This past weekend I made a trip to Dallas. Saturday 6/3 was Tango day for Jack and Jill, pro show, and milonga.
Sunday 6/4 was West Coast Swing (WCS) day for Jordan and Tatiana workshops (next blog entry at a later time).
These two events were overlapping. I went to a half of both.
On Saturday I went to watch Argentine Tango Jack and Jill finals, pro shows, and dance at milonga.
Jack and Jill format was the same with swing dance Jack and Jill. Contestants with bibs, dice roll to determine rotation number, and dance to 3-4 songs in front of judges and audience. Rotating after each song. In nice dresses and suits, which is a difference from swing dance. Swing dancers are more casual.
The host George and Jairelbhi invited professional instructors/performers (Guillermo Merlo, Gimena Herrera, Tomas Galvan, Celina Rotundo, Hugo Patyn).
Guillermo was performing with Jairelbhi, in place of George who is recovering from his knee surgery.
Guillermo, Gimena, Tomas and Vania Rey were serving as judges for the Jack and Jill.
I enjoyed watching the semi-finals and finals for Vals, Milonga and Salon Tango categories.
The Jack and Jill outcomes?
In addition to dancing itself, I was curious about judging and what they value.
For the leads, in short, the judges awarded "solid and steady".
This Jack and Jill is for contest novices, and the priority being placed on showing solid lead sufficient to create safe environment for his follow to express her dance is understandable.
For the follows, they seemed to have awarded "relax, expression, and with ease". That is, what was positively evaluated was a little more advanced dancer-looks than the leads.
Perhaps, the judges expected proper role play from the lead and the follow. Solid lead with expressive follow. The frame (him) and painting (her) in the ballroom dance.
In Jack and Jill, too strong a lead or a follow can easily upset the balance and matchup. That is the tricky part of Jack and Jill contest. I did not watch the preliminaries, but I imagine the balance between leads and follows was not as leveled as in the finals.
Tango follows face dilemmas. One of such dilemmas is "solid follow" vs "expression". The mix is mostly suggested by the lead, but her preferences and tendencies count. For this contest, judges seemed to like dancers who was able to add time for embellishments while keeping more relaxed look. And of course with the music.
This "expression with ease" is a character that comes only after cultivating some Tango in her. It takes experience. So in other words, the judges collectively awarded the looks of "veteran" dancer-follower, it seems.
Pro shows/stage tango were entertaining. And I wanted to be entertained.
I watched Guillermo's performance videos before and loved the style. Suave, I'd say.
Also I appreciate the instruction videos he posted online. Some time ago I was searching for videos to catch up with Tango after covid, and found their tango vocabulary series. It was quite useful for social dances.
Tomas and Gimena presented a fast-paced "perky" Tango. Impressive moves included that move in which he kicks through between her legs successively in molinete. Getting the timing right in the move is not easy, especially with the fast song they danced to.
Audiences expect professionals to show something amazing. Their techniques did it.
Hugo and Celina were of course both strong dancers. Loved their choreography and expressions.
As this was Jack and Jill week, they added rotation for the three pro couples.
The milonga ended around 2am. But I didn't feel tired much. After losing 15-20lb (-7.5 to 10%) from dieting this past 5 months, my body noticeably moves easier and smoother to my delight. I should have done this dieting business earlier.
On Sunday they had Tango workshops. I'm sure they were good. But I went to WCS event instead. cont. to Next entry.
