Well, I use mirada and something like mini-cabeceo on Latino parties. If I create eye connection first, then is physical contact and invitation always accepted. Usefull tool.
What Is Tango Doing Right/Wrong: Recruiting and Retaining
- Thread starter JournalInTime
- Start date
Perhaps the best way for me to understand it is this.Sorry for piling on more, but think of it this way: some of us train to make our hugging even better. I've spent years working on my embrace. I've had plenty of followers compliment me on my embrace, directly or overheard, and some followers have even expressed interest in dancing after we met for the first time and hugged as a greeting.
Granted, not de rigueur for everyone, and I do like to walk too, in the sense of that second pro video. But there are times when you meet someone with whom you wouldn't mind at all sinking completely into their deep embrace, feeling the musical micro-shifts in their body, taking unhurried steps and basking in the uninterrupted, flowing connection.
Maybe that's what they're after. But getting to that state of mind takes a lot more than what people think will do, including a ton of technique and experience, so...
I love to read. LOVE it. I especially love fiction of any genre. But I grow quickly annoyed with writers who try to impress me with their artistic use of language. I'm here for the ideas and the story, not for soaking my brain in the medium of the written word. My favorite writers tend to be those who employ so-called "windowpane prose," where the language is unobtrusive and you hardly notice it.
But plenty of folks find windowpane prose deadly boring. They want to read lovingly crafted language that is halfway to poetry, so called "stained-glass prose." Some are even willing to forgive mediocre storytelling, if the writer's style is sufficiently emotional and moving.
I see my dance preferences as reflective of that. I do not revel in the medium of communication; I want the medium to be easy and unobtrusive so that I can get on to the truly interesting (to me) things. But connection really is magic, so it is also possible to sit and revel in the communication even if you do nothing with it. I see that as similar to enjoying stained-glass prose.
I'll leave it to the psychologist to decide why I am this way. Time to go dance in the meanwhile!
TTanguero
Forum Master
Interestingly, I would see the metaphor exactly the other way around! For me, the showy moves are the stained glass prose, while the internally focused dance is telling the interesting story.
Last edited:
Perception outside Tango is that it is a rule and that’s the only way to ask. In other spaces it happens organically. That a big difference. In Tango you must do it and in salsa you might be doing it organically. Other dances have what is called “walk of shame”. Cabaceo is designed to avoid “walk of shame”.
Movement is content, not medium. Connection is the medium.
Medium is prerequisite to content. You can't have a story without words, and you can't have partner dance without connection.
Overly showy movement is akin to an old penny dreadful--a garish story meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It can equally be well-written or an amateurish hackjob (good connection or bad), but the point is nobody needs to work hard to appreciate or understand it; everything is rubbed in your face, with great noise and fanfare. Downside being, that can be very emotionally tiring and/or feel condescending to ones intelligence.
Overly subtle movement, on the other hand, is akin to "elevated" literature. You need to look closely and read carefully to understand and appreciate it. The downside being, the medium absolutely must be extremely well executed (excellent connection) for anything to come through at all. Subtle stories delivered poorly are junk, fit for nobody.
Last edited:
TTanguero
Forum Master
Yes, I understand you see it that way; I'm saying I see it in the opposite way. For me, the movement is the medium, while connection is the content.
I don't follow. Movement is not prerequisite to connection.
We have younger lot who become better dancers within a year or two. Most of them have no interest in competing. Yes they do take practice seriously. I doubt they take more privates than the older folks. Older folks have more income to take privates and travel to BsAs. By older, I mean 35 and above. It is relative.
Not sure what you mean by social codes and old tradition. I haven’t observed disregard for either by the youngsters here.
Above to me contradicts what you seemed to have emphasized about what you like about a dance. Yet if I recall you too thought the second video was the best. The second video is anti-thesis of the style of dance in the social video of which I said they were dancing over the music.
Exactly! That’s why I said it looks like a contradiction.
I don’t understand the context of “content” unless it is in analogy to writing. In writing, the medium is the written prose or choice words used and sentence construction. The content is the idea being conveyed.
TTanguero
Forum Master
To me, tango is a way for two* people to connect, communicate, share, express. It is not the only way of doing so, so no, movement is not a prerequisite for connection, but is is one way of connecting.
But since I could say a lot more about this, I think you've given me a topic for my next blog post, so thank you!
*Actually more than two, since in the best of cases the whole ronda is dancing together. You could also argue we are connecting with the musicians and the composer.
Almost. My ranking was :
1. Yanina & Bruno ("dancing over the music")
2. Agustina & Carlitos ("second video")
3. Tete (old-fashioned, reserved style, "first video")
4. Gianpero and Lorena (avant-garde, "third video")
I don't like G&L because I think they have not sufficiently mastered the medium to do what they attempt. It is the worst kind of "penny dreadful" to me--exciting ideas, perhaps garishly so, but not delivered well. They are forcing content through a medium whose quality does not allow or justify it.
What Y&B and A&C have in common is absolute mastery of the medium. Nothing that either couple does is forced. This is why I love them both. I do prefer Y&B because they use more heightened contrast, but the two couples are certainly not antitheses. Both of them favor bold, confident movement painted in bright strokes--only their palette of colors varies.
**********
But maybe it seems like a contradiction because of my constant focus on technique? Technique being part of the medium, and thus something I should want to not pay attention to if I'm a windowpane-lover?
If that's what you mean, then I would say that it is precisely because I favor windowpane prose that I focus on technique so much. It is pretty easy to produce prose or dance technique that constantly makes itself seen, heard, and felt (usually in a bad way). Technical flaws stick out like sore thumbs, just as earnest attempts at windowpane prose can be distracting when not done well. On the other hand, It is quite difficult to arrange words or dance technique in such a way that you only notice them if you are specifically looking. I find professional ballerinas to be the archetypical example of this invisible technique.
(Also difficult, and arguable MORE difficult, is to produce language or technique that you notice, but enjoy noticing. Which is what I assume the "pensioners" are aiming for.)
With Y&B and A&C, I do not naturally notice their technique, I notice the movement they make, unless I stop and deliberately analyze. With Tete and G&L, I keep noticing their technique even when I'm *trying* to listen to their movement instead.
Last edited:
TTanguero
Forum Master
Not for me. I don't set out for a milonga, or begin a tanda, with the aim of communicating anything specific. I simply set out to engage in connection, communication, and shared expression of the music with my various partners. The content of that communication will vary on a moment by moment basis.