The year after Fabian Salas was last here in L.A. "Chicho" Frumboli came here several times. One of his classes covered under-turned and over-turned ochos.
Up to then, despite having maybe three dozen teachers face-to-face (though most just for a few hours) and seen lots of videos, ochos just meant two 180-degree turns after another that returned the dancer to (usually her) starting position. Frumboli explained that there is a whole family of figures with pivots in them. ________________________________ under-turned ochos Suppose instead of two 180-degree turns the man leads two 90-degree turns. They produce a zig-zag figure that travels (usually) along the line of dance. He called these under-turned ochos. So the man, instead of standing in the same spot to lead the ocho, must travel with the woman. If he leads her to step backward he has to step forward. They mirror each other. Or if he leads her to step forward, doing under-turned forward ochos, he has to step backward. So he should first lead the two of them into a half-turn to remain moving along the line of dance. ________________________________ over-turned ochos Leading ochos where the woman does greater than 180-degree pivots creates over-turned ochos. If her pivot is 270 degrees (a 3/4 turn) or 360 degrees (a full turn) the leader may only want her to do a single pivoting step, not two the way one does the normal ocho. But such is possible, just not easy. And the man is going to have to do some movement from his starting spot as with zig-zags. ________________________________ sideways ochos If the man leads his partner to pivot and step across behind (or in front) of her supporting foot he can lead ochos to the left and right instead of along (or opposite) the line of dance. ________________________________ grapevines/braids/cadenas If you take the half a forward ocho and half a backward ocho and stick them together (along with, perhaps, other individual steps), what do you get? Several possibilities. Among them is the cadena, which I first encounted in a modern dance class under the name of the braid, and in a jazz dance class as a grapevine. It might be of this pattern: side, to the side crossing behind, side, to the side crossing in front, and repeat. The man typically mirrors his partner. When she steps side crossing behind he steps side crossing in front. Or he can duplicate her step, so both are crossing behind at the same time. Another possibility: a man can lead the cadena so the woman makes a box or hexagon or octagon around the man while he stands in the same spot, turning to remain facing her. This is the molinete (wheel), where he is the hub and she the rim. ________________________________ colgadas Further development of these ideas leads to the colgada, where the two partners lean away from each other and the woman spins on one foot while the man steps from side to side on each side of her supporting foot. With her free foot she can do several kinds of adornos, most often just a long kick back that leaves her free leg extended until he stops the spin, maybe after just a half-turn or maybe after several complete turns. ________________________________ Nuevo? Or not? I don't know if all these possibilities can really be included under the umbrella of "nuevo" tango. I seem to recall seeing a few of these combinations before Naveira and Salas began widely teaching after "The Tango Lesson" made them well known. But it was a revelation to me that the combinations were all related. And significant historically perhaps that it was teachers identified by others (but not by themselves) as nuevo tango teachers who taught these classes. Larry de Los Angeles http://shapechangers.wordpress.com ____________________________________________________________ Click here for free information on nursing degrees, up to $150/hour http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2131/fc/PnY6rbu0vDjD44M3IT9Ix8c79y1E2t82pRWmTdbhOxKLVNBVVLzrE/ _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L@mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l