Claire Loewe included this video in an email advertising some classes with this couple in a brief visit to London. I won't be taking the class, which is in the wrong part of town for me and at the wrong time, but I watched because I remembered the lady's name from a couple of years ago - at the time she was working with another partner, whose name escaped me until I remembered I'd posted video of them (it was Fernando Sanchez). However, the reason I post this milonga is simply that I love it.
It seems so soft, and tender - it starts with a broad smile from her and then it's unhurried, rhythmic, centred, gentle, totally in line with the feeling I have from this melody - and their remote, studious expressions seem somehow full of joy.
Like the previous video it's in a beautiful room full of beautiful light - since Nayla Vacca is the other element in common I wonder if she is the videographer, and puts a good deal of thought into it. [Edit: on watching again I realise the camera moves very slightly, rather than being on a tripod as I had assumed - so in fact someone else is holding it].
Monday, 15 March 2010
Soft milonga
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11 comments:
Thank you for posting this - I'm just mesmerized by his walk! Beautiful.
Skill rather than aerobics; wonderful :o)
He's truly excellent. And for once I can say it as someone who's danced with him in a milonga ;-) (La Marshall, obviously)
I'd like to practice the backwards crosses that happen at 01:40 because I'm not quite sure that would work properly with me. Also what happens at 01:35 is very beautiful and I'm not actually sure if it's led or not.
I think the movement she does at 1:35 is led by a subtle movement of his body. I like it - it looks natural. The backward crosses she does from 1:40 I'm less keen on. The movement is led, but the decoration looks a little forced to me. She slightly anticipates the lead and moves her leg in a way that looks rehearsed, as it no doubt is. This is a performance to camera after all, not an improvised salon dance. When any couple practice together regularly for performance, there is bound to be some blurring of choreography and improvisation.
Backwards crosses - as a leader I'm not sure but for me it works when I dance with followers who tend to have heavy pendulum feet/heels, rather than the floaty soft more modern dancers. So it actually happens with the more mature followers than the springy young bunnies.
(for me I prefer heavier marking feet, you can be much more rythmical...)
@Tango en el Cielo - ah, I wasn't really thinking about the ornament, I'd actually totally disregarded it, I was more trying to work out whether once I got there (I know that part works, minus the ornament) I would then be able to follow the little steps directly after that, or whether I would get 'stuck' or something else would happen. I do think the other one is really beautiful and it makes sense that it could be led that way. Maybe she is enhancing it by doing one thing with her knees rather than another?
Ms H, I'm sure you'd have no problem following those little steps after the back cross! They're quite straightforward, as the follower is doing the same step pattern as the leader. After you've crossed behind, you have to move the front foot, as he moves backwards you have to go forwards, and he is positioning her body at an angle so the movement works naturally.
The little movement she does at 1:35 with her knees - I think it works as it does because she turns her leg out slightly at that moment. It's a natural consequence of the movement he led, but not every woman would respond that way especially if she hadn't danced with him before. She's probably used to that movement he leads so she's developed her style in her response. One of the advantages of dancing regularly with the same partner.
"Soft Milonga". I agree - milonga doesn't mean rushing round like an electrocuted rat. Also, its not "tango, just faster".
Very lovely, what you write and the video you write about.
It's a busy morning this Monday (#MilongaMonday in my town ;-), but I've made a little post about your posting here: http://ow.ly/1ppno at
www.hanspetermeyer.com
as part of my own proyecto tango y buenos aires.
Thanks.
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