[Tango-L] Choreography

[Jonathan Thornton]

Thanks, Huck,

Jake's infatuation with his own opinion of himself has become a colossal
bore.

Hopefully we've all learned to not even breathe a hint of a joke about
syncopation lest it spring up to bite us in our gluteus maximus!

Jonathan Thornton


On 7/24/06, Huck Kennedy <huck at eninet.eas.asu.edu> wrote:
>
> "TangoDC.com" <spatz at tangoDC.com> writes:
> >
> > Er, guys... ?
> >
> > What's the big deal about syncopation? It's a rather simple
> > affair of superimposed patterns...
>
>      Many dancers struggle with this concept from
> the musician's world.  If they don't already feel
> a bit chagrined about that, no doubt your
> dismissively informing them it's just "a rather
> simple affair" will hammer it home for them.
>
> > Hasn't everyone cultivated the habit of looking
> > up words and ideas they're not clear about?
>
>      Three points:  First of all, many dancers don't
> even realize they need to look up the word, because
> misusage in the dance world is so rife that they
> don't even suspect they're using the word wrong in
> the first place.  Heck, many instructors misuse it,
> so how can the students be blamed?  Secondly, even
> when they do become aware that there's a problem,
> without a musical background, the concept can be
> difficult to grasp from just reading a dictionary
> definition.
>
> > Given that everyone reading this has Internet access: can't
> > you start today?
>
>      And thirdly, you can really be an insufferable
> pompous ass at times.  Maybe this plays real well
> in person, but at this point, it's already starting
> to wear a little thin in print.
>
> > As for your usage of "choreography," Trini, you're perfectly correct.
>
>      Which is why we hear social tango dancers talking
> about their choreography all the time.  Not.  At least other
> than in a derogatory fashion.  As in a practica, "let's
> mix some variation into this so I can tell you're
> really following my lead and not just doing choreography."
>
> > The word, as a technical term in dance, has both the meaning you've been
> > using (general selection of elements) and the one more commonly thought
> > correct by some members of this list (premeditated, rehearsed, and
> > executed program). A quick look at Answers.com or Wikipedia will verify
> > this,
>
>      It most certainly will not.  The first four entries
> of answers.com, to wit, American Heritage, Houghton Mifflin,
> Word Tutor espindle, and WordNet, do not mention Trini's
> usage at all.  And even the fifth and last entry, Wikipedia,
> is a far stretch at best ("the art of making structures in
> which movement occurs"--that's vague enough that one could
> label almost anything "choreography," including building
> a basketball arena, and is thus a garbage definition).
>
> >as will browsing just about any (gasp) book on dance as an art form.
>
>      Do comic books count?  How about Cliff's Notes?
>
>      Could you possibly be more of a condescending,
> annoying, sophomoric twit?  Why yes, I suppose you
> could go back to reciting fresh bon mots from Oscar
> Wilde with each posting.  Oh my God, what have I just
> done.
>
> > I really do advise everyone
>
>      Do you now, laddie?
>
> > to look this garbage up Before they start
> > pontificating about "respecting words" and all that.
>
>      Okay, part of that is my bad.  I'd already
> responded on the subject of choreography, and the sole
> purpose of my responding to Igor's posting about
> respecting words was to make the joke about syncopation
> (a subject previously fretted over in this forum several
> times in the past, but of course you had no way of
> knowing that); but on re-reading that post, I see now
> that it could easily be misconstrued (well, by the
> shallow reader, anyway) to look like I was actually
> pontificating ("Take that, Trini, you ignorant slut!")
> instead of just using Igor's line as a straight line
> with which to lead into my joke.  For that carelessness
> I do apologize.  (No, not to you, you oaf, to Trini).
> Although I do think it was obvious from my original
> response to Trini that I had no desire to pontificate
> whatsoever.  That's your department, Jake--and if
> word count is any criterion, you're doing one hell of
> a bangup job at it.
>
> Huck
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>



-- 
"The tango can be debated, and we have debates over it,
but it still encloses, as does all that which is truthful, a secret."
Jorge Luis Borges