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Please mind the gap

The lunge, the main form of attack in fencing, is properly composed of two actions: the extension of the arm and the lunge of the legs. In classical fencing this is taught initially as two separate actions. Extend and then lunge. The extension establishes the threat and the lunge delivers it (it is vital that the threat is established before any leg movement is made). Over time the distance between the two actions is reduced moving from 'extend and then lunge' to 'extend lunge' to simply 'lunge'.

Equally with the lead. The lead must become before any movement and when you begin it will be lead and then move but eventually it will become simply 'lead' or 'move'. This analogy came to me while working on that simple little exercise of both partners doing the move of the turn in a straight line, side-step, ocho-forward, side-step, ocho-backwards. It is a great exercise for making the concept of disassociation apparent and because if it is not done in the form of BAM! lead, move it just does not work and you can see people getting confused awfully quickly.

The Embrace

Café Periódico del Tango writes about The In-s, Out-s & In-Betweens of the Embrace specifically quoting Javier Rodriguez that:

"the gentleman should hold the lady in his arms like a baby during the dance"

I personally have always preferred:

"Tenez votre arme comme vous tiendriez un oiseau : pas trop fort pour ne pas l’étouffer, assez fort tout de même pour ne pas le laisser s’échapper."

Louis-Justin Lafaugere; Traite de l’art de faire des armes
(Lyon: 1820)

Most commonly translated as "Hold your foil as if you had a little bird in your hand, firmly enough to prevent it from escaping and yet not so firmly as to crush it" and turning up in the 1952 film Scaramouche paraphrased as "Think of the sword like a bird. Clutch it too tightly and you choke it. Too lightly and it flies away."

Backwards and in heels

Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.

In response to: The "PC"-fication of Tango

Johanna over on Tangri-La has an excellent post on The "PC"-fication of Tango which, to summarise, deals with how the feminist debate has interfered with the lead-follow relationship.

The origins of tango lie in a society where the gender roles were clearly heterogeneous. Thankfully over the past 100 years things have liberalised somewhat and greater opportunities are open to both sexes. However the driving force of this debate was towards giving women the rights and opportunities that they were denied, resulting in a paucity of discussion as to what man's role was to be in this society.

I have seen aspects of this in classes, especially when it comes to new leaders taking followers into the embrace. On one shoulder they have the angel of society reminding them that a woman should be given her own space be free to do her own thing. Now they have a tango teaching devil on the other shoulder telling them that they must take this woman in a strong, firm, embrace. When the tango teaching devil loses out to the angel the leaders hand usually ends up on her side around her spare rib.

Men, you are being asked to lead. You are not being asked to revert to Neanderthals, club her over her head and drag her back to your cave, you are simply being asked to step up to the mark and lead. Three minutes of leading a dance with a proper embrace is not a declaration of war against the changes that have taken place in gender roles in general society*.


*If you are using it as a declaration of war against the changes that have taken place in gender roles in general society please send me your address so that my seconds may contact your seconds.

You don't teach people tango, you break 'em in.

Armando Copa y Veronica Alegre: Milonga Traspie

Armando Copa y Veronica Alegre dancing Milonga Traspie to Ella as asi by Edguardo Donato on the occasion of Limerick Tango 2nd Anniversary Ball 16th February 2008

Armando Copa y Veronica Alegre: Tango

Armando Copa y Veronica Alegre Tango to Pata Ancha by Osvaldo Pugliese at the Limerick Tango 2nd Anniversary Ball, 16th February 2008

It's different

Why exactly is tango so different from other dances? Why does it hold people in its thrall?

Many other dances* are about steps and synchronicity, a useful method for finding out if someone thinks the same way you do.

Tango, on the other hand, approaches things on the basis of "If we think on this together, we might just work it out."

*WARNING: Sweeping generalisation.

Head wind

Ireland is currently being buffeted by winds gusting up to 150Km/h in places, so when you turn a corner you get a good opportunity to practise your tango walk. The trick is to resist the urge to drop your head but instead relax your knees and plunge your chest into the on coming force like a ships figurehead.

Tango: a crowded marriage

This time the polygamy theme is inspired by the famous "There were three of us in this marriage" quote.

An unattributed quote states that “There are three of you in the tango: you, your partner and the music. If it’s just you and your partner, this is not tango. You may as well go home and go to bed together”(1).

So that's ok. You, your partner, the music. Then some people insist that you adopt a relationship with the floor not to mention the crowd that you are dancing with.

At the end of it, it is one crowded marriage.

(1) www.list.co.uk/article/6145-valentines-day-tango-classes/
Source: The List (Issue 595)
Date: 31 January 2008
Written by: Kirstin Innes

Polygamy

In the 1943 film Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart, there is an interesting discussion between a British officer and a Sudanese private about how many wives a chap should have. The Sudanese private explains that with one wife she will be lonely while you are at work and that when she is unhappy she will take it out on you. So the British officer suggests a second wife, but the Sudanese private dismisses that suggestion saying that the two wives will gang up on each other and fight. "So three wives, then." "No because the two senior wives will gang up on the newest wife and she will be lonely and your house will be full of bitter strife." "How many then?" "The best number is four, for the two oldest and the two youngest wives can keep each other company and fight between themselves and you will be left in peace."

This is useful advice when bringing partners to a far off milonga where it is likely that they may not get asked up to dance much. If I go to a dance with someone I don't like leaving them sitting on their own while I may be off dancing, especially if I was the one to talk us into going. If you bring two partners one will still be sitting on their own while you dance with the other. The perfect number is three, so that two can sit chatting while you dance with the other.

(In the end the Sudanese private admitted to having only one wife as she was enough for him)

Tango Snobbery

Comments like "Oh that's Nuevo tango, it's not tango", quite frankly, I don't like hearing. To the best of my knowledge I've been taught mainstream traditional argentine tango and I have a fairly live and let live attitude to styles - that means I don't want to be charged off the dance floor or have my partner cut up by vicious voleos.

In the Historical European Swordmanship community there is a vast selection of styles and weaponry to choose from. Be it spanish rapier or late french foil, italian cane or victorian pugilism. When the top practitioners of this community are asked which is the best weapon they will tell you "It is not the weapon, it is the man behind it".

Similarly I have heard people down rating teachers because they don't like what they teach. That is a matter of personal taste. Rate teachers on how they teach.

Tango leaders are like donkeys stuck up a minaret. If they can't see a way out of it there is no moving them.

Tango Adjectives

I'm looking for adjectives relating to Tango

e.g. Neo-Tango, Nuevo-Tango, Tango-Danza

Please Comment below

On Passive Leading

The Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: Yes Brain, but if our knees bent the other way, how would we ride a bicycle?

"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte."
-Blaise Pascal

(Translation: "I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.")

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction" - Albert Einstein.

Going forward, pushing off

In fencing one stands with ones feet squared. Your feet are at 90 degrees to each other, your front foot points directly forward, your rear foot points off to the side. Moving forward is achieved by first hinging out the front foot, testing the water so-to-speak, the rest of the body follows. [1]
Movement in Bartitsu[2] is slightly different, the foot positions are the same but when moving forward you throw the body into the movement by pushing with the rear foot.

I write of the first movement to contrast with the second which is how one should move in tango, propelling yourself forward with the trailing foot, pushing the chest ahead like a ships figurehead. After talking with Armando Copa at the weekend I am going to modify this idea slightly further. With the same sense of motion do not throw yourself into the forward but push yourself away form the behind.

[1] Image from The Theory and Practice of Fencing, Julio Martinez Castello, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933
[2] An eclectic martial art and self defence method originally developed in England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Starting

Every so often someone will ask the question:

"So what made you take up tango?".

If they are a dancer they will get the story. If they are not they will get the answer which in its full form can be quite complicated, and for me uncomfortable. Why complicated and uncomfortable? Because, really, within that question there are two questions that compete to be answered. What made me walk in the door of the tango class and what made me stay? Because their answers are at odds with each other and yet not.

Why did I want to take up tango? I can't say I know why. It exists somewhere in the collective subconscious, Adams family pastiches, a couple locked arm in arm cheek to cheek, rose between the teeth, marching up a room and down again, a dance was just steps. Which is of course Ballroom Tango, but the collective western European subconscious isn't terribly aware that there is anything different. Tango is tango, is it not?

My first conscious decision that tango might be something I'd like to try was probably influenced by the tango scene in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman. Who could not be captivated by Al Pacino's forthright character, who wouldn't want a beautiful woman like Gabrielle Anwar in their arms? Strong male, a woman to be seduced, sounds like a good idea.

That was then and this is now.
I've stayed because of what I found, not what I was looking for. Because of what Al Pacino said in that scene, not what he did. "No mistakes in the tango...not like life...It's simple...That's what makes the tango so great..If you make a mistake...get all tangled up...just tango on." What I have found is more subtle, more intimate, a lot more taxing mentally than the uber-machismo of pushing a woman around a room.