[Tango-L] tango schizophrenia

[Victor Bennetts]

Martin>How does one move past mimicking influential icons and into the >realm of developing a unique personal style in tango,

'Style' is a much misused word just like 'milonguero', so this is a discussion fraught with danger. They are both tainted with their use as marketing terms and at the end of the day all you can really measure is what works to make a nice dance for the follower and what does not, based on follower feedback. However I have been thinking about the S word a lot since a teacher from BsAs recently said to my wife and I that we have our own 'style'. What does that mean and is it a good thing? So here goes...

I don't think in Martin's post he is talking about style. What he is saying by contrasting the strong areas of Chicho, Julio and the like is just that every iconic dancer has their strengths and weaknesses. That is to be expected and is just like every other area of human endeavour. Take a group of leaders in a local community, for instance. They all get taught the same steps at the same time, but for whatever reason some seem to be able to do colgadas without a problem but just don't get it with boleos and then others are really comfortable in open but just don't cut it in close. So you see guys struggling for years to master the area in which they are weak. Say for argument's sake it is boleos. They get all worked up when they have to do one. They force themselves to do it. Through years of effort it eventually becomes textbook perfect, but is it enjoyable - no, because it is always going to be a little forced and unnatural. Arguably, the effort is wasted and they should just acknowledge what they are good at - some people are born sprinters and others are long distance runners. However I don't think this tells us anything about style. It is just a question of aptitude.

I was lucky enough to have a lesson with Milena Plebs on the weekend. I apologise in advance in case I misrepresent her, but this is my recollection of what she covered. She said a lot of interesting things and had a bit to say on the topic of developing your own tango style. At one point she said that there are many young professional dancers who can do way more complicated steps than milongueros, but the 'mysterious' quality which makes the old guys what they are is that if they execute the same step as everyone else, they do it in a way which is unmistakably individual to them. So she taught us a pretty simple sequence and then invited us by various suggestions to explore different individual ways of executing it. As she explained it (paraphrasing somewhat) a process of natural selection has to go on here fuelled by the leader's individual input. Critically, they can't get this from anyone else, it has to come from the leader him or herself according to Milena. She also said the whole style thing is a really subtle concept, so I doubt it is something that would necessarily be apparent from performances on youtube which are designed to be spectacular for visual effect.

I think professionals like performers, teachers and choreographers are actually at a disadvantage in some ways because they have to work on everything, develop spectacular routines and follow popular trends, not just develop what is required for a nice dance. My own personal goal is just to make a nice dance, so I choose not to think about style at all when I am dancing. I don't think it is going to do anything to get me a better score card from my follower. Instead I make some promises to my follower each and every time I get up to dance. The first promise is not to do anything that does not feel nice to the follower. That means accepting my own limitations and having the courage to drop things out of my dance if I can't get them to work or they feel forced. I can always try them again later after a couple more years :-). Secondly, I promise to try something new and unexpected every day. Some of this stuff won't work, but whatever is left over will be mine. Cool, now I just need another thirty years of dancing and I will magically have a style no problems ;-).

Victor Bennetts


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