[Tango-L] Degrees of Separation - the music and the dance

[billswaniii@yahoo.com]

Christine Denniston writing about the tango renaissance contrasts dancing with 
simpler steps, or complex combinations.  Simple steps emphasize the connection; 
complex steps permit emotional distance between partners.   People can dance 
close embrace without connection, and open or complex steps with connection.  
But these are not the norm.   I would suggest that the music is similar.  Some 
tango dance music, mainly older recordings, ask for a deep connection with the 
music.   Other tangos, many of them newer, are so insistent they allow little 
independent contribution by the dancers.   Promisingly, a few DJs find modern 
alternative tango music that is superb for connection.  


Continuing parallels between music and dance, it has been measured that superb 
classical performances differ subtly in timing and emphasis from a mechanical 
(computer) performance of the same notes.   It is further observed that 
increasing or decreasing the difference from the mechanical line both reduce the 
perceived quality of expression.   So musicians spend their early years learning 
to play accurately, and their mature years learning to play inaccurately, in 
just the right way.   Similarly with dance.   Dancers learn first the moves, and 
later the expression.   Tango music and dance are rich enough that it may take 
years to get just the moves.  After that, you can work on expression forever.   
With ballet, it takes 2000 hours to have enough technique.   It may take the 
same with tango.   That's 5-6 years at 7 hours a week.  


Tango may not be the best dance to take up for casual social reasons.

 --Bill Swan (billswaniii at yahoo.com) 425 865 0374
2232 157th PL SE; Bellevue WA 98008     USA