Old timers
Can’t really remember where or how I found the following link, just noticed (a few minutes ago as a matter of fact) that I’d bookmarked it somehow. Here you can find some really vintage video clips (dancing as well as orchestras from the Golden Age). By the way, quicktime player is required.
Feedback loop
During one of the recent practica sessions, as I was commenting to someone (in response to her reaction to my lead) that my dancing appeared to be slowly but surely taking on different characteristics, it occurred to me that this transformation coincided with the increased teaching responsibilities. The need to teach has forced me to critically examine how I perform certain actions, in order to isolate and emphasize specific elements as well as to conjure up exercises which hopefully can speed up the learning. In particular, I feel that I have benefited greatly from my own interpretation of the “power walk” – leading with emphasis on chest while holding back the legs. I guess this is the result of unconsciously concentrating on certain characteristics in my walk, leading, etc!?
Unwarranted attention
Frankly I am more of a reserved type and have never been one to seek the lime light. However, with increasing amount of time spent on Tango in an instructional role, i.e. initiated a guided practica session as well as taking over (temporarily) recently a Tango class while the usual instructors went on holidays, all of a sudden I am standing out from the crowd. As a result, nowadays I cannot but help feeling that whenever I take to the dance floor, certain amount of attention will be directed at me and my teaching partner.
Create community music
Since the early days in my forays into the world of Tango, I have always had a keen interest in Tango music and learning the DJ’ing aspects. In fact, I do DJ often at practicas and can boast one of the larger music collections in our small community. Recently, the Tango DJ Blog (which is a rather provocative title for a site in my opinion…) had a story about creating community music. The rationale is that instead of having only a handful of people doing the hard work of collecting the music and then compiling playlists, an old Mac G4 has been made available as part of the DJ station. Now everyone can leave his/her playlists on one machine which can then be shared and critiqued.