Dancing in El Corte

El Corte has a big dance floor with mirror (2/3 of Helena May), equipped with lighting and professional PA system. Every night after the classes, we have milonga until 1 am. This year we have no fresh beginners in the event, most of the people are already have several years experience on the dance floor, so most of the people are already quite discipline on the dance floor. But Eric did make an effort to make it even better.

Oh, look, there's a virus on the dance floor!

The event had a compulsory class for everybody named "Dancing on 1m2", which aimed at telling people the discipline on the dance floor - dance small, avoid doing back step, line of dance (outer circle, inner circle), and also how to treat those "virus"(those who doesn't behave well) on the dance floor. It is a funny and useful class, and needless to say, it did make the dance floor in a better order and more accessible. I must say I miss a dance floor like that when I went to Amsterdam to dance right after the tango international week. When the people are not dancing in the line of dance, doing big and expressive movements on a small dance floor, blocking the flow of dance etc., these kind of manner is very annoying.

Classes During the Week

Those who already knew Eric (Eric gave workshops in Hong Kong last year in April) will remember his very relax and funny way of teaching, and his strong emphasis on salon tango, and his very useful dance technique. You can find all of these in all the classes during the international week.

We can only choose 7 classes out of 17 (excluding 3 compulsory classes), nearly all of them are dedicated to salon tango.  There are classes that emphasise on technique like "connection", "dancing on 1m2", "men/women only", "same axis turn", "safe back sacadas", etc.  And there are also classes emphasize on different styles - "milonga", "tango-waltz", "tango-milonga" (like tango canyenge, an early form / old style of tango, it appeared at the period of transition that milonga gradually developed into tango), "dancing to Pugliese" and "dancing to D'Arienzo".

Mini choreography

The only 2 exception is the class of "forbidden fruits" and "mini-choreography", I didn't take these 2 classes, but I did watch them (many people do so, and it is allowed!)  The "forbidden-fruits" are truly forbidden on the social dance floor - a series of boleo (stepping on the guy's foot to do a boleo) + gancho, a very difficult and challenging sequence for both leaders and followers.  It's my first time seeing Eric teaches stuff like this (wow!!!).  The "mini-choreography" class, I didn't know what was happening during the class, because Eric didn't allow us to watch the class.  But after the class, the participants did a mini-group tango performance to those who sat outside the dance floor.  It was a funny and nice performance, the steps are not difficult, but Eric used different stage arrangement and patterns, and that looked very nice.  We all loved that mini-show.

European vs American

Unavoidably, I have to make a comparison like this, because there are differences between them.  After spending a month in US last year and a week in El Corte, I think for me as a followers, the differences are pretty obvious (sorry, not for leaders, unless you spent some time to look at people dancing, then you maybe able to find out).  Generally speaking, American like big, expressive movements, like those we see in the movies "Tango" or "The Tango Lesson"; while European like small, tiny, little movements, these movements look very simple and easy, but in fact they are very difficult to follow, and not easy to lead as well.  European spend more effort to play on the rhythm and the structure of the music, the movements are so subtle that sometimes it can not be observed.

Because of the different preferences/culture of dancing tango mentioned above, the way of holding/embrace are different too.  Certainly Americans prefer the open hold or semi-open (i.e. close on the left hand side of the leader and the right hand side is open), because to dance big movement you need space!  And most of the European dancers I met here in El Corte, no matter leaders or followers, are very used to the closed embrace *wink*.  I haven't danced like that for quite a long time, the first few days I was not very used to that, but once I remembered the feeling and the body movements of dancing close, I did not have problem anymore.

In terms of musicality, both European and American are very good when compared to Chinese.  Our culture has a very different music, which makes us a bit weak on "rhythm", and also we are not nurtured in music like the way they are.  But I have the feeling that European devote their dance more to the music.  When you dance with them, you can feel they are very passionate to the music, they enjoy the music a lot, no matter the music is sad, happy or exciting. That's what I feel, and that's also what I like.

It's nothing good or bad the way American or European dance, it is just a general discussion, and I think the way they dance just reflect their own culture and personalities.  For me I like both way of dancing, my preferences on the way of dancing is depended on music, not by nationalities.   For me, music is one of the most important part in a dance.  A dance is the combination of body movement and music, without music, or not dancing to the music, a dance is not a dance anymore.