TANGOEROS - Lily's Argentine Tango Blog Thoughts on the tango training ...

I've been joining a lot of classes from different teachers since i'm here ... but i still want to join more as there are really so many good dancers/teachers here ... I'd like to share a bit on the learning experiences here ...

There are 4 main types of classes that i'm joining, being Classical Salon Tango, Nuevo Tango, Ladies Technique, and Stage Tango. From each category of classes i learn different things ...

Classical Tango
I've tried to take more classes in this category as i found there's not much chances back there in HK and i want to understand how the classical dancers are trained ... What i found is that they emphasize more in the basic techniques, and not until you've done it right, they won't teach you other things... Or, the speed of the classes are much slower, cos they need you do things well enough before you are allowed to proceed. There are classes in which half of the time is spent on embrace and walking, and if you have not do the embrace well, they'll keep correcting you just the embrace ignoring whatever you're doing down below ... or, if you haven't got your balance or axis correct, they'll keep doing the same thing or some other exercises on the same issue until you manage it. And, usually, the number of steps taught in these classes are just one third of those in nuevo classes, there might be just a set compose of ocho+giro+sacada for one whole class, and you have plenty of time practicing them until it's smoothly executed, and you can go into all the details and finetune the movements. If you can manage the steps with technique reasonably well, they'll go into more depth as to the quality of the movement, not just the movement itself, and other minor details which take you to a new depth of tango.


Nuevo Tango
These classes are generally more fun and with a faster speed, the teachers mainly concern about the dynamic between the couple of course also with a lot of details, but i always found it easier to handle, most of the time, by the end of the class, we can do the movements even though we might not be able to do them as good as the teachers. These classes are fun to know more possibilities and to train your body to respond to many more things.


Ladies Technique and Stretching classes
These are classes which i love a lot, in most of the classes, no matter they are very basic, or very difficult, i always find i learn new things from the teachers or just from myself doing the same exercises repeatedly, and it's a time to get all the techniques you know in your mind down to your body, to let the muscle memory build ... cos in other occasions, we are too busy responding to the leaders and dynamics etc, but in these classes, what you have to do is to incorporate all those you already know but have not been built into your body. There are some classes in which you are given very good imagery of how you should feel when you stand, when you move, and when you embrace ... very basic, but some dancers keep coming back to them as they found every time they come back to these classes, they learn new depth and it's a new level for them. It's also very good to keep doing the same exercise to train up particularly some weak part of your body, like the ankles which wobble, the inner-thigh muscle, or the power of your abdominal muscle ... there are also exercises to train up the speed of movements, adornos, the scale of projection, etc. And, i did stretching classes every week, they're good to extend your limit which help in many tango movements ... much to learn and to practice, i just love them!


Stage Classes
These classes are difficult, but very good to push yourself to improve in all the technical aspects ... Movements are difficult ... jumps, lifting, quick ganchos, speed is fast, memories have to be good, and you have to learn them quick, the teachers might only demonstrate 3 times the whole sequence and you'll have to find your way to do it with your partners, and most of the partners are also very demanding, if you can't do the movements after 2-try, they'd try to change partner ... and teachers always will put on music and have you do the sequence to the exact counts, and if you cannot catch up with the music, you're out! ... because in the stage, nobody will wait for you! ... in these classes, i always found my body and mind working 4 times harder than in other types of classes.



********************************************

Afterthoughts ...

For me, the private classes with the classical teachers are the most difficult ones ... they insisted me doing the basic techniques well, or keep going back to test them, and make sure i am solid with them before they move to other things ... i've been quite frustrated, in these classes, i found myself even can't do a pivot well enough ... this make me think again and again, there are always classes in which you can learn a lot of movements, but i'd rather take some classes in which may be i just do ochos for 1 hour but they helped me to a better ocho, so that i can dance better in most other movements. It's like ballet classes, you have to repeat and repeat the same movements until it's perfect ... Of course, there aren't many students who want to learn tango really that serious, that's why there are less and less teachers teaching the basic techniques now, but when you see those students from classical teachers, most of them are at least walking nicely, and having a good embrace and posture, whereas some other students who only want to learn many movements quick but are doing them really nastily ... what do you prefer? ...

Of course, there are different stages in our learning process, sometimes we need to work with more movement so that we can dance more in the milongas, but there are stages in which you need to go back to the basic things and be really patient to get yourself do them well ... Of course, if we can do them all at the same time to be all-rounded, that's perfect, but if we don't have the time, we'll have to know what to learn in your own stage of progress ...



** Please leave a note on your thoughts to me here, i really want to know more about what others need or want in their process of tango training ...

You can leave comment to this collection

Collection Category: 未分類(0) Add Collection Category
Collection Comment: