[Tango-L] Tango Music

[Jake Spatz (TangoDC.com)]

Dear list,

While I generally agree with Sergio on this one, there's a particular 
point I'd like to counter-- namely:

Sergio Vandekier wrote:
> Unless you spend time with somebody that knows the music and is able to teach you tango musicality it is obvious that you, by yourself will never discover the pleasure of listening and dancing to real tango music.
I agree that there IS a particular musicality and therefore movement for 
tango, largely due to the nature of the music itself (its articulation 
and its content), and secondarily due to the embrace. BUT I do not 
believe this necessarily needs to be passed down like a family recipe. 
Someone with a keen ear and an intuitive sense of movement-- and a sense 
of poetry (for the Argentines are a _literate_ people)-- can figure it 
out with some effort.

I state this solely on behalf of the exceptions to the general rule, who 
are better off on their own than seeking counsel from dancers who reduce 
all musicality to rhythm and (inevitably) to _counting_, which is the 
least part of it.

On the other hand, as an additional support for Sergio's argument, I 
might point out that (in my experience) those with a wealth of other 
dance experience-- whether in jazz, salsa, ballet, hip-hop, or 
whatever-- tend to have more trouble Getting It. They often want the 
dance to be something it isn't, and because of that they can't see what 
it is...

A clear and present example of this latter type might be Mr. "meaning of 
life." A lot of "movement" experience, and a wife who teaches some other 
dance, doesn't really mean shit when it comes to tango. You don't need 
prior dance experience, and I often think it's better if you don't have 
any. What you need is a body that can move, a true taste for the music, 
and a mind that can comprehend that tango isn't "dance," but a 
subculture-- the dance being only one facet of it.

Jake
DC
.