The embrace
Having a good embrace is the key to being able to dance well in close embrace. Sounds like tautology, doesn’t it? But you’d be surprised at the number of people who were unaware of this and still “imagined” that they were dancing in close embrace, but that’s another story…
Here are some nice writings on the embrace, from people who had the opportunity to stay in Buenos Aires for extended periods of time: one from a leader’s and two from followers’ perspective. Incidentally, all three articles mentioned the style of Javier and Andrea who will be in Singapore next week!
Very worthwhile reading!
Assimilation
It’s great to have Hsueh-tze back, for the second time this year. Currently we are about half-way through her series of workshops. As usual, she has enlightened all of us on the subtleties of close embrace and yet again highlighted some very important fundamental techniques that allow us to do just that little extra with the music…
Unfortunately, as usual, this is also going to be another period of struggle for me, as far as the Tango is concerned, as I try to disassemble and critically scrutinise the Tango knowledge that I have accumulated up to this point. Really a kind of deconstruction/construction process. Hopefully, after the eventual reconstruction, I can reach a better level than I am. The trouble is, it can take a while. Meanwhile, things can get a touch frustrating. 🙁
Secrets of close embrace
The five secrets of close embrace according to Hsueh-tze Lee.
- Vertical lift.
- Opposites: Lead/follow exchange; focus forward while moving backward. Waiting mutually.
- Leg power to indicate intention.
- Centre to centre: moving through one’s centre and stay with partner’s centre.
- Maintain a comfortable embrace. After all, this is why we dance in close embrace, no?
Evolution of the embrace
Once upon a time, all Tango dancers in Singapore danced in an open embrace.
Fast-forward to present, close embrace dancing is the norm rather than the exception during a typical milonga.
Speaking for myself, I can clearly remember the first time a girl (she was already an experienced dancer at that time) came very close to me, and this was within the first two months – no formal classes and before my first workshop – of my Tango journey, I was literally petrified! Come on, what was I supposed to do? There was simply no space to move. 🙂