[Tango-L] was 'Salon again', now musicality

[Michael]

Randy:
I suggest that you don't even think of passing ankles on the half beat, but concentrate on stepping on the beat or the half beat (traspie.) I don't see musicality and velocity as mutually exclusive. My teacher, Joe, told me that if I take two steps per beat, each step is one half the size of one step for one beat. I'm not covering more floor when double stepping. I remember at one class he tried an exercise. He told the men that they had a defined amount of space. They could do whatever they wanted, BUT they couldn't go backwards, only forward or side. The music was slow, but in no time, I ran "out of space."

At one private lesson, he put on some music and told me to dance, by MYSELF and not to worry about a follower. I was terrible the first time, so I told him to show me. He went around the room ONCE, double timing, crossing, etc. Whatever he did, it was on the beat or half beat. That lesson was an eye opener, like most of the lessons.

Michael
I'd rather be dancing Argentine Tango


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rockies at comcast.net>
To: "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos at yahoo.com>; "Tango-L" <Tango-L at mit.edu>
Cc: "WHITE 95 R" <white95r at hotmail.com>; "Tango Society of Central Illinois" <tango.society at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] was 'Salon again', now musicality


Trini said:
> 
> So the velocity at which one moves is something we consider
> in structuring our material.  We start beginners  dancing
> rhythmically (Rodriguez, D'Arienzo) and then we slow them
> down (D'Agostino, DiSarli) and now we're working with them
> on impulse (Pugliese) and slowing them way down.  It's at
> this point that I think we can start working on being more
> elegant.  What do others do regarding velocity of movement?
> 
> Trini de Pittsburgh

This brings up another topic. I read somewhere that to be on the compas means that your ankles should exactly pass each other on the half beat as a leader. But doesn't that limit musicality? to me, the velocity of the step changes from start to finish in order to express musicality. I'm sure musicality is expressed in the upper body somewhat, but in A tango, we are taught to be relaxed, not a lot of upper body motion. So.. which is best? Changing velocity while stepping, or timing any changes to occur on the half interval? (seems a lot more difficult to me, but possible... it might give an asymmetrical step which may not look very elegant)

Cheers,
Randy F
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