Eric and I have been talking a lot lately about our cross-training and body conditioning efforts and how they impact our dance. This post is about conditioning your body, in which we explore various posture or movement issues and the exercises that will help correct them.
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Occasionally, it’s a good idea just to check where we stand, literally, in our bodies– how solid is our “good” posture, and how does our body compensate when we throw in strange elements, like high heels?
We might be diligent about maintaining what we think is good posture, only to later find out we weren’t using our bodies efficiently to support that posture. A good test is to see how our core responds when we shift our center of gravity. If it is strong, our posture will not be phased, but if it is weak, our body will compensate by contorting.
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For those who come to TangoBreath, you have heard us often recall the image of Michelangelo’s David. We talk about sinking into the standing leg through the whole side body and dropping, or relaxing, the free hip. Much to our delight, when we were in Tuscon, Murat and Michelle Erdemsel showed a picture of David in one of their classes on alignments! They also shared a picture of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, which provides us a connection to the feminine form.
Read MoreAs a continuation of last week’s challenge, Finding stability in our pelvis, in which we perceived subtle engagement in the area between the sacrum and hip joint, we are going to concentrate on releasing this same area. Balancing the internal dynamic between engagement and release is important to achieve our greatest flexibility, strength, and resiliency in our joints.
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If you have been to our tango classes, you know we always incorporate the pelvic floor in its role toward solid, fluid and confident movement. Here is a more comprehensive class that starts in the hips and sacrum and moves up the spine in a full exploration of how our bodies move. We will provide visualizations and exercises that will have everyone creating holistic movement that can be used in everyday life and tango.
We follow up our natural movement class with a class about the axis of movement. Building on the ideas of the first class, we will explore how to make our circular movement natural and fluid while we learn to visualize and use the axis of movement in each step. These are the basic concepts that will allow anyone to see and use a plethora of turns and many other movements.
Finding and using natural movement in your dance. 1-2:30 PM.
Relaxing into natural and healthy movement is one of the keys to a comfortable and fluid dance. We will help you explore and discover your natural movement and how it applies to tango. This class will help everyone be more connected to their partner and the ground in a more relaxed way.
A multitude of turns: Using and moving the axis of movement. 3-4:30 PM.
Understanding the axis of movement is a key concept to understanding all turns and most other movements in tango. This class will explore circular movement and the many choices created when we are able to see and use the axis of movement in every step.
HOMEWOOD MILONGA 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM
Lisa Jacobs will be our DJ.
Acupressure and Tui Na (Chinese massage) by Katie Bruce L.AC.
We are pleased to announce that Katie Bruce L.AC. will be offering acupressure and some Tui Na (Chinese Massage) during the milonga.
Visit Katie’s web site for more information!
Katie will be available from 8:00-10:00 for a suggested donation of $10.
Some wine, snacks and, as always, a special treat prepared by Susannah will be provided. BYOB.
As always, we will be available for private lessons. Please contact us to make arrangements.
| Full pass (both classes and milonga) | $40 | |
| Full Student pass (both classes and milonga) | $25 | |
| A la Carte “Natural Movement” | $25 | |
| A la Carte “Axis of Movement” | $25 | |
| Milonga | $12 |
Every week in TangoLab, we start class with some exercise to create awareness of our partners through the embrace. Our goal is to encourage dancers to create and sense movement in response to one another. Beginners, even those that come from other dance backgrounds, are always amazed at how this internal flow of movement works to create a conversation between partners. When done very subtly, it can be difficult to see any flow of movement, yet we are speaking volumes, and responding to one another. It might seem like magic.
Explaining what needs to happen to internalize the flow of movement is difficult, however, which is why it is so important to choose our words and imagery carefully. There are many phrases and words that are commonly and casually used when teaching or learning Argentine tango. In our teaching, we have discarded many of them because they are vague or have multiple meanings. It is a careful practice to put these things away, not use them, and find a thorough and meaningful replacement when needed.
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We continue this week’s challenge with our focus on the sacrum and pelvis. For background, consider checking out the challenge from last week and the week prior.
This week, we will explore how we can use deep pelvic muscles to move our sacrum, specifically connecting our sacrum and tailbone to our hip joints.
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Our body awareness challenge this week is moving from our head, down our spine, to the place where it originates: the sacrum. It is a bone that is easily forgotten, but is so important to the health of our spine, hips, knees, and our whole body system!
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If you have been to our tango classes, you know we always incorporate the pelvic floor in its role toward solid, fluid and confident movement. Here is your chance to get a full dose of what it takes to be fully aware of how to use your hips, sacrum and tailbone in every tango movement.
We follow up our pelvic floor class with a class on how to visualize and attain fluid movement. This includes creating dynamic tension and compression within the embrace, and how adornos and internal movement play a part in making the embrace feel amazing, all while we explore several different sacada’s and how to find them. All of the visualizations and technique for creating fluid movement can be applied to all aspects of dancing tango. Learning to find all 36 regular sacada’s can change the way you think about Argentine tango movement, and open doors to many other possibilities. These classes are all level, but will increase in difficulty to challenge dancers of all abilities.
From floor to pelvic floor: free your hip, the rest will follow. 1-2:30 PM Coming to a deeper understanding of our dynamic pelvic region gives access to stable & fluid movement. Using the pelvic floor is the key to being a solid lead or follow.
Visualizing and creating fluid movement on the path to every sacada. 3-4:30 PM Learn visualization and technique to create fluid, delicious movement within the embrace, while we learn how to find all of the sacadas. Visualization of pivots and spiral while creating various adornos is a big part of this class. This class will be equally challenging and interesting to both leaders and followers. The pelvic floor class is a pre-requisite for this class.
Lisa Jacobs will be our DJ.
Acupressure and Tui Na (Chinese massage) by Katie Bruce L.AC.
We are pleased to announce that Katie Bruce L.AC. will be offering acupressure and some Tui Na (Chinese Massage) during the milonga.
Visit Katie’s web site for more information!
Katie will be available from 8:00-10:00 for suggested donation of $10.
Some wine, snacks and, as always, a special treat prepared by Susannah will be provided. BYOB.
As always, we will be available for private lessons. Please contact us to make arrangements.
| Full pass (both classes and milonga) | $40 | |
| A la Carte “From floor to pelvic floor.” | $25 | |
| Milonga | $12 |
Yesterday, a lovely and inspiring woman, Sasha Cagen, from the San Francisco area wrote us, inquiring about our ways of teaching tango movement after having attended TangoBreath when she visited Asheville this summer. Eric and I were perplexed at first about how to respond. Explaining how to teach is a giant step from actually teaching. There are so many subtle ways in which our teaching, and learning, has evolved in TangoBreath, from a word we might use to a way in which we physically adjust people. And there is so much, still, for us to learn.
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