The Loco Sacada is a misnomer. There’s no actual Sacada that’s named that. We made up the title. 😉 The actual title of this video is The Follower’s Over-Rotated Back Sacada. Kinda long and doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue. Hence the new moniker! You’re welcome.
We have to back up a bit and tell you that in the former incarnation of Tango Topics when it was the Tango Truisms Project, we created a series of videos that were for sale. This Topic was one of those videos. At the time, it didn’t garner that much attention. But as Tango Topics has grown and there’s one thing we keep getting asked about are more Sacadas, Volcadas, and Colgadas. This video has been sitting in the archive, untouched for almost 4 years. So here we have yet another Sacada. However, the title, is rather apt. It is a ‘Loco’, or as the word in Spanish when translated to its English cognate, ‘Crazy’. It’s crazy because of it’s over-rotation and the way in which the over-rotation occurs.
Moving on.
The Loco Sacada is exactly what it sounds like, but before we get into that. We have to issue a warning that most of you do not want to read, or care about because this is quite honestly cool vocabulary for both roles. So first the warning: This is not a simple move (duh). Do not attempt this unless you are under the active guidance of a teacher that knows what they’re doing. You can easily hurt yourself and/or your dancing partners in any number of ways.
There are certain things you have to have mastered before you should even attempt this stuff. 1.) Your walk must be stable from a Leading perspective as well as from a Following perspective. Meaning that you can not and should not use your fingers, palms, wrists, forearms, and/or biceps for stabilization from or against your partner’s reciprocal body parts. If you have not mastered your Intention-Based Dancing Skills yet and not using the embrace to push, pull, or engage ‘resistance’, then stop right here and go and master that stuff first and foremost. 2.) You must be able to Disassociate and then Apply that Disassociation (known as Applied Disassociation) without thinking about it. Because if you have to think about it, it’s too damned late! 3.) You must have precise and millimeter-level precision control over your legs, and feet. As in where you’re moving them, and how you’re moving them, and where they’re going to, as well as how they’re landing and/or resting.
If all of that sounds anal and not fun. There’s a reason for it. And that’s so that you don’t end up hurting yourself attempting to do something you’ve seen online without the necessary preparations so that you don’t injure yourself or your partners that this stuff can cause. Which is to say that you must prepare your body appropriately first and foremost. That said, without further yapping, we present for your perusal, The ‘Loco’ Sacada.
What is a ‘Loco’ Sacada ? This figure, and it is a figure, can be used in Open embrace, or Close Embrace (but not without some modifications) and be initiated in the line of dance if and only if there is ample space to do it. It is an over-rotation of the Follower’s Ocho, employing an Over-Rotated Back Ocho for the Follower into the Lead’s Forward Step. Rightfully most people would never think of employing this figure within the Line or Lane of Dance. And there’s a reason for that. It can take up an inordinate amount of space. Hence the reason why we stated previously that ‘there is ample space to do it’. So what’s ample space ? About 6 meters and a little ‘wiggle’ room on either side just in case things go south, and things ALWAYS go south. So plan on 7 meters to be on the safe side.
Realistically though, this figure isn’t about using it on a social dance floor. It’s more for study purposes to engage the applied disassociation for BOTH roles, not just the obvious one, the Follower’s role.
It should be noted that while this is a study-only figure and that it can be invoked on a social dance floor assuming space isn’t at a premium and it can be employed from Close Embrace, that at some point the embrace does have to become ‘Fluid’. Meaning that the embrace will change based on the choice of vocabulary that is employed so that the vocabulary can be accommodated.
Why should you use a ‘Loco’ Sacada ? You shouldn’t. Not unless you have space, and a dancing partner that has mastered their foundational elements. And even then this is accent or spice vocabulary that is best left for your tango lab work and not necessarily for a social dance floor. Think of it as that piece of vocabulary that you pull out once in a blue moon, near the end of the milonga with a partner that you’ve danced a million times with, and you invoke this ONCE and you let it go and then you move onto other things that are far more important! In other words, this is a study piece that you want to work on and with, to extend your own flexibility, and adaptability to different movements.
