Notes from the Accidental Exerciser
Willpower has limits, especially with regard to deep wounds, compelling habits, and self-destruction. Many people find meditation or spiritual rituals more effective. I like to find rituals that don’t involve hallucination. I like to rearrange material things or relate to them in differently in ways that radiate, echo, and hopefully restructure my bad habits. Rather than doing an affirmation about overcoming fear, it seems useful to me to actually induce panic and get through it, every morning. To start every day discovering that I am stronger than I knew.
Tango is not a place for aggression
The video proclaimed “if you dare to move your legs (or to enjoy the movement of your lady’s legs) you deserve to be restrained and to suffer.” And it had the intended effect which was to intimidate even the best dancers in the Wellington community from executing certain movements.
Gentrification
Berlin’s venerable dance-hall, Clärchens Ballhaus, is endangered. The building is protected, but the activities which fix it in the fading constellation of Berlin Bohemianism, are not.
Hope Whisperers (and Italy food guide)
It seems that tango may survive. We were delighted and astonished to find students wanting to concentrate on learning sophisticated technique, changing roles, preferring diverse music, and even a few hotshots daring to be creative (again)….
Why Learn All of Tango
Most Revels tell me they are terribly bored on the dance floor because each Mark seems to repeat a small number of sequences. Although the set of sequences varies among the Marks, “he has a nice embrace and good technique, but after two songs I know exactly what he’s going to do.” Our rapture with […]
The Lexicon and the art of Distillation
Through years of study and practice I have developed the TangoForge technique. Like many teachers, I offer students “systems” for learning. Since many teachers have developed some kind of personal system for teaching tango, students are rightfully confused. It is possible to create many different systems for describing the same thing. Each of these systems […]
What is the Evil Sequence?
I first observed and wrote about the Evil Sequence in 2016. Now I hope to shine some sunshine on it, and hope we can grow some more beautiful things with new awareness.
Elegance
The message of elegance is exclusive, repetitive, and actually not that interesting. People who have musicality, emotion, and improvisational intelligence to share with us, but who may not see themselves in suits, heels, or extreme postures are driven away by these cliché images which indeed are only one of many facets of Argentine Tango.
ForgeTube: Improvisation from the Elements
All the variations of any movement FREE
1-2 minute videos
Improvise from the Elements
Real Improvisation
No matter how much you think you hate Nuevo Tango, you are the recipient of its gift to the world: the possibility to understand Argentine Tango by its most fundamental elements, Everything we love about traditional tango is better if you dance from the elements: better experience of connection with more intense concentration, more perfect embrace, richer musicality, and a safer ronda.
No more Mastery
Instead of going to a milonga as a dancer, for the first time I just went out as a writer. In a weird affirmation, someone came to sit and talk to me about writing. I also danced. He was a a visitor, attractive, in town for one of the marathonic events, and was recommended by […]
We Open a School ! … Studio Berlin
I’ve always known how I would run a school, very inspired by my beloved DNI in Buenos Aires. A school with a consistent pedagogy. A school in which every student would have private lessons. Every student would take supplementary bodywork. And, most important, it will be full of love and a sense of community, a […]
How to be a Good Man, as you become an Advanced Tanguero
Congratulations! After years of hard work, you are now mastering this dance! You can make girls feel really good and happy. Girls are starting to look for you, snuggle you, hang around you. This feels great! You’re a nice guy; you are not planning to use your newfound advantage to become a womanizer, but you […]
The Pleasure Principle
Dancers who violate the ronda, execute moves unsafely, or have difficulty dancing on music recorded after 1950 are simply unskilled, and ideology is no protection from the resultant problems.
Biomechanics: The Arch of Connection
The hostile period
If this were a serious project, I would be able to say “You need to move your arm so I can do my job here. Thank you. Ok let’s go rock the house.”
Tango Fundamentalism
The New Victorian boys like to say that they don’t need a big vocabulary because it’s all about the music and connection with the partner. And those dancers who do still use the entire tango repertoire are accused of not caring about connection and emotion in the dance. “The music is leading,” say the New Victorians, one of several truisms by which the New Victorians glorify simplistic dancing. None of these truisms necessitate eliminating movements.
Follow the music, and other evasive truisms
I’m having conversations with people about this restricted “marathon-style” dancing. There are several standard explanations, all of which are truisms, applicable to All tango, and, as I’ve pointed out before, ultimately matters of level, not style. “What’s important is the connection.” “it’s about the music” It’s important to be safe and respect the line of […]
I am not a teddy bear: a gender breakdown
So first of all my motivations and possible rewards as a mark are different than a man’s. I am not interested in romance, or confirmations of my virility. I am not interested in her tits or smile. I do not feel her beauty as an acquisition. The physical sensation will never be the same because […]
The state of biomechanical science
I met with Michael Chang, who has been a Dance Sport competitor and coach for more than 20 years. He was Australia representative to the World Professional Championships of 10-Dance in 2009. Apparently, there are only a handful of scientists in the world studying dance and, as far as Michael is aware, none are studying Argentine Tango. I had ten questions for Michael about biomechanics. I wanted to be sure I was using the correct anatomical terminology.
I am not a teacup
I feel so sorry for the 40+ students who were beating themselves up for not inducing Nito’s grace into his sequence but having no information about how to move. The corrections from the couple were only focused on getting the sequence right.
Once and For All: Tango Nuevo is Not a Style of Dance
“Before … creating tango steps was all about inspiration … but now we have this tool. And I think many people call it ‘nuevo tango’ because they couldn’t understand how all those steps just appeared…they didn’t realize it was the same thing that they were looking at.”
