[Tango-L] Can we please just dance?

[Jonathan Thornton]

Astrid,

I could be wrong but I took Deby to be speaking about the way tango Vals has
timing feels.

Most ballroom waltzing is just 1-2-3 but the tempo of most tango Vals means
much of the time I am only stepping on the 1, but I will hear in the music
sometimes 12_1, or 1_31, sometimes even 123, or 1_312_, and etc. It's these
changing hesitations, surges, and accelerations that make Vals such a
pleasure to me.

Deby may have had something else in mind. I suppose the 1-2-3 beat is
clearer for some people, I also have known dancers who for some reason said
they had particular problems with the Vals.

I personally feel that hearing and feeling the music is the most important
thing. I recall dancing once with a beginner that was so wonderful. She
didn't know ochos or the cross, we just walked but she felt the music and
responded and communicated to me with such richness of nuance that I wish we
had never stopped dancing.

Jonathan Thornton

On 7/25/06, astrid <astrid at ruby.plala.or.jp> wrote:
>
>   Vals is the most difficult of the rhythms to dance
> > simply because it changes rhythms and is not consistent.
>
> You think so? Vals is basically 1-2-3, isn't it? It is different from
> tango,
> yes, and needs getting used to. But for some former ballroom dancers it is
> often the only one of the tango dances they can manage rhythmwise, in the
> beginning.
>
> > A good teacher works with their students to first understand the music
> > and then to move with it.
>
> Very good point ! Dance is a physical expression of the music. I have
> never
> understood why some teachers, esp. stage dancers I suppose, teach by first
> explaining the step without the music, then have people practise the step
> without music, and finally turn on the music. When I ask, they say:"It is
> easier to do the step without the music first, because with music you
> might
> get it all wrong and not be able to follow the music." But then, what is
> the
> point of the movement? They give students the idea that the steps are more
> important than the music and the rhythm. And we all know where that can
> lead
> to...
>
> You can know all the steps in the world, all
> > the names for beats, rhythms, syncopation, but it will not help you if
> > you do not understand how to listen to the music.
>
> Exactly !
>
> Sadly this is rarely
> > ever taught.
>
> Yes. Have you seen all those Trenner videos of really famous teachers, who
> stand in front of the camera explaining, and then walk with their partner
> around the room, doing more and more complicated moves, and then, in one
> extreme case, only the last few minutes of the video of a group lesson the
> music is turned on, and the moves are finally starting to make sense?
>
>   Personally for me, poor posture and a weak axis can be
> > forgiven if the dancer understands the music and can transmit it.
>
> Yes! This is the kind of (often shy) beginner I will ask and encourage to
> dance again and again in the practicas because I know he has potential.
>
> You
> > can have all the steps in the world and know how to expertly execute
> > them, but if you don't do it with the music....que pena!
>
> That's what I am saying. Thank you, Deby
>
> Astrid
>
>
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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