JournalInTime
Forum Master
I certainly learned three different things: touch (no or almost no weight transfer), rebote (some weight transfer but significantly less than full), and rock (full or almost full weight transfer). As I learned them:
A touch is an unweighted open-close movement for the visuals, with no dynamic effect beyond that caused by a light flick of a leg to a nearby spot and back again, so short and swift that the average dancer often can't feel it. One partner but not the other can do it as a de facto adorno. It can be led, but as with all leads of totally unweighted leg movement, that takes patience. More usually, where both do it in social dance, it isn't so much lead-follow as "monkey see, monkey do" – an acceptable choreography.
A linear rebote is basically the same thing but with the intent to have lead-follow. The slight weight transfer enables that. It can be open-close – but with weight transfer you gain the new option of cutting up a single step into a stuttering one. That's just a question of whether the lead is "open-close" ("out a bit, push, back in") or "open-open more" ("out a bit, push, out a bit more"). It's common in milonga, where it's sometimes called a "traspié" (which I was taught is any rebote or full step while crossed, forcing a "stumble"). I said "linear rebote" because "rebote" is also commonly used to refer to a boleo at floor level, led by a spiral direction change rather than any kind of weight transfer . . . in fact, that's the common use of "rebote" by the teachers I've had.
A rock starts and finishes open – closing means it's over and some other step has started – and involves a heavy weight transfer. It can involve placing a foot somewhat distant from or close to, and outside or inside, one's partner's foot, depending on whether the goal is a Tango 101 rocking turn, or a true alteracione to change direction radically or join very different classes of movement. It can cross in the process, but nobody would call it a traspié because you're staying open, not stepping and "stumbling."
I also learned that these can be mixed up. Done on purpose, you get things like amagues (often danced as a touch that develops sudden weight transfer as in a rock), which are useful for leading and interpreting changes of direction and dynamics. Done by mistake, you get arguments like new milonga dancers being grumpy because they wanted to lead a rebote but did a touch (so their partner didn't move) or a full transfer (so their partner stepped or ended up open, awaiting a rock, instead of returning to collection).
Your mileage may vary on the terminology, but all of these things are incredibly useful on busy floors, where getting your leg back in quickly, or changing direction hastily, are survival techniques. Much more useful than all the fancy turns people try to do when there's no space for them, and often more musical. To answer the original question somewhat: I wasn't taught specific musicality for any of the above. You want to make sure some part of one dancer is touching or rebounding or stepping on some clear part of the music, but I've had teachers illustrate all kinds of stuff, like "touch on 1, rebote 2&3, land open 4, rock on 1-3-1-3."
A touch is an unweighted open-close movement for the visuals, with no dynamic effect beyond that caused by a light flick of a leg to a nearby spot and back again, so short and swift that the average dancer often can't feel it. One partner but not the other can do it as a de facto adorno. It can be led, but as with all leads of totally unweighted leg movement, that takes patience. More usually, where both do it in social dance, it isn't so much lead-follow as "monkey see, monkey do" – an acceptable choreography.
A linear rebote is basically the same thing but with the intent to have lead-follow. The slight weight transfer enables that. It can be open-close – but with weight transfer you gain the new option of cutting up a single step into a stuttering one. That's just a question of whether the lead is "open-close" ("out a bit, push, back in") or "open-open more" ("out a bit, push, out a bit more"). It's common in milonga, where it's sometimes called a "traspié" (which I was taught is any rebote or full step while crossed, forcing a "stumble"). I said "linear rebote" because "rebote" is also commonly used to refer to a boleo at floor level, led by a spiral direction change rather than any kind of weight transfer . . . in fact, that's the common use of "rebote" by the teachers I've had.
A rock starts and finishes open – closing means it's over and some other step has started – and involves a heavy weight transfer. It can involve placing a foot somewhat distant from or close to, and outside or inside, one's partner's foot, depending on whether the goal is a Tango 101 rocking turn, or a true alteracione to change direction radically or join very different classes of movement. It can cross in the process, but nobody would call it a traspié because you're staying open, not stepping and "stumbling."
I also learned that these can be mixed up. Done on purpose, you get things like amagues (often danced as a touch that develops sudden weight transfer as in a rock), which are useful for leading and interpreting changes of direction and dynamics. Done by mistake, you get arguments like new milonga dancers being grumpy because they wanted to lead a rebote but did a touch (so their partner didn't move) or a full transfer (so their partner stepped or ended up open, awaiting a rock, instead of returning to collection).
Your mileage may vary on the terminology, but all of these things are incredibly useful on busy floors, where getting your leg back in quickly, or changing direction hastily, are survival techniques. Much more useful than all the fancy turns people try to do when there's no space for them, and often more musical. To answer the original question somewhat: I wasn't taught specific musicality for any of the above. You want to make sure some part of one dancer is touching or rebounding or stepping on some clear part of the music, but I've had teachers illustrate all kinds of stuff, like "touch on 1, rebote 2&3, land open 4, rock on 1-3-1-3."
