BODY CONDITIONING
SUMMARY
-
Tango dancing is based entirely on natural movement –
at its best, it does not require any artificial technique. Moreover, recovering
natural body coordination is the biggest key to continuous improvement in tango
dancing.
-
The MAIN CHALLENGE in body
conditioning is to recover natural movement and coordination until no
adjustments of it are necessary in order to dance tango. In other words, all choreography and musicality, no matter how
complex, should be accomplished easily through natural walking, without
sacrificing good partner connection (see corresponding sections).
-
Due to certain trends in modern culture, in most
people natural movement is not fully manifest, but is covered up by
anti-natural patterns, caused by lifestyle habits and psychosomatic factors.
This means that most people who wish to explore more advanced levels of tango
dancing may need to recover good natural movement and coordination, at least to
some extent.
-
There are various schools of bodywork which aim to
recover natural coordination – I discuss several of them in this section – but,
so far, no integrative and/or reliable approach seems to exist. However, there are certain directions of
improvement, common goals which can be potentially agreed upon.
-
The following aspects of body coordination seem useful
to discuss individually, though they are all just different views on the one
thing – good natural movement:
o
Relaxation/Refinement
of Effort/Ease of Movement
o
Balance
o
Rhythm
-
It is often difficult to tell if one is improving,
even if the directions of improvement are clear. I therefore list some objective
tests which can be used to monitor one’s
progress. However, the most important evaluation is subjective – the main point
is still the heightening experience of the dancer.
-
At the end of this section, I provide some more
information on the schools of body work which I have found particularly helpful
– The Alexander Technique, Nei Kung, Tai Chi
Chuan, and Bioenergetic Therapy.
BODY CONDITIONING
As I mention repeatedly, good standing and walking are
the biggest key to good tango. One of the most beautiful aspects of this dance
is the fact that it does not require any artificial technique – just good natural
movement. A man and a woman connecting into one organic whole with no
artifice. This is why one of the known sayings of the old-timers is that “to
dance tango is to walk like one walks in the street.” Of course, in dancing,
the body may perform more different movements than it does in simple walking.
The point of the saying is that nothing needs to be changed in the fundamental
mechanics of the walk – the body is simply allowed to adjust to the challenges
of the dance like in most traditional folk dancing, without learning any
specific technique for one’s feet or one’s hips. In addition, more than other
dances, most tango figures are based on simply stepping here and there, and the
best tango dancers actually look like they are “just walking”. But there is
another famous saying: “in order to dance tango well, one must first learn how
to stand and walk well.” If tango is based on natural movement, what is there
to learn? The seeming contradiction is resolved when one understands that most
of us do not walk well even “in the street”. The sad fact is that good natural
movement is rare nowadays. Many movement specialists acknowledge this problem,
but most people are still unaware of it. A vast majority of people in developed
countries do not use their bodies well, do not take full advantage of their
natural physical design. For many people this is hard to believe, but the
sooner we face this fact, the better for us. It represents a larger trend in
civilized societies in general: a weakening of the instinct. It is for this
reason that most tango dancers today are not as comfortable dancing as they are
walking – they are having to adjust their movement, use special techniques or
unconscious manipulations in order to make the dance work.
The good news is that it seems to be possible to do
something about this, to get back in touch with our instincts, to recover good
natural movement. This has been understood and even accomplished to various
degrees by many Eastern martial artists. For example, in Tai Chi Chuan, it is
understood that the greatest power comes from the Taoist principle of aligning,
harmonizing with nature. I have become convinced, both through observation and
through personal experience, that the same principle governs tango dancing: no
artificial technique is nearly as effective for tango dancing as the natural
movement and coordination of the body. An artificial technique can help
make this dance work before proper natural conditions are achieved, but the
most sublime tango is the one that is walked naturally. In my experience, *RECOVERING NATURAL BODY COORDINATION IS
THE BIGGEST KEY TO CONTINUING IMPROVEMENT IN TANGO DANCING*. But in order
to even start this process, I had to first come to terms with the fact that
natural movement is not to be taken for granted, that what has become habitual
is not necessarily natural.
At present, the corruption of physical functioning is
progressing at an alarming rate. Problems of hypertension, chronic fatigue,
debilitating muscle pains and joint trauma are more common than they had ever
been in the past. The modern sedentary lifestyle is partly responsible for this.
Spending most of our day in a chair since early childhood certainly contributes
to our loss of proper freedom in the hip joints. In “The Origin of Species”,
Charles Darwin talks about the growth or the disappearance of certain traits
through “use” or “disuse”. The mechanism of this is not yet known, but the fact
itself is confirmed by various experiments on animals. Since good movement is
not necessary in the modern lifestyle, we are losing it, unless we do something
deliberately to maintain it. But there is another deep cause of body
malfunction – psychosomatic disturbances. We are now living farther and farther
away from our original natural environment. As a result, the voice of the
instinct in us is getting weaker. At the same time, we are becoming more
mentally and emotionally complex, more able to imagine things, and carry our
emotions everywhere with us. But, as it has already been shown by science, all
our emotions find expression in the body. Our bodies adopt chronic psychosomatic
tension patterns corresponding to our habitual emotional attitudes
(bioenergetic therapy deals with this phenomenon directly). These chronic
tensions in time can turn into physical shortening of the muscles and fusing of
connective tissues together in anti-natural ways. As a result, our joints are
not allowed their full range of motion, the spine cannot release into the
subtle balance inherent in its design. These patterns are further complicated
by the fact that we often adopt them as children, before our bodies are even
fully formed.
How can we reverse this trend? There is no going back
to the past, to the unconscious, entirely instinctual functioning. We must use
our growing awareness to learn how to free ourselves from the built up
conditioned reflexes and the anti-natural tensions in the body. (A great
advance in this understanding was made by F.M.Alexander – I will give more
details about his work at the end of this section.) But this also means
learning how to be different emotionally, how not to hold on to the psychosomatic
patterns. This is one of the ways that body work, and, by means of it, tango
dancing, connects with one’s general mental and spiritual development.
Tango comes from a different time and a different
culture, in which an average person was blessed with stronger connection to
good natural movement. An average person in Buenos Aires of the first half of
the 20th century stood and walked much better than an average person
today. This is why tango dancers of the old did not have to work on their body
conditions. If their natural conditions were not good enough, they simply did
not dance tango, and we do not know much about them. But the old-timers who we
have seen dance so beautifully learned it with ease due to their good natural
conditions. Such people were mostly the ones who invented this dance – tango
grew out of the very way that they stood and walked. Nowadays good body
conditions are rare. Our attitudes have changed as well, and we do not want to
give up the idea of dancing tango even if we do not walk well enough. This
means that most people today must work on their bodies in order to even
approach the grace and skill of the old-timers, let alone surpass it. Clear
ways to bring our bodies back to their natural grace do not even exist yet – our
corruptions are developing faster than our knowledge of how to deal with them.
The old-timers saw that most younger dancers could not walk well and spoke out
about it, but they did not know how to remedy the problem.
A big breakthrough for me was seeing that the secret
of the old-timers was not in any “special tango walk”, but in a relative
freedom from corruptions of good natural movement. I then began looking for
ways to develop that freedom in myself – to relearn how to stand and walk well.
I have studied Alexander Technique, yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, Nei Kung, and
Bioenergetics, all of which make some claims about their ability to bring one
back to harmonious functioning. I have learned a lot and was able to progress
in what I feel is the right direction. But I have not seen any complete system,
any school that was able to produce balanced human beings with any consistency.
They all had some pieces of good understanding which helped me greatly, but, in
my opinion, none of them see the full picture. I do not yet see the full
picture, either, but at least I know that I do not. My great hope is that
eventually there will be enough of a dialogue among people who see the full
magnitude of the problem so that a working method for reversing our physical
corruption can be developed. To say “reversing” is not exact, however. We must
learn how to be “good animals” again but with an unprecedented awareness of
ourselves. In fact, I believe that it is only through awareness that we
can rediscover our proper natural functioning.
To turn our attention to how we move is to open the
Pandora’s box of painful self-consciousness. Initially, it can greatly inhibit
one’s freedom of movement and dancing. In a children’s story, when the
centipede was asked how it managed to coordinate all its legs, it could no
longer take a step. But we are losing our proper coordination even without
anyone asking us about it. I believe that eventually we will all have to pass
through the initially painful self-consciousness, learn how to turn the light
of awareness on to all aspects of our being and how not to freeze up under it.
Once we begin this process as applied to body movement, the task is two-fold.
On one hand, we must find ways to gradually bring ourselves back to harmonious
natural functioning, which means identifying and eliminating the anti-natural
patterns and their causes. But in the meantime we must also learn how to use
our less-than-perfect conditions in the best possible way, how to forget about
our imperfections at least sometimes. (I have a lot of trouble with this.) As
the body is brought into harmony with its nature, it becomes an increasingly
refined instrument for all our creative pursuits. All our acts become more
rooted in our unconscious, instinctual nature, thereby becoming more and more
creative and spontaneous. Purifying the body is like cultivating the soil upon
which all that we do can grow better. It is the strengthening of our root in
our evolutionary past so that we can more effectively create the future. As
applied to tango, the better we learn how to stand and walk, the more refined
and free our dancing can become.
Working on the body is a very difficult task about
which we so far know very little, it can take years or even decades, and one
can never reach the state one aims for, but the process is worth it
nevertheless, for every step in the right direction brings more freedom,
energy, and creativity to many aspects of one’s life. Moreover, I believe that
it is an integral part of our conscious evolution, a necessary step at this
moment in history. Many people are starting to feel this, which explains the
growing interest in yoga and other body-oriented disciplines. Body work is one
of the main aspects of tango which give evolutionary significance to this art
form. It is through dancing tango that I first discovered that my
psycho-physical being needed improvement, and it is my dancing that acts as the
clearest feedback to that process.
Whether the optimal physical functioning has ever
existed among humans is an interesting anthropological and philosophical
question. At what point in our evolution did we stand up straight? Was it
before or after the first psycho-somatic problems started taking hold? Some
Greek statues look more balanced and more beautiful to us than many tribal
humans. Who was closer to nature? Maybe there have only been some fortunate
moments when we approached perfect harmony with our natural design, possibly
only in some extraordinary individuals. As a culture, we could not have held on
to it, for it happened largely unconsciously, if ever. Through awareness,
however, anyone can move towards the functioning that is more in accord with
our nature.
The value of harmonizing with nature has been
understood in many traditional Eastern arts. Tai Chi Chuan is an art based on
Taoist philosophy, in which following the natural way is a fundamental
principle. Tai Chi masters achieved supreme fighting ability not through an
artificial technique, but by opening up natural powers of the human body.
Because of it, they were able to defeat a physically stronger opponent without
effort. In the Tai Chi circles, it is common knowledge that practicing “the
form” is central to one’s progress in the interaction with an opponent.
Diligent individual practice of the form is supposed to restore natural
coordination of the body and breathing, eventually letting the internal energy
manifest. Beginners are not even allowed to spar or do push-hands for the first
year or two. By contrast, tango dancers naively believe that they can keep
improving without limit without any systematic body work. The Tai Chi culture
is definitely further along in its understanding of how necessary it is to work
seriously on the realignment and reintegration of the body. But even among Tai
Chi practitioners, optimal body conditions are rare.
After studying several different body-oriented
disciplines and looking closely at their practitioners and teachers, I have
seen that none of it works automatically. What may have been
effective for some people a couple of centuries ago may not work at all for a
modern human. The body-oriented arts of the past can teach us a lot, but we
must be more aware than ever of what we are trying to accomplish, as well as of
how to monitor our progress. I have seen yoga instructors, Tai Chi
practitioners, and Alexander Technique teachers alike who had terrible posture
and poor body coordination, completely unaware of their problems. They blindly
trusted that if they practiced their discipline enough and if they were able to
get certified in some way, it meant automatically that they were on the right
track. We must become more scientific about bodywork. A great project for
medical science would be to extract the very essence of the various ancient
body-based practices and create a yoga that is scientific in addition to being
spiritual. Hopefully, some day it will happen. Meanwhile, I have been trying to
figure it out for myself. I approach this work roughly from three sides:
1. Learning the right general attitude towards one’s physical self, the
best way to “think inside the body”, consciously “direct” one’s functioning.
Learning how to intend better conditions without violently fighting one’s
limitations, how to deal with one’s less than perfect state in the most optimal
way. The Alexander Technique was what largely opened to me a higher
sophistication of this process.
2. Physical work on one’s tissues, stretching, strengthening the muscles
and the tendons, realigning and freeing up the joints. I have been learning a
lot about this from Nei Kung, Tai Chi, and to some extent yoga.
3. The psychological component – learning how one’s emotional blocks are
expressing themselves through chronic patterns of muscular tension and physical
body “attitudes”; gradually releasing these patterns through appropriate
exercises and psychological self-examination. Bioenergetic therapy has been
helping me with this part.
Where does one get time to do all this? The good news
is that many of these things can be combined. The Alexander Technique, for
example, does not even require a separate practice, once one has learned enough
in lessons. It is mostly about developing a more appropriate and conscious
approach to one’s usual physical activities. It can be practiced while sitting
on a subway or walking to work, which is when one can also ponder one’s
psycho-somatic states to some degree. But some regular practice is necessary, I
believe. I work on my body for 1.5 to 2 hours a day on average, with a routine
that I keep modifying slightly all the time, often improvising exercises of my
own, but which is still based mostly on Nei Kung and Tai Chi. I have
incorporated several Bioenergetic exercises, especially because some of them
are strikingly similar to Nei Kung postures. Sometimes I also feel like doing
certain yoga poses, and occasionally I go running. I will not discuss my
routine in detail here, for I constantly keep adjusting it to what I feel are
my current needs. In general, it seems that everyone’s problems are so
different, that anyone who is serious about body work must eventually develop
their own routine, and keep modifying it according to one’s own senses.
However, to begin this process, it is very helpful to learn how others have
been trying to do the same. Eventually I may start sharing specific exercises
for body conditioning, but I do not yet feel ready to do it. For now, I can
recommend the disciplines which were helpful to me (the Alexander Technique,
Nei Kung, Tai Chi, Bioenergetics, yoga), but also talk about the directions
of improvement. It is the latter which, in my opinion, can be shared
and agreed upon more than specific routines. As long as the objectives are
clear, one can eventually find a way to approach them.
How does one know that he is working in the right direction?
How can we tell that the body is recapturing its natural functioning? Some
general aspects are obvious – one is probably on the right track if one has
more energy, feels lighter, is less prone to disease. The biggest criteria are
subjective, meaning how one’s physical functioning is experienced from
the inside. The more the body is brought into its natural balance, the more it
feels like energy, the less it feels like matter. There is less and less
sensation of body parts – we are not meant to feel individual joins or muscles
unless the body is hurt or stressed excessively. If we feel (or hear)
individual parts, especially if there is pain or discomfort, it means that
something is wrong. Ultimately, the body can be experienced more and more like
“no-thing”
– as a field of energy, weightless, with no uncomfortable rigidity. Another
definite sign of progress is if all other aspects of tango dancing – partner
connection, musicality, choreographic freedom – seem to improve at
once. In my experience, the most important principle to keep in mind is
that, on some deeper level, the body wants to “right” itself, which means
that a better functioning feels better, that one can
eventually find the way to work on it simply by listening to one’s senses. The
whole process of readjusting ourselves can also become natural, like the
stretching of a cat. Another way to know that one’s movement is good is if
there are no two ways about it, when it feels right, and even paying attention
to it does not “scare it away”.
But before we develop such inner wisdom, we need some
more precise and more objective criteria or aspects of
good physical functioning. Without an extensive experience with body work, most
people are very out of touch with their own senses, and can hardly rely on
them. I will describe such criteria, goals, or lines of improvement which I
consider valid at this point, the ways to work on them, the ways to get
feedback on them, and the ways in which they apply directly to better tango
dancing. After that, I will share some more information about Alexander
Technique, Nei Kung, Tai Chi, and Bioenergetics, the study of which has helped
me greatly to piece together my present understanding.
One must keep in mind, however, that no criteria, no
tests, nothing that can be said or even imagined can ever completely describe or
ensure good natural movement, even if simply because there is no limit to how
good it can be. Ultimately, it is up to each dancer, each human being to
discover the path to one’s nature. Everyone has a different set of problems,
which means the solution will likewise be somewhat different. However, at any
stage, we should have some commonly acknowledged degrees of freedom or
fundamental abilities, which can therefore act as guidelines and standards in
one’s process of improvement. I will discuss such aspects of good body movement
and coordination, some of which are more difficult to test and observe
objectively than others. After that, I will summarize some useful objective
tests of good body conditioning. The breakdown into “aspects” really amounts to
looking at the same thing from different angles. It can be useful for learning,
but, ultimately, it is all about letting the nature of the body manifest. If
this work is done well, all the aspects of good movement improve at the same
time.
DIRECTIONS OF IMPROVEMENT/ASPECTS OF GOOD MOVEMENT AND
COORDINATION
Relaxation/Refinement of Effort/Ease of Movement
In many art forms, from music to martial disciplines,
there comes a time when the teacher is urging the student to “relax!” as the
student has no idea how to do it. Many artists in various fields have
understood that the excess tension is one of the biggest obstacles to progress.
Such “internal” martial arts as Tai Chi Chuan and Aikido have had an advantage
over the “hard” styles through relaxation and refinement of effort which
allowed for better sensitivity and responsiveness to the opponent. In music or
painting, if one is tense one’s hands will not be able to affect the subtleties
which one intends. In tango dancing, it is likewise one of the most important
directions of improvement. The more relaxed one becomes, the more sensitive one
can be to the partner, the more spontaneously one can respond and connect to
his or her movement. A woman who is tense will feel heavy no matter how little
she may actually weigh. A man who is tense will inevitably feel hard in his
lead.
Relaxation, ease of movement, is a big part of the
elusive quality of elegance – the quintessential attribute of tango dancing. Elegance
is the freedom from the unnecessary, the beautiful simplicity of means, the “refinement
of effort” as writer Albert Murray put it in his elaboration on the
elegance of jazz music. But above all, relaxation is necessary for openness –
be it to one’s partner, to the music, or to spontaneous invention of dance
patterns.
To understand the potential advantages of being more
relaxed is a lot easier than learning how to relax. The first problem is that
we often do not know how relaxed we are. Usually, other people have to break
the news that we are too tense. Second, there is no such thing as “completely
relaxed”. In the words of cellist Pablo Casals, “there is no limit to how
relaxed one can be”. So the challenge is really to relax more and more all the time.
OK, but how does one do it? For many people relaxing means sinking one’s body
into a nice soft couch. How does one do it while standing, let alone dancing?
The most sophisticated way I have seen for reducing
excess tension is the Alexander Technique. (I will discuss it in some more
detail at the end of this section.) It involves becoming aware of anti-natural
and unnecessary reflex patterns in the body and unlearning those reflexes. It
also involves learning how to change conditions within the body with thought,
which is a fascinating thing in itself. To relax does not mean to collapse, it
means to project an intention of expansion, softness, and weightlessness
throughout the body. With practice, such intention can get rid of a lot of the
unnecessary muscular effort which we tend to use in our everyday physical
tasks. The thought of lengthening and widening one’s torso, of extra space in
all one’s joints, eventually starts to manifest in reality, and the body
attains much more of an effortless power. F.M. Alexander, the founder of the
Alexander Technique, discovered that the relationship between the head and the
spine play a key role in our patterns of tension. He realized that “releasing
the head away from the spine” is a good place to start. (This relates well to
one of the main Tai Chi principles of “the head as though suspended”.)
Alexander Technique relates to the principle of nothingness – it is about
clearing the slate, training oneself to stop interfering with the natural
coordination of the body.
But there is another part to the issue of relaxation,
which the Alexander Technique does not take into consideration. There will
always be a limit to relaxation if the skeletal structure has not achieved its
proper alignment, if the joints are not allowed their proper range of movement.
Alexander teachers assert that if one practices the Technique diligently and
patiently, the body will eventually “right” itself. But I have seen serious
practitioners who after 30 years of it have not achieved proper alignment or
coordination. The Alexander principle is probably the most important one for
working with the body, but it may not be sufficient. I believe that in most
cases (mine included) a deeper intervention is necessary. Tissues need to be
stretched, inactive muscles must be challenged to mobilize, possibly some
connective tissue needs to be “un-fused”. In this regard, I have learned the
most from Nei Kung and Tai Chi Chuan, which involve conscious realignment of
the skeletal structure and the reintegration of the musculature by means of
fairly strenuous postures (more details below). One problem with this approach
which I have experienced is that once I have understood where I lack range in
my legs, it became difficult to keep myself from trying to stretch a little as
I am dancing. As a result, I am often pulling or pushing something in my body
during the dance, which sometimes gets me a certain mechanical advantage, but
always interferes with relaxation and inevitably prevents more sublime states
from happening. Alexander practitioners understand such temptation all too
well, which is why they discourage any manipulations of body parts. I believe
that I simply have to learn better self-control: stretch when I am stretching,
and let go when I am dancing. At times, I manage to stop all my manipulations,
and project a thought of release throughout the body, starting with the head,
and I do experience an improvement in many aspects of the dance. So far,
however, I cannot do it consistently enough – putting my limitations out of my
mind is still hard for me.
How does one monitor progress in one’s relaxation? How
does one know that one is more relaxed than before? One good test is how much
one sweats. I used to bring three shirts to every milonga and soak them through
one after another. Wearing a jacket for dancing used to be unthinkable. Now I
can dance all night in a suit and do not have to change once. Another test is
how light one’s body feels, or how little body parts hurt after hours of
dancing. In addition, if one pays careful attention, eventually it will become
clear that when one projects an intention to become softer and more expanded
throughout the body, many aspects of the dance improve instantly as though by
themselves – one is able to better adjust to the partner’s movement, be more
spontaneous in responding to the music and avoiding collisions. I found that
when I relax my eyes and use more of the peripheral vision, I am able to flow
with other couples on the floor instinctually, without even trying. Through
one’s own relaxation, one can sometimes even produce relaxation in the
partner’s body (this phenomenon is known and used routinely by Alexander
teachers). Ultimately, one can neutralize effort and balance the body to such
an extent that all the particular mechanics of it become “erased” from one’s
senses, begins to feel more and more like “no-thing”. But that is a very
advanced stage. In any case, if I had to name one most important physical
quality to develop, it would be relaxation.
Few will deny that good balance is an aspect of good dancing and good
body movement in general. Internally, a well-balanced body feels calm and
steady, none of its movements feel out of control, it never feels like it is
about to fall, even in the midst of a vigorous physical activity. Balanced
walking is what enables one to slow down and explore a more sophisticated
musicality in tango dancing. It is also essential for the quality of stillness
in partner connection. Balance on one foot is essential for female tango
dancers for their part includes many pivots, voleos, and one-footed stops. But
it is also important for the men, especially if they wish to do one-footed
turning or twisting figures.
In balanced
walking, the foot is placed on the ground lightly, and only then the weight of
the body is transferred on to it. A body that is properly coordinated does it
naturally. Native Americans were famous for their inaudible walk, though to
them it was completely natural. The whole reason it was noticed at all was how
much it contrasted with the way people in our culture “bump” from foot to foot.
Try walking barefoot around a room without causing any vibration. Every “bump”
represents a slight falling off balance. While dancing tango, such bumpy walk
robs one of control, of an ability to accompany the partner, and of a more
sophisticated musicality. Many dancers of the older generation saw this problem
and criticized younger dancers for “falling” or “running” instead of walking. A
number of older teachers tried to fix the problem by telling their students to
practice moving “first the foot, then the body”. Initially, many younger
dancers, including myself, rebelled against this idea, for it seemed
artificial. Besides, it seemed impossible to provide a body lead if the foot
had to move first. Later I understood the right motivation behind the concept
of “first the foot, then the body”, but also that the reality was more
complicated. (In the flow of the movement, the weight can be kept on the foot
even as the body has already moved forward or has not yet arrived completely
over it. I call this “dynamic equilibrium”.) For women, keeping the balance on
the “previous”
foot is essential for the ability to accompany the partner (see Partner
Connection section). It provides for the famous “waiting” or hesitation
in each step, which in turn allows for an easy synchronization with the
partner’s rhythm and timing.
Truly balanced walking cannot be developed by simply practicing moving the
foot before the body. It is not about any “technique”, but a much more
difficult and involved process of recovering the natural walk – the one
that the body was designed for. As all other animals who walk on the ground,
humans are not designed to “bump” from foot to foot, but to place it down
softly, without immediately dropping the weight of the body on it. When natural
body coordination begins to manifest, steps naturally become softer and more
balanced. To learn how to walk smoothly without adopting any artificial
technique, one must develop proper range in all the joints of the legs. It is
mostly the stiffness that makes one fall. This issue relates directly to
flexibility, relaxation, and alignment. When all the muscles act as one
integrated “membrane”, while not being held in a fixed pattern, they
instinctively adjust for any loss of equilibrium that is about to happen. When
joints have their proper freedom, they perform miniscule adjustments
automatically to compensate for anything going out of balance.
A good way to work on balance is to practice walking very slowly, like
Tai Chi Chuan practitioners. This is useful to do both on one’s own, and with a
partner. Anyone who has tried to dance in slow motion close with a partner
knows how difficult it is – it does not let one “cheat” as much as one can
while walking by oneself. In this process, if one pays attention, one can
discover a lot about excess tension in one’s body, as well as which joints lack
range and which parts of the musculature need to become more flexible.
As compared to other aspects of good body coordination, balance is
relatively easy to test. Here are some simple ways:
-
being able to stand on one foot for a long time;
-
being able to balance on a very slippery surface, both
on one and on two feet;
-
being able to balance on balance boards, which have
become common in recent years, both on one and on two feet;
-
being able to balance on top of a rubber medicine
ball, both on one and on two feet;
-
being able to balance on the balls of the feet, both
on one and on two feet;
-
being able to do all of the above with eyes closed;
-
being able to walk in slow motion, to slow down one’s
weight transfers;
-
being able to do ochos without holding on to anything;
-
being able to do front and back voleos repeatedly in
succession without holding on to anything;
-
being able to follow a tango partner without leaning,
“hanging”, or resisting;
-
being able to dance on a very slippery floor without
losing balance;
-
being able to easily slow down or stop in the middle
of any step of any tango figure.
All the above tests are also ways to develop good balance –
I practice some of them on a regular basis. But in my experience, relaxation,
flexibility – increasing range and freedom in the joints, – and particularly
grounding (to be discussed next) are the biggest keys to balance.
Balance relates directly to the experience of stillness. Stillness
within movement or moving in stillness has opened to me the most amazing dance
experiences, though so far they have been rare. To attain stillness is to open
the way for true spontaneity and freedom. Stillness should not be confused with
holding – everything should be released and suspended. It is best achieved
through intention and correct work on the body. True stillness can only be achieved
through true balance, relaxation, and correct alignment. In most people
nowadays many big external muscles which are meant to mobilize the body are too
involved in holding the body upright. Ideally, the anti-gravity mechanism which
keeps the body upright and balanced is independent from walking and dancing.
That is when the body is capable of stopping without locking or holding any
joints and keeping the same suspended state while moving. I do not think it is
a good idea to try to become aware exactly which muscles are doing what. It is
more useful to simply know that the independence of moving and balancing is
potentially possible and intend it, while also working on
relaxation, grounding, and flexibility separately.
Grounding
Grounding is a notoriously enigmatic concept which has
been on the tongue of many tango teachers. “You have to get more grounded, walk
in a more grounded way,” – they say, often without explaining what that means.
I will try to demystify this issue slightly. First, let us say a person is
standing, and receives a slight push. If the body is stiff, the person is
likely to tilt, “rolling off” his base of support:
FIGURE 1
Tilting off
Balance
But if the body is relaxed and flexible, it can
accommodate the push, and keep the base of support entirely on the ground:
FIGURE 2
A More Grounded
Response