[TANGO-L] Tango dancer as improvisational musician

[Robert Hauk <robhauk @TELEPORT.COM>]

Sue,

This relates very directly on the musicality thread that has been going
on.

As I read everyone's thoughts on musicality I get the sense that it is
generally thought that new tango dancers don't feel the music.  There
are many suggestions about what we should teach to help people along.
My experience is different with beginners.  I see a lot of new people
because I teach the beginning class before the Monday milonga here in
Portland.  I like to talk with new people, especially the ones who end
up staying for the milonga.

In my experience most people who try tango and get hooked like the music
a lot.  If they are having any major frustration it is that they don't
have the skills, and the movements yet to express in dance what they
already feel in the music.  Of course new people are also often
frustrated by people who teach them on the dance floor when they just
want to dance and have some fun, but that is a different thread.

Now when Sue brings up the idea that by studying how musicians improvise
music we might learn something for dancing, I am standing up and
cheering.  I also play music, and when I realized that improvising in
dance is exactly like improvising music my dance was forever changed.  I
felt silly afterward that I hadn't recognized this earlier.

When you are playing music, there comes a point when you are no longer
thinking in words at all.  There is just sound, and feeling.  You
translate your feeling directly to sound through your instrument, no
time to think about it or plan it.  Obviously you have to be pretty
familiar with your instrument to do this, and you have to be familiar
with the kind of music you are playing as well.  It is an amazing
experience when you wake up a bit in the middle of it and realize that
none of the musicians on the band are thinking in words any more, you
are all communicating with each other through the sound you make.
Something happens to the music when everyone is in this 'zone', and
people listening feel it immediately.  The effect is electric.

When this same thing began happening to me on the dance floor I finally
recognized what we are trying to do in our dancing.  When I am dancing I
can feel when my partner quits thinking, and is just feeling the music,
and the movement, and when she gets into the zone, I have the chance to
follow her.  Then for a few passages of the song, hopefully the whole
song we move together in the shared feeling of the music.  We never
think about steps, phrasing, or anything.  We simply experience the
music, almost from inside, as though we exist inside the sound, and the
music makes the phrases, the feeling, the rhythm, and we respond without
knowing, or caring to know why.

Obviously beginners can't do this right away.  You can't pick up a new
instrument and improvise on it right away either.  You have to get to
know the thing before it can become an extension of you.  Dance is no
different, we have to learn how to move.

When I teach tango I like to present small, relatively simple steps,
steps that later can be combined into larger phrases and such.  I try to
work with the music right away and I don't want people thinking too much
about steps.  You can see them thinking at first and they can't get on
the music, but when they relax and move they find the music pretty
quickly.  As they progress I like to work with combinations of these
simple steps, getting them used to combining things, and seeing
connections between things.

Now go back and spend some time with a favorite jazz album and listen to
the solos.  If you listen you hear little phrases that pop up again and
again, probably in slightly modified form, and you hear how the musician
is improvising.  The little phrases are a little like words, or maybe
syllables.  The longer phrases are a bit like sentances, and can only
last as long as the musicians breath (if the musician is playing a wind
instrument).  You begin to hear the musician's music as an expressive
language.  What does this language mean?  I heard a great quote from a
musician on this question.  He said "If I knew what it meant I wouldn't
have to play it".

Now go back and listen to some tango music.  Better yet, dance to some
good tango music, and dance hours and miles to it.  Dance until you
don't have to think about the movements.  Listen to the music and dance,
and at some point you should begin to feel the flow of the music.  Learn
what the lyrics are about and maybe it will help you find a feeling to
create with your movement.  Be an actor and play with this story.  Do
whatever you can to forget about steps and technique so you can just
dance.  Then the magic can happen.

Abrazos,

Robert




Sue Stigleman wrote:
>
> I've just read an interesting book called Thinking in Jazz:
> The Infinite Art ofImprovisation (Chicago Studies in
> Ethnomusicology Series) by Paul F. Berliner
>
> The author spent a number of years interviewing jazz musicians
> about how they learned to play and to improvise.  It's fascinating
> reading.  It also shows clearly that jazz improvsation isn't some
> kind of blind effort but is in fact based on years of honing a
> number of specific improvisational techniques.
>
> Another tango dancer in my community is reading it also,
> and we're going to explore together how it relates to tango.
> If anyone here picks it up and is interested in "joining" us,
> let me know!
>
> --sue