Every week, you’ll find on our blog class notes and a summary video from our Wednesday and Sunday tango group classes.

These video and notes are meant to help our students remember what they’ve done in class.

Dimension: The embrace - Theme: open and close embrace

In this class, we saw how to build a comfortable embrace and how to transition from an open to a close embrace. We then applied this concept to the sandwich, the fun mordidas and the cross, a step which is often used to smoothly move from close to open embrace.

Summary video



 

Beginners & improvers: The sandwich in close embrace

Top tips

  • Leaders: In this step, you want to maintain contact with your partner throughout the whole sandwich, so your moves and transfer of axis should be smaller to lead your partner smaller moves.
  • Followers: As a follower, we always need to understand 2 pieces of information from our partner, first the direction he wants us to go towards and second the size of the step. Try and develop an awareness of how big your moves should be by paying more attention to the amplitude of his lead.

 

Intermediates: The mordida

Top tips

  • Leaders: To lead the mordida, you need to gently ground your partner to make her slow down. You need to extend the first foot is at the normal speed but close the mordida with your second foot slightly faster than you normally would.
  • Followers: You should feel a slight downward energy which is the indication for a corte. When you feel the contact of his foot with yours, this is a strong indication that you shouldn’t move the foot anymore.

 

Intermediates: Opening at the cross

Top tips

  • Leaders: To open, as you lead the cross, gently extend your right arm to lead your partner into an open cross.
  • Followers: Please always be aware of the left side of the embrace. If your partner extends his arm, it means that you need to open the embrace, and therefore return to your axis.

 

Homework

Top tips

  • Together: In the basic caminata, try and smoothly open and close the embrace. You should feel that the focus of the connection then moves from the torso to the hands on the back.

 

See you soon on the dancefloor,

Nati y Bruno