The ronda stoppers

There is a limit of pausing/giroing I cope with today and if one leader keeps going on at a spot until 1/3 of the ronda in front of him is empty and the 2/3 behind him is crowded that is just too much. It happens here and one leader can change the flow on entire pista.

Most of us leaders are focusing the attention only on forward movement. That is the skill level among us navigators. We have been trained to monitor forward and our attention is as a car headlight, we are aware of 2-4 couples ahead, and we adapt mainly forward.

If my attention was equally for the couples behind me I could notice when they start dance at a spot and ....I could do the same... start to dance at a spot and the density of our ronda could be maintained. 

Today it is a risky solution because if I stay with the couple behind me the new opening in front of me will attract the most notorious line cruisers.

I remember one class with Argentine teachers where we were supposed to change lines when changing from the advancing mode to spot dancing mode. Outer line was dedicated for advancers and the more center areas for those who got  serious, continuous enrosque attacks. Quite a good routine but applied too seldom!

Tango - an unequal dance

Tango is an unequal dance because the followers chances to a deep dance are much bigger compared to the leaders. When a leader has a good technical level and navigation skills the followers can feel safe, relax, enjoy the music and reach the deepest levels within her. Sometimes down to a meditative state.

For me the situation is more demanding. To get towards that meditative dance a leader needs a safe, predictable pista and to get there we are depending on all the other leaders. When the pista is working fine the navigation requires hardly any of my capacity and I can also get a deeper dance then.

I wonder when can we get a pista where all we leaders are working together for this enjoyable goal: a safe, predictable but fun pista? Sometimes when I look the crowd I nearly loose my hope of getting there in my lifetime.

This one is a positive exception!

Encuentro Kehl 2014, some visuals

A short playlist with dancing feet!  I get more and more exited about these short videos and they have a direct impact on my dance also! The musicality of some feet and the care they take the steps and I want to follow those paths!






If you have your FB open you get access to some of the digital paintings from the very same place!

Just click on this line!

an Ice cube in tea!

When we foreigners are flooding over the tango countries to for a visit or for a longer stay I wonder what is happening.

 Are we diluting the original tango? Changing it? Like when an ice cube is added to a hot tea cup.

Should there be some entry restrictions as there is for the Moss Garden in Kyoto Japan?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saih%C5%8D-ji_(Kyoto)

or

Should we appreciate this change which will create a tango for total globe?

You can control the SPEED in youtube

One of the most valuable option in youtube of today is the speed control: You can decide if it goes slower than normal or speed up your video. 

Here you have the control button:

If this option is not available at your youtube window you maybe are missing the add-on called HTML5 . All things remain the same on your youtube window but you just get the control button!

Place your cursor on the youtube window and RIGHT click. This click brings up a list of options and you take the HTML line. 

I use the slower options when I need to check details but the fast variants are really useful for speeches - at 1.5 you still understand the words but get through a 15 mins speech in 10 mins - GREAT  i think!

(I am updating all my channels with this info - sorry if you are hit by this several times. . .)

A one night tanda

At my home pista I am actually not interested about a one night tanda. I am much more interested about long term dance relationships.

Sometimes it takes many months to establish a new relationship because there is several things we need to know about each others before coming to a mutual understanding and dancing. Does she have her own musicality?  Do we share the same musicality? Are we dancing well together? Can we talk about other things than tango? Her boyfriend, does he accept me?  and so on. . . .

So sometimes I just sit and watch the dancers even when the music is wonderful!

Dance as no one is watching

*Dance as no one is watching!* has been going around at net as a mantra for spiritual dancing.

I would like to change it a little bit: Check every now and then who is watching your dance!

I learned to monitor the onlookers because I needed to know who among the followers could accept an invitation from a woman leader. A smiling face or an eye steadily staying in contact was quite sure signs of interest for a tanda with me.

Today I appreciate also the eye contact with the leaders because it creates a nice atmosphere on the pista. A friendly eye on my feet during a fierce milonga can give me a feeling of being on the right road and I can happily continue to develop in that direction.