[Tango-L] Not dancing with the music

[Michael]

Based on private messages, I can see that I've confused some list members.
I'm going to try again.

 

Technique and musicality are required to dance well. I learned them
separately. Daniel Trenner said at Tango Locura in 1999 that you have to
learn how to dance before you can dance tango. BUT some people skip learning
how to dance and go directly to tango with horrible results.

 

My private teacher (for eight years) concentrated on the fundamentals: axis,
frame, posture, balance. (I know there won't ever be universal agreement on
the definition of fundamentals.) I was jealous of men who were able to lead
figures that were beyond my grasp. My friend Anna, said; "But Michael, the
men you look at don't have Joe as their teacher so they don't have the
fundamentals. Even though it looks like they dance well, they really are
dancing very poorly, very well." There's an Argentine expression: When the
man walks nicely, the woman wants to die in his arms. When the man walks
poorly, the woman wants to die.

 

Before you can learn to dance, you first have to learn how to walk. I had to
fix my walk before I could even consider walking well. One of the few times
my teacher allowed me to look down was changing to cross feet for ochos.
After a (long) while it clicked. 

 

I couldn't do figures to the music because I didn't have enough skill and
confidence. Once I developed them, musicality was added. I wasn't good
enough to learn technique and musicality simultaneously. BUT I was on the
right path and I knew I would reach the destination but didn't know when I
would arrive.

 

I hope this is a better explanation of my learning curve.

 

Michael

Came home to New York where the Argentine Tango is better