[Tango-L] Embellishment Queens, musicality

[astrid]

 I have yet to see a class where the
> adornments are taught as part of musicality.

I think, the problem here is that so many people are looking for a short cut
to tango. The teachers as well as the students.
I wonder how much of musicality can be taught. Musicality is a talent that
people either have to begin with, or it is acquired in many, many hours of
listening to music, and more hours of dancing to it.
It is easy to teach some step combination to students, or certain adornos to
women, or at least to pretend to do so.
But the proper application of what you learned in class can only be
developed by practising. To learn the tango walk, there is no way around
walking your miles.
To make your body move in rhythm to the music, the mind and body and mind
have to be trained in a way so that the body can repsond without delay to
what you are hearing and to what brain signals direct it to do. In the
beginning, this connection is not developed properly, the dancer is
struggling with balance, connection, leading/following, navigation and
trying to get it all coordinated. Once you have acquired the freedom to move
exactly the way you want, you can start interpreting the music in more
detail and variation. But this is a process that takes years, and I think,
no matter how much explanation and direction is given in classes, in the end
the dancer is on his/her own to unfold and put to use what he or she
learned. It is the few seconds at the time when this flow actually happens
in the beginning that keep people dancing and trying get back into these
moments again and again.
In the end, a tango with the right partner can be one long esctatic state of
being in the flow, but these experiences are precious, and it is not
something you can buy for money in a workshop. And it is not something you
can take for granted either once it has started happening.

Astrid