[Tango-L] Naming figures and decorations

[Huck Kennedy]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 9:35 AM, tony parkes <macromagix at gmail.com> wrote:
> hi david
>
> from following the tango-l posts for around 2 years now it seems
> evident to me that most american contributors are in alignment with
> what i see as the american psyche being steeped in statistics and
> analysis, and by extension putting a name to the outcome of those
> numbers and figures. and not just tango, but also politics, sports,

      So Argentine instructors only name figures in American classes,
because Europeans are far too sophisticated for that?  Are Europeans
too laid back to post the soccer league standings in the newspaper?
I'm just going to ignore this silly blanket generalizing (other than
to note that Europeans seem to love to generalize about Americans) and
go on.

> etc etc. there have been many times when i have been mesmerised at the
> extent to which a contributor has explained a particular step; or
> whether the beat it is a 2-2-2-4 or a 2-2-4-2 or whatever, or the size
> of space per person in el beso - how  can one have feeling for the
> music and the dance form in one's heart when so much information and
> detail is twirling around in your head.

      You are making the erroneous assumption that just because
someone analyzes something in a discussion means that they are also
doing all that analyzing when they are dancing.  That probably is
indeed true for beginning dancers, but not for more advanced ones.

      I also wouldn't be so quick to ridicule analysis.  If you ever
want to teach tango, it helps to be able to discuss concepts and
technique in an analytical manner rather than just demonstrate
something and then say, "You guys see that?  Pretty cool, eh?  Now
just copy it and off you go, see you next class!"

Huck