[Tango-L] A Training Scale

[Ming Mar]

Lisa Battan writes:
>I want my partner to be musical (rhythmic), relaxed, 
>forward thinking, clear and energetic in his movements, 
>grounded, connected and dynamic (to name a few).

This is a nice list to start off with, but not exactly what 
I had in mind when I asked what you want people to do.  
What I meant was more like:  I want my partner to dance in 
a way that permits me to listen to the music.  The music 
tells me when to step, but many men will lead me to step 
when the music says otherwise.  Resisting the lead so that 
I can step when the music says so only makes the men push 
harder.  I have to ignore the music in order follow these 
men.

Or maybe you mean:  The men all walk on the beat, but 
they're not paying attention to the music.  For example, 
they keep moving after the end of the song.  In D'Arienzo's 
"Esta Noche Me Emborracho Bien" there's a break, but the 
guys just keep moving as if the break wasn't there.  Or 
take Pugliese's "Pata Ancha."  They're not adjusting to the 
change in tempo or the switch of the accent from the 
downbeat (beats 1 and 3 in a 4/4 measure) to the upbeat 
(beats 2 and 4).

In order for the men to dance the way you want, they need 
three things:  knowledge, ability, and motivation.  They 
need to know what you want done and how it's done.  They 
need to be able to do it.  (For example, you want them to 
pivot, but they're wearing gummy-soled sneakers that really 
grip the floor.  They're not going to pivot.)  And they 
have to want to do it.

For them to be motivated: 
They have to value the reward.
The reward is conditional.
They believe they can perform the task.

In the work world the reward is money, and most people 
value money.  In the tango world the reward might be the 
ego boost from executing fancy moves, or it might be 
holding your body next to theirs.  Let's say the reward is 
foie gras but they hate liver of any kind no matter how 
expensive; they won't be motivated.

The reward is conditional means that they get the reward if 
and only if they perform the desired behavior.  If they get 
to hold your body next to theirs no matter how badly they 
dance, they won't be motivated.  If they think you're going 
to spend all your time holding your body next to that tall 
gorgeous smiling stud muffin no matter how well they dance, 
they won't be motivated.

If everybody tells them they have a great sense of rhythm 
and they expect to get the reward, they will be motivated.  
If everybody tells them they're dancing off beat and they 
expect not to get the reward, they will not be motivated.

Training can provide them with knowledge and ability.  
Afterwards, motivation becomes important.

For the first item on your list, "musical (rhythmic)," I 
would say that it has a hierarchical or pyramidal nature.  
The following schema/structure/paradigm/framework is 
something I just made up.  Feel free to criticize it.  In 
matching movement to music, I would say there are two sets 
of abilities.  The first set, at the foundation of the 
pyramid, is the mechanical ability to walk to the beat of 
the music.  The second set is interpretive and takes into 
account everything in the song, not just the location of 
the strong beats. 

At the bottom of the first set is the ability march to the 
beat of a metronome.  If a person can't do that, it's a 
really bad sign.  Next is the ability to march to the beat 
of a song that has steady regular beats and emphasizes the 
strong beats.  Next is taking two steps where you normally 
take one, sometimes called "syncopated."  Now, please don't 
tell me that that's not what "syncopated" means in music.  
I already know.  Next is the ability to march to songs of 
different tempos.  For faster tempos this means taking 
smaller steps.  For slower tempos this means moving slower.  
A good test is dancing to Di Sarli's "Bahia Blanca."  A 
more extreme test is dancing in slow motion to Piazzolla's 
"Oblivion."

At the bottom of the second set is the ability to stop when 
the music stops.  Almost everyone can tell when the song is 
about to end, even the guys who don't walk on the beat; so 
this shouldn't be a problem.  What comes next I'm unsure 
of, maybe everything else.  I guess the way to teach 
interpretation is to teach a lot of possibilities and then 
just let people do what feels right to them.  Most people, 
when they dance D'Arienzo, step on each strong beat.  Jorge 
Torres has an interesting way of dancing D'Arienzo.  He 
dances slowly.  He's still stepping on a strong beat, but 
he doesn't step on each strong beat.

At the end of most tangos is a section called variacion 
where the number of notes doubled.  In other words, if in 
the previous section the notes were eighths, in the 
variacion the notes are sixteenths.  In reaction to this 
one could do giros, stepping on both strong and weak beats.  
Often in the middle of the song there's a section called 
fraseo that does the same thing.

During a pause or rest, one could freeze one's movement at 
the last note to emphasize the pause.  (Of course one would 
have to know ahead of time that a particular note was 
followed by a pause.)  

Floorcraft should be learnt before worrying about 
interpretation.  What can be done on the dance floor is 
constrained by the environment of the dance floor.  For 
example, the waltz tells me to fly down the line of dance, 
but the person in front of me is stationary.  I have to do 
something else instead.  Or maybe the tango tells me that 
now would be a good time to pause and do adornos, but the 
person behind me is tailgating.