Earlier this thread we talked about "dancing" and its relation to martial arts and respected the fact that some of the great martial artists were also great dancers below is a blog from
http://serradasatx.blogspot.com/2007/06/assassination-tango.htmlFriday, June 15, 2007
Assassination Tango
Last night I was watching a movie titled Assassination Tango, starring Robert Duvall.
This effort seems to be Duvall using his craft to promote his real life passion of Argentine Tango. A synopsis of the movie is Duvall's character is a hitman sent to Argentina on a contract hit, encounters a snafu on his timeline and discovers a passion for Argentine Tango. As a movie it has a "Noir" quality to it, some of the scenes seem subtle and oblique. There seems to be an aspect of byzantine-politico-machinations and a possible reference to Augusto Pinochet.
Anyway, the Tango scenes are the saving grace of this film.
The female counterpart to Duvall is a Tango instructor, "Manuela" who is Duvall's wife in real life and looks to be half his age...nice work Duvall! She introduces him to the real stuff in a small studio where her healthy, curvaceous younger sister is teaching. The younger sister, wearing a little skirt and red stilleto heels, proceeds to demonstrate "el gancho", the hook, on Duvall. "El gancho" is a quick snapping leg manuever on the male dance partner's inner thigh, and with stilleto heels there's a fine line between pleasure and pain!;)
Watching this movie reminded me of my brief encounter with Argentine Tango in San Francisco, CA. Two of my motivations for pursuing Tango dance lessons were my fascination with Gypsy Lore and Culture for which the origins of Tango are attributed to, and the potential to improve my martial arts skill set by learning to move with a partner with singular unified movement and connectivity. Aaaand my social-life needed a shot in the arm.
My dance partner was a beautiful Filipina woman, and a co-worker. The first lesson was learning "the embrace", this was a body position that required both partners to make contact and stay connected at chest/breast level....I recall I got a bit light headed and struggled to concentrate for the rest of the class and following classes as well.
The instructor of the class was a beautiful Argentine woman who told a story of traditional Tango dance practice in Argentina: Due to the strict social mores men and women were separated in the learning of Tango - women learned tango with women and men learned tango with men. As in most Latin American countries "machismo" plays a big part in the culture so to make it acceptable for men to learn tango with other men the training was modified to display a more combative aspect to it. Looking at the footwork of Argentine Tango I can see kicks, sweeps, and leg hooks. I can see this existing in traditional Argentine Vaquero culture. Imagine a Vaquero executing "El gancho" while wearing sharpened spurs on his boots, things suddenly start to get dicey! Then out come the Navajas, "flick-click!"
It would be interesting to find that type of instruction!
Aside from the passionate "embrace" position there is a variety of footwork that goes hand in hand with the leg maneuvers such as cross stepping and figure eights - Cruzadas Y Ochos.
The following is a list from Wikipedia:
Steps
While Argentine tango does not teach amalgamations of steps like swing, salsa, or ballroom dances do, there are some recurring figures that are taught. Here is a fairly typical order of steps that may be taught in a beginner classes.
Walks - a couple, in embrace, walks in unison
Salida Simple, or "eight-count basic" - salida as "the way out" onto the dance floor
Cruzada - (from cruzar - to cross) Action of the follower crossing her left foot over her right at certain points in the dance
Ocho - a figure-8 traced by the follower's feet when moving forward or backward.
Media Luna - a half giro.
Lapiz - "the pencil" - curved figures traced by the toe as an adornment
Molinete - "windmill" a turning figure of the follower around the leader (synonym for Giro)
Giro - a turn (in either direction)
Sacada - one partner displaces the other's unweighted leg
Gancho - one dancer hooks their leg around their partner's leg.
Barrida - one partner sweeps the others foot, displacing it along the floor
Arrastre - (= drag) synonym for "barrida"
Volcada - rotating the woman around her axis, while her axis is tilted toward the man, causes her to "capsize" making the free leg "spill" tracing a figure on the floor
Colgada - both dancers lean away from each other and outside of their standard axis. The weight shift is more analogous to sitting in a chair than leaning counter to one another as the shoulders stay positioned above the hips and the back is not rigid.
Parada - one dancer, usually the leader, halts the motion of the other dancer usually by blocking with the foot
Mordida - one dancer, usually the leader, places both feet on either side of the others dancers foot. Generally occurs after a Parada, with the second foot brought in forming a gentle squeeze on the other side of the foot which was halted with the parad.
Posted by Alex Castro at 12:39 PM