Happy Holidays. December 22, 2007.

Lately, I have not been very diligent blog writer. Three weeks passed by without posting anything. I did not write down the notes from my lesson with my partner and our regular teacher. Meanwhile, I took another lesson with him, and his new teacher, this time. I want to start with the notes from that last lesson.

The teacher made several valuable points.

First of all, she asked me to do pivots, as in ochos, and overturned ochos, on both sides. She noticed that one of my sides gets more lazy than the other. I do not twist my hips as much as I need. The exercise went as follow: first I was doing backward and forward ochos using her as I would use a bar, and therefore pushing and twisting on my own. Then, she (or the partner) would add the lead, and I would follow the lead. But the point made was that with the lead present, I had to move, push, and twist with no less energy as if I was moving on my own.

Importantly, she made me step-pivot to music. I was struggling to keep up at times. I have got to practice that on my own.

Another note -- pay attention to the amount of pivot the leader is actually leading. Release your hips, and twist well in the middle. Stay leveled.

Then we moved on to giros/molinetes. Again, she found out that I tend to underturn. Another great point the teacher made: the centrifugal force in the molinete turn does not come from my physically leaning back, away from the leader. It is supposed to come from the circular movement, from the energy of the turn itself. Duh.

After that, we tried some giros with sacadas. The teacher said that every time the leader does a sacada, I had to twist even more, as if slightly overturning my pivot. It would give the leader the nessessary space to perform the sacada.

Hint -- do not look at the floor during giros, and you will not end up dizzy. Let alone the posture is much elegant with the head and neck pointing straight.

And last but not least, the boleo. I finally tried to pick my foot up from the floor. I have to do it on the back movement. Also, pay attention at going through the collect position every time. Basically, after the boleo is done, I ought to find myself in a neutral position to the leader, waiting for his next signal. It can be forward step, for example, or side step, or americana, or a contra boleo.

All in all, it was a good class. Physically tiring. My body is not used to such amount of energetic twisting. I really could use some training.

All the (although not very numerous) milongas I had during that period of time, were very enjoyable. I felt sure of myself, powerful, and calm, even on a super crowded floor or with a not-so-perfect lead. And the most important thing, the dancing was pleasurable with everybody I said yes to.
I am eager to see how it goes tonight. It has been a while since I hit that particular social floor. It feels a little like homecoming for me, every time.