Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Resolutions.

This year, I resolve to:

1. Find my axis.

2. Bring my heels together 90% of the time. (Right now I'm running at about 70%, because as soon as I start a giro it's anyone's guess where my ankles are.)

3. Become a better lead. This can be any combination of learning how to lead more complicated, interesting steps, or developing the kind of musicality that leaves room for the follower to embellish. Right now I have only one or two followers on a regular basis, and they are both wonderful women, but both have a habit of worrying for me. What this means is I will take a side step and a dramatic pause, and after two seconds she whispers, hilariously, "Um, is everything okay?"

4. I should really, really figure out how to communicate "all is well".

5. As a follower, I will learn better how to wait. If the leader hasn't told me to do something, I will endeavor to hang out and embellish or count my own eyelashes or something instead of trying to outguess him.

6. I will learn more about the music. It's a little annoying to recognize one song in fifteen and one orchestra in six. I can narrow that spread considerably, I think, if I put my mind to it.

7. I will be more openminded about nuevo.

8. A little more openminded, anyway.

9. ...We'll see.



3 comments:

b said...

I enjoyed this post. For some reason it has inspired me to fire up my typing hands and write something new for my own tango blog. It is a new year, afterall..

Sorin said...

On the "communicating all is well" during pauses, here's my approach.

I don't pause as in "stay totally still", I pause with my feet but my upper body slowly moves to prepare for the next step. Say I am taking a side step and I want to make a pause before switching to cross step. Once I changed weight on the left I slow down the collection, once collected I start slowly the pivot and when I want to resume I accelerate the move to "normal" speed.

With this "technique" I have yet to have someone inquire if all is well ;)

miss tango said...

yes keep collecting and gathering those feet!