A few days ago I was conversing with one of my favorite dancers (let's call him "Mr. Yummy"), who lives out-of-town. "COME TO SEATTLE!" I exclaimed!!
"Well, Kim...I love Seattle, but the dancing just isn't...."
"We have some good dancers here, you'll have a good time!"
"Well, you know, when I lead a boleo, for example, they do a boleo but it's not.."
"--Yummy?"
"Exactly. They do exactly what I ask them to do, they're advanced dancers, but it's not yummy."
And we went into the discussion of yumminess in tango. Yumminess is SO IMPORTANT in tango. It's when you want to go "mmmmm" at the end of the dance, and if you've been dancing tango for a long enough time you'll know what I'm talking about when you find a "yummy" partner.
Here's a list I've put together for how to be yummier:
1. Don't wimp out on the embrace. Hug your partner gently, but not TOO gently. This goes for both roles. Remember, ladies, though, when you intensify your embrace, never to pull down. If anything, have a little bit of LIFT.
2. Never lose connection between the bodies. Smooth out each movement so that you don't bounce on and off. I always like to stress about a 1-2 pound consistent pressure that both partners need to work hard to maintain.
3. Make every second count. If you're taking a step, the step itself is JUST AS IMPORTANT as the "filling in" of the step. FILL every spare second of the step with the step. DON'T just step and wait. You want to feel like you're stepping in slow motion or wading through honey.
Come on, Seattle, GET YUMMY!
---EDIT, 12/30---
Doing a class on 1/5/2012. I have to say, though, that going through my list of people to invite, that there are actually quite a few yummy dancers in Seattle!
I know what you mean. I think you can even see YUMMY when you look at other couples . Especially the men.
ReplyDeleteI have come to notice that the awesome male dancers have this PRESENCE about themselves. They excude this confidence and certainty that makes dancing with them so unbelievable that you find yourself falling so in love with everything around you for those couple of minutes that you are dancing. It envelopes you, it heightens your senses, its like a good high!
All of this applies to women as well ( Just focusing on men from my point of view as a woman:) )
I really like this blog post. Thanks for your tango insights. I love hearing folks talk about tango! As a side note, myself, and a lot of other folks, dance open role, queer tango (whatever you want to call it), and it's still so funny to me to hear folks referring to the different tango roles by gender. Reading "ladies" gave me a giggle.
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