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: Mixed energy in close embrace

In this class, we focused on how to lead and follow rebounds in close embrace, first on the half beat and then a slow rebound that is very suitable for soft melodic tangos. We also looked at more complex combinations using a rebound and the very useful grounding technique.

Summary video



 

Beginners & improvers: Double rebound step

Top tips

  • Leaders: This is a rebound on the half beat, so only go to the middle point when you go forward. If you fully transfer your weight forward, your parner will probably collect her feet and it will be much harder to make her do the rebound.
  • Followers: Keep your torso dissociated to him during the whole step to establish a nice connection.

 

Beginners & improvers: Soft rebound on the beat

Top tips

  • Leaders: This is a slow soft rebound with a completely different energy from the first one. In this case, you should fully transfer your axis forward but as you go forward you should slightly go up and then down at the end of the step. The energy is that of a wave going up and down. This will help the follower understand that it is not a complete step and that she shouldn’t collect her feet.
  • Followers: Don’t forget to push out of the step using your back leg.

 

Intermediates: Mixed energy step in close embrace

Top tips

  • Leaders: In the second part of this step, to make your partner stay in the middle as you go forward, you need to “send” your free leg ahead of your torso. Normally when you move, your torso moves together with your legs to tell your partner to move with you. However as in this step, you want your partner to stay still, using this technique is quite useful.
  • Followers: In the second part of this step, try and develop a sensitivity that enables you to move with your partner’s torso and not his legs. It’s very easy (and tempting!) to look at the leader’s legs to guess what he’ll do next. In close embrace, it is harder and in this step, it would be counter-productive as he is moving and you’re not.

 

Homework

Top tips

  • Leaders: Practice the concept of having your torso move with your legs (normal movement) and then moving the leg first.
  • Followers: Practice the slow rebound on your own, it is a beautiful step but it can be quite tricky to keep your balance and to find how to push out of it.

 

See you soon on the dancefloor,

Nati y Bruno