opendoor
Forum Master
I think one has nothing to do with the other. In fact, it even disturbs the musicality when such narratives or, better, stereotypes (usually pimp and whore, docker and uptown lady) are played.
How to improve musicality
- Thread starter JTh
- Start date
TTanguero
Forum Master
I speak vanishingly little Spanish, but the tangos to which I do know the lyrics, I view it as a handicap rather than a help! Dancing the music makes much more sense (and it much more enjoyable) than dancing the story.
opendoor
Forum Master
Maybe something else was meant: authenticity. Almost every tango dancer develops a personal dance style (regardless of the respective skill level). At the same time, every dancer plays a specific tango character. Almost everyone has such a tango existence. There is the black knight who is cabeceoing out of the dark corner. Then there is the sunny boy, who always stands in the main traffic routes to get as many besitos as possible. To name just these two, does their dance style suit their tango appearence? I think each of us perceives whether a personality is consistent. That would be tango authenticity.
It's not necessary to dance a narrative literally according to the lyrics of the song. However, a performance needs to have structure rather than just be a series of random moves.
It can be often very effective to dance certain moments in a way that's inspired by a phrase in the lyrics, without the acting/roleplaying. It helps if your partner understands the lyrics - this is one of the arguments for incorporating some non-tango music so that people who don't understand Spanish can also explore this area.
In both social and performance contexts, emotion is communicated to the partner/audience as a change in the dynamics of the dance. It's not enough to feel something, one has to be able to communicate it through movement.
It can be often very effective to dance certain moments in a way that's inspired by a phrase in the lyrics, without the acting/roleplaying. It helps if your partner understands the lyrics - this is one of the arguments for incorporating some non-tango music so that people who don't understand Spanish can also explore this area.
In both social and performance contexts, emotion is communicated to the partner/audience as a change in the dynamics of the dance. It's not enough to feel something, one has to be able to communicate it through movement.
So You Think You Can Dance, nor any dance performance competition,
has nothing to do with social dancing. Best accept that all judging of dance
performance is necessarily subjective. Emotion demonstrated in dance
is not likely to be real emotion, by necessity it's all an act.
Showing emotion is an irrelevance although feeling emotion can be legitimate.
Partner dancers can feel emotion individually, separately, together, even
simultaneously different ones. As a leader you can physically transmit a feeling
but never guarantee that your partner feels the same nor even that she receives it.
Often a partner can feel emotional about a dance in a way you never conceived.
How little that man actually knows about dance, and for social dancing
he's best ignored apart from the occasional questionable gem perhaps.
It's all in the rather presumptuous title.
This is a performance. For me, maybe my age and era, interpreting the story came to prominence in the early 1980's with Torvill & Dean's interpretations of Mack & Mabel (quite spectacular at the time), and later Barnum, and then Bolero. Doubtless there had been similar interpretations previously (which I'm sure will be referenced, e.g. ballets). But it brought this interpretation to popular consciousness. It's not social dancing, and sort of killed what existed of social ice dancing by the requisite skills for competitive dance. The only exception I can think of is when it's our music. That piece you've used with some SO and you just have to dance it with each other.
I'd agree that, to some extent, we all act a role, but I do find the role play by others of pimp, gangster, etc off putting (except maybe for a fancy dress ball). It's not appropriate to social dance nowadays - except maybe in your dreams or the movies.
Well, sometimes. I always find Cara Sucia amusing given its lunfardo background. I usually take most lyrics as the dog died; I lost all the money on a bet; she's leaving me (doubtless, with good reason); the kids are screaming and need feeding, etc. But I'm sure knowing the language adds to the experience, and I do like some where I've looked up the lyrics. Alex Krebs recently produced Tangos in English as an interesting experiment.
Certainly agree. There are many presentations on musicality in AT. I've found explanations by many esteemed maestros helpful. Online I've particularly liked Pablo & Ludmilla's musicality interpretations. Others are readily available. After that, it's your interpretation and style. It's about knowing the typical structure, or that orchestra's interpretation, and ultimately familiarity with some composition which allows your own interpretation.
Last edited:
itwillhappen
Forum Master
Thanks for the exceptional instructional video. Especially because I used to think the teacher was a joke because of his hairstyle and his attitude. But I can also guess what a devastating effect it has for the dance when a leader tries to find the right place in a piece of music for his appropriate sequence.
As a DJ, things are more interesting. I merged my tandas of DiSarli/Durán adding "Tu íntimo secreto" to it, then I looked for good transfers. Altogether I listened to two hours of tango music, enough to be able to dance to it, I think.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Personally, I feel his book is overrated and not entirely accurate. There are a lot of other, better books on the history of tango.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
He's also given some interesting musicality workshops.
Yes, they're learning to teach, but getting better. There are many other 'musicality' teaching options. Sometimes the teaching is a sequence, but then it's demonstrated how that fits a particular piece. I find there's a line between familiarity with a piece and developing choreography for a performance. I'd guess that, back in the golden era, these were the 'hits' of the day with which people became familiar and had their favourites. Pull out some obscure piece and you'd just fallback to your understanding of the structure.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
I'm not sure if this familiarity with a piece of music even existed in the golden era. Listening to music was a rather expensive affair and the orchestra interpretations differed. In any case, there were no smartphones with a music streaming service that blew any music you wanted into your ears at any time.
And then I'm not sure if there was even the explicit goal of dancing "musically" back then.
And then I'm not sure if there was even the explicit goal of dancing "musically" back then.
ArbeeNYC
Forum Master
Surely you jest. Tango was very popular and widely broadcast on the radio. Milongas were inexpensive and plentiful. There were many orchestras to choose from. Moreover, dancers took pride in their ability to be familiar with a wide variety of music from different orchestras. I remember reading about one young tango dancer who was told by an older dancer that he wouldn't be allowed to dance at a milonga unless he could identify all the music. If anything, "smartphones" have made us dumber.
I think this combo post where Bailango follows up on a post by JournalInTime is worth thinking about as things anyone can do to improve or show their musicality.
www.dance-forums.com
Why some women are not asked to dance
Of course, but I wrote of Encuentros. Apparently you haven't been invited yet, Cabbit. The participants are handpicked, and belong to the best social dancers. You need a recommendation or many years of waiting to get in. I disagree. There are lots of encuentros I know about. Lots of the dancers...
www.dance-forums.com
The dancer Carmen Calderón is quoted as saying:
Tango comes from the slums, not from the ballroom. If you do not see or feel this anymore, then Tango is dead. Music in some form was available to those immigrants at the dawn of tango - and sufficiently popular to be remembered. Not forgetting the practica legends which moved people to practice the dance - perhaps using a rhythm beaten out; perhaps a more sophisticated bandonéon which provided that musicality.
Nevertheless you make a valid point about the gentrification of AT, but, fortunately, AT music didn't depend on the smartphone, nor the mp3 player.
itwillhappen
Forum Master
In order to correctly assess the importance of musicality, one can turn off the sound in a video of a milonga and try to recognize characteristic passages in the music.
To be on the safe side, a video from a milonga by @jantango, titled "The best milonga in Buenos Aires is Lo de Celia Tango Club". And the song "Nada Mas" by D'Arienzo/Echagüe is well known and has enough characteristic passages.
To be on the safe side, a video from a milonga by @jantango, titled "The best milonga in Buenos Aires is Lo de Celia Tango Club". And the song "Nada Mas" by D'Arienzo/Echagüe is well known and has enough characteristic passages.
Code:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uScpMc-C9oo
(Must be watched directly on YouTube, embedding in a website is not permitted)
Last edited: