Re: [TANGO-L] TANGO-L Digest - 18 Nov 2005 to 19 Nov 2005 (#2005-317)

[David Liu <dwyliu @GMAIL.COM>]

*Smiles*.

You wrote well, and I actually agree with you, but ...

Whose to say that someone can't do what you just said to a different type of
music?

David

On 11/19/05, H Dickinson <hyladlmp  @yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Lucia wrote something along the lines of(I am probably
> misrepresenting a bit what she meant to say, I'm trying to get
> it from memory): "In TANGO DANCE, the music is just a
> catalyst...the important thing is what you do with the movement,
> so why not use whatever music you like to inspire you?"
>
> HUH? I guess it depends on who you talk to, who you dance with.
> For me and the people with whom I adore to dance, the music is
> absolutely key, essential, absolutely impossible to separate
> from the dance itself. It's not just some initial inspiration;
> the intricacies and interplay within the music itself are the
> whole lifeblood of the dance. You are not just using the music
> as a background to your movement, or a structure to embellish
> on. You are responding to the music, becoming involved in the
> music, making choices every second about which parts of the
> music you wish to highlight or play down or even contradict.
> Sometimes it is as if your feet or your heart or the movement of
> your body becomes another instrument, adding a little more
> music. Perhaps another rhythm with the feet, perhaps a
> deepening of the sweetness of the melody with the way you move
> your leg or torso...
>
> As a dancer, I am answering and expanding the music into the
> spatial and visual dimensions. I am also expanding the
> connection that I have with my partner into the music, and
> expanding the connection with the music to include my partner.
> I can think of at least a dozen dancers with whom I could
> happily dance hours at a time to a rotation of good, solid,
> classic D'Arienzo, Di Sarli, Tanturi, Rodriguez and Calo (just
> for expample), over and over and over, and never ever get bored
> because the two of us would keep finding new things in the
> music, or play differently with the "same old things", or
> inspire one another, on and on. My favorite dancers keep
> hearing and sharing new things, which then inspires me to hear
> new things, which then.....etc.
>
> The reason the classics are classics is because they have a
> depth and complexity such that the more that you listen and play
> with the music, the more you find in it. Someone recently
> mentioned to me that after a while you have all the music
> memorized, but I don't actually find that is so. About three
> years ago I was sure that I had that classic early instrumental
> D'Arienzo stuff down cold, at least the ones that were in heavy
> rotation where I dance. Then I danced with some visitor from
> out of town and realized I had so much to learn; he was dancing
> to things in the music I had never thought to listen for. Since
> then, I've found more and more and more in those same D'Arienzo
> tunes that I used to think I had down cold, and I am not sure
> any more that I will ever come to the end of it.
>
> Because if I ever finally do get the whole entire thing
> memorized, every rhythm of every instrument, each pause and
> syncopation and change in mood, intensity, instrumental balance
> etc., well, even then, I'll have lots of time to get creative
> with which aspects I wish to highlight at this particular moment
> of this particular dance with this particular person. I'm not
> just talking about highlighting rhythmically, but with the
> density/lightness of my movement, the dynamics of entering or
> leaving each weight change. So, in effect, I can become one or
> two new instruments in the music, and for that moment in time
> and that particular partner, I can create a new music that has
> never been experienced before and will never be experienced
> again.
>
> I recently took an intensive workshop with Luciana Valle in
> Buenos Aires (thanks Deb and Brian for a great great experience,
> check out Dance of the Heart for the one in Feb/March) where we
> were working with some of the young rising professionals as
> partners. A lot of the time, someone would just put a Di Sarli
> album on repeat, and we'd be dancing to it non-stop for a couple
> of hours, and then the same one next day, with every once in a
> while some D'agostino or Tanturi or what have you, then back to
> the same Di Sarli again. Guess what, I never got tired of it,
> because the enthusiasm and creativity that those kids brought to
> the interpretation and expression of the music was so thrilling
> and inspiring--one album over and over for hours and each time
> two or three particular songs came on, the third time, the
> tenth, the eighteenth, you could practically feel half the
> people in the class sigh "ohhh, wow". I was, too. Oh,
> wow--eighteen or however many times in a five day period and I
> can't wait to get to dance this again with this or that
> wonderful dancer who keeps hearing more and more in it each
> time. And this was during a class, with complex and difficult
> new vocabulary to learn and practice, and still that love for
> the music dripping out the pores even more than the sweat. A
> volcada done not just for the lovely free leg swooping feel, but
> because the music really really wants that deep glorious swoop
> right exactly here, and then an abrupt cutting sacada there, and
> then a breath holding suspenseful
> when-am-I-going-to-put-my-foot-down hanging colgada right at
> some sustained phrase.....
>
> Sure, if you've never danced with a partner who can hear the
> music like that, then you can't possibly appreciate it. If
> you've never tried to hear the music in any sort of depth, you
> won't appreciate this even if you do get to dance with one of
> those fabulously musical dancers, because you will just be
> confused, or it will just go right over your head. But the
> reason that so many of us get so cranky about the alternative
> music sometimes, is that there is so incredibly much richness in
> the classics that folks just never bother to listen for, and
> thus they guarantee themselves and their partners boring dances.
> And that richness does not exist in the same way in most of the
> newer tango music or alternative music. Sure, if you can't hear
> that richness, you get bored with the "same old thing" and
> require something new to excite you, some different rhythm or
> instrumentation. I do like some of the alternative--if there is
> music playing that inspires me to dance, I have a very hard time
> not dancing to it, and I'll usually find a way to enjoy it, too.
> But it crowds out what I really love, and I think it keeps a
> lot of people from taking the time to listen deeply enough to
> really dance to the complexity in the classics.
>
> Hyla
>
>
>
>
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