[Tango-L] Structure of Tango (Was: Four Layers of Tango Learning)

[Keith]

 I think Stephen Brown has dug a deep hole for himself and is now struggling to get out. In an earlier post he blithely gave
 'Structure of the Dance' as the 3rd of his 4 Layers of Tango Learning and, now, it's becoming increasingly apparent that
 he has no real idea about what that means. All he can do is refer to other teachers and make a list of some of the more
 common steps and figures that are danced in Tango.

 If he either doesn't understand it or just can't explain it - how can it be such an important element im Learning Tango?

 'Structure of the Dance' sounds like another ploy to overly-complicate the process of learning Tango. It really isn't that
 complicated - just go to class, don't think about it too much and you'll learn how to dance. Leave the theory alone until 
 you want to start sounding important on Tango-L.

 Keith, HK


 On Sat Jul 21  4:59 , Stephen.P.Brown at dal.frb.org sent:

>I think many of us who have been dancing for a while write and talk about 
>the structure of tango without really defining what we mean.  I'm 
>expanding on my previous post.
>
>If we think of tango as being made up of individual movements and 
>sequences of movements (step patterns), the structure of tango is the 
>fabric from which these movements are drawn.  Elements of the 
>structure of tango were discovered and systemized by two different groups 
>of dancers/instructors.
>
>One such approach emerged from a group of dancers led by Petroleo (Carlos 
>Estevez) and Salvador Sciana during the golden age of tango.  The group 
>explored and developed turns.  Mingo Pugliese was one of the youngest 
>members of the group, and he is credited for distilling the group's 
>thinking into a systematic approach to teaching turns (giros) as 
>generalized eight-count right and left turns.  The system serves as a 
>frame of reference for creating all turning steps including giros, 
>molinettes, enrosques and ganchos.
>
>Another approach emerged from a group of dancers led by by Gustavo Naveira 
>and has included such other dancers/teachers as Fabian Salas, Chicho 
>Frumboli, and (possibly) Pablo Veron.  With 
>contributions from his then partner, Olga Besio, and some of his 
>compatriots, Naveira developed a systematic way for looking at all the 
>movement possibilities in tango.  Some of the concepts included parallel 
>and crossed systems of walking, ochos as part of the system of turns, 
>boleos as an interuption of turns, and the equivalence between cross 
>walking and back ochos.  Naveira's system serves as a frame of reference 
>for creating all tango steps.  In addition, the system help bring into 
>visibility some step patterns such as overturn ochos and a change of 
>direction in turns that were not previously used with much frequency.
>
>These underlying structures can provide a frame of reference and an 
>encyclopedia of tango movement.  Mastery of these structures can greatly 
>increase the fluidity of a tango dancer's improvisational skills.  (What 
>is required for such mastery, I will leave for further discussion, but it 
>takes much more than 6 weeks.)
>
>Some of the structural elements of tango are:
>
>     Walks (Caminatas)
>           parallel foot, in line
>           parallel foot, outside right
>           parallel foot, outside left
>           cross foot, in line
>           cross foot, outside right
>           cross foot, outside left
>           arrastres or barridas (drags or sweeps)
>     Turns (Giros)
>           forward ocho
>           backward ocho
>           giro
>           giro with sacadas
>           boleo/amague
>           molinete (with lapiz)
>           enrosque
>           forward enrosque
>           arrastres or barridas (drags or sweeps)
>           planeo
>           change of axis steps
>           change of direction steps
>     Sandwiches (Mordidas)
>     Embellishments (Adornos, Firuletes)
>     Structural Connections
>           basic step as a hallway
>           basic step as a turn
>           parallel and cross foot walking
>           interchangability between back ochos and cross-foot walking
>           lapiz-enrosque
>
>For further reading,  I recommend reading Brian Dunn's interview with 
>Gustavo Naveira:
>http://pythia.uoregon.edu/~llynch/Tango-L/2006/msg04984.html
>http://pythia.uoregon.edu/~llynch/Tango-L/2006/msg05040.html
>
>For a visual representation I recommend the videos by Gustavo Naveira and 
>Olga Besio and those by Daniel Trenner.
>See: http://www.tejastango.com/video_resources.html#Structure
>
>The Pugliese videos might also be helpful, but I find those videos are bit 
>less direct about the fact they are teaching from a structural system.
>See http://www.tejastango.com/bridge_tango.html#Pugliese
>
>Even better attend the Gustavo Naveira workshops that are upcoming
>
>With best regards,
>Steve
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