popper

This is art, physically, musically, and visually.



I was greatly immersed in the so-call street dance culture. I was a groupie for a dancing group called Popcorn. The leader Kala was the guy who attracted me everywhere they performed. Of course, there were other reasons such as another group called ELSE and one particular member of that group, but that's not what I want to talk about here.

Every time I tango, different partners have the same question for me: Do you do other kinds of dance?
No.
Well... I sort of tried Swing for two days and danced Salsa for a year before devoting myself to Tango, but the feeling, the feeling of dance 舞感, which is what the street-dancers liked to say all the time when I was there chasing their shows, had been developing before I started my career of dance.
I didn't like to move my body because everyone around me was so good. They were part of the music. When they popped, did the breaking, showed a wave, dissociated one body part from another, or just simply raised an eyebrow, I felt an unnecessary existence of me. I felt alone on a crowded dance floor.
But I never left.

I was watching and enjoying as much as I could and watching and watching. And my brain was washed. In a feeling-of-dance way.
I bet my mirror neurons were highly activated when I watched all the dancers around me. Mirror neurons were first found in monkeys. Basically when a money sees another money wave hands, the waving-hand brain area is activated in the viewer even though it does not actually wave its hand. In other words, there is a group of brain cells mimicking or mirroring movements from others.
There are other studies showing that people who imagine practicing a simple note on piano can actually do it as well as people who physically practice the same note. Imagination can serve a great rehearsal for actual bodily performance.
Therefore, my point is that I had been trained mentally (or imaginarily, pseudo-physically, everything-in-the-head-ly) how to move my body before I explicitly expressed how well I could move my body.

So I imagine I can be as strong as a gymnast and as flexible as an experienced yogi and as rhythm-sensitive as the popper in the video.
And... I imagine I could integrate all the above into my tango.
Things in my head are not necessarily eventually illusions. This is called faith.
I know I totally brag too far away from the popper video, but you know my point.

Inhale. During next exhale, move toward the final perfect posture.
It's all about the breathe.
Listen to its rhythm and
pop.
Pop like you mean it.
Pop like doing a milonga instead of a vals.