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: Interactions - Theme: Ganchos

Ganchos mean hook. These are steps where the followers hooks her leg under the leader's and kicks behind him. Leaders can do it too, although it's more rare. Originally a stage tango step, ganchos are widely used in social dancing nowadays. We saw a couple of classic ganchos, very usable on the dancefloor.

Summary video



 

Beginners & improvers: Gancho from the parada

Top tips

  • Leaders: To lead the gancho, you need to simultaneously bring your partner back to her axis by dissociating, and create space for her leg by bending the knee and lifting the heel of your right leg. These 2 movements need to happen together.
  • Followers: For a gancho, you need to feel two things: the lead and that the leader has created space for your leg. My philosophy is that if I can’t feel both the lead and that I have space, I don’t do the gancho as I don’t find it safe.

 

Intermediates: Gancho from backward ocho

Top tips

  • Leaders: For this gancho, your heel needs to be in contact with hers – not your toes, or she might kick you as she flicks her legs backwards.
  • Followers: Make sure you pivot enough so that you end up close to the leader. Avoid stepping away from him as it will make any step (not only a gancho) difficult.

 

Intermediates: Gancho from backward ocho with the leader’s leg between the follower’s feet

Top tips

  • Leaders: Lead the follower to step and immediately position your foot so that you can “trap” her free leg as you lead her to collect.
  • Followers: Always remember to be with your weight in the middle of your two feet on the beat, to enable all interaction steps.

 

Intermediates: Gancho and boleo

Top tips

  • Leaders: By straightening your leg out of the gancho, you can “eject” the follower’s leg and create a boleo.
  • Followers: The movement of the leg is straight up, then bend and cross.

 

Homework

Top tips

  • Together: Try any of these ganchos. Leaders, feel that your lead is creating a rebound, and a linear energy. Followers, try and slide along your partner’s calf, hook up at his knee and then bend. The energy should be quite strong, in and out, as if you were “biting his leg”. There is no pause in the gancho, your leg needs to bend, kick and then come back down on the floor.

See you soon on the dancefloor,

Nati y Bruno