Ballroom Blitz #136

Video

youtu.be/mYxGGYaHbQA

Transcript

Ian: Hey, boys and girls from the interwebs. My name is Ian

Lindsey: and my name is Lindsey.

Ian: Welcome back to

Ian & Lindsey: Ballroom Blitz.

Lindsey: Good day to you, lovely ballroom dancers, wherever we may find you. You found us on a Tango day today, so we are in the Modern Ballrooms, and we're just going to have a closer, in-depth look at the Tango frame and how we walk when we are in that particular hold. So, it is a little bit different from a regular ballroom hold, there are a few tweaks that you want to make and that affects the way that we then move with our partner. So, let's have a nice in-depth look at the Tango.

Ian: So why don't we start with a little bit of a compare and contrast between, various parts of the Tango frame and a Tango hold, and then that will sort of inform us as to why we have to walk like we do when, when we dance a Tango. So when we're taking, a regular, ballroom swing hold, so, Waltz, Quickstep, Foxtrot, slightly modified for Viennese, but we'll leave that, to the side. We're trying to line up right hip to right hip, so the shoulder and side of one person's body is aligning with the belly button in the center of the other person's body, so that when we push our right hips forward and we project our sternum up, sit our bottoms down, this is where we are connected. It allows us a nice top line as much as you are comfortable, and our sort of feet end up moving in line, underneath our, our partners with a little bit of flex in the knee, but reasonably straight.

What this enables on the back is, as we know, a hand is cupping the shoulder blade, and this should be a fairly comfortable sort of, in sync, way that you can stand with your partner that makes all this make the most sense and be the most comfortable. Of course, if you are similar heights, there will be a natural point where you fit together almost like Lego blocks and it makes sense. Of course, if you're slightly different heights, then some things have to be adjusted. So our hands are sitting on the shoulder blade. The followers hand is on the leader's upper arm, and we should have neutral wrists and there's a little bit of a few different schools of thought of exactly where, these elbows and shoulders should be, but generally they sort of all center around neutral wrist, and you don't want your elbows above your shoulders and you don't want your angles in your arms too square and your elbows pushed too far back. So it should all be reasonably central. So this applies to our Waltz, our Quickstep, our Foxtrot and this should be reasonably familiar to you by now.

Ian: So how do we adjust this for our Tango and why? Well, the swing dance hold is for swing dances. What do we mean? It means we're going to swing our feet under our body, and generally we're going to have that gliding sensation of our feet either sliding or skimming the floor, depending on which school of thought you adhere to. Our Tango is a placement dance. It is lower, it is stronger, and it observes this idea that if you are placing your foot and lifting it off the ground, not quite this much, but you get the my point, there will be a point of no return that you have to move through. So because of that, if I take this nice sort of hold where we're a little bit floaty and often it's not really modified, and then I peak my foot up even a little bit, this gets very unstable very quickly and it's just no longer fit for purpose.

So what we do? You can start by putting your feet together, giving yourself a little bit of a build up to the right, and swishing about 45 degrees to your left, and you'll see here that my toes are now no longer, aligned. I put the my big toe knuckle in the instep of my left foot, and this allows my right leg to be slightly behind my left, and I can push my knees down, and I can sit my bum down just a little bit more. This then creates a lower, more stable platform and if I push my hips forward a little bit to create a nice flat, piece of real estate from my knees to my hips and then just separate my feet a little bit; this enables me a very nice, stable platform and if my follow does the same and we fit together like so, you'll find that there's a lot more contact for me to hip and depending on your height, maybe a little bit higher as well. But it doesn't mean that we are encroaching here and as we do that and microphones are probably going a bit weird, but it does mean that we can have a little bit of space up top, create a big, strong looking frame, but be nice and stable down the bottom so that when we move, if I lift my foot up and I move it and then move on to it, it is not so unbalancing that it feels a bit wrong.

Ian: What does this do for our top line? Well, it kind of means that we can and should change it. Leads, instead of cupping the shoulder blade, you're going to move your hand down and you should be still cupping skeleton, we don't want to be touching anything that's not attached to your follower in a way that a) makes them comfortable, and b) is not fit for purpose. So you're going to cut their rib cage, but it should be a little bit lower, there's a little bit more line for my elbow around. Please don't cross the spine, that's a bit dangerous. But you can get a little bit closer so that when we are moving here, there's a lot of stability involved with that upper arm, that, right arm.

Follows, you also note that here, if you place your arm now on the leader's upper arm on the right hand side, it'll feel a bit awkward, and if we're doing this right and we're connected low down the bottom, it will now feel that you can do what I call the duckbill. So you can make a little bit of a quacker with your hand and politely put it, on the back of the leader's armpit, like so. Please don't stick your thumb in their armpit. I've had this before, it's really uncomfortable, and it's just not not nice. There's no need for it unless you want a smelly thumb. When you have that all set, it's just really leaves these, frame arms here, these left.

Ian: Now, I like to tell leaders to have a kind of flat and slightly more aggressive elbow, but it shouldn't be up and back. It shouldn't be down here, this is quite weak when moving, and you are allowed to have a bit more of a bend in your wrist in Tango, but you don't want it so much so that you're pushing the follows elbow back; that's very, very uncomfortable. So again, there is this balance where things should be somewhat central, and if that means that things move in or out just a little bit more, then you adjust it for you and your follower. So now we have a slightly lower seat. We have more, real estate down below from knee to hip. We have a slightly adjusted, body, sort of hold here and a slightly more aggressive looking and adjusted, well set of hands here and this is how we move our frame. We adjust our frame so that we can move in the more Tango fashion and not the swing fashion.

Lindsey: Now, what you should find if you achieve a good Tango hold, is that it's not actually quite comfortable, it's not a strong lead, to step straight forward in line with your hips the way we normally would in Ballroom Dancing. What you want to do is start to move, almost sidling towards where your partner is. So because they're on your right hand side, leaders, you will take your left foot if you're ready for a left foot, walk across the line of your right foot towards where your partner is. What this means is that you are almost picking up their right leg with your left leg, and that way you are sort of shifting them into position, and you are both placing your foot down and maintaining that contact; the whole way.

Similarly, with your right, you'll find that your right foot walk feels a little bit, sideways. But you're doing the same thing. You're looking for your partner's leg. You're looking to actually shift them, not really with your frame at all, but with your legs. Of course, your frame is holding you steady. But it's when you're in the a really good, Tango position with each other it is one of the easiest ones to feel where each other is and where you're going, and therefore it's easier to stay together. The lower stance with those sort of slightly bent legs means that we've got a good, amount of balance. So picking up a leg and then sort of shifting it together as you're moving forwards and backwards, and that sidling across actually becomes no worry at all, you'll find it's a nice stable movement once you practice that a bit.

So if we're in a good position with our partner, the leader takes their left foot. Assuming they've got their weight on their right foot, picks it up and shifts themselves towards where their followers right foot is and we place the foot down. Then the right foot starts to move and the right leg is moving my left foot. So I know exactly where to place it, and we do say place because we're slightly lifting our feet up off the ground. We don't want to slide our feet anywhere. We definitely don't want to pick it up too far from the ground, because we're just too close to our partner to do that, it's a bit tricky. But yes, it is a slight lifting up and placing cleanly on the floor for each step.

Ian: So, for dances like your Black Night Tango, which we have done the walk through, not so long ago that maybe a couple of months ago now, a good Tango frame will make all of those figures much, much easier, and you will have noticed there with Lindsey and I that, if you have a good right to right hip connection and a nice condensed Tango frame that is comfortable for you and your partner, when you make these, placement actions, you will turn slightly anti-clockwise as you walk because you're not swinging your legs under you. Even without strong contra body movement, you will rotate slightly simply by having that right hip pushed in for connection and placing your steps across your partner.

So don't be afraid of that. But also try not to force it. You don't want to do donuts in four steps. It is true that you know you will eventually turn in a circle, but it shouldn't be, you know, in single digit steps. It should take you a while, but it will also mean that you can manipulate this turn to your advantage, with a little bit of practice. So, a slight leftwards turn, a slight anti-clockwise turn is good. Don't fight it. Don't make it too straight. That sort of leads you into how to lead other figures and will make everything feel a bit strained. But don't lean into it too much and do do doeies on the floor.

Lindsey: And that was the Tango frame and the Closed Tango Walks for you. You will find that it will take a little bit of adjustment with you and your partner to find, just that right connection, that right balance, that right feel and look for your Tango hold, and the walks take some practice. Don't worry if they feel a little bit wobbly to begin. Or particularly for the leaders going forward, you're fighting some strong instincts, telling you not to step straight where someone else already is. They will shift as you shift. So give it a good practice, give it a good go, have some fun and we'll see you next time.

Ian: Well, that's it for this Blitz boys and girls, don't forget to like,

Lindsey: comment,

Ian: share,

Lindsey: and subscribe.

Ian: See you next time.