The ABCD of Tango

The ABCD of Tango is a proposed model for teaching all essential parts of tango. The idea is that in each and every tango class, students should practice and develop all of the following 4 dimensions:

• Attitude
• Body
• Creativity
• Dance

These tango dancer dimensions result from gathering a large number of qualities for good dancers, organizing the qualities into clusters and finally selecting the most essential ones. Consequently, the starting point for this model is what skills students need, as opposed to e.g. what is easier to teach.



The advantage of using a model such as this is that it reminds you to spend teaching time on several important aspects of tango, that could sometimes be left out in a less structured approach.

Attitude
Attitude is the first dimension, because it will affect everything else. This includes how to take and give advice in classes. Trying to improve oneself before one's partner. Ability to relax and enjoy. Level of commitment. How you invite people to dance and who you accept to dance with. Making an effort to become more attractive as a dance partner. Ability to see the good in yourself and in others. An important part of Attitude is that it includes the self-image of the student. In my view, the teacher should make sure that when students leave a class they feel better about themselves as dancers and as persons.

Body
Managing your own Body well is an excellent way to make it more pleasant to dance with a partner. Body awareness and balance are essential. Posture and quality of movement. A smooth walk. Toning the right muscles and relax others. Dancing in a way that is healthy for the body. All of this is often addressed specifically in technique classes.

Creativity
The Creativity dimension is what makes tango an art form and not just bodies moving around randomly. It includes musicality, with components such as rhythmic play, phrasing and understanding the structure of tango music. It also includes having a variety of steps and figures to choose from, as well as other ways to create variation in the dance, such as using different aesthetics in movement or different emotional expressions.

Dance
The Dance dimension includes much of what distinguishes tango from other dances. Typical tango figures such as the giro and the cross. Walking together in an embrace. The firmness of the physical contact. The flexibility of the embrace. Sensitivity and presence. The fine tuned communication of leading and following. Also, how to move on a crowded dance floor.

The proposal is to make sure that each class includes all 4 dimensions. Even if there's a specific theme in the class, such as "common rhythms in tango", the teacher would still include how this relates to the Dance, e.g. through practising these rhythms in some of the common tango figures.

I suppose that if any of the 4 dimensions seems surprising it would be Attitude. But think about how much attitude can affect both the ability to learn and the whole tango experience! Also remember that attitude is always transmitted from teacher to student, through words and behaviour - but by doing it consciously your students will get more out of their tango.

Acro Yoga with Nina & Boris

Nina & Boris are Acro Yoga teachers.

Nina & Boris

Acro Yoga is a blend between yoga, acrobatics and Thai massage, where the typical image you see is one person on the ground acting as a base with another person flying on his or her feet.

I wanted to try Acro Yoga, since I have many friends who enjoy it and also Nina & Boris were highly recommended to me by two of my friends who studied with them in Buenos Aires. The workshop was indeed conducted in a very welcoming manner, with lots of initiatives for everyone to participate, to trust each other and to build a group: singing to the honour of Ganesha (the elephant-headed remover of obstacles), lead-and-follow games, leaning away form each other while sharing axis, spotting a friend who does a tripod headstand, etc.

The sense of trust is very important in Acro Yoga, since the flyer could fall if sufficient care is not taken. Usually you will be three people when practising: one base, one flyer and one spotter. As much instructions were given on how to spot as on how to be the base or the flyer.

Together Nina & Boris can present an impressive range of experiences: yoga, dance, circus, theatre, kung fu, Thai massage... They intoduced us to two different flavours of Acro Yoga:

1. In the morning we did the acrobatic version, where the person who is flying keeps an active body and sometimes performs yoga postures. The pictures below, where I am flying, are illustrating this.
2. In the afternoon we first learned some Thai massage and then got to try the more therapeutic version of Acro Yoga, where the base is giving a massage and the flyer has a relaxed body.

Flying high

An intricate system of support

Thanks to Boris for taking these pictures!

Nina is Swedish but has been living abroad for the last 7 years, so she was very happy to have someone to speak Swedish to. Boris needs to learn too, since the two of them will be moving to Malmö in April next year. They are obviously very good community builders, so I think we will see a quickly growing kula of Acro Yoga in Malmö going forward.

Dancing the Melody

Melodies are important in tango music, and very often they are what comes up when you try to remember a tango. Perhaps you can recall the melodies of "La Cumparsita" and "Vida mía"?

A notion I have often encountered in tango is that you can either dance the rhythm or the melody. I get the impression that dancing the melody is perceived as better, more sophisticated and a more advanced form of musicality in the dance: "Anybody will learn to dance the rhythm of a tango, but only certain advanced dancers are dancing the melody".

Technically, a melody is a sequence of notes that we perceive as an entity in the music. The most important features of a melody are pitch (how high the notes are, not to be confused with how loud they are) and duration (how long they are). If you change the intervals or the duration of notes too much, you will no longer have the same melody. It's easy to see that there is less tolerance for changing pitch than duration - just try it out with a well known melody. Pitch comes first, duration second.

A well known melody

But how would you make a corporal expression of a sequence of pitches? Once suggestion I heard is to be higher above the ground for higher pitches, and lower closer to the ground for lower pitches. This might work on rare occasions, but if performed more than for a couple of notes in a row, the effect would be purely comical.

And this is clearly not what "dancing the melody" is. It's rather a question of reflecting the melodic line in the dance, as opposed to the (often more rhythmical) accompaniment of the melody.

The duration of the notes in the melodic line does not seem to matter much either. In workshops where "dancing the melody" is introduced, the rhythms of the melody are not danced, but it is rather a matter of slowing down the dance, as opposed to following the steady pace of a repetitive, rhythmical accompaniment ("dancing the rhythms").

So, interestingly, when "dancing the melody", you will not take into account the two foremost characteristics of a melody: neither pitch nor duration! Instead you will need to focus on the quality (timbre, emotional expression, etc.) and on the phrasing of the melodic line.

Isn't it confusing to say "dance the melody" when you do not move to the most typical features of a melody? To me it is.

Dancers will achieve greater variation if they at times emphasize the music in a manner similar to the singer or an instrument playing the melody. But to describe this way of dancing, don't ask people to "dance the melody" - it is more accurate to talk about longer and shorter phrases, emphasis and direction in the music. Or to simply say "slow down".

Slowing it down

What kind of yoga should I start with?

Starting up this blog again, now from Buenos Aires, I will give it a broader spectrum, including tango and other major themes of my life. There will still be yoga-related posts, and lots of people around me show a great interest for yoga.

Banking colleagues at Nordea have asked me for advice on where to start taking classes in Copenhagen. They tend to look for yoga that and keeps your body in good health and that relaxes their minds after stressful days at the office. The tango crowd also takes interest in yoga, as a means to improve body awareness, balance and focus.

I always recommend the aspiring yogi to try a few different styles and teachers. To give you an idea of what you may encounter, here's a brief summary of important yoga styles.

Hatha Yoga is a broad term that basically includes all yoga practices where you work the body (with the aim to "unite opposite patterns"). This is what people in general think of when they talk about yoga. In Hatha Yoga we practice postures (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), mediation and cleansing techniques. So all classes that you might take in studios will most likely be forms of Hatha Yoga, although they often bear different labels: "Vinyasa", "Power Yoga", "Yin Yoga", "Ashtanga Yoga", etc.

Confusingly, many studios have classes specifically labelled "Hatha Yoga", and here the term is used in a more narrow sense; it means that you will do asana, and take some time to explain how to do the postures well. These sessions sometimes include pranayama and meditation.

Asana - the postures - is the dominant yogic practice in yoga studios. This emphasis has grown dramatically throughout the 20th century. In traditional yoga, asana played a much smaller part, and was more or less a preparation for being able to sit comfortably in meditation. For many Westerners, asana is the most accessible entry point to yoga, and the first classes I took myself were all about asana.

Asana session, Anusara Yoga in Chiang Mai, Thailand 2010

"Iyengar Yoga" is a very widespread form of Hatha Yoga, developed by B.K.S Iyengar, where explanations can be extremely detailed. It will make you do a very healthy yoga for your body, although some find these classes to be quite slow.

Vinyasa is when breath is synchronized with body movements. Classes labelled "Hatha Yoga" usually include some of this, but in a "Vinyasa" labelled class there is often a much stronger focus on the breath leading each movement. In many Vinyasa classes, the teacher will assume that you already know the postures and won't explain them carefully.

Some Vinyasa classes can be very physically demanding, and especially so the "Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga" classes, developed by Sri Patthabi Jois and one of the largest Hatha Yoga styles today. It is often simply called "Ashtanga Yoga" and although originally meant for teenage boys in India, it has become very popular in the West, giving you a great workout and promoting discipline.

Ashtanga Yoga is actually much older than Jois' contribution, and here's also room for confusion. Ashtanga means "eight limbs" and in this yoga utilizes a set of eight different methods for enlightenment. Asana is one, pranayama another, but there's also e.g. yama, which are moral rules of conduct where ahimsa, "not to cause any suffering", is the principal one. This traditional Ashtanga Yoga is also known as Raja Yoga, the royal yogic path, and was outlined by the sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, one of the main scriptures of yogic philosophy.

"Anusara Yoga" is the Hatha Yoga style that I'm mostly into. Just like Iyengar Yoga it has a strong focus on good alignment in postures, to make sure that the practice is safe and efficient. In Anusara we are also cultivating "heart qualities". These are good qualities in ourselves, such as "courage", "kindness", "sensitivity" or "gratitude", which we want to develop further in the sessions, but also off the yoga mat.

Besides Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, I should also mention the 3 other major yogic paths:

• Karma Yoga, the yoga of action
• Jnana Yoga, the yoga of the intellect
• Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of love and devotion.

Enough for one post, but if you encounter other terms that you would like an explanation for, add a comment about it, and I'll get back on that.
Last but not least: If you want to try yoga, the teacher matters much more than the class labels. Choose someone that inspires you to develop a physical, mental or devotional practice.

Anatomy Self-Studies: Books and Tools

After lots of yoga workshops this summer, I have started to realize that anatomy is something you will not learn just from taking yoga classes. Just the basic knowledge of the 206 bones in our body, the muscles to move them around,  the cardiac and smooth muscles,  the connective tissue, the lungs and different modes of breathing, the reflexes… I need to spend some serious study time on this!

To my great satisfaction, I’ve found several nice books and tools to assist my hard working hippocampus.

For the names of bones, muscles and ligaments I’m using Netter’s Musculoskeletal Flash Cards. I realize of course that it will be a different thing to identify it all on real bodies, but at least it is a good start.

H. David Coulter’s Anatomy for Hatha Yoga is a well-known best-seller with a scientific approach, where you are guided through the bodily functions that are of special interest for Hatha Yoga. I thought it would be more of a reference where you could look up specific details, but it turns out that you can very well enjoy reading through the whole book, and there's lots of practical exercises.

Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain is even more accessible though, rich with illustrations and straight to the point in captions and the few paragraphs of text. Probably very much used by both yoga and dance instructors. I know that there is a supplemetary book with exercises, but I do not have it (yet).

My friend Ellinor recently studied anatomy with yin yoga instructor Paul Grilley. She borrowed me his Anatomy for Yoga DVD, where he shows in a very pedagogical way the consequences of natural variations between the bodies of different yoga students. If it is compression rather than tension that stops you from going deeper into a pose, it will not matter how much you effort you put into it: your particular body is not built to go there.

For the fun of it, I also got The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit and Lawrence M. Elson. Using a set of 20 coloured pencils, I am hoping to employ a large variety of circuits in my brain to learn more.

Finally, for inspiration, I also got a poster of the muscular system, which is now on display in my living room. The only other decoration I have on the walls of this room is a huge Anusara Yoga syllabus poster - when I bought that one someone actually told me that she also wanted one, but could not find anywhere in her apartment to have it: “… ‘cause you can’t really have that in your living room”. I guess you actually can, and I cannot wait until the bookstore gets a new delivery of posters of the skeletal system!

Yoga Kendra Initiation

At Yoga Kendra studio in Malmö, the yoga is part of a tradition. Before coming to class, there is an introductory weekend, compulsory for everyone, beginners and experienced yogis alike.

Very few postures are performed during this weekend, and it is more like a lecture with Daniel, the founder of Yoga Kendra. Anecdotes of his travels in India and his encounters with yoga masters are mixed with bits and pieces of yoga philosophy and details on what you should and should not do when performing asana.
There is no structure to the lecture, it’s almost a stream of consciousness, where Daniel’s speech flows from one aspect to the other, from practical matters to the highest purposes, from hilarious jokes to solemn serenity.

In the traditional way of learning yoga, the masters wanted their students and disciples to show themselves worthy, often by setting their patience to the test, only sharing yogic knowledge after a lengthy period of trivial tasks. This order made sure that the students would persevere also in their studies of yoga. In a similar fashion, Daniel requires an investment of ten hours, which might seem a lot for anyone who would just like to try a class, but not much compared to the weeks, months and years of the traditional trial.

In fact, the arrangement also acts as a clever way of creating a bond between a yogi and his students to be. During ten hours of constant talking, you have time to express a lot of thoughts and opinions. You have enough time to show who you are, to gain credibility. Everyone at Yoga Kendra knows Daniel - they perhaps even know him better after a weekend than they know e.g. the colleagues that they see every day at work! Daniel in his turn makes sure to learn the name of everyone in the room. The connection is created.

The weekend is sealed with an initiation ceremony, which involves meditation, looking into an eye and getting protection for the third eye. Here’s Martine and I after her initiation last weekend (where I followed the initiation for the third time), our third eyes well hidden.

Eye of the Tiger at Wild Rose

Eye of the Tiger sessions started as a way for Anusara Yoga teachers to meet and practice together, to inspire each other and to explore their limits. No one acted as a teacher in the usual sense of the word. Instead, one of the yogis were guiding the others while also participating fully in the practice himself or herself.

Another version of Eye of the Tiger is where the session is actually lead by a teacher. The teacher will participate, but still have focus on the students and give useful comments and directions when needed. There are no lengthy interruptions for demonstrations, so that a flow is kept throughout the practice, and although this means that most postures have to be well known by the majority of the room, an Eye of the Tiger is a great opportunity to go a bit further.

Jonas held a three-hour Eye of the Tiger workshop at Wild Rose studio in Chiang Mai one week after the Immersions had ended. It is a nice and spacious time frame that allows for a full practice and still leaves some room for further exploration. Strong from two weeks of daily practice and relaxed from one week of massages and saunas in Chiang Mai, I felt like I could have continued for three more hours!

Here's Jonas giving Pooh an assist for baddha konasana with a forward bend.