For the first hour, leaders and followers separated and had different exercises. Starting from warm-up, we worked on basic body usage with walking, pivot, spin-on-axis, giro footwork, etc. To lead well, we need to be able to move well by myself. In the latter half, we team up with another leader, and worked on how it should feel like to follow.
It was a well-designed class.
With traveling to Japan and being busy on work, I was out of practice for a while. That "out of practice" is something you can notice, and that can show. Losing balance in pivot is noticeable. Basic exercises like these really reveal how well you practice the dance, or not.
I personally believe that getting good at Tango is actually simple. Take it like Basketball or soccer football, and work on basics you use. Fancy moves are like dunk shoot or overhead kick. You don't use them 98% of the time, and without good basics they won't work. It makes better sense to practice to have good balance on your axis, smooth pivot, good grasp on how your partner should place her feet and dance, etc.
In other words, I should do these exercises in the workshop daily, like 20-30 minutes at least, to be really good quickly. That will get me prepared.
Stage or social, professional dancers teach and spend much time, like hours per day, on practicing themselves. Few non-professionals practice that much. That should show, too. Basic practice is a numbers game. You get it right and you do it many times, and you'll be good at them.
The second class was for both lead and follow, and we did partner work. About 4 sequences were presented and practiced.
I had a little bit of difficulty in one of the sequences. But once I came to a short command to myself, "open to the right, then left", I got it.
I usually use tricks like, "watch and copy","move along","both side moves/lead&follow" to pick up a partner dance move. I should add "describe/command to self" to the trick list.
It helps to have methods that work for you.
With George and Jairelbhi Furlong, they will be having a Tango show ("Shades of Tango") in Dallas on 7/29-30 weekend. Maybe I should go for a road trip.
