Today I took my first private lesson in Argentine Tango with Rubén. Natalia, his girlfriend and dance partner was also there with their baby. The plan is to have 3 lessons - one today, one tomorrow and the last one on Tuesday. In between, I will have normal tango class on Sunday for 1,5 hours, as well as maybe some social dancing tonight if I feel like it. I hope it will develop my follow skills and my balance.
Today, lesson 1, we talked about the upper body. Ruben danced 2 dances with me to see where we were at. He noted straight away that I let my right arm go behind my back (losing frame), so he told me to bring the arm up slightly, providing a stop for him, so we can connect better. Then we danced some more. Next thing he told me was to hold on to him a little firmer on the left hand side, but not too hard. We tried that, and all of a sudden I could feel everything much more clearly. We then talked about that the torsos should square up, and be parallel at all times. I had to do an exercise against the wall where I leaned against it and did ocho backwards and forwards walking in two straight lines, but keeping my torso squared up with the wall as I did it. We then did one dance where I had to put my hands on his chest, leaning forward and only using that energy to move forward or backward. Then one where we practised squaring up our torsos. I then had to think of a pole or a rope going through my body, keeping it upright. To visualize it, I had to walk across the room, keeping my posture upright. Then backwards. We did a thai-chi type song at the end, which was very cool, just feeling all the impulses before I move.
In short, for memory: Lean forward, don't let your right arm move behind your back, make sure you connect properly on the left hand side, square up all the time, and think of a rope going through your body to keep a straight posture, especially in the "molinetto" move, where the lead serves as a pole and you move around it.
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