[Tango-L] Cadencia y ritmo

[larrynla@juno.com]

In Spanish as every other language the same word can have several meanings.  
Salida means exit, but also beginning.  The second meaning comes from the first 
- you begin a voyage by leaving a house or train station or the sidelines of a 
dance floor.

So with cadencia.  One meaning is a general one, moving to the music.

Beat and rhythm, compas and ritmo, are part of this movement.  They have two 
different meanings.  The beat is the underlying pulse of the music, which 
generally stays the same for the entire piece of music.  Or stays the same for 
passages of the music.  D'Arienzo (el rey del compas) was known for his audible 
steady beat, but also experimented with changing tempo in different parts of a 
piece.

Rhythm builds on the beat but is not captive to it.  The basic rhythm of the 
Argentine tango is slow-slow - ONE two Three four, where one steps on the major 
beats (the 1st and 3rd).  This is the natural rhythm of walking.  This is why a 
couple can learn to dance the tango (in a very simple way) in a half-hour or so.  
They already have most of the skills they need to have fun, to really dance 
rather than robotically do figures.

But much of the power of tango is that traditionally dancers are allowed to 
depart from the basic rhythm for shorter or longer periods of time, then come 
back to it.  The leader can replace a slow step with double, triple, or even 
faster steps.  If he firms up his embrace his partner knows to keep pace with 
him.  If he relaxes it she knows to keep to the basic rhythm.

Thus tango can be primally simple or sophisticatedly complex.

What is the specific meaning of cadencia?  Most of my years (almost twenty) of 
dancing tango it meant stepping in place, as the military do when marching in 
place, keeping the cadence.  Some people (including native Spanish speakers) use 
it to mean doing rock steps.  Which goes to show that language is not produced 
by robots, but by changeable, error-prone, humans.


Larry de Los Angeles
http://shapechangers.wordpress.com/



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