Re: Music, Tango, & Dancing...

[Robert Hauk <robhauk @TELEPORT.COM>]

Roger,

You are right.  Tango really quit being played for dancers in the 50's,
and the major orchestras were then playing concert music that isn't
great for dancing.  Now as we revive this thing, modern musicians are
faced with learning all of this again.  If they don't dance, it is easy
to see why they are drawn to the more modern music, it makes more sense
to them, and it is initially more challenging and more fun for them.

We as dancers haven't been mature enough to show them the difference
yet.  As our dance music tastes get more refined we will know how to
tell the bands what we would really like to dance to.  Bands don't even
know what is a good tempo for dancing.  I haven't seen a single tango
orchestra that didn't play too slowly, and then slow down even more to
put more 'emotion' into the music.  This music is hard enough to dance
to and tiring enough that I really don't like to dance all night to it.
I also feel sad watching people dancing off the music because they can't
get in sync with it.  This isn't teaching them to dance well, and I
doubt that the experience is all that pleasurable.

The orchestra we had here for the tango fest played a lot of more
difficult music.  Experienced dancers can dance to this kind of music,
and have very pleasurable dances if they listen carefully to the music,
and each other, but it presents a big problem for the less experienced
dancers.  I had one of my students tell me that trying to dance to this
orchestra made her feel like she would never be able to dance tango.
She said she felt like she should give up tango completely.  It made me
feel bad to see people who payed their $18 to get in, only to have to
sit down because the music was too difficult for them.  The orchestras
need to understand this, because if they don't play music that everyone
can dance to they will never have a big enough audience to pay for what
they do.  Their labor of love is then completely wasted.

We have to be mature as dancers, and comunicate what we need, what all
dancers need, beginners and experienced alike, so everyone can have
fun.  Maybe if we sat down when the music was too difficult for most
people we would begin to tell the orchestra what we like to dance to.
Maybe we should ask that they play music that all of our dancers can
dance to.  Maybe we should teach the orchestra members to dance to give
them a feel for what we do.  In the old days musicians made their living
playing dance music so they knew all of this well.  Their next meal
depended on it.  This hasn't been true for a long time.

I would love to have really good live music to dance to.  It would help
build our communities and add an energy that is missing now.  We have to
be appreciative of good orchestras, and pay them what they are worth.
They also have to be worth having.  If they play difficult music that
chases our beginners away we can't really afford to have them play for
our parties very often.

Happy tangos to all,

Robert