Re: [TANGO-L] "What tango is all about"

[Tom English <tom @TANGONOW.COM>]

I beg to differ, which is why this group is so interesting.
 I have some formal training in music in that I played
trumpet in high school and then taught myself lead blues
guitar later in life.  But, I use so very little of that.
 Actually, I only really use it to listen to the teachers,
amusingly, as they try to get the students to hear the
various beats.

I find something different going on and I found myself
repeating something that works, although, I must confess
that I don't remember who put it into my head.

Here's the problem:  The leader's mind is taxed.  How can
he dance to the phrases in the music if he can't think
where to step next.  Case in point, I joined a coreography
group this last spring and summer and, even though I am
known for being musical, I found my coreographer saying
over and over again, "Its in the music.  Can't you hear
it?"  I was so frustrated because I don't do steps.  I
don't remember steps.  I DONT TEACH STEPS!  My mind was so
full, I couldn't hear the most major of phrases!

Now, lets move on to improvisational tango.  I was taught
to feel the music in my follower's feet, in my follower's
body.  Until I learned to do less, less, less, and feel the
follower feel the music, I struggled.  Read that line
again, "feel the follower feel the music".  You have to get
your students to think about what the follower is feeling.
 How can you make her settle into a step musically?  How
can you make her skip through a step, musically?  How can
you get her to pivot musically?

I contest that it isn't the man who is dancing.  Its the
woman.   You know.  The leader suggests a step, the
follower steps, then the leader steps, implying that the
leader is suggesting a feel to the dance, but it is the
follower's body that hits that step, rebounds off your
movement, reacts, and more.  The leader might have
suggested it, but then, the leader has to feel the follower
do what she does and accompany her.

Now, many of you might say that I just wrote a bunch of
bull----.  But, try to remember back (whether it was years
ago, or last night) to when you sat in the dark, after
getting drunk, and swayed with passion to your music.  For
me, when I was younger, it was Pink Floyd or rock and roll.
 Then, it was definitely BB King and Eric Clapton.  You
know how you embraced that music through your whole body?
 You have to teach your students the technique to feel the
music of their followers as they take each step.

It takes the guys about 2 classes to realize that you are
teaching them the technique required to feel the follower
rather than to accomplish a pattern.  It isn't my leaders
who are dancing.  Its thier followers.  I'm just teaching
the leaders how to allow thier followers to be verticle, be
comfortable, etc.  I'm teaching them the technique required
to allow themselves the opportunity to stay connected with
thier follower.  ( I could write alot of this from what I
teach the follower.  But, I hear men complaining about
men's dancing. )

Aaahh!  I could go on forever about this.  I stormed into a
private lesson a while back (as I was just learning close
embrace) and said that I was so mad because some followers
were saying that I wasn't musical, but I knew that I was
... alone!  So, in 3 lessons, she taught me soley about
keeping a consistent connection.  Voila!  I could tell the
world that I was right!  I did have musicality!  I just
didn't know how to keep a constant connection so it got
lost in the chaff between us!

Teach the leaders to be at the right place at the right
time to keep the followers comfortable and allow the
followers to feel the beat rather than just glossing over
it, and as their confidence grows, watch them become
musical!

I contest that the guys aren't musical because they don't
know how to stay connected with thier follower.  Go watch a
beginners' class.  In the first couple of weeks, hardly any
of them can even walk, as a couple, to the beat.  Well,
there it is!  Don't stop teaching them the technique of
keeping the connection.

Well, anyway, that's how I keep the guys in my class and
the women keep thanking me for working on the little things
that allow the men to have enough control to keep the
connection and feel the music.

 ....... I write too much!

Tom





On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 19:31:14 -0700
 Jonathan Thornton <jnt @NOYAU.COM> wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Huck Kennedy wrote:
> >
> >      I remember being at a workshop early on in my
> dancing
> > in which the male of the teaching couple was dancing
> with
> > one of the students, while his teaching partner
> admonished
> > the class, "Look at that musicality!  Why can't any of
> you do
> > that?  Can't you feel the beautiful emotion in the
> music?"
> >
> >      I felt like saying that as a musician, I probably
> > have more musicality in my little finger than both of
> > you put together, but I haven't been dancing 20 years
> and
> > don't yet have the requisite technique to be able to
> > relinquish my mind from even the simple task of
> worrying
> > about where to put my feet next in order to free up
> mind
> > space to worry about things like style and musicality,
> DUH.
> >
> > Huck
>
> Huck,
>         Absolutely one needs to develop skills. I am not
> saying technique
> is unnecessary or undesirable. From my experience and
> from reading this
> list and Rec.Arts.Dance I see a different problem.
> Technique is taught in
> the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. If a
> student is a
> musician they have experience with the structure and
> phrases of music. They
> can recognize the shaping of responses etc and will
> probably work to bring
> their technique into the service of the music. And to
> berate beginners for
> not dancing with the musicality of an advanced dancer is
> astoundingly
> ignorant.
>         But, for the many people who come to dance with
> out any formal
> education in music, I feel the approaches of social dance
> is insufficient
> for developing musicality. Not because of what is taught,
> but because of
> what is NOT taught. And many dancers are left the
> impression or the
> default approach to dance that one acquires a lot of
> steps and technical
> tricks and strings them together in time to the music.
>         That the lyrical and melodic phrases of the music
> have a structure
> that is expressed by the instrumentalists, and the
> vocalist, and can be
> expressed by the dancer are ideas and approaches that I
> have never
> experienced in any class or workshop I've attended.
>         I am interrested in how to teach non musicians to
> hear the
> downbeat and to recognize the beginning and climax and
> resolutions of the
> phrases of the music, and then how to express that
> development in their
> own movement. I'm not interrested in vainly exhorting
> them to be more
> musical, though I hadn't in my previous post developed
> this idea, so it
> might have seemed I could only complain. I am just
> frustrated that this
> part of the education of dance seems so rarely addressed
> in the classes
> and workshops that I'm aware of.
>         I am trying to develop a way to bring this
> awareness to dancers
> without a musical background. I have been unsuccessful to
> date in
> expressing my ideas in a way that interests dancers. My
> attempts to say
> that technique is necessary but not sufficient seems to
> be mis heard as my
> saying technique isn't necessary. From my experience
> technique is about
> all that is taught in social dance. If you see this
> differently, of have
> experienced other approaches I'm very interrested in that
> also.
>
> Thanks for responding,
>
> Jonathan Thornton



--
Tom English, Founder
TangoNow!
Boston's very own Argentine Tango
www.tangonow.com
tom @tangonow.com
617-783-5478