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: Immersion - Theme: El Negro Portalea
In this class, we had a closer look at El Negro Portalea and his beautiful, smooth dancing style. His nickname could definitely have been the king of cadencia. We particularly like how he mixes back crosses and back ochos - knowing that back crosses are the ancestors of ochos, we felt this gives a timeless look to his tango.
Summary video
Backward ocho ending in Americana or with a pivot
Top tips
- Leaders: You will need to practice your lower body dissociation to lead this step as you need to swing your hips to pivot whilst leading your partner an ocho.
- Followers: Try and make sure you are not pulling or pushing your partner with your right hand when you pivot as he is not able to provide support.
Back crosses on both legs
Top tips
- Leaders: To lead this step, you will need to move your axis forward and backward in a movement that mimics that of the follower’s leg.
- Followers: Make sure you have a soft transfer of weight in your back crosses.
Back cross and ocho combination inspired by El Negro Portalea
Top tips
- Leaders: To lead the back cross, use a movement of your axis as you did in the previous step. For the back ocho, use dissociation.
- Followers: Try to be sensitive and perceive the difference between the lead for backward ocho and backward cross.
Homework
Top tips
- Leaders: Practice the difference in lead between backward ochos and backward crosses.
- Followers: Practise your back crosses.
See you soon on the dancefloor,
Nati y Bruno
