[TSOM-Announce] Engaging some very bright kids in tango — a collaborative dance opportunity!!

Dear Friends,

Led by Gretchen Larson, a few dancers are volunteering for Tsom's Tango demonstration at Oakwood Elementary School in Plymouth, January 22, 2015!

We would really like a few more couples to help engage the kids and their parents in a ronda of their own as they watch us dance to Fresedo's Vida Mia. Gretchen definitely gets the kids involved, and it's a blast to be a part of it.

I especially need a couple of leads for the partner demonstration. Contact Don (dgrowe1911@gmail.com) or Gretchen (zgl3@yahoo.com) if you want to join in. We need to know soon. We will ask that you also participate in a rehearsal Jan. 11.

Here's the plan in more detail:

We will use Fresedo's "Vida Mia" to synchronize the dancers and our audience to demonstrate how music choreographs our choices as dancers. Three couples will dance in the center of a circle of audience members, the traditional demonstration space of the milonga. Embedded in the circle will be several "plants" to help our dancing audience to hear and move to what we hear as we dance. Instead of sitting, our audience will join hands, and moving together, dictate the size of our ronda by expanding and contracting using the phrasing in the music. The couples in the center will fill whatever space they give us.

Vida Mia like most tangos has a five part structure we will  use to organize our movement. The first section is for listening and moving in place, to taste the music and get it's flavor. This 33 second phrase is repeated twice more alternating with a longer 51 second  phrase that is instrumental and then sung. I  have attached sound bites, please listen obsessively over the next few days and think about what sorts of movements each section suggests to you.

We'd love to get together to practice! Potluck at our house Sunday Jan 11th, 6pm. Wednesday the 21st, the day before for a dress rehearsal, 7 pm.