They are doing
April 8th, 2008No comments »
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Posts Tagged ‘Javier Rodriguez’
Watching them dancing makes me happy
April 7th, 2008No comments »
Day 22. Private 8. Finale
March 15th, 2008No comments »
Last class was all about fixing the little things, such as changing weight, keeping the body as one block, getting rid of the unnecessary body movement, keeping the footwork clean.
We spent some time to get the walk down. Andrea showed me how to lift the free leg before walking. Javier showed me how to use the foot to land. Normal. He said, just like walking on the street. I have to keep reminding myself when walking back, body first, and push off from the standing foot.
There are still a lot of work for me to do. Mostly I need to go back to NY and continue learning. Javier suggested to me that I should film myself and practice as follower. I will understand a lot of things and I am ready to be a follwer, as Javier said.
I started to understand a lot of what they taught me during these two weeks. I need time to revisit all these lessons and process the information that I got. I need to put them in the practice and see where I go from there. Quite a few people down here have told me:” the way you dance to the music, one day you will have your own steps.”
One day I hope…
Day 21. Private 7. Happy feeling
March 14th, 2008No comments »
I felt tired, not so much into tango the whole day. Took a nap before going to the private. My breakfast was at 2:40pm with steak, mashed potato and a glass of cold beer with my DJ friend. Lunch at 6:30pm, coffee and media luna. No wonder I was having this big headache.
Got to the class, and saw a student of them whom I met the first night at Canning. We chatted a little. And I chatted with Andrea. Andrea looked stunning wearing a nice skirt. My tango energy was at its all time low.
Well, I got to dance with Javier first. A song by D’Arienzo and Hector Maure, it was fine except my usual problem: lack of energy and small steps. I thought dancing in the crowded milongas in BA had definitely changed certain ways of my dance.
We spent most of the working on my walks. I knew I got the walk back in November. I was a little frustrated that we had to work on it again. Javier patiently showed me the way to walk. Well, simple! Walk like normal. He led me to walk back and forth in practice embrace. Then I walked Andrea in hugged embrace with arms wrapped around each other. We kept walking until she felt fine and I looked fine by Javier.
Then we talked about feeling in tango. Javier wanted me to feel happy dancing, not feel burdened. I danced with Andrea la Yumba by Pugliese. There were hiccup here and there. But I was feeling light during the dance and happy after. ” You looked happier.” Javier told me. ” Remember that feeling.”
My cell phone rang. They both smiled. My ring tone is Humilicion by D’Arienzo. Andrea liked it and wanted me to send her the song via Bluetooth. I hadn’t done it before. So she helped. But we couldn’t transfer the file. Tried to transfer to Javier’s phone, which is the same model as Andrea’s, it worked. Andrea’s phone wasn’t compatible with mine. Ha!
One more class with them…
Day 20. Private 6 Fatigue takes toll.
March 13th, 2008No comments »
I was very tired, coughing during the night and in the morning. I guess that I am reaching to the end of my milonga stretch. By the time I reached Javier’s place I felt lack of energy.
Andrea brought me upstairs. They went to Santa Fe yesterday for a show and class, eight hours bus ride. She looked a bit tired too.
Javier was dancing with CDT a milonga. To see him leading CDT dancing the milonga in socks was very entertaining. He saw me and joked: ” It is you again. Every day I see you. Every where I look I see you. ” I answered:” I am leaving soon. Don’t worry.”
As usual the previous class ended late. While Andrea took CDT down, I started dancing with Javier to Bien Pluenta by D’Arienzo. It was good except that my steps were too little while doing the giros. Not so manly, very inhibited. I told him that it was because in the milongas I worried about hitting some one while doing the giro. “Practice here then in the milongas you will have better confidence.” Javier said.
He switched the music to Di Sarli. I danced with Andrea for one song. After the song, Andrea hold up a fist to my fist. She felt perfect. She wanted to congratulate me. I didn’t do giros, however, and she noticed. Ha, I cheated and danced the stuffs that I knew the best.
Later, we pretended the space as the floor of the milonga and practiced everything that I did in the milonga. Then Javier fixed the way that I held woman’s right hand and explained that man and woman’s arm shouldn’t be touching. And I practiced some giros. Normal, nature, these are the keys of good tango.
I was feeling that my body and my mind was slow today. So we ended the class a bit earlier. I thought that I reached the point that I have all the elements of good tango: very good embrace, posture, walk, and the right mentality. Now it is a matter of putting that into practice and gaining experience.
They had said some nice things to me that made me feel very proud. Two more classes, I am ready to see the result by the end of my second series of privates with two of the teachers of whom I have utmost respect.
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