[Tango-L] Tango is not a pose

[Ed Doyle]

Two expressions I personally like are:

1) "You can dance tango too fast, but you can never dance it too slow"

2) "Never chase the music, let the music chase you"

Tango is a 'happening' where you, your partner, the music, the other
dancers, come together for a brief moment in time and space. It will never
ever be exactly the same again.  It is not a race, a contest, or a show.
Make the most of each tango instance.

Ed

On 5/9/07, Tango Society of Central Illinois <tango.society at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Deby's point is right on the mark. Not that one is required to dance
> once around the floor in a tanda. That's just a nice consequence of
> taking your time with the music.
>
> One of the greatest deficiencies in tango dancing I see in the US is
> that most dancers are always in a hurry. They are either ahead of the
> music (if they are even paying attention to the music at all) or their
> steps are too long so they don't have time to collect their balance
> and they are falling over their feet. A lot of this is the consequence
> of thinking of tango as a sequence of steps rather than as a
> connection to partner and music.
>
> Enjoy the music. Take your time. Several very good tango instructors
> I've experienced have emphasized that one should be 'almost a little
> bit late' in keeping with the rhythm. Also, enjoy the pauses. Tango is
> not a race.
>
> Ron
>
>
> On 5/9/07, Marisa Holmes <mariholmes at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > There are actually pauses in the music in case you
> > > might not have  noticed.  There actually places in
> > > the music where one is supposed to pause and dance
> > > in place.
> >
> > There are also types of music which are marked by
> > rhythms, tempos, and melody lines that suggest
> > movement through space during much of the song.  These
> > types of music include almost all valses and many
> > tangos.
> >
> > > The best milongueros will tell you that in the set
> > > of 4 you should only  be able to go around the floor
> >
> > > once.  If the man can meet the woman and say good
> > > bye to her in the same place, it is considered a
> > > compliment.
> >
> > It seems to me to be rather sort of a stunt which
> > privileges calculation, elitism, and a vaguely
> > antisocial desire to control others' expression over
> > response to the music, the space, and the partner.
> > Only someone monomaniacally determined to dance
> > "correctly" will find that they take the same length
> > steps and move at the same speed when the room is
> > large and uncrowded and when it is small and full of
> > other couples.  And only someone whose appreciation of
> > music is entirely overcome by a frenzied need to be
> > more-authentic-than-thou will dance the same way to
> > vals, milonga, tango, d'Arienzo, de Angelis, Troilo,
> > you name it.
> >
> > Marisa
> >
> >
> >
> >
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