Re: [TANGO-L] hidden deep tango conversations

[Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>]

Music is a pathway to finding connection, so is imagination.

--Steve

Hyla wrote:
>I was dancing with a man whose
>musicality I really respect.  It was a practica, they were
>playing the slow instrumental Di Sarli.  I was just starting to
>make the transition from thinking of Di Sarli as "that slow,
>simple, boring, out of date beginner's music" but I wasn't quite
>there yet.  This man began leading things that made no sense to
>me, but as I said, I really respected his musicality.  So I
>started listening listening to find what he could possibly be
>hearing in the music, trying to make his lead work.  I did not
>want to do something to embarrass myself and lose his respect.
>I began hearing things in that music that opened Di Sarli out in
>ways I could never have imagined.  It's not simple!  Not boring
>at all!  My gosh, the layers of complexity, the opportunities
>for subtlety and finesse!

>At the end of the tanda, this man said, "gee, I was trying to
>see all through that dance if I could make you dance
>unmusically, and I just couldn't make you do it!"  Because I
>assumed that he was leading musically, I unconsciously
>refused to dance unmusically and thus forced him to allow me to
>find a musical moment to dance to.  Which in turn forced me to
>look for, and find, more of those moments in the depths of the
>music.  It worked because he was sensitive enough to me that he
>respected my "refusal", and sensitive enough to the music that
>he heard what I discovered in it.  He later remarked to several
>people "You just gotta dance Di Sarli with her!"

>I'm not sure what the moral of that story is, but if there is
>one, follow it!  It was a fabulous experience!