The ronda stoppers

There is a limit of pausing/giroing I cope with today and if one leader keeps going on at a spot until 1/3 of the ronda in front of him is empty and the 2/3 behind him is crowded that is just too much. It happens here and one leader can change the flow on entire pista.

Most of us leaders are focusing the attention only on forward movement. That is the skill level among us navigators. We have been trained to monitor forward and our attention is as a car headlight, we are aware of 2-4 couples ahead, and we adapt mainly forward.

If my attention was equally for the couples behind me I could notice when they start dance at a spot and ....I could do the same... start to dance at a spot and the density of our ronda could be maintained. 

Today it is a risky solution because if I stay with the couple behind me the new opening in front of me will attract the most notorious line cruisers.

I remember one class with Argentine teachers where we were supposed to change lines when changing from the advancing mode to spot dancing mode. Outer line was dedicated for advancers and the more center areas for those who got  serious, continuous enrosque attacks. Quite a good routine but applied too seldom!

Tango - an unequal dance

Tango is an unequal dance because the followers chances to a deep dance are much bigger compared to the leaders. When a leader has a good technical level and navigation skills the followers can feel safe, relax, enjoy the music and reach the deepest levels within her. Sometimes down to a meditative state.

For me the situation is more demanding. To get towards that meditative dance a leader needs a safe, predictable pista and to get there we are depending on all the other leaders. When the pista is working fine the navigation requires hardly any of my capacity and I can also get a deeper dance then.

I wonder when can we get a pista where all we leaders are working together for this enjoyable goal: a safe, predictable but fun pista? Sometimes when I look the crowd I nearly loose my hope of getting there in my lifetime.

This one is a positive exception!

Encuentro Kehl 2014, some visuals

A short playlist with dancing feet!  I get more and more exited about these short videos and they have a direct impact on my dance also! The musicality of some feet and the care they take the steps and I want to follow those paths!






If you have your FB open you get access to some of the digital paintings from the very same place!

Just click on this line!

an Ice cube in tea!

When we foreigners are flooding over the tango countries to for a visit or for a longer stay I wonder what is happening.

 Are we diluting the original tango? Changing it? Like when an ice cube is added to a hot tea cup.

Should there be some entry restrictions as there is for the Moss Garden in Kyoto Japan?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saih%C5%8D-ji_(Kyoto)

or

Should we appreciate this change which will create a tango for total globe?

You can control the SPEED in youtube

One of the most valuable option in youtube of today is the speed control: You can decide if it goes slower than normal or speed up your video. 

Here you have the control button:

If this option is not available at your youtube window you maybe are missing the add-on called HTML5 . All things remain the same on your youtube window but you just get the control button!

Place your cursor on the youtube window and RIGHT click. This click brings up a list of options and you take the HTML line. 

I use the slower options when I need to check details but the fast variants are really useful for speeches - at 1.5 you still understand the words but get through a 15 mins speech in 10 mins - GREAT  i think!

(I am updating all my channels with this info - sorry if you are hit by this several times. . .)

A one night tanda

At my home pista I am actually not interested about a one night tanda. I am much more interested about long term dance relationships.

Sometimes it takes many months to establish a new relationship because there is several things we need to know about each others before coming to a mutual understanding and dancing. Does she have her own musicality?  Do we share the same musicality? Are we dancing well together? Can we talk about other things than tango? Her boyfriend, does he accept me?  and so on. . . .

So sometimes I just sit and watch the dancers even when the music is wonderful!

Dance as no one is watching

*Dance as no one is watching!* has been going around at net as a mantra for spiritual dancing.

I would like to change it a little bit: Check every now and then who is watching your dance!

I learned to monitor the onlookers because I needed to know who among the followers could accept an invitation from a woman leader. A smiling face or an eye steadily staying in contact was quite sure signs of interest for a tanda with me.

Today I appreciate also the eye contact with the leaders because it creates a nice atmosphere on the pista. A friendly eye on my feet during a fierce milonga can give me a feeling of being on the right road and I can happily continue to develop in that direction.

A new split of tango types

During my years in tango I have learned different types of categories. The first one was how the music was divided to tango, vals and milonga. It followed by the splits to tango salon and milonguero as well as to open and close embrace.

I am today adding to my personal sets two new categories: a meditative style and dynamic style.

The former style has as a goal to create a flow where the dancers' level in steps and musicality guarantee effortless movement and musical accuracy. I think the biggest scene for these dancers are the encuentros.

The dynamic dance is more focused on movements and a powerful and skilful performance of them.

When I became aware of these possibilities I started to spot information about them in tango texts.

A Personal invitation

I feel honored to have been personally invited to my next encuentro.

 It is a step forward for woman leaders!

The picture is taken at Stockholm Encuentro in August by Cristina Campagna.

A Finnish type of tango night - Arja, Darya & Moonlight orchestra

This is an event in Sweden where they have a cult kind of reltation to Finnish tango! Whole night menu for this kind of nigts - only the initiating visit to sauna is missing here. :(

The Tivoli Milonga in Summer

This is the most popular summer milonga on Fridays!  It is a kind of melting pot where the during winter separated groups come together. It usually activates also the old milongeros and milongeras who have not been dancing for a while. With other words there is many rejunions!





It is the cheapest one too! A card for period May-September costs about 25 € and you can dance the other days too. The concerts are included as well.
http://www.gronalund.com/sv/konserter-underhallning/dans/salsa/

Group process of an Encuentro

During the first day of the encuentro I was upset - no feeling of enjoyment, not even feeling of dancing! A question, if this is the best way to spend a weekend, went through my mind.

I mentioned it to my German friend who is a more experienced visitor of these dance events and his response was to calm me down. The group has not found itself yet! People are coming from different tango cultures, different individuals need to find each others and it takes time to melt all this together.

It was also true that not even I myself was concentrating on the music, partner and dance but the location, scanning the participators, get the rules work for me and that took quite a lot of my mental capacity usually engaged in the dance.

The first night one of my usual partners complained too about how the visitors were just dancing with their friends without giving an eye to the local dancers. And Yes I was doing the same - I danced with the persons I already knew and just following the visitors with my eyes during pauses.

The second day it changed and the visitors started to dance with us.

On the third day the dance was beautiful and the lines were visibly and mostly nicely formed. The group had found the way to be together in Stockholm and new friendships were started and growing with hope to meet again somewhere else!

The advantage of dripping sweat

During the last dancing weekend we had a heat burst in town and all the dancers were dripping of sweat. It happens to each and everyone so it is socially ok, we really don't mind anymore. Somewhere during the weekend I stopped to mind about myself too; I stopped to monitor how the drops were advancing along my neck, my back. I just focused on music and my partner.

During the weekend I woke up without any stiffness or pain in my body. I reflected it but became aware of the difference after the first ordinary milonga. The next morning I could not just jump out of the bed but carefully went up and with slight stretching get the body going and start the day. It was as usual again.

Those hot milongas kept me painless!

Digital paintings from an Encuentro

Here you get a slideshow of my digital paintings from Encuentro Stockholm. Compared with photos from the same event you get more a feeling of the place, atmosphere of the event as I was experiencing it. If you check the photos in the search link below you may find the difference!

When watching the slideshow on a computer please try different angles for the monitor because it changes the intensity of the colors and view - find your personal favorite angle!

I have personally preferred the more faded colors because it gives me a nearly cathedral kind of feeling for some pictures.

Videolink!

Facebook ww links of photos
https://www.facebook.com/stephen.c.wade.1/media_set?set=a.10204431688902567.1073741827.1541662962&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/jerzygeorge.dzieciaszek/media_set?set=a.10204685237120759.1073741841.1531006249&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/jerzygeorge.dzieciaszek/media_set?set=a.10204685342843402.1073741842.1531006249&type=1

Purposely blurred

I have experimented with different methods to make dancers musicality visibly but still let they have a reasonable amount of privacy.

I have been working with these blurred videos about 6 months now and noticed that my brain is responding in an interesting way. When the usual details are deprived the brain starts to find other things to focus on. Anyhow my brain started to follow the whole bodies, mostly shoulders moving in music. Today some of these videos, especially vals, are sending waves of pleasure along my spine!  

There is a clear space traveling around to have some additional stimulation/variation.


Click here!

Dancing at Encuentro Stockholm

In the beginning of this video you find two small stories. One of the followers explains how hot it is in the room and a leader clears the way for his follower! and then the dancing starts.

I will try to link the video to this page but it was not available now!

Click here instead!         

Dancing feet at Encuentro Stockholm 2014

Please note that these video clips are not with selected dancers but some of the participants on Stockholm Encuentro; they just passed my camera during the song.

The video below starts in mute mode - you can not hear the music. Please let it run so and check the delicate speed changes these feet are doing! Silence reveals these small but skillful changes better!





Here a playlist for the other ones - totally there is 6 small clip!

Playlist 

Dancing shoulders in Stockholm

Here you get the first impressions from the Stockholm Encuentro, which started yesterday. The day milonga was more lively than I expected but this song is one of the calm ones.

Leaders feet are like a production center, an engine hammering down the dance which will be visibly in the shoulders!

Updated:20140806  I reedited the video and the result is above! the old one below.

Youtube is not cooperating. Click this line and I will take you there instead!

How about shaving the head and face!

Some leaders attend the milonga without shaving their head or face leaving the follower to rub against a bed of tiny nails. Not appreciated by all the followers!

An unhappy meeting!

My foot and a kitchen chair had a private, unhappy encuentro yesterday eveving.
Heading for 9 + 9 + 6  hours of dancing with this toe. Poor toe, bad luck, ... I ... will be dancing.