Whenever you think about dance, you think of footwork. There are basic steps that define the character of every type of dance, from the simple “step back, then in†of LeRoc, to the “forward, side, together†of waltz or the “one, two, three-and-four†of latin. The steps are the first stage in learning a new dance. You begin by learning the timing and how to position your feet in the correct places, then when you’ve got the hang of that you start to concentrate on where to put your body to improve balance, posture, and styling and make the dance begin to flow. But Argentine Tango doesn’t have any of that. It is that strangest of things, a dance without steps. When you first start to learn the tango the temptation is to follow the steps that the teacher is doing and try to copy the way his or [read more...]
On Monday the 19th September 2016, Jivebeat was born. At around 8pm I switched on my microphone, took a deep breath, and stepped up in front of a room full of people to give my first ever dance class. To say that I was nervous would be a huge understatement, but it wasn't the speaking to a group that scared me or even the teaching aspect as I had done both of those things many times before. No, the thing that I was most worried about would be how people would react to me as a dance teacher. Most people knew me as the taxi-dancer (beginners' coach) at the Ceroc venues in Bromley and Chislehurst, and if they didn't know me from there they probably remembered me as the slightly nervous new arrival at Ceroc Hayes after I relocated from Hampshire back into Kent a couple of years earlier. [read more...]
Argentine Tango is a dance that is steeped in tradition. From the music played by the great tango orchestras of the 1930s-1950s to the style and conventions of the social dance evenings (or 'milongas'), the argentine tango dance scene remains deeply connected to its roots in south America, and for some dancers this environment is as much a part of the dance as are the embrace and the steps. For these dancers, tango and its music cannot be separated; to dance one is to love the other and tango without the tradition is not really tango at all. This environment is often the first introduction that people get to the unique and evocative dance of Argentine Tango, and the 'other worldly' atmosphere created by the music and traditional tango culture is what encourages them to stick around. "Golden Age" music is used in the classes, and teachers can trace their [read more...]
One of the main things that puts new dancers off is not the difficulty of learning the steps or finding they are less fit than they expected, it's watching an experienced couple flow across the floor like quicksilver and thinking "No matter how much I work at this, I'll never be that good." But let me let you into a dance secret that will put that thought away once and for all... The best dances are not the ones with the most complexity or the fastest steps. No, the best dances are simple, comfortable, and fun. When said like that it doesn't sound like much of a secret, but for some reason this seems to be something that most new dancers miss. Followers and leaders alike prefer a partner who can do three slow moves well over someone who thinks they can get through a song without repeating [read more...]
Those of you that have been coming to Sevenoaks recently will have found that we have thrown a couple of introductory Argentine Tango classes in with our regular modern jive sessions, and I have to say that they have been really successful and loads of fun to do. Last week I swear there was more tango being danced in the freestyle part of the evening than there was LeRoc! So now we're trying to work out a way to get this into the schedule on a more permanent basis. So how will we do that? Well firstly, let me give you a bit of background. Argentine Tango is usually danced to traditional Argentine music like this or this . Now these tracks are fine and a lot of people swear by them, but we tend to feel that it's about time that tango met the modern music world. Because of [read more...]