Tag Archives: connection

Argentine tango, Argentine tango technique, body awareness, body mechanics, Dance, Emboying the rules, embrace, Posture, progress in dance, Tango practice, Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers, Uncategorized

Embrace-Go beyond the push and pull

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The embrace is where Tango lives… In all practical ways the Tango is created within and through the embrace.

There is a lot Do(s) and Don’t(s) out there on the embrace, so I was hoping to create more of an opportunity for everyone to explore the different body parts that form the embrace, and bring forward more experiential knowledge than Tango-specific advice

Relationship of the Individual Fingers with the Shoulder Girdle and Ribs

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen of Body Mind Centering

In this video Bonnie, founder of Body Mind Centering (https://www.bodymindcentering.com) talks about the process of creation and specifically how are hands are created from the pinky to the thumb while at the same time our ribs are formed from top to bottom. She then goes on to explore that relationship.

When I first came across the video, I found it fascinating! It completely changed my understanding of my body in space and my relationships with others.
Everyday we reach and touch with our hands, almost everything around us; multiple times a day we are making a choice whether this touch may or may not be reflected in our posture, our movement, our mood.

Leading and following is what we call these very choices in Tango. In the following video using the exercise Bonnie shared above and adding walks and ochos I am inviting you explore the movement chain through the embrace

This was a…bad…experience

Bad experiences… moments we have sworn never to dance with THAT person again… pain, discomfort, frustration… Yes, I know…some memories can be haunting! We now though have a chance to fix it; or some of it

First, we need to understand where the pain and the discomfort we experience in the embrace comes from; and then hopefully though this video you will know how to avoid putting yourself in unsafe positions and how to mitigate the impact of an improper action coming from your partner

Seeing the big picture of the hug

So the videos above will help you immensely in acknowledging dangerous positions and finding healthier ones for the joints. Also, it will help you recover faster if you are experiencing pain or discomfort after a milonga

What though doesn’t recover as fast as the body–and we know that can be rather slow–is our psychology.
I as many other followers have fallen in the trap of avoiding to dance with anyone new because I didn’t want to risk another sore shoulder or back.
it took a long time before I could trust what my eyes could see, in terms of who is a partner who will “listen” to subtle body cues and adjust his/her position.
So, the issue here is not to simply find the right embrace for you BUT to find the way to be flexible and adjust your position to help yourself and/or your partner. Usually the necessary adjustment is very subtle but it seems huge
The feeling of relief though when you find that sweet spot where your embrace is genuine and your movement is free it is even greater!

Trust your body to find it!

Chrisa

P.S: For more videos such as this, on weekly subscribe to bautanz.com and if you want to organize your own practice at home at your own time maybe you would like to take a look at this: https://bautanz.com/intelligent-tango-programs-and-courses/

Argentine tango, social dancing, social skills, Uncategorized

It is unfair to treat loneliness with Tango

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What does loneliness feel like?
When you are lonely, how is your body feeling?

I think it feels like extreme hunger…
After not having eaten for hours, after your stomach has stopped gurgling and your hands have stopped shaking, after you’ve gotten used to feeling weak, and you are just feeling empty

You can still carry on with your day, but at the same time you feel empty, and you are hoping to find some kind of support.

If and when you get the opportunity to eat you grab anything offered to you, anything placed in front of you!

After having filled your stomach though you can be feeling anything from relief and happiness to fear, sadness and desperation, depending on how you got to experience extreme hunger.

That is what loneliness feels like, to me; like emotional hunger.

Tango to meet new people Vs Tango to feel closer to people.

Notice the difference….

Tango being a social dance is indeed a great place for meeting new people.
We start with classes where usually we find a group of people that we get closer with. Then we start going to milongas and there slowly but surely we get to meet more and more people.

It is a good and healthy way to expand our circle of friends and acquaintances 

Going to Tango though because we want to feel closer to another human being, to feel connected; because we are lonely, is something completely different.
Empty and deprived of human connection, when the opportunity to feel connected presents itself we just grab it. We take any dance we can get, no questions asked…

Best case scenario; our dances are just ok, not terrible, not great, just ok. This way they fill some part of the gap, leaving us asking for more… Under the sweetness of having been emotionally fed, it is possible that we will feel confident enough to take this further, and connected with our partner after the tanda ends. It is likely that we will actually make a new friend..!

If the dance is bad then it will make us absolutely miserable.
Not only because we hate the dance or the partner or both but mostly because we expected to hate, we knew we would probably them but we couldn’t refuse them. Proven right, we step off the dance floor, more disappointed with ourselves than ever! 

This though is NOT the worst case scenario…

In fact, the dances that are great are the WORST!
I am referring to the dances that a bit of magic happens… Where you feel that you and your partner are the perfect match… And the whole tanda is just an endless flow, that unfortunately is bound to end..! You finish the tanda and you are in a dreamy state… Feeling so full with emotion, you almost feel….shhhh…in L.O.V.E.

You leave the dance floor and reality starts to kick-in. And again you might anything from relief and happiness to fear, sadness and desperation depending on what got you so emotionally deprived.

See…we can’t win on the dance floor… but we might be able to win off it!

It is unfair to treat loneliness with Tango!

Meeting people through Tango is a good idea. Making Tango the medium through which we experience closeness and connection is unfair!

It is unfair to us. But also unfair to Tango, to Art and to our community.

No dance form on its own can defeat loneliness. But it can empower us to reach out to other people. It can inspire us and give us the confidence boost we need to start expressing ourselves more and connecting to people who are in tune with what we have to say.

Free your dances from that burden…
You only know how to do that because you know the root of the problem.
Accepting there is a problem is step one.
Identifying where the real problem lies is step two Exploring different ways of solving it is step three

And there Tango can help… by being Tango… By being JUST a dance!

Is it easy? NO
Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!

Chrisa

P.S.: There is one person I haven’t gotten the chance to thank enough for this, my teacher Ramit Sethi, who taught me the strategy behind finding a way out and gave me the tools to start expressing myself and effectively reaching loads of other people. He gave me the opportunity to create Bautanz. Now I can say “WE” and not “I”

Emboying the rules, Tango practice, Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers

10min Tango Practice on posture, rotation and ochos

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How we can make our ochos better or easier or better and easier…?
Classic question, asked by possibly all Tangueros and Tangueras around the world.

At the end of this post, there is a practice video that can surely help in that direction…
You can scroll straight down to it if  you like…
But if you want some extra tips keep reading through my quick story of a light bulb moment I had, while swimming in the Greek blue seas

A central glow…

I love to swim!
Generally I love being in the water… but I hate just sitting there. I want to move, to feel like I am cutting through the water.

My swimming skills are not really anything special, I make my way across with some success–aka not feeling super comfortable but still having fun.
So I started looking into Total Immersion Swimming Technique and started breaking it down to little exploration tasks for each swim.
For example, one day I was trying to really feel how my legs are moving my hips and what effect that has to the rest of my body and my swimming experience. The next day I would focus on a different body part and the third day I would explore the two together.

And then magic happened..!

When all the bits and pieces of my explorations fell into place…
Once each part of my body was moving in balance with all the rest…
My laps became so smooth, so effortless; I was just flowing through in the open sea

It was truly beautiful… But also a valuable lesson!
It gave me the opportunity to feel how movement can be rearranged if we manage to share equal amounts of energy in every direction starting from our bellybutton outward, creating a central glow!

How this applies to ochos and Tango in general..?

It doesn’t only apply to ochos, and Tango but to movement in general; as it helps us understand and experience our axis as a 3dimensional element.

So I want to encourage you to go through this video at least 3 times, following different paths:

  1. The first time you focus on the lower body, noticing any trouble, any blocks, any pain but also moments of comfort
  2. Then the second time you focus on the upper body again looking for glues, for ways to make the movement as effortless as possible
  3. And the third time focus on connecting the upper and lower body through your bellybutton. Specifically exploring the axis as a 3dimensional element, growing upward, downward, to the left and the right, to front and the back.

You can of course narrow your explorations down even more if you like.
Especially if you are feeling discomfort in a specific place in your body, it is always good to take the time to understand what it is that is causing the discomfort and if there is way you can move that can make things a bit more comfortable for you.
Always though finish your practice, with step #3 noticing how all things are connected.

Enjoy

Chrisa

P.S: Join the bautanz for more tips and drills like this one that are only shared with our subscribers

 

motivation, progress in dance, Tango Interviews, Tango practice, Tango- Yoga

It is all connected– Tango, Yoga and beyond

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My Tango chats are usually with other Tango professionals… like the recent one with Veronica Toumanova.
This time though I decided to do something different… or is it actually the same..?
Hmmm… We shall soon find out, I guess..!
But today I chatting Tango, Yoga, learning strategies, teaching approaches, social and life skills

Tango, Yoga and everything in between

Jill Newberry Evans of jillyoga.ca is a friend and great coworker.

For a very long time now we have been talking about how we teach movement, how our students express their needs and goals and how we can help them get closer to their goals by exposing the different paths they can follow to get there.

Every time we got started that kind of a chat we always found ourselves finishing each other’s sentences and sharing stories that had so much in common that “it is all connected” became like  our little slogan

And so we thought… since it is all connected and since we can learn from one another why not bring this chat to world of the web so other people who are involved in different and seemingly unrelated activities can start connecting the dots and finding this way other more efficient and fun ways to get to their goals.

It is all connected…

We believe that there is a connecting thread, not only between Tango and Yoga but between all activities.
As Jill told me during one of our chats: “I don’t teach Yoga… I teach movement and life skills!“

There are times that narrowing down and focusing on your ONE favorite activity will help to boost your progress…
But there is also the time when you need to revisit the principles of that activity under a different light and approach it following a slightly different path to be able to experience it in its totality; to be able to grow in it

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments along with your struggles and stories so we can get back with more!

Emboying the rules, motivation, progress in dance, Tango practice, Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers, Uncategorized

How to become more creative on the dance floor

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{Fear} less in the dance floor * Escape the dance of boredom * Be bold be beautiful be YOU

“I want to feel creative, I want to share the moment with my partner… Isn’t that what Tango is really about anyway…?” H

One of my students Mr. H, was really frustrated when he joined Intelligent Tango. During our welcome call, he shared his passion for Tango but also his deep disappointment of how he felt stuck, nervous, and robotic while on the dance floor.

Knowing that Tango is an improvisational dance he was hoping to be “creative and expressive” on the dance floor and able to enjoy his dances with his partner.

This is one of the biggest Tango- pains… Longing for THAT moment of freedom, for when we will be able to just dance, and be ourselves, that never comes…

Why we are not creative on the dance floor?

Most people will say that it is lack of confidence. And that is partly true… I mean, of course the more you dance the more comfortable you will get with it and therefore you will be able to enjoy it more

BUT are you going to be creative, or are you just going to be preforming more moves with ease..?
They are two very different things!

So, lets take a step back and look at the big picture, here for a moment. What do we have..?

We mostly have classes and workshops that are based either on technique or on sequences.
Personally, after having spent a few years teaching sequence-based classes and then switching over to technique-based classes, I came to realize that both are deficient in one of many ways: they are strictly instructional!

Now why is that a problem, you may wonder… we need instruction after all, no?

Yes of course we do!
At the same time though, we need a bridge from instructional, to improvisational, to spontaneous, to creative.
If we as teachers do not provide our students with that bridge they will always feel stuck in the instructional phase.
Even if they know enough sequences that they can put them together and dance a full song, they will still not feel/ be creative.

A bridge between instruction and improvisation

The first step towards improvising, towards creating is noticing

It doesn’t matter if the class is technique or sequence based, as long you start paying attention to how a movement–as it is developing–is changing your body, what it feels like, whether your senses are picking up any feedback.

The second step would be mapping or tracking that experience

It could through a mechanical tracking device…haha… a video camera. Or through a physical tracking device, your own nervous system.
Part of what our nervous system does is to record patterns.
This way you can come back to those experiences, revisit them, and see if you want to build on them or if you want repeat them.

Ok! I am feeling I need to share an example here…

creative walk
by Anais Gomez: https://anaisgomez.deviantart.com/art/Walking-Cycle-thumbnails-556119469

This image above shows us the efficient way to walk, how our body was built to walk.
Notice on the top row  right in the middle, how the manikin’s body has a forward intention. The chest is open, the hips are back, the spine is long… Do these remind you of anything..? Tangoooo Class! haha

Notice#1: your body goes through these cues every moment of your day that you happen to take a step
Notice#2: as you are practicing your walks pay attention to all the other positions of transition
Notice#3: get a sense of how it is to walk in the way your body was build to walk
Notice#4: how does it make you feel? And how it affects your dance?

Track#1: instead of trying to confirm the rules of Tango, and what you already know, trust and dive into this with an explorative mind, let every practice make a mark in your unconscious
Track#2: Write down or share your experience with a friend in great detail
Track#3: make videos, look at yourself going through the motion without being judgemental but trying to identify the patterns of movement

How do you know it is working?
If the next time you go in, to practice on your walk, and the first thought that comes to mind is: “Remember yesterday when you did X and your walk felt like Y..?”

When you can ask yourself: Remember yesterday…?
You are on the RIGHT path!
And when you start feeling you actually have the awareness to answer: “YES! Lets explore further”
You are actually progressing towards being creative

What does being creative really mean?

Many people when they hear creative the first word that comes to mind is: FREE!

And I am one of these people..hahaha
But what does being free means?

Free doesn’t mean absence of rules. Being free means you have such a deep knowledge and such a great understanding of the rules, that you can revisit them, you can break them, you can change them and you can create your own.

As the Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen has said in her book “Sensing, feeling and Action”: “Our creativity flows out of our unconscious–an unknown giving birth to knowing as our consciousness listens. Our conscious mind can then discover the form or pattern that emerges from the unfolding of the creative process. The insight into the pattern of the process can further open and expand the awareness of unconscious expression”

As you may understand it is a beautiful dialog, between our conscious and unconscious mind. and though it seems abstract and like a long way there, it is TOTALLY worth it!

We can do it together if you want to… the only thing you need to do is to subscribe!

Hope to see you in the Bautanz Community,
Chrisa

P.S: More on getting more creative: The penultimate rules on being more creative– by James Altucher

 

 

Tips on tango technique for leaders and followers, Uncategorized

Tools for confident Ganchos

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Back in December, I reached out to the Bautanz subscribers and asked what they have been having trouble with.
Along with many other things, ganchos were causing some pain and so I decided to make a video for it.

Yes, you should work on ganchos even if you don’t use them that much in milongas..!

I find ganchos to be something that can teach us A LOT about posture, balance, effortless grounding, body awareness, timing and last but certainly not least connection.

That is why even though I know that compared to other things, ganchos are secondary, I am super excited to share this video with you today because all that you will learn you can apply it to your Tango technique overall.

What will you learn from this drill..?
  1. What is the MOST important ingredient for successful ganchos
  2. How do we respond to gravity and how we yield with one side to free the other
  3. What are the most common mistakes dancers make and how you can avoid them
  4. Successfully freeing up one leg so you can kick without losing your balance or tensing up
  5. Understanding what is the body supposed to be doing to support the action
  6. Finding how your frame should work to lead and follow ganchos without pushing and pulling on your partner and
  7. Timing

So with no further a do, here is your video:

Have fun,
Chrisa

P.S: If you need extra help on technique check this link out for ideas: Argentine Tango Technique–Don’t leave the gym yet