- increasing and mirroring contact to set up good conditions for flight
- lengthening, reaching and supporting – not jumping or throwing
- using the hips and core for stability and balance
- smooth, safe landings
- putting it into practice with 3 aerial movements:
- a suspended leap along the line of dance
- leg wrap into knee lift, with and without turn
- walking on invisible stairs
Workshop plan:
Aim and intro: to give a clear and accessible introduction to the techniques for flying and lifting in tango, with an emphasis on safety, smoothness and making it easy.
length: 4 hours, including break time.
Warm up:
include ankle, calf and thighs as well
as back exercises.
Exercise: Lift off on parallel
bars movement – lengthen legs and spine towards ceiling, while
pushing shoulders and arms down (as if pushing up and suspending body
on parallel bars).
Exercise: Squat exercise – as
above, keeping shoulders down, but thinking about lifting from the
hip. Knees stay slightly bent.
Go into above two movements from
walking and from a change of direction.
Exercise: Stand side by side
arms around waist of parnter. Slowly take their weight until you are
entirely supporting them. Do slowly and keep the lift very low. Try
both sides. The more surface area in contact, the easier it tends to
be. Lifter lowers hips, draws and counterbalances.
Note: When you dance tango the
aim is generally to stay together. This is especially crucial when
one of you is in the air :) Doing this in a safe and comfortable way
is a shared responsibility for both leader and follower. The
approach we'll explore today is an application of the mirroring
concept which one key to the Tango Lingua approach. This is where the
quality and direction of intent from the leader is mirrored (i.e.
reflected) by the follower through the points of contact. Now let's
get a feel for that on the ground first.
Exercise: mirroring game,
standing, fixed embrace, then with shifting embrace. Practice
releasing and re-establishing contact points.
Exercise: use
above concept to increase contact through a more wrapping
embrace through a forward ocho on the closed side from
side step. Take
into a forward walk for follower and leader.
At
this stage
we're almost ready
to approach our first flight. But first some important safety and
technique points.
When flying do not jump I
cannot emphasize that too
much. If you jump then
someone has to catch you. If
they're not 100% ready to do that on your way down, and in the
perfect position, their body will be subject to a large shock and
possible injury. It will
also look, let's call it un-smooth.
What's the alternative to jumping?
Lengthening and stretching up, thus raising your centre of gravity,
making you much easier to lift.
When lifting do not throw
Similarly for leaders, do
not throw your follower into
the air, lift in
a smooth, controlled fashion.
Sudden acceleration into the
air will lead to unpredictable results.
(Maybe
for some
really big lifts a jump can help, but we're doing small ones today
and will focus on lengthening the body rather than jumping)
Question: what do the shoulders
and arms do, and what would happen if they came up during attempted
take off?
(should stay locked down, arms hold
frame while airborne, else shoulders get lifted instead of you)
Repeat lift off on parallel bars and
squat style movements.
Demonstrate first lift: suspended
leap in line of dance.
Before you try it, you'll want to know
about how to land :)
Just as the follower reaches and
lengthens towards the ceiling when taking off, the follow reaches and
lengthens towards the floor, the very instant they feel the leader is
beginning to take them down. Do not delay.
For leaders, make sure the follower is
well supported, all the way down. Do not drop at the last moment
before they reach the ground. Hence the need to be really in tune
with each other.
Question: Why might it be
difficult for the leader if the follower doesn't reach for the
ground, once the leader is indicating a decent?
(they have to carry the follower for
longer, bend legs more and potentially have a greater strain on their
back or risk of dropping the follower)
Leader tip: As
with the warm up exercise, it's generally easier to lift with the
hips slightly under your partner. When
lifting make sure your spine is straight and not stooped over, align
the shoulders back and down and engage the gluts and lower abs, to
give extra stability to the spine.
Leader tip:
step close to the follow on the step preceding the lift.
Leader tip:
to make it easy for the follower to land on the other leg, making one
big arching movement (the slow-motion leap), avoid pushing you hip
through,
which
will tend to send their hips forward, making
it more likely they'll land
on the back leg again (the slow-motion hop...). To
some degree you can also use the open side of the embrace to give a
slight tilt toward the front leg.
Question: How can you get your
hips slightly lower than the followers using the mirroring principle
for contact?
(release, move, reconnect – in a
smooth way)
Follower tip: Just as the leader
is tensing their body when lifting you, if you do the same (mirroring
the quality of contact) you'll feel lighter and easier to move in the
air.
Follower tip: to land on the
front leg, making one continuous slow-motion leap, picture you legs
following the long arcing motion of the leader's frame as they lift
you. Use your back muscles to balance the tension in your abs to
avoid your hips tilting forward, and allow the back leg to bend
slightly after take off – as you would naturally do if really making a
leap.
Follower tip: For added
smoothness and style, let the arc of your hip and legs follow behind
the arc of your chest. i.e. use contra-posture to give a beautiful
cascading effect to the movement.
Movement 1: Practice 'suspended
leap'.
Break time 20 mins for food and
drink
Quick warm up
Introduce walking on invisible stairs
movement. Cycling, stretching for floor on each cycle, staying in
time with music. Secret to smooth take-off and landing is timing, and
leader and follower posture. Each cycle could be a landing, reaching
for floor.
Movement 2: Demo how to make
more seamless take off (disguise adjustment of embrace during turn).
Practice movement.
Movement 3: Demo leg wrap into
knee lift.
Counter balance, then lift.
Discuss role of compression is frame to
'freeze' followers free leg before lift.
Explore criticality of leading and
following accurate step direction and length before the lift.
Show variations with turn and 'dip'.
General demo and Q & A.
practice time.
Feedback and questions welcome. Feel free to use these notes for your own purposes. If you'd like to go over any of the points or techniques with me in person, or have me come and teach this or similar to a group, just get in touch :)
[This was actually my first time presenting an aerial technique workshop, and it turned out everyone there was a woman. With a mixed group I would have been impressed with what everyone accomplished, but given it was all ladies this time (where were you men?), I'm doubly happy :) Just goes to show, with the proper technique lifting is no problem - even when they tried lifting me a few times (90kg+)!]
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