[Tango-L] Tango to SLOW waltz?

[c.roques@mchsi.com]

Phil wrote:


<<<Has anyone else heard a *slow* tango sounding tune with 3 very slow 

beats per measure? How did you dance to it? What are your thoughts?>>>


Actually there have been quite a few tango waltzes over the years that were slow.  They just were not the popular ones and DJs tend to not play them.  If you dig into more and more tango music eventually you will hear slow ones.  I have always like dancing to waltzes so I have purposefully searched for CDs that have them and have made some interesting discoveries over the years.  Most of the ones we know, like those by D'Arienzo and Tanturi, for example, tend to be faster but two that come to mind, Juan de Dios Filiberto's "Tus Ojos Me Embelesan" and Roberto Firpo's "Ondas Sonoras" are both very slow.  What obviously defines a waltz is the 3/4 tempo, not the speed.   It is probably about dancing at a comfortable pace and very slow tango waltzes "seem" to drag out so it was natural evolution to speed them up to the pace of other tangos.  It might depend on your dancing style and choice of steps, because there are some tango steps that don't work well in waltz.  I have choreographed to a slow Firpo waltz and like to dance to slow ones as well as fast ones, but admittedly you don't hear the slow ones very often. 
Cheers
Charles,