Back to basics

It seems I have not commented on Tango for a while now. Not as an excuse, but I have been rather inactive for the past month and a half in order to concentrate on my studies (the ACCA course on Financial Management). Actually, for the people in the know, this is just another sign of ill-preparation up to this point!

Anyway, enough of a preamble. Back to Tango!

At the end of March, Christine Denniston was in Singapore briefly on her way back to UK. Apart from giving us a wonderful account of the development of Argentine Tango in Buenos Aires, she also conducted a few classes while she was here.

After these brief sessions with Christine, it seems it’s time to get back to basics again! Since she is rather analytical in her teaching, naturally there were some challenging aspects to grapple with. As a quick summary, some of the thing highlighted were:

• Keeping partner in front of you at all times;
• directing movements towards the centre of your partner so that you don’t lose the connection, no matter where you are in relation to your partner.

Does have a sense of deja vu?

I can appreciate and have subsequently tried to have stronger connection with my dance partner by slowing down the dance, and sensing how my dance partner is responding to my lead. However, I still cannot reconcile the notion of having the partner in front of me all the time. In fact, after viewing many videos (workshops & performances), it seems the really good dancers are also not doing it! My understanding has always been that it’s a notion only, which you do not need to physically adhere to at all times. Still struggling to understand…