Interview with Ney Melo

[opendoor]

Really interesting: he started dancing tango and teaching tango at the same time. If you learn something and you are able to analyse it you are much closer to other students than a completed show dancer would be.

Also interesting why he moved to Berlin: the ratio of tango teachers to tango students is about 1:1 Recently I´ve been in Berlin again and I saw the "who-is-who" list of famous dancers and teachers in the "Max&Moritz" almost incognito and relaxed on the dance floor. Seems as if they flee the waves of european and american novices that use to flood the milongas over there.

 

[bordertangoman]

okay VU uses the parada a lot, but having watched lots of people dance at milongas, its newbies who use it more than experienced dancers, pausing is fine, but the parada is like shines in jive; an opportunity for followers to show off their moves. For me the parada interrupts the flow of dance and unless the follower is good the connection will break. I spend a lot of time teaching followers to execute ochos without breaking the connection.

here are my favourite VU dancers, for comparison


Originally Posted by Ney Melo
I am not sure where the style that Americans dance came from. Americans don’t interpret the dance with their feet but with their bodies; they don’t place importance on their footwork. Also, they usually dance with alot of flexion, they take huge steps, and they do some funky wiggle with their bodies.

This part of the quote, I mostly agree with, but I don't think it's necessarily bad to use your body to express the music, ...........

I thought this was the thing Argentines called cadenzia: feeling and expressing the music with your body and the non-portenos were too foccussed on steps and footwork.

i dont eat enough chocloate cake to acheive gravitas

I like the way he dances for her (Jennifer).....I enjoy doing that too with my partners

 

[LadyLeader]

..... feeling and expressing the music with your body and the non-portenos were too foccussed on steps and footwork.

I think in the same way without so much evidence for that.

I love most the story about an young European leader on a old Milongeros workshop at BAs. Milongero was showing a turn to left repeating it and the frustrated young one is opposing to the variations of the figure. Milongero insisted: it is the same figure - a turn to left.

This Milongero is using different steps for same turn because of the music, space and situation. But his body movement is a turn to left.

 

[bordertangoman]

I think in the same way without so much evidence for that.

I love most the story about an young European leader on a old Milongeros workshop at BAs. Milongero was showing a turn to left repeating it and the frustrated young one is opposing to the variations of the figure. Milongero insisted: it is the same figure - a turn to left.

This Milongero is using different steps for same turn because of the music, space and situation. But his body movement is a turn to left.

well thank goodnes for middle aged people like me who can communicate between the two...

 

[dchester]

Ney Melo:
The US has a nice and friendly tango atmosphere. I love to go out dancing in different cities in the US. But I will be frank: the level of tango is better abroad, even if you just travel a few hours to Montreal, you can see the difference.


Well, at least he had something good to say about Canadians. I danced in Montreal once and the standard was very high - way beyond my abilities...

Maybe I wasn't in all the right places, but in my one trip to Montreal, the thing that stood out to me, was all the ganchos, leg wraps, and nuevo stuff. In the US (east coast), I tend to see more nuevo stuff in the mid-size communities. With the big cities I tend to see a little more close embrace. Of course, I have many more cities to visit, so I reserve the right to change my mind.

Neither the wife nor I had any issues dancing in Montreal. It's a very nice city, and we plan to return some time.

 

[opendoor]

I love most the story about an young European leader on a old Milongeros workshop at BAs. Milongero was showing a turn to left repeating it and the frustrated young one is opposing to the variations of the figure. Milongero insisted: it is the same figure - a turn to left.

I dont. It shows clearly the difference between a milonguero, a student and a teacher. A milonguero repeats his tiny little tricks, he learned many years ago, to astound the visitors and tourists every year. For explanation you may choose now between a) expression of a rather poor life, or b) an embittered or ignorant attitude.

 

[dchester]

I thought this was the thing Argentines called cadenzia: feeling and expressing the music with your body and the non-portenos were too foccussed on steps and footwork.

I think he was referring more to hip movement, that some people use. IMO, cadencia comes more from the shoulders, along with the feet.

It's really difficult to explain (which I suppose means I don't understand it well enough), but I can recognize it when I see it.

 

[bordertangoman]

I think he was referring more to hip movement, that some people use. IMO, cadencia comes more from the shoulders, along with the feet.

It's really difficult to explain (which I suppose means I don't understand it well enough), but I can recognize it when I see it.

I dont think its just the shoulders; ALex Krebs describes it as tilting and lilting

[yt]mMPgbeajFD8[/yt] found this lousy quality but their clearly leaning or bending.

 

[dchester]

I dont think its just the shoulders; ALex Krebs describes it as tilting and lilting

[yt]mMPgbeajFD8[/yt] found this lousy quality but their clearly leaning or bending.

I suppose there are different ways of describing the exaggerated motion they were going for in that crappy video, but I would describe what they were going for, as raising the shoulder on the same side you are stepping on. Others use CBM, instead, and I've seen people try to combine them both.

Basically, there is more than one way of walking with rhythm and style, so I won't get hung up on how one person does it, vs another. I can see how tilting could be used to describe it, in this video though (I just think he was exaggerating the movement, as a teaching tool).

 

[Subliminal]

My first teacher described it as using the entire body. Each step contains the feeling of the note or musical phrase it corresponds to, starting from the tips of your toes all the way up your legs, through your torso, and into your embrace. Like a violin, where the floor is the instrument and your body is the bow.

 

[bordertangoman]

My first teacher described it as using the entire body. Each step contains the feeling of the note or musical phrase it corresponds to, starting from the tips of your toes all the way up your legs, through your torso, and into your embrace. Like a violin, where the floor is the instrument and your body is the bow.

I like that description..though I have to work on some 'blocked' areas of my body- mainly around the neck.