[Tango-L] musicality

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

Sean here:
   
  First, to Fan: Some people learn best by watching - visual learners. But this is necessarily a vebal forum, which is best suited to other methods of learning. I have a cupboard full of teaching videos. They are useless to me, I am a verbal-kinesthetic learner. In any event, why are you reading this? It's analytical. 
   
  Jake: "Collecting on the half-beat IS good form."
  -Care to define collecting? Legs, axis, balance, center? This term is used to indicate so many different ideas in tango that it is more or less useless without extensive qualification.
   
  Jake: "Nor is 'half-beat' synonymous with 'upbeat,' unless the downbeat is all you care to 'step on.'"
  -Good point.
   
  Jake: "I'd also add (to the discussion of walking analysis) that a pivot ISN'T 'part of a step,' unless you're dancing slop."
  -Semantics. I think Trini was pretty clear in stating that pivoting is discrete from extending, transferring weight, and closing.
   
  Jake: "they don't collect with enough precision (either their legs, or their axis over their support-- it amounts to the same defect)
  -I disagree with your last point; you are describing two different defects. When I am walking well, I arrive at my axis on the half beat, before I close my trailing leg. It is the final flexion of the trailing foot that brings me to my axis. I just tried to do what you seem to describe – (arrive at my axis and close my legs simultaneously on the half beat.) It may be possible, but I can't do it. I end up trying to pull myself from the weighted foot, or jumping. Either way, I don't get to my axis, and it's ugly. Conclusion: Not arriving at one's axis is a discrete defect that is at best marginally related to closing one's legs. 
   
  When I am walking poorly, I can close my legs and achieve balance without ever reaching my axis. This is very common, and I guess what you mean by "I'd venture further and say that plenty of experienced dancers, under examination, in fact have quite poor form". Many, many dancers think they are "collecting" by closing their legs, when in fact, they never reach their axis. Quite a few don't even reach balance.
   
  One must arrive at one's axis to pivot well. But there is no need to close the legs. If that was necessary, then the lapis and the planeo would not exist. So not closing the legs may or may not be a defect, but it is not the same as not reaching one's axis.
   
  ~Sean


PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society 
Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh's most popular social dance. 
http://patangos.home.comcast.net/ 

       
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