Mariana Dragone and Hernan Obispo have ended their 3 week stay (for Mariana, only 2 weeks as she had a dance obligation in Italy). They had a wonderful stay here thanks to all the support and warmth they received from our tangueros and tangueras, our milonga organizers and our teachers. While here they gave 14 workshops, taught before almost every major milonga, and often gave private lessons until 11 p.m. at night such was the demand! Our community is one of the best in the United States and we should be very proud of our level of support and our level of dancing and always the desire to learn more and do better.
I noticed many dramatic changes in the dancing of the students who had contact with Mariana and Hernan. It was as Keith Elshaw from Montreal commented on some time back, that both of them give so much personal attention during even a group class, that each student is able to feel that they have made solid progress, rather than being frustrated over a diffcult concept. Every one of the workshops was grounded in technique. Much of their technique is based on the ability to dissociate hip movement from torso movement and it is difficult to progress in their classes without having this basic concept down. Once you have mastered the ability to do contrabody movement they then show you how to utilize it in giros, boleos, ochos, leading and following. The contrabody movement is the basis for being able to dance very close without losing your axis and thus being able to play with the legs and feet. The other thing that is so special about their teaching is the emphasis on "sensation" that is feeling whether a movement is right, rather than memorizing a figure or pattern. Their emphasis on "sensation" particularly with regard to connection between the couple dancing, brings back the joy of tango that many of us have lost in our search for all the technical factors, change of direction, execution of figures, etc. One of their most interesting classes was about "Energy" which taught how women could use their inner energy to control the pace of the dance, sometimes even creating dramatic pauses, and creating a time space within which to dance. I personally found it a joy to work with them and I believe that as in Montreal, they are much loved here. Stella
