[Tango-L] Naming figures and decorations

[Valentin TIEDE]

Carlos Gavito says in an interview in "El Farolito" (Paris tango magazine, french and english) from Oct. 2003 (!) : 

"What I say to those who want to dance tango is to dance one tango each day without figures, which means using only the tango's basic structures. There are six for the woman.
First, a good back ocho. Second, an ocho forward. Third, a good turn. Fourth, a nice little voleo, that is a change of direction, not a kick in the air. Fifth, a good feminine cross. Feminine with sensuality. Sixth, walking well in tango"

On another place in this interview Gavito says :

"If I could suggest a theme for our walk it would be : Tango es entre paso y paso. Tango is between one step and the next.
Steps are not tango, steps are memory and choreography. Tango can never be in the things that are said. It is in the improvisation. The steps learned in dance schools are not improvisation, they are choreography. Small choreographies, brief ones. Then you learn how to connect one figure to another but one thing is still missing - tango. There is no step"

No comment!
Valentin



> Message du 12/02/10 07:32
> De : "Huck Kennedy" 
> A : tango-l at mit.edu
> Copie à : 
> Objet : Re: [Tango-L] Naming figures and decorations
> 
> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 9:35 AM, tony parkes 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 _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list Tango-L at mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l