To help us understand tensegrity and the body we inhabit (one hopes), Janet held up a small model that resembled Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome. It was a simple, symbolic model of the body’s muscle anatomy. The bones (pencil-sized wooden sticks) and muscles (elastic bands), surrounded by air, touched only where they inserted, at joints, but never lay on top of each other. They rested, suspended on their own ability or tensegrity.
Tango Steps & Techniques for Beginners
Now we get into technique, which emanates not only from the way we individually move and share space, but from the way we move and share space and energy together as partners and as couples moving in sync on the dance floor. For this reason in the beginning classes, we like to do exercises that emphasize:
• How you transfer your weight – presenting or placing the foot moving first, then using the floor and gravity to push off from the trailing foot. No bouncing, little hip movement. The motion is forward and clearly carried out.
Tango as play in the . . .
Field of the Fertile Void I must acknowledge my friend, Howard Teich, a tango dancer and a therapist, for bringing that lovely mouth-filling phrase, fertile void, to my attention. [Watch for his upcoming book, Solar Light, Lunar Light]. In quantum physics, the fertile void, as I understand it, is the the tendency of all matter […]
Tango is Never Having to Say Sorry
In the beginning, we all think of tango as a set of steps that must be done a certain way with our partner. We think there is a right and a wrong way. We think in terms of success and failure as we dance. We cannot help thinking in black and white terms. It is the conditioned duality of our species. However, in tango, when we get out of our conditioned mind and fully into our bodies, weget to a place where we understand the natural laws, or what we call “technique,” of tango. We stop thinking and feeling in yes/no, right/wrong, good/bad. We stop blurting out “Sorry, sorry!” when we imagine we didn’t follow or lead a step as it is supposed to be. We understand the power we have to create the dance moment by moment. Yes, teachers pass on the steps, the footwork, the rhythm, and all the component parts. But when you understand this creative power you have within, you channel it through and from your partner. You stop seeing mistakes and start seeing surprises and aha and little epiphanies. In this sense, tango is no different from life or love. All of them mean never having to say Sorry!
Happy St. Pat’s – Boop Boopy Do!
Lyrics | Louis Armstrong lyrics – I Get Ideas lyrics
Milonga Class with Alberto Catala
Beginners Tango, Every Friday!
In the mind of beginners there are many possibilities, in the mind of experts, few. This is truly Tango Mind, Beginner’s Mind – for mind, body, soul.
Congreso Internacional de Tango Terapia, 2009
Tango Therapy Following are notes from: Second International Congreso de Tangoterapia, Mendoza, Argentina, Oct 28 thru November 1, 2009 • Tango is unique in its use of silence and pauses. – [email protected] Dr. Comasco is a cardiologist who heads the research for the use of tango dancing in the prevention and rehabilitation of heart disease […]
Quantum Tango = D.A.N.C.E.
If tango is a compound composed of two molecules, say male and female, of equal and opposite attraction, its atomic particles might be these body mechanics: Spirals, Weight changes, Pivots. Combined in numerous, perhaps infinite configurations. When energy in the form of motion and (body) heat is applied to the the “compound” the result is a state called D.A.N.C.E. — Dynamic Association with New Consciousness Elevated.