[Tango-L] music; live or dead

[Huck Kennedy]

Michael Ditkoff <tangomaniac at cavtel.net> writes:
>
> I wonder if we have become so familiar with a particular
> version, we've fallen into a trap of dancing the same way
> to that version

     I don't think so.  Being intimately familiar with
the music to the tiniest detail so you always know
exactly what's coming is a huge plus, not a liability.
It allows you to really dance to the music expressively
instead of just floundering around more or less aimlessly
or randomly.  That doesn't mean you have to make the same
exact moves everytime that particular version is played.
It just means that since you know what's coming, you
can improvise with something that fits the music.

     Think of Bill Murray in the movie "Ground Hog's Day."
He always knew exactly what was coming, but he did
something different each time, and was able to get quite
creative.  :)

> and whenever another version comes along, some of us are lost.

     Well the less we intimately know the music playing,
the more we *are* lost, at least with respect to really
dancing to that piece of music in particular, as opposed
to just doing tango moves vaguely following the beat, or
worse, with the music as just some sort of random backdrop
that's pleasant enough, but whose individuality is not
really all that important.

     This comes up in other dances as well.  If you hang
around West Coast Swing dancers, you'll always here
them talking about how the better dancers always "hit
the breaks," as they put it.  A lot harder to do that
with creativity, authority, and panache, if you don't
know the music and are dancing to a tune you're hearing
for the first time.

Huck