Comments on: Hips

By: La Nuit Blanche

La Nuit Blanche — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:52:09 +0000

it’s funny — a couple of girlfriends i used to spend some time with back in college constantly made fun of me for taking belly-dancing classes… um, the belly-dancing stuck with me, and i dropped the girlfriends when they started referring to me as “the far eastern sex-slave.”

“up here”, women really are afraid to be women… i think it stems from the same fear (and ignorance) of cultures that do horrible things to women, like body modifications, so that they are “protected from” the “dangerous male.”

and now, in north america, women try to shed their femininity because they feel a need to protect themselves, against themselves! against their own womanhood. because they think people will take them more seriously if they seem more male — that their femininity is some sort of disabilty. we can see it in they way they walk over here. it’s so twisted.

now i want to take up belly dancing again, lol. i’ve heard it does amazing things for disassociating the hips in tango!

By: Cherie

Cherie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:22:59 +0000

Tina,
Super, super well-said post!
This is a problem that Ruben and I wrestle with our students from up north a lot.

Once long ago, traveling tango teachers decided that tango dancers should be the opposite of every other latin dancer, and be hipless robots. The result is stiff, unnatural dancing.

It’s not that you should sway or move the hips, just relax them and let them move naturally. .And this goes for the men too.

It’s only then, when you dance with your whole body and mind and soul, that you can express the music. How can you do that if you’re afraid to move?

By: b

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:08:36 +0000

Hey, Tina, don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but MEN’S hips move more down here too. I have video to prove this.

Considering we also move up and down a lot more down here in our tango than they do in El Norte, I guess it’s a full-compass deal.

It’s also pretty undeniable that the average “hip area” is a bit more fabulous with the Portenas than it is up home for some reason…. I credit the 167 lbs of beef per year; others (spoilsports) credit plastic surgery. Every woman down here has butt implants?

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:07:43 +0000

Brava Brava Brava!! I applaud you my friend! When I was little I used to watch all the “I Love Lucy” I could. I mimicked Lucy and how she would cascade into the room. Swaying her hips left and right, like the gorgeous woman she was. I enjoyed this post very much, and I never thought about how the Anglos walked compares to other cultures.
baci!

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:10:37 +0000

For some reason, a lot of the teaching that we had early on, was forcing me to be very straight up and hips very still. The disassocation (I hate that word) of the hips is just twisting at the center, not like the natural rolling motion of the hip. In any case, when I went to BA I was told immediatly to loosen up so that the nice bottom area could become the hypnotic center of attention that it so obviously is in Argentina. I was pretty happy about this, because I too spent a long time in the Middle Eastern Dance world. My hips like to move. My back and everything feels better, and I know I dance better. Core still has to be strong.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:41:57 +0000

Great post Tina! You have verbalized very well what a woman’s hips are “supposed” to do. I’ll have to start watching/observing this more en el norte. I’m curious.

Plus, I love hips. I just love them. And the women that are attached to them.

By: Modern Tanguera

Modern Tanguera — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:33:25 +0000

This is wonderful! I just had a conversation with another follower about hip movements when doing ochos - I had been told by a teacher to keep them very still, but it feels more natural (and yes, my core is engaged!) to sway them slightly. I think it feels and looks nicer. In fact, I try to take advantage of a nice hip sway whenever I can, seeing as it’s the only truly curvy part of my body!

By: tinatangos

tinatangos — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:25:31 +0000

Thanks for your comments everyone
Sorin you make a good point. As a belly dancer (yup, I do that too), I have to say that there is nothing weirder looking than a dancer (of any kind) who loses control of her core and lets her hips “collapse” as you say. It creates the opposite effect of what we’re going for here…

By: tangobaby

tangobaby — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:23:08 +0000

I love this post. I have been thinking about hips for a week now. Now being in flamenco class and I’m actually being told to use my hips–I felt this little spark of joy inside. I am still trying to get used to this way of moving.

Like you, I realize how “straight” I have been trying to make myself for tango. I don’t know how it happened.

Now I will try to remember what you learned from Javier and apply it to my tango dancing, too.

By: sorin

sorin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:00:18 +0000

I agree with most of what you say, but as a leader I can tell you that many women seem to confuse the hip sway with allowing the hip to collapse and having a “mushy” core. It’s fine if the hips sway as long as the hips receive the full linear energy in the lead. There are few things that bug me more then having the followers pelvis swinging back and forth as they step.