[Tango-L] Dancing socially to Piazzolla

[Alexis Cousein]

Joe Grohens wrote:
> The Piazzolla music that was thought of as avant- 
> garde, which was written for listening and not for dancing, and which  
> was called "tango nuevo", seems to me, for the most part, to be  
> difficult for most people to dance to in ordinary social dance  
> settings.

No argument from me. But is something like "Bando" or "Preparense"
(1955) "nuevo" in this context? Is something like Milonga del Angel
"nuevo" in this context? Is "Oblivion" (if you'll excuse the very
British expression, the closest tango thing there is to the
proverbial smooch dance music at parties)?

You'll probably find as many opinions as people expressing them (except
from the bulk of staunch guardians of orthodoxy espousing simple
views like Piazzolla != danceable).

> Because much of Piazzolla's works for quintet are musically  
> very interesting, and beautiful, and because the sheet music is  
> published and readily available in parts for each instrument, I often  
> hear tango ensembles playing these pieces at milongas. I just think  
> that it is bad judgment.

No argument from me. Besides, I know many tango ensembles who make
arrangements of non-Piazzolla numbers so obviously tuned to a listening
audience that they also become undanceable.

There are many ensembles (outside of Argentina) without a
*really* good feel for playing for a dance audience, not only
because it requires quite a bit of unusual humility.

> 
> Someone commented to me privately that part of the problem is that  
> most dancers are not very good, and have trouble with anything that  
> doesn't have a metronomic beat.
> 
That, too.

People who dance to beautiful tango as if there were a fat Nubian
slave beating the drum on a Roman galley instead of tango music
(without ever dancing on the fast beat) make me sad almost as much
as people really misinterpreting Piazzolla.

I just saw some couples on US TV yesterday with absolutely *no*
musicality in their movements, and while they were extremely
elegant in their movement, it was obvious they didn't have a
clue about what tango is all about -- none of that jazz, if
you'll forgive the pun.

There is tons of music that has a "metronomic beat" that doesn't
require you to dance *only* to the basic 2/4 beat. Picking
the instrument you're tracking while you're dancing, and jumping
between the jungle of melodic lines, is one of the real pleasures
of tango (as is watching other people doing it).

> A friend of mine once asked me, on this same topic, if I didn't think  
> that tango dancers needed to evolve their dance forms to adapt to  
> newer music, rather than have the newer music adapt to the old dance  
> forms.
> 
Good tango dancers have been capable of showing extraordinary abilities
to adapt, even within traditional tango.

I don't think the good dancers to traditional music are the
ones who can't dance to something a bit more adventurous (though some
don't see the point, and that's their god-given right). It's just that
the somewhat less good tango dancers only able to dance to *just* the
simple beat or really uncreative at interpretation are made more aware
of their limitations when they can't fall back on the metronome. And
some resent that with a vengeance.


-- 
Alexis Cousein                                  al at sgi.com
Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect     SGI/Silicon Graphics
--
<If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals>