[Tango-L] Tango without music?

[Michael]

Jack:
I also dance ballroom so I can answer the question. Not only is ballroom 100% figure based, it's also 100% musically based. Each dance has an unique cadence which is repeated throughout the dance. Cha Cha is S-S-Q-Q-S or numerically 2-3-4-&-1. Fox Trot is S-S-Q-Q. Quick step is S-Q-Q-S. These cadences are repeated over and over. It doesn't make any difference which orchestra is playing the music. It makes a BIG difference which orchestra is playing AT. IMHO, DiSarli and Pugliese are polar opposites.

Once you start a figure, you have to finish a figure. In AT, there are always possibilities after every step.
In my ballroom lessons, my teacher will say "that's a slow, not a quick." No AT teacher would say "that's supposed to be a slow." 

Michael
I danced Argentine Tango --with the Argentines


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jack Dylan 
  To: tango-l List 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 2:27 AM
  Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Tango without music?


  Yes, this is the way ballroom is taught because it's 100% figure-based. Unless the couple each know their steps to the same standard figures, they can't dance together.

  And yet, by some miracle, having learned the steps, they have no problem dancing those steps to the music. In fact, IMHO, ballroom dancers, on average, dance to the music far better than most tango dancers.

  No comment on why that is. 

  Jack



  > From: Tom Stermitz <stermitz at tango.org>
  > 
  > 
  > I have heard this is common in ballroom, but I don't have direct experience there.