Tango Tips
A great big Happy New Year to our Leigh Tango Family! We hope you have enjoyed a lovely break over the festive period, we certainly have.
We can’t quite believe it is 2019 already! What a fantastic year 2018 was for Leigh Tango, our regular students have come along leaps and bounds, we have said hello to returning and brand new students, celebrated birthdays, milestones and unforgettable Milongas, thank you so much for making the year so brilliant! 2019 has so much in store for Leigh Tango and we are so pleased that you will be part of it.
Tango Tips!
You may have seen out social media posts with tips for keeping on top of tango practice over the break, if not take a look below.
Use a mirror to monitor posture, pay particular attention to your shoulders, don’t let them rise during your dance. Posture is so important, both for the performance of the dance and to prevent back problems in the future.
*Keep in mind not to pull your shoulders back and don’t let your elbows fall behind the line of your shoulders.
Strengthen your feet
Try to practice both in socks or practice shoes as well as your tango shoes. Try to do the following exercises everyday for 5 minutes or so as this will help to keep your feet flexible and supple – I do these while I’m brushing my teeth!
1) stand with your feet together and elevate into your tiptoes, count for 4 and slowly replace your heels to the ground. Do this 10/15 times
2) feet hip width apart and go up in your tiptoes then lift up in foot just above the floor and hold for 4 seconds and replace, now try with the other foot and do this 10 on each foot.
3) feet together, lift one leg and with the other foot which is on the floor try and balance for 4 seconds on your tip toes – this one is more challenging so hold onto a wall to begin with if you need to! Alternate each foot, 10 on each side.
Walking
You probably know by now one of the key elements of tango is the walk, music asks us to walk a lot and we can demonstrate our technique by being grounded as we walk, retaining as walk forwards until the last minute and for the follower, retaining some energy as we transfer the weight onto the back leg and onto the axis fully.
New term
We can’t wait to get back into lessons and get practising for our Gran Milonga, celebrating Leigh Tangos 5th Birthday on 26th January (take a look at the event for details here)
Our new term starts on 10 January 2019, make sure you have the date in your diary and feel free to bring a long a friend who may be interested in taking up a new hobby in 2019. Luis will be away for the first couple of weeks so Tom Keenes will be teaching with me on 10 and 17 January.
Class information:
Thursday 10 January 2019
– beginners class @ 7.15pm
– improvers class @ 8.15pm
– intermediate/advanced class @ 9.15pm
– free practica @ 10.15pm
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Luis and Samira
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