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Understanding the Mystery of the Embrace Part 2: Filling in the Blanks of Argentine Tango Book 3
"That was magical!"The Embrace can transport your dancing to new levels. Yet, it's often fraught with contradictions. Which way is the "right" way to hold your hand, place your feet, and so on?
With clear illustrated instructions, this book shows you step by step how
Accelerate your learning.Avoid the danger of being Not Even Wrong.Find the invisible Frame within your Embrace.How to dance with more "forceful" partners.Personalize your embrace.Why there are so many apparent contradictions in the way Tango is taught and performed.And more!Written for dancers of all ages and experience, Understanding the Mystery of the Embrace Part 2 will help you take your understanding of the embrace to a new level and avoid the pitfalls along the way.
Ready to start enjoying tango dances more? Scroll up, Click on 'Buy Now with 1-Click', and Get Your Copy!
With clear illustrated instructions, this book shows you step by step how
Accelerate your learning.Avoid the danger of being Not Even Wrong.Find the invisible Frame within your Embrace.How to dance with more "forceful" partners.Personalize your embrace.Why there are so many apparent contradictions in the way Tango is taught and performed.And more!Written for dancers of all ages and experience, Understanding the Mystery of the Embrace Part 2 will help you take your understanding of the embrace to a new level and avoid the pitfalls along the way.
Ready to start enjoying tango dances more? Scroll up, Click on 'Buy Now with 1-Click', and Get Your Copy!
125 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 4, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 14, 2018
“Music goes in through my ears, is filtered through my heart and comes out through my feet” ~ Dany “El Flaco” Garcia
Oliver Kent PhD is an author and teacher who passionately believes that there's no good reason to make another's life harder and that it's usually less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes. As such he's currently in the process of sharing his (often hard-won) experience through writing books that help make life a little easier. He also dances. A lot. He has published many books on the Tango as well as books Healing your Relationship with God, Finding Hope: Searching for Happiness, and two books of Buddhist quotations with accompanying reflections.
Some readers may react to the title of this book as a subject that doesn’t pertain to them – that they 1) don’t dance and 2) don’t know the first thing about dancing the Tango. The push away factor would be preventing general readers from Oliver’s magnetic humor and social interaction teachings in his immensely entertaining and informative books UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF THE EMBRACE: FILLING IN THE BLANKS OF ARGENTINE TANGO. This is now Book 3 of that series
Not only is this a resource about the history of tango and the place of the dance in both the home base of Argentina and its growth in popularity in most cultures (thanks in part to the beauty of watching fine tango dancers in films and on the stage – and even in the ballroom or milonga), but Oliver’s concepts about the social aspects of the world’s most sensuous dance apply to human interaction in every part of life.
In his Introduction Oliver captures the mystery of Tango – ‘It's common to think of tango in terms of specific combinations of moves or “sequences.” Some of these “work out of the box” - you can use them as is, in any milonga. Sometimes there will be a requirement in the skill of your partner, but that's usually clearly stated. Other times, they don't quite work. Maybe they only work with a partner you've practiced them with, or the people who did the same class, or the Really Good Dancers (who are managing to fix the mess you're presenting them, on-the-fly.) Next to not getting dances, this is probably one of the biggest sources of frustration in tango. Many classes teach sequences. And the more advanced classes teach “harder” sequences. So it seems like it would be reasonable to judge a tango dancer's progress on the sequences they know and how well they can do them. But then, over there, are a lot of Good Dancers muttering about how tango is just about walking with feeling to the music. Or even just “the embrace.” And they should know what they're talking about, after all they actually are Good. But then again, there's all these videos of performances available and surely it wouldn't hurt to speed things up a bit by figuring out just this one sequence? Oh, and maybe that one... And perhaps, while the browser's open anyway, just look at a few videos that explain how to do some of the moves. Or go to that workshop. Only you find that different teachers seem to contradict each other quite a lot. Maybe you'd be better off figuring it out from the videos after all?’
And that is the manner in which the ‘blanks’ about the tango are discussed and taught. The book is full of excellent demonstrative illustrations of the many steps and sequences that make learning easy. This is one fine entertaining book – and chances are after reading it you’ll be searching for a nearby Milonga – of sorts.
Oliver Kent PhD is an author and teacher who passionately believes that there's no good reason to make another's life harder and that it's usually less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes. As such he's currently in the process of sharing his (often hard-won) experience through writing books that help make life a little easier. He also dances. A lot. He has published many books on the Tango as well as books Healing your Relationship with God, Finding Hope: Searching for Happiness, and two books of Buddhist quotations with accompanying reflections.
Some readers may react to the title of this book as a subject that doesn’t pertain to them – that they 1) don’t dance and 2) don’t know the first thing about dancing the Tango. The push away factor would be preventing general readers from Oliver’s magnetic humor and social interaction teachings in his immensely entertaining and informative books UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF THE EMBRACE: FILLING IN THE BLANKS OF ARGENTINE TANGO. This is now Book 3 of that series
Not only is this a resource about the history of tango and the place of the dance in both the home base of Argentina and its growth in popularity in most cultures (thanks in part to the beauty of watching fine tango dancers in films and on the stage – and even in the ballroom or milonga), but Oliver’s concepts about the social aspects of the world’s most sensuous dance apply to human interaction in every part of life.
In his Introduction Oliver captures the mystery of Tango – ‘It's common to think of tango in terms of specific combinations of moves or “sequences.” Some of these “work out of the box” - you can use them as is, in any milonga. Sometimes there will be a requirement in the skill of your partner, but that's usually clearly stated. Other times, they don't quite work. Maybe they only work with a partner you've practiced them with, or the people who did the same class, or the Really Good Dancers (who are managing to fix the mess you're presenting them, on-the-fly.) Next to not getting dances, this is probably one of the biggest sources of frustration in tango. Many classes teach sequences. And the more advanced classes teach “harder” sequences. So it seems like it would be reasonable to judge a tango dancer's progress on the sequences they know and how well they can do them. But then, over there, are a lot of Good Dancers muttering about how tango is just about walking with feeling to the music. Or even just “the embrace.” And they should know what they're talking about, after all they actually are Good. But then again, there's all these videos of performances available and surely it wouldn't hurt to speed things up a bit by figuring out just this one sequence? Oh, and maybe that one... And perhaps, while the browser's open anyway, just look at a few videos that explain how to do some of the moves. Or go to that workshop. Only you find that different teachers seem to contradict each other quite a lot. Maybe you'd be better off figuring it out from the videos after all?’
And that is the manner in which the ‘blanks’ about the tango are discussed and taught. The book is full of excellent demonstrative illustrations of the many steps and sequences that make learning easy. This is one fine entertaining book – and chances are after reading it you’ll be searching for a nearby Milonga – of sorts.
August 15, 2018
This book helped me understand why so many people struggle with Tango, why the basics are so important and what's actually going on during a Tango performance; apart from other stuff.
It certainly demystifies some aspects of Tango, in order to get a clearer understanding of the subject.
I believe that thanks to this new insight these books have shown me, not only will my dance become better, but I will be able to appreciate more the subtleties which make Tango such a beautiful dance, and for that I thank the author, Oliver Kent.
It certainly demystifies some aspects of Tango, in order to get a clearer understanding of the subject.
I believe that thanks to this new insight these books have shown me, not only will my dance become better, but I will be able to appreciate more the subtleties which make Tango such a beautiful dance, and for that I thank the author, Oliver Kent.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews