Re: [TANGO-L] Off the beat?

[Jay Rabe <jayrabe @HOTMAIL.COM>]

Brian,

    Your description of a dance  expression (eg. maximum extension of a
colgada lean) synchronized to an implied "beat" midway in a "timed silence"
is Perfect. It's a subtle but key component of what (I suspect) Ditkof's
women interviewees call "musicality."

    J in Portland

P.S And apologies to you Michael if I've mispelled your name. Couldn't find
a post to confirm.


----Original Message Follows----
From: Brian Dunn <brian @DANCEOFTHEHEART.COM>

Charles wrote:
>>>
Brian Dunn wrote in response to Tom's comment that the weight is changed on
the beat:
"Not necessarily.."

I disagree. Tom is correct.
<<<

Charles, without a trace of irony, I refer you to an earlier posting of mine
discussing teaching, styles, etc. entitled "All Tango Teachers are
Correct" - and doubly so if you consider yourself a tango teacher.

Tom says:
' "Being ON the beat" means "completing the change of weight at the beat".'
I fully grant you that that's what Tom means by "on the beat", and that you
agree with him.  That is "not necessarily" what I (and others) mean by the
phrase - but still, you, Tom and I all get to be "correct", unless you &/or
Tom deny me the privilege I grant you.

To clarify MY meaning, let me try another tack:
Imagine a group of musicians playing together.  If someone is early or late
sounding a note for which the score says all should be sounding in unison,
that person could be said to be not "on the beat."  Whether or not that
missed note is also a downbeat that a dancer would recognize as a "step,"
requiring the completion of a weight change, etc. is less important to the
conductor and the other musicians than whether that person sounded their
note "early" or "late", i.e., off the beat.  It was this quality I referred
to when I said, "If you want to see whether a leader is on the beat, watch
his follower's feet, not his."

Another tack:
Consider the silence intervals in "Pavadita" - personally I love to lead
things like pivoting colgadas during these "timed silences", set up so that
the greatest extent of the colgada's lean, or the greatest rotational
velocity of the pivot, happens "on the beat" midway between the start and
stop of the silence.  During this part of a pivoting colgada, and before the
step out, there's no step, no weight shift to a new foot - but by my
definition I am leading her "on the beat" - and the feedback I get suggests
that it is musically appreciated and understood.

Perhaps for this quality/attribute you would prefer terms such as "on the
music", "on the rhythm", "with the music", "as written", etc.  I hope I've
made my meaning clearer to you.  As I said before: "In teaching, you never
know who's going to get the concept from what image, so it's good to have a
lot of approaches and images to pick from, and use several in each class."

You also said:
>>>
I also disagree about the follower being behind. If a woman is behind the
beat there are lot's of problems ahead.
<<<
You lost me - I don't know what you are referring to...



Have fun with YOUR favorite images, ;)
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado  USA
1(303)938-0716
http://www.danceoftheheart.com

_________________________________________________________________
See when your friends are online with MSN Messenger 6.0. Download it now
FREE! http://msnmessenger-download.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
REMINDER: Announcements of Tango events or products should be sent to
Tango-A and not to TANGO-L. To subscribe to Tango-A, send the
command "subscribe Tango-A Firstname Lastname" to LISTSERV @MITVMA.MIT.EDU.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------