Tango in the winter
It's getting colder and darker. Summer activities are over and we are all getting back into our winter schedules. There has been a lot of exciting news in the local tango community - Congratulations to all the new and expanding families! We are looking forward to kicking off the fall with a lot of dancing at TangoFest and some great October drop-in classes at Ankeny Street Studio.
Class 1 - Mondays 7pm-8pm
Our first class will focus on getting into and out of cross system. Many of the most exciting sequences in tango occur in cross system, so learning a number of ways to get in and out is a great fundamental skill. We will examine several ways to use the cruzada, double-time steps for the leader or follower, and other steps to change systems. We will continue our work examining the differences between walking in parallel and cross systems, and we will refine our technique for some basic figures frequently used in cross system such as ochos.
Class 2 - Monday 8:30-9:30
Our second class will focus on the follower's molinete and the variety of options leaders have during this figure. Leaders will start with pivots and graduate to lapizes, enrosques, sacadas, barridas, and more. Molinetes are a wonderful way to be dynamic on a crowded dance floor and they are lots of fun! The molinete is a fundamental skill of the interrmediate/advanced follower, and having a solid molinete is one of the best ways to get asked by better dancers. As advanced followers will tell you, it is something you will continue to improve on throughout your dancing experience.
Interested in classes at TangoFest?
Finally, we have had a number of students ask us about classes during TangoFest. We would like to share with everyone what we have been telling those students ... Take as many classes as you can! Traveling tango professionals are generally very good. They are intelligent, articulate and creative people that take great pride in their work. They teach similar classes at festivals around the world, which is a very good thing ... because it means they have distilled their concepts into a polished and practiced presentation.
We look forward to seeing you all in class this fall and on the dance floor.
For more information about us and our classes, visit our website, www.jakedanarae.com.
