and below are created as suggestions, as ideas. They are based on biomechanics. And they are here as starting points for you. Hopefully as you move more and learn more you will be able to put together practices that better serve your own expectations and needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwFdwKl9-ws&t=294s

Soooo would you want to learn more?

Start here..!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8QFaJRssEs&t=5s

And then you can go here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy6tJZOQ0Ws&t=665s

Look people up such as:

Frey Faust: https://www.freyfaust.org
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen: https://www.bodymindcentering.com
Ido Portal: http://www.idoportal.com
Feldenkrais: https://feldenkrais.com

And surely there are so many more but you get the idea. Move! Don’t just practice Tango!

Chrisa

P.S.: if you are looking to get started with a practice visit: https://bautanz.com/intelligent-tango-programs-and-courses/

body awareness, body mechanics, Dance, Dance chats, Emboying the rules, progress in dance, Tango Interviews

Frey Faust- on movement

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Frey Faust has been a teacher and mentor to me and many others around the world.
When you visit his personal website https://www.freyfaust.org you will see his bio titled as “dancer, choreographer, teacher, writer, artisan… etc.” so the first time we attempted this chat I had to ask the question what would the most appropriate title…
And he said to me: “I am a person… human… animal. All these titles are things I do, not who I am. I am working towards my potential as a person, trying to have a quality existence and also make the world a better place for me and however many people I can. Everything I do has these underlying motivations.“

I got to know Frey through his work, the “Axis Syllabus” for which you can find more about here http://www.axissyllabus.org.
I was at a frustrating curve in my Tango practice when I took a class with Pablo Veron; the greatest thing I was reminded of in that class was that I need to look past Tango to look at movement holistically… And so here we are!

What is this chat about?

This chat is not specifically about Tango; it is not even about dance. It is more about movement, how to learn, how to practice, how to explore and how to inspire others to explore along with you.
If you are teacher you will have the opportunity to hear some strong advise on how to approach a class, how to observe and how to listen
And if you are a student you will get some starting points on practice, acquiring knowledge and building awareness of your body.

If you inspired to learn from Frey Faust directly he has a great list of events taking place all around the world which you can find out under “events calendar” on his personal site; If you have the opportunity you should grab, it is truly rewarding!
You can find some really exciting events such as Traces: https://allmecen.com/main/contents/projects/339
or this one-week event taking place right here in Toronto: https://dianebruni.com/mri-with-frey-faust-2020/

I hope you will enjoy this chat as much as we did and if you wish to listen to more chats such as this one, visit: https://bautanz.com/tango-chatting-dancers-grab-coffee/

Enjoy,

Chrisa

Argentine tango technique, body awareness, hip axis, ochos, Tango practice, Tango walks, Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers

Boleos- A practice NoT about kicks

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It is interesting to see people’s reactions to boleos.
I am actually sure quite a few people probably won’t read this article because it includes the word boleos in the title…but for those who are here now be prepared for a bit of a twist to your regular boleo experience…haha

Boleos are not high kicks..!

So what is a boleo?
A boleo is a change of direction on a turn, on a pivot
It doesn’t have to be powerful, it doesn’t have to be high or super low and of course it doesn’t have to be a kick

Certainly there potential for all the things mentioned above…all of them though refer to style and not to the essence of what a boleo is.

ALL we need for a good boleo

And unfortunately it is not love…haha

2 are the main ingredients for a great boleo:

  • Timing as with everything in life and
  • The balance between energy contained and shared

The following video looks into both of these main items and sets the base for fancier boleos and more in depth explorations

Look beyond the kick- Enhance your Tango technique

If we look at a boleo for what it is, a change of direction and make our focus to make as smooth as possible whether contain or share energy, we will soon discover that there certain elements such as the hip axis that if we focused on them we could have a completely different experience during our dances.

The next two videos go progressively deeper into exploring the hip axis and especially the last one creates the link to other Tango essentials such as our walks and ochos

I really hope you will enjoy the practices and if you want to see more videos and more in depth structured practices to do at the comfort of your own home, at your own time click here: https://bautanz.com/intelligent-tango-programs-and-courses/

😉

Chrisa

P.S: A big thank you for the teachings and the inspiration to my teacher Frey Faust, founder of Axis Syllabus (http://www.axissyllabus.org)

Argentine tango, Argentine tango technique, Dance, Emboying the rules, ochos, Tango practice, Tango walks, Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers, Uncategorized

Walks, Ochos and Timing

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Walks and ochos are the two elements at the heart of Tango; every sequence with maybe the exception of off-axis sequences are based on walks and ochos

It is therefore important to get a good understanding of how walks and ochos work and how they can be tied together. And this is exactly what we will be focusing on in this post

Zooming In: Walks and Pivotal timing

In this first video we are putting our walks under the microscope. We capture though the whole body, aiming to understand how all the dots connect.

By focusing on the feet, the legs, the hips, the torso and the spine we will discover that the opportune moment for a pivot, hides within our step.

Once that discovery is made, we can see how a walk can turn into an ocho and vice versa. This way walks and ochos aren’t as separate, disconnected Tango elements that are need a sequence to connect them.
This way we get to create options for ourselves on and off the dance floor.

Tango Technique: Zoom In on Ochos #2

In this second video there is a great focus on the upper body but again not as a separate entity.

The human body has so many fascinating links. The psoas major for example, originates in the outer surfaces of the vertebral bodies of T12 and L-1-L-3. T8-T12 is where your thoracic spine changes to Lumbar spine, so a muscle that goes around your hip reaches all the way up to your second- last rib… Fascinating!
(Look here for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major_muscle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliopsoas)

It is all connected I tell you!hahaha
And by exploring these connections we can make our dances have much more flow, freedom and efficiency.

Tango, Body mechanics and Energy management

What was implied or talked about as secondary in the two previous videos, becomes primary now… Energy management..! Energy management not in a spiritual, abstract way, but in a very physical way. Managing the energy our bodies need to perform a movement and how can we manage our energy so it is not wasted.

Basically in this video we are aiming to make Tango feel a bit easier, at least in execution…haha…meaning that walking across the floor shouldn’t feel like a physically demanding task and pivoting also.

We put styling and personal preference to the side to examine how the body was in fact built to create these movements. Some being more chaotic than others, will require further exploration; and funnily enough walking is probably the most chaotic of all as it requires a lot of movements around different axises and on different planes.

So we have tried to come up with exercises that can help us understand a bit of the chaos, and possibly add to it; exercises that will allow us to feel a bit more comfortable in this chaotic movement and that will allow us to define the opportune moments for a change

I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have. If you have any questions, comments or light-bulb moments drop me a line, I would love to chat with you!

If you more content like this, visit: https://bautanz.com/argentine-tango-technique/argentine-tango-technique-ochos/

Or subscribe for a practice video every Wednesday to your email

Chrisa

Great thanks to my teacher Frey Faust who has provided me with a solid base and some great inspiration in order to explore my movement further.
http://www.axissyllabus.org/axis-syllabus

Argentine tango technique, Emboying the rules, Uncategorized

The cross – Tango Basics

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It usually goes this way; a theme is chosen, with today’s theme being the cross, and then we start working on it or with it from various perspectives.

The cross where do we get stuck: a Tango perspective

Our intention overall is to understand what causes the trouble and specifically for the cross why we get stuck; why we’re unable to move past the cross itself.
So in this first video we put the 2 most important stickie points under the microscope; we found paths to avoid getting stuck; we identified the body mechanics supporting these paths and made sure to look for them in our walks and embellishments.

Sticky point 1: how the free leg crosses. Without even shifting the weight crossing might be an uncomfortable position, causing a feeling of imbalance. And so we start this practice with an embellishment. 

Sticky point 2:  shifting the weight. We either fall into it and we then get stuck or we try so hard to stay lifted that we don’t allow any other movement to happen but pressing into the floor or we try to keep everything square ignoring the fact that we are already in a twisted position. And so the second part of the video really tries to point out how the different parts of the body reorient towards the right or towards the left, through osculation for the legs to be released from the cross.
And aaaall this leads us to…

Taking it a bit further than just the cross…

We asked ourselves how does all this work on the cross can inform our body and our everyday movement and so in the next two videos we are looking to inform our walks. And then we are diving deeper into how the leg fits and moves inside the hip and how the hip moves around the leg

And a bit further…

If you think about it, there are so many spots in our body that we feel pain during Tango but also during our everyday life. Two of the most common ones is the hip joint and the lower back. Thankfully they are connected…haha… so by making our movement in the hip joint more efficient we can get rid of back pain and vice versa of course. And soooo happy feet give us happy dancers

And this is how I see practicing Tango; as an opportunity. An opportunity to create freedom in my dances but also to create healthier movement habits overall.

And so if you want to take things further yourselves, this work is based on the findings and the teachings of Frey Faust the founder of Axis syllabus (http://www.axissyllabus.org)

Enjoy,

Chrisa

P.S: You want more practices like this one? Well then, you can visit: https://bautanz.com/argentine-tango-technique/ and you can subscribe to get a new video every Wednesday! 😉