When you embrace your partner in the beginning of a tanda you are searching the connection to that person but you are also technically negotiating about the normal height for the abrazo. We try to find a comfortable level where to place the abrazo when walking normally and not doing any splendid tricks.
Abrazo: Higher level
If you are rising the abrazo above the normal level you will not be able to reach so far with your feet and as a leader you can in this way easily lead a series of shorter steps.
Abrazo: Lower level
When you choose to go in the other direction, lowering the body by flexing your knees, the follower's free leg starts to point out in a direction leader has suggested. Here the follower has a possibility to do something different. Ana and Diego will give you the details!
The leader has the same possibilities but here he is turning around in a slightly different position. Just as an example!
About 1.02min https://youtu.be/40j2yOaKXUY?t=59s
What is the difference between a callecita and planeo according to Ana and Diego?
Pay careful attention to these variations of abrazos presented below and try to find the one most suitable for yourself!
Try remember, to feel the most comfortable position for your arms and how high/low you can move them and still feel ok.
Another abrazo option is the position of your elbows - how far from the body and how much in front of the shoulder line they can be.
Let an intensive experimenting start!
Here some guide lines for you:
1. Are the bodies totally facing each others? There is also a possibility that the bodies have an offset of a few cm
2. Are the bodies parallel?
3. Or maybe the bodies are in V-form? An Embrace where at the man’s right side and the woman’s left side (closed side have a body contact but at the open side there is a slight opening.
Two more videos about how the abrazo is kept stable and when it is continuously changing.
If you are more a verbal person the link below is a endless basket of treasures for you! For the others please check the vocabulary in the end of the posting and some of the summaries!
When you start to become friends with the milonga music you may find a musical structure coming up again and again! Listen if you recognize the one here in the beginning:
It is called habanera and as you notice the spaces between the strikes are different. You can follow the pattern with your fingers in this way!
Milonga Sentimental has a lot of habaneras which you can follow by your hand!
This stable structure makes it easier for us to place ur steps - the possibilities are there even if it sometimes can be difficult to hear them directly. Below you find two measures and the habanera rhythm is on the blue line. Basic steps are placed on the red ones
The most common double step is created by stepping on H3 H4 H1.
It is accepted to use B1 c B2 or B1 k B2 for double steps.
Some more information and questions you will find on my other blog: Check the posting
What is Chicho doing? His milonga is a mystery for me - I do not know what he is doing differently compared to others. Therefore I am coming back to his dancing all the time.
If you are serious about tango music you should check Joaquin Amenabars book
You remember the figure where we stepped backward and forward? You can exercise by stepping together with Jordi who is showing us the possibilities for regular steps as well as double time steps. If you do this one minute video every now and then before our next meeting you will be able to adapt this to the music and you are more ready for some variations! Here you have Jordi!
Oscar and Georgina are doing the figure I called an Americana forward and backward!
Please pay attention that the supporting legs, those not participating in the Americana build, are not mowing so much, just a little to make the couple advance some in the line of dance! YES you are right: they are moving here on a clock wise line but remember that we did it in counter clock wise way! Leaders were facing the wall! Here is the entire video for you! The figure is turning up at 0.47 starting quite calmly and then 1.20 in many hilarious variations! Try to follow the speed they put up, look at the screen and make your solo training with them!
If the speed is too much for today use the possibility to play the video in slower manner. You maybe don't have the button yet but here a link to fix it!
I have struggled with finding suitable workouts for the period August - September! I have for a long time been working with the videos on Fitnessblender channel and I just LOVE them! But I think that it is good for your body to change the training method every now and then: That is the reason to change the videos every two months as well as within a week. I think also that a change of a channel can have a positive effect, putting my body to work differently when there is a change of instructor. I have found a few candidates which I tested but did not want to stay with them for a longer time. I post the channel links below in case you find suitable workouts among the videos Body prject:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFjc9H89-RpWuIStDqhO7AQ/videos My knees did not agree with the rich variety of side movements! Popsuger: https://www.youtube.com/user/popsugartvfit/videos I had problem with the girlish shouts and talk here! Then I landed at Jessica Smith TV and here I will stay for a while! She had prepared a lot of different workouts with uncomplicated sweat driving movements and basic supporting talk. I get a strong feel of a professional workout leader! I will pick a cardio video for period and my testing has shown that it makes me work - I am totally soaked after these 20 mins. I will start and end the week with a pilates workout with Sophie, a young instructor from Australia (?). It is a harder 30 minutes I am used to but its ok! Three other days will be with Jessica's 20 minutes video. Let's work before the fireplace! Tuesadays, Wednesdays and Fridays are dedicated for this lady!
Sophie for Mondays and Saturdays! (I can do the training lying on the floooooor! :) )
Yes! It is a long time ago I updated my BASIC training section here. During May I was hiking around in South Korea for four weeks. One tango festival, several milongas in other cities, a lot of temples and other interesting buildings as well as beautiful food and sceneries! It was a pre-trip decision that the daily walks and dancing will be enough for my body. (You can check my other blogs for photos and videos) Back home in the end of May I started to get on the track again. It was a lazy start with a private pilates program and a cardio workout from Fitnessblender - my favorites. This is my toughest cardio attempt and I must say that I am not there yet - I think I have jumped it through properly only once.. . . If I feel ever so slight pain in my joints I stop jumping and run the rest of the program by stepping the various jumping-jack options! The push ups give me a sweat cover anyhow! So it have been a pilates/cardio workout five days a week: Mon-Wed and Fri-Sat as usual.
I have some weeks to go before the change in the end of July!
This time it has been a sturdy piece of work to find the videos for the period. Oou yes! there is more than ever of these workouts on youtube but I have grown picky during the 1.5 year of home training. I know more about what I want and what I like to follow in two months. I have also - anyhow I think so - learned to tell apart the good trainers from the really bad ones. That makes the 5 milj videos shrink to a handful interesting ones! Here you have them!
The week starts on Monday with pilates - a short one. I found later that they have a 30-minutes variation too, but I stick with this now.
On Tuesday the heet must on, but if you have read the earlier ones so I can not jump and the workshops are really calm to meet that special need of mine.
In this version we can alternate - he is showing a though one and she keeps the line for me! It is also longer than earlier and we will se if it has an effect on me. As you notice this is the Day 1 of a serie for 5 days. I will pick up a new day every Wednesday!
These three will hit my week as shown here - an easy start and end are scheduled!
Even if I am loading the videos this late in the month I have been doing the thing and tested some videos in the background. These three I will keep for the coming weeks! Stick to me and we will manage our turns better and we can run wildly the whole milonga tanda with our cardio capacity!!
