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.

This month, we are looking at steps inspired by old school milongueros, these couples who danced during the Golden Age of tango and who paved the way. We are encouraging you strongly to watch videos of each of these couples on Youtube. The steps we are showing in class are inspired by these old school milongueros, but if you want to have a better idea of their own individual style, musicality, elegance, you’ll need to watch their videos. We’ll be posting quite a few videos on our blog too, so come back often!

Dimension: Immersion - Theme: Steps inspired by Giraldo Portalea

Giraldo Portalea is very famous for his unique combinations, his smooth dancing and his cadencia. In this class, we started with the Americana before exploring some of Portalea's signature moves: a mix between back cross and backward ocho, a single axis turn from a unique entry point, and an Americana using counter-energy.

Summary video

 

Beginners & improvers: Americana

Top tips

  • Leaders: In this step, make sure you keep nice lines: when going backwards, make sure you are not in fact taking a diagonal step and when closing the step, again make sure you take a clean forward step, not a diagonal.
  • Followers: If you use dissociation and move your torso first before your hips, you will be more likely to assess correctly how big the turn should be.

 

Intermediates & up: Side step in line of dance and single-axis turn

Top tips

  • Leaders: Make sure you open the embrace clearly and early enough for the follower to understand that you want her to take a side step in the line of dance. Trickier than it seems!
  • Followers: In the small single axis turn, make sure you keep your right arm engaged.

 

Intermediates & up: Back cross and backward ocho combination

Top tips

  • Leaders: For the back cross, make sure you use you lead using your axis, whilst for the backward ocho, you will need to use dissociation. Both leads are very similar, so you’ll need to be very precise.
  • Followers: Try and make your back crosses deep and neat.

 

Homework

Top tips

  • Beginners: Practice ochos and Americana together to get the lead and following right.
  • Intermediates: Learning the difference between a back cross and a backward ocho is really a useful skill.