How to improve musicality

[JournalInTime]

It must be that they advance to any direction offering a free space around them and all of them are moving in that way.

By now I am trained to advance in the dance direction and when dancing with experienced couples I trust that they have moved forward when it is time for my steps. This anticipation system, my navigation system was not helpful that evening and I was basically unable to leave the spot.

Many people use the "move into any space available, whatever direction that's in" system. While I dislike that, it isn't precisely bad, because it implies that they are alert to the environment around them. However, it can trip up anyone hoping to reduce workload by assuming "all movement is down the line of dance," as they must now use mental resources they'd rather devote to musicality or appreciating the moment to dealing with interference from a larger number of potential directions.

Even if you're dancing among people who are strict about moving down the line of dance, though, you must watch them rather than simply assume that they will move. Not everybody hears, feels, or expresses music the same way . . . your cue to advance might be their cue to pause, or you might choose to walk to something they decide deserves a turn in place. Even among pure traditionalists, then, your eyes have to be forward most of the time.

A lot of habits can interfere. One is looking at your feet or those of your partner, though I'm betting that anybody who spends time writing long posts on these forums is past that stage. Another is looking at your partner, which – aside from being bizarre, even unnerving – means you're staring at a barrier that blocks your line of sight to what's going on around you. Yet another is not looking past the couple in front of you to the next two or three or 10 couples, to get a feeling for spaces or stops that are slowly propagating your way, and for the general speed of the floor. One more is not turning your head in the direction of your next step or turn before you execute it, to confirm there's space there.

I've found that keeping my line of sight parallel to the floor (not upward or downward), gazing past my partner as far as I can see (not just to the next couple), and constantly aiming my eyes where one or both of us is about to go (not where we were or are) collectively let me avoid freezing in place even on chaotic floors. Of course, you can do all of that and still be frozen in place if you can't do anything with the space the chaos hands you.

Another piece of the puzzle is to have a repertoire of small movements. I've made it my mission in tango to be able to dance my entire vocabulary – everything I've accumulated in a densely packed decade of classes, lessons, and workshops – in no more space than my partner and I occupy in a deep hug with no light between bodies. Sunday night, I was between a "Mr. Backstep" and a "Mr. Tailgate" in a room where pedestrians (people not currently dancing) were milling about obliviously, and I was still able to lead fast turns, off-axis steps, and so on, because my partner and I were glued together from thigh to shoulder and making a conscious effort not to step outside each other's space, so our spot on the floor was the size of two people standing pressed together; e.g., all turns involved me stepping into her former spot while I led her to my former spot, both of us using sacadas to find space for feet.

 

[JournalInTime]

- consistent failure to make eye contact with the leader behind you when entering the ronda
- BACKING INTO THE LINE OF DANCE WITHOUT LOOKING
- Jumping into the line of dance sideways without looking

These are way, way too common here.

I was taught that the single most important thing to do before entering the floor, even more important than how you invite your partner, is to request permission to enter with a gaze toward the nearest leader approaching you, and to get visual confirmation before entering. Then you use a salida that allows you to enter facing slightly toward them and rotate to face down the line of dance.

In the workshops I did with Moreno and Codega not long ago, Moreno showed how to go from "just barely facing the oncoming leader" to "cruzada facing the line of dance" in a single, curved movement. Beautiful!

- Stopping to do some weird stuff as the space in front of the couple grows and grows, backing up the line of dance

Too much of this here. People never learned to lead turns that walk down the floor, traveling volcadas, and so on. You can be as fancy as you want and still advance with any step but a colgada.

- Dancing to some tango but not the one currently being played

I'm a fan of being able to see the music.

Lots of dancers prefer to execute their favorite patterns or sequences come hell or high water. They seem to have missed the memo that those packages are simply teaching tools, and must be adapted to actual music.

- Colliding with the couple in front of you (me) while I'm standing still, before we even begin the tanda

I've had people hit me from every side while standing still. I've paused to let someone on the floor after they politely gazed my way, only to have the couple in front of me not just back up, but back up into the space I ceded and hit me.

- Tailgating for no apparent reason (usually dancing unnecessarily fast).

This is harder to judge. Sometimes it isn't them tailgating but you not advancing. We have a real problem with people not advancing here (see above), so a lot of the more experienced – and dare I say it, better – dancers here make a point of eating up space as soon as it's offered. So, I can excuse this one.

- Talking during a Pugliese tanda
- Talking during a Troilo tanda
- Talking during any tanda (loudly enough for me to hear it)

Talk is for tables. A one-word remark when something really deserves it – "Wow!", "Perfect!", "Beautiful!" – is fine. Chattering while dancing is distracting and rude. Having conversations instead of dancing is both distracting and terrible floorcraft.

- Stomping on the floor (where does this come from?)

Many folkloric dances have it, and some of these have fused with tango in some regions. My coach just got back from Istanbul and saw it there; I bet there are Turkish folk dances that do it. I know that there's a pan-Hispanosphere school of tango that actively integrates zapateados from Flamenco, among other dances (the little taps that traditionalists use as ornaments come from there, BTW). So, while it isn't "pure" tango, it's no less deserving of a spot than the other movements tango has stolen from other dances over the past 100 years.

- Crashing into tables and chairs around the pista

This is often organizer sloppiness, not dancer sloppiness.

One place where I otherwise like to dance has the issue that the organizers have chosen low, somewhat flimsy tables and chairs, and placed them along the walls nearest the only entrance to the room and thus the usual entrance to the ronda. Then people sitting there shove them out from the wall to have space. You can't see this furniture if your eyes are parallel to the floor (as I said, it's low), and you can't memorize its location (as I said, it gets moved). So, I can excuse this one, too.

Another place that I liked but is currently closed had furniture only along the long walls far from all the exits. It was massive, old-timey stuff like you'd expect to see in a formal Victorian dining hall or whatever, so it was both very tall (chairbacks and even tabletops easily seen while looking ahead) and too massive for people to shove. Much better.

 

[Rabbit]

I was between a "Mr. Backstep" and a "Mr. Tailgate"

I'll just overtake, undertake or switch lanes, those two types deserve each other.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

This is harder to judge. Sometimes it isn't them tailgating but you not advancing. We have a real problem with people not advancing here (see above), so a lot of the more experienced – and dare I say it, better – dancers here make a point of eating up space as soon as it's offered. So, I can excuse this one.

Right, but there's no need to tailgate me when I'm advancing down the line of dance at what I believe is a reasonable pace for the music currently being played. And there are times when a pause is necessary and times when it's not; it we're all listening to the same music, we should be more or less on the same page. You can't dance to Pugliese as if he's D'Arienzo.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

I was taught that the single most important thing to do before entering the floor, even more important than how you invite your partner, is to request permission to enter with a gaze toward the nearest leader approaching you, and to get visual confirmation before entering. Then you use a salida that allows you to enter facing slightly toward them and rotate to face down the line of dance.

Canonical. And very good practice. Unfortunately, it's not taught, or rarely.

 

[opendoor]

It would be interesting if you one day test dancing at a 50/50 event..

Sorry my friend, I'm slow in catching up: do you mean 50% or 50x50 cm ?

 

[opendoor]

..the single most important thing ..before entering the floor.. is to request permission to enter with a gaze toward the nearest leader approaching you, and to get visual confirmation ..Then you use a salida that allows you to enter facing slightly toward them and rotate to face down the line of dance..

But at a milonga I have the impression the crowd was taught to.. Stand with your back tangential to the ronda, extend your elbows, and energetically cut backwards into the space between two couples.

 

[JournalInTime]

But at a milonga I have the impression the crowd was taught to.. Stand with your back tangential to the ronda, extend your elbows, and energetically cut backwards into the space between two couples.

So, you know him, too? He gets around.

 

[Brummbaer]

Canonical. And very good practice. Unfortunately, it's not taught, or rarely.

It was taught, but now rarely. But then, sometimes it's a battlefield out there, I've paid for my space as well, and no one acknowledges that entry cabeceo... If it's not degenerated to a battlefield, I'll check.

 

[pianistamediano]

no one acknowledges that entry cabeceo...

Ah yes, that's when I know for sure that my subtle acts of aggressive, reactionary self-defence receive tacit approval!

 

[LadyLeader]

It would be interesting if you one day test dancing at a 50/50 event. They maybe have some of the pista features you are talking about.

Last summer 50/50 dancers had an event here with a lot of international/European dancers among participants. I went to one of the pre-milongas offering a surprising experience! I just couldn't dance but was quite frozen on one spot. After a few tandas I watched the pista in dynamic movement but I could not see collisions. It must be that they advance to any direction offering a free space around them and all of them are moving in that way.

Opendoor and JournalInTime!

Here the 50/50 means the proportion of lead/follow the participants are aiming during that event. It will be interesting if they are really creating a new way of navigation or if they will melt into the advancing CCW pattern in the future. Their dance was dynamic and I could not spot corresponding collisions so one logical option was that they were doing something different compared to the common navigation model.

The events I visit have as goal a beautifully advancing ronda and even when some dancers have low navigation skills the floor is bearable. But think of the wild leaders you know, with dynamic open moves, advancing or staying on one spot but never/seldom bumping on others - if the number of them will go up about to 70% then we are in a situation I was talking about.

(I had problem with quotas putting my name only as reference - therefore the names on top)

 

[opendoor]

..Here the 50/50 means the proportion of lead/follow.. dance was dynamic and I could not spot corresponding collisions so one logical option was that they were doing something different compared to the common navigation model..

Ah, you mean role-balanced. My experience confirms this, but perhaps for a different reason. Since many followers tick "both roles" when registering but don't take their high heels off afterwards, it's quite comfortable on the dance floor.

(I had problem with quotas putting my name only as reference - therefore the names on top)

Just type @and the name and the link will be inserted.

 

[Mr. Moustachio]

This is harder to judge. Sometimes it isn't them tailgating but you not advancing. We have a real problem with people not advancing here (see above), so a lot of the more experienced – and dare I say it, better – dancers here make a point of eating up space as soon as it's offered. So, I can excuse this one.

This happened a few months ago. I'm at the Tangueria's Saturday afternoon milonga. Attendance is sparse. A local teacher comes in with two of her clients. A little later, I'm dancing with the hostess. I lead a turn. Collision. I feel the impact reverberate from my partner's calf all the way up her body. We stop. The other couple is the local teacher and one of her students. The ladies apologize to each other and joke that they have long legs. The other guy says nothing. I am silent and pissed off. In over 25 years of tangoing, this is my first collision in a turn, my first collision with such force, and my first collision in several years. Why is he so close to me? He has half the length of the dance floor behind him with nobody on it. I'm in front of him; so, he knows exactly where I am. Yet he fails to maintain a safe separation between his partner and other people.

I don't know what the other guy is thinking, but I hope the experience changes the way he dances.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Why is he so close to me? He has half the length of the dance floor behind him with nobody on it.

Because he's not thinking. He's moving at a steady pace and doesn't want to slow down and doesn't know how to maintain a consistent distance with the couple in front of him. Or he assumes you're telepathic and know his rate of speed.

 

[OthinkingDesign]

Why is he so close to me? He has half the length of the dance floor behind him with nobody on it. I'm in front of him; so, he knows exactly where I am. Yet he fails to maintain a safe separation between his partner and other people.

I don't know what the other guy is thinking, but I hope the experience changes the way he dances.

I had this experience recently at a workshop at an interstate festival. The leader in front of me had that distinctive arrogance that told me he was either an instructor or long time dancer let's call him JACK for reference. I had been invited to attend the workshop as a "free leader", to balance out the followers on the condition I rotated partners. The maestros were good dancers but not good teachers, being the kind that demonstrated a sequence, then expected the class to copy with little explanation.

The maestros showed us what they wanted us to attempt, then created two concentric rondas to practice in motion (I don't remember the steps exactly but it was in total 3 movements forward and 1 back). Jack spent most of the time DANCING (not doing the workshop), but somehow included multiple backsteps and left huge gaps in the ronda. Another situation with a different exercise, Jack reversed 3 backsteps into myself and my partner MULTIPLE TIMES, attempting the material. Admittedly, there was ONE backstep in this pattern, but I altered the step by curving and shortening the backstep to reduce the reverse movement, this is because I knew there was another couple about 1.5 metes behind us OR my partner gave me the "STOP" press on my back. The second time it happened I politely asked him "Why are you taking so much backsteps?" (his answer to me indicated he had NOT paid attention during the workshop).

I just feel appalled for the followers who paid $$$ to have Jack ignore the workshop and dance, I am also appalled by his lack of floor etiquette.

Jack, I hope I never dance near you again.