Work your mind hard rather than the body – Tango meets Yoga at LPTA!

The last weekend at LPTA was a special one. Very often we hear sports personalities and other people at the top of their professions talk about how it is all in the mind – during the Sunday classes at LPTA we heard it from someone who is at the top of their game in the world Tango scene – Leandro Palou.

The technique class was hard work as usual with the exercises focussing on things like stability, pivots, planeos, balance on one leg, etc. And when the partner dancing started, the focus shifted to sacadas. But the classes were nothing like the usual Tango classes! The difference was in the way Leandro brought attention to how to use the mind to continually improve your Tango. Of-course practice makes perfect and there is no substitute for that. Equally, practising something without making any improvements along the way is not helpful at all. This is where the innovative exercises kicked in – both in the solo technique class and in the intermediate class when dancing with partners. The exercises made sure that the mind had more work to do than the body. The general theme seemed to be – well, if you want to be lazy with your mind, it is going to be super hard, if not impossible for you to do this but stop being lazy with your mind and engage it, you can do it all easily!

This of-course is one of the cornerstones in any method of yoga. In most modern practices of yoga that are based on asanas (postures and physical exercises), the idea is to use the exercises to connect your mind with the body and in the process continuously refine your mind and achieve more and more freedom both physically and mentally. We carried on with that theme in the Yoga4Tango class afterwards. Yoga can be quite uncompromising when it comes to not using the mind. Trying to do a forearm dog and then lift a leg up in the air and opening the hips is not something you can start enjoying without engaging your mind in the process. It was fantastic to see even the guys new to Yoga really embracing the process of being mindful even when working hard and sweating it out on the mat. This process – the one that refines the mind continuously is what will help our students get better and better in Tango and continuously increase their enjoyment of it. And the smart ones will of-course translate this into the rest of their lives – both in other hobbies and professions!

All through this week, this theme will be continued in the classes by Leandro in his own fun inimitable way. There will be all sorts of sacadas starting from the beginner level to the Tango rock star advanced level classes covered during the week. Come along to the classes and have a full mind body workout!

Love and respect to you all,
Winston Veerender

Checkout our websites and Facebook pages:

http://www.leandropalou.com/classes/timetables/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leandro-Palou-Tango-Academy/465343373515280
http://www.yoga4tango.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Yoga4Tango