[Tango-L] A Training Scale

[Lisa Battan]

Mingmar,

I think it would be very useful to have a discussion about the fundamental
skills that are needed in order to allow you to listen and express the
music.  Both men and women need this fundamental skill in order to dance
well.  Not listening to the music, or not moving with the music can lead to
a fundamental sense of disconnection and strife or struggle within the
partnership.

I agree that a discussion of fundamentals may be rendered graphically as a
pyramid.  In fact, the training scale of dressage is often referred to as a
training pyramid and it is often pictured as a pyramid.  The bottom level is
the most fundamental skill and the next fundamental skills builds upon that
base skill and so on until you reach the highest possible expression.

Dressage has been around many hundreds (or thousands if you go back to the
likes of Marcus Aurelius) of years and the study has been deep, intense and
world wide.  The study of tango is far newer and our conceptualization of
the dance is very weak (IMO).  People often speak in absurd vagaries and I
have never seen a clear conceptualization of the fundamental skills need to
dance tango well.  If only . . .

The partnership between horse and rider is very similar to the partnership
we seek in tango.  As Huck pointed out, the expression of a perfectly
listening horse and the connection with that horse is just like what he
would seeks in a tango partner.  Much discussion is made in dressage about
tempo, cadence and rhythm.  A flaw in any of those elements can lead to
disconnection and a failure to build the higher skills or higher
expression.

Tempo and cadence or rhythm are different concepts in riding and I believe
they are different concepts in tango.  I often hear Argentines speak a lot
about cadencia, but little is made of that fundamental aspect in teaching
tango to Americans.  I don't understand why.

Sincerely,

Lisa Battan
www.battanlaw.com