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Re: [TANGO-L] Tango Topics Online
Among the list of articles Susana posted to the Tango-L there is one
passionately defending the eight-count basic step as a learning tool
(http://www.tangovancouver.com/tango/symposium/symposium.htm#Abandon8Count):
<----------------------------
Appearing on the Tango horizon is a philosophical debate over the teaching
of the 8 count basic and the seemingly opposing view that a student must be
shown only the walk as a beginning. Advocates of this idea also seem to
resist the naming of patterns. They wish not to limit students to only a few
set patterns and instead wish to help student leaders to arrive at patterns
themselves...
---------------------------->
Correction: student leaders should not arrive at patterns themselves. It's
patterned thinking idea. Instead they should avoid patterns like a plague,
creating new dance, which interprets the music on a spot. Starting with
simple walking and adding walk variations one at a time.
Tom and Andy have already pointed out that the difficult issue of dance
musicality conveniently brushed off in another article at the same website:
(I am currently of the opinion that it is impossible to teach anyone to
interpret music... A teacher of Tango attempts to teach a synopsis of a
history of patterns which define "Tango"...) is not difficult at all and
results from the pattern teaching approach of the instructor.
Here is another interesting article on pattern teaching: Intelligent
Dancing' article by Richard Powers in Stanford
(http://dance.stanford.edu/syllabi/intelligent.htm).
<-----------------------------
This is authority-based ballroom dance. The standardized syllabus, the
studio and the trainer are all precisely specified authorities, carefully
controlling every detail, every shape and nuance of one's dancing. Here are
the judges who will determine if you are doing it correctly. Here is the
Silver Level award to certify that you satisfied the authorities. So right
from the beginning they give you a blueprint of your dancing, and your job
is to automatically follow that plan, that map.
That's what the word authority means. It literally means they are the author
of your dancing. Not you.
That's okay. Many people need that level of authority in their lives, or
they simply want someone to tell them exactly what to do, so I'm certainly
not saying that this approach to ballroom dance is wrong. This is exactly
right for many people. And to give authority-based ballroom studios further
credit where it's due, self-esteem may be boosted when these criteria are
successfully mastered.
But you can also gain positive self-esteem from self-authored dancing. Or
better yet, co-authored dancing, where both dancers collaborate on creating
the dance.
There is a fundamental difference between these two approaches. If the
stimulus-response relationship of a situation is automatic, as it is in
authority-based ballroom dance, we can't, by definition, consider the
response to be as intelligent as self-authored spontaneous freestyle
dancing.
Leonardo Da Vinci wrote, "Anyone who relies upon authority uses not his
understanding, but rather his memory."
As I see it, this is a choice between art and craft. Art involves
creativity, spontaneity and self expression. Craft is skillfully creating
something which might be aesthetically pleasing, even beautiful, but without
the emphasis on personal creativity and self expression.
Picasso and Degas created art. Painting by numbers is a craft. So I think of
freestyle partnering is the art of dancing, while following a syllabus or
trainer is the craft of dancing. Nothing is wrong with crafts they can be
very beautiful. You might do a good job of coloring within the lines and the
result might be pretty, but someone else is the author.
Ballet is another authority-based dance form, as it should be (you don't see
much freestyle improv ballet!). Ballet is an art for the choreographer but
it's a craft for the dancers. George Balanchine said, "Dancers are my
instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays." And the dancers are
happy to accept that. It's the same in some ballroom studios, where the
syllabus creators, often long-dead, were the artists and the dancers are the
artisans.
It's your choice. Both options are valid and each has millions of devotees.
Choose the one which suits your personality the best.
-------------------------------------->
All I can add is that if you choose Argentine tango, you have chosen the art
form where there is very little room for eight count basic step.
Cheers, Oleh K.
http://TangoSpring.com
From: Susana Domingues Dance <susana @TANGOVANCOUVER.COM>
Reply-To: Susana Domingues Dance <susana @TANGOVANCOUVER.COM>
To: TANGO-L @MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: [TANGO-L] Tango Topics Online
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:59:05 -0800
Please enjoy the following topics written about on my website:
http://www.tangovancouver.com
As well as published Tango Articles.
...