Phone conversation with Daniela Borgialli
Tango
- Engineers are avid tango students
• puzzle mind
• solutions-oriented mind
• tend to be musicians
• really get into it after initial learning curve
- Structure of tango
• music is there - strong structure but tango moves not “perfect”
• structure is clear and multi-layered: “compasse”
- Tango originates from the breath!!!
• Connection exercise:
- Breath together first, before you even move.
- Either on inhale or exhale, initiate a move.
- Embrace —> initiate a breath.
- Three areas of breath: shoulder, chest, belly
- movement is initiated by the belly button, back toward the spine (metaphors, such as heart)
- connection into the “core” of the being (not just the torso)
• Connection exercise:
- Face each other: hands together (person A hands on top, person B hands on bottom)
• person A thinks happy, loving thoughts, actively thinks warmly about other person
• person B senses these thoughts
• perform this again with negative thoughts
• can do this with arms interlocked around wrists — somehow even more powerful
- This is the way in to the embrace
- In general:
• have a good attitude
• go all the way to the fingertips in the embrace
• Components
- torso —> crotch to head
- legs actually cross the torso line
- intersection makes the two halves work
• The process
- mirrors back the idea of the connection between top and bottom
- Collection —> legs together
• Compression
- foot going into floor, bending of knee
• Projection —> leg unweighted - preparing to take a step
• Transfer/collection
- This process is barbaric on some level. Collection point is not a dead place — it is a breath.
- pelvis moves naturally
- need to keep the energy in, so the pelvis moves in a very deliberate way
• Insights
- The time it takes to articulate a thought, the nerves have already fired. So if the leader changes thought, it is too late — the intention has already been transmitted.
- Interesting to have the palms connected.
• there’s a presence in the hands without being forceful
• the lack of presence in embrace makes this stop
• Head placement may be important also
- keep head atop cervical spine makes it easier to be connected with the other person