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Swango dance experts Lynne and Topher demonstrate their expertese
In my first article about fusion dance I wrote about hip hop and swing. In the second, I wrote about Lindy and Tap. This one is about Tango and Swing.
Unlike Tap and Hip Hop, which can be used to embellish or change the style of Swing, Swango is literally a combination on the two dances. You can use Tap or Hip Hop to play with your own styling without affecting your partner, but here both partners must be competent in both dances. The leader is moving from one dance to the other as the music moves him and hopefully makes the transitions seamless.
I’m using three videos here to illustrate what’s happening in this fusion. The first is an example of West Coast Swing. I’m using this because West Coast is the Swing style that is used in my Swango example. Here’s a bay area local favorite, Michelle Kinkaid, dancing with Jason Taylor:
[embedplusvideo height=”388″ width=”640″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1cA20Wd” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/fh4cgf_68oY?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=fh4cgf_68oY&width=640&height=388&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep4123″ /]In this clip, a classic Argentine Tango is flawlessly performed. You can see why the follower has to know this dance in order to follow Swango.
[embedplusvideo height=”507″ width=”640″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1cA01RZ” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/I6t2BV2MQVE?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=I6t2BV2MQVE&width=640&height=507&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep4706″ /]
And finally, here’s a West Coast Swing version of Swango from Lynne and Topher who specialize in Swango in their Monterey studio. See if you can recognize the merging of these two beautiful dances in this example:
[embedplusvideo height=”507″ width=”640″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1cA34cT” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Jh3ppMgv_Ic?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=Jh3ppMgv_Ic&width=640&height=507&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep2300″ /]Tango can also be fused with Lindy Hop as well as Blues, but no matter what, it’s extemely challenging because it combines a knowledge of the most difficult partner dance (Argentine Tango) with an equally proficient knowlede of another challenging partner dance. Something to look forward to as you progress in your dancing!
by LaurieAnn Lepoff
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