I was working on blues and tango with Barry for 4 hours yesterday. There is little that helps me improve more, but he's not seen as an authority in many of the communities I dance in. But Barry has been dancing for years and he dances more dances than I've ever heard of. He can reduce all these dances down to the base technique underlying each, and then add on the individual stylings and aesthetics to create each one. He's choreographing a routine for me to work on my stuff.
In the meantime though, he can break down the tango walk better than anyone I've ever seen, and sure enough when I look around, the good dancers are doing what he's talking about. I was practicing my tango walk today at Alex Kreb's practica. Walking and walking, learning to drive and swing my legs properly. I'm also thinking about adding upper body rotation to turn the walk or add a specific aesthetic. I can tell me posture is improving, because the stretch from turning my rib cage is no longer isolated in my abdominal muscles, but it reaches up my back. It's currently stopping just between my shoulder blades. Barry says I'll really have it when I feel it just above my glutes.
I've also been thinking about my head. I took an amazing Pilates class yesterday. The teacher was so clear and precise that I was really working hard. I still feel all the vertebrae in my back from stretching them so hard yesterday. But he was talking about keeping the head back, in a sit up for instance. You can't crane forward with your neck so that it hurts, but lift from the chest, while curling the chin in. This lengthens the upper spine instead of stressing it. I was thinking about this in my turns. As you turn, it's important to keep your spine straight, and when I can add the head, my turns just glide, and spotting becomes a cinch.
It's a lot of technical details, but this is what I'm thinking about nearly every waking hour.
