3968  Tango in Scandinavia, Part 2: Finnish Tango

Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 01:53:30 -0700
From: Brian Dunn <brian@DANCEOFTHEHEART.COM>
Subject: Tango in Scandinavia, Part 2: Finnish Tango

Dear List,

In Buenos Aires in March-April 2004, Deb and I met Pasi Lauren from Finland
during a tango seminar given by Gustavo and Giselle. He invited us to visit
him at the Seinajoki Finnish Tango Festival called Tangomarkkinat, which was
celebrating its 20th incarnation that summer. As a reflection of the place
of tango in Finnish culture, consider that in 1985, the first year this
festival was held, it drew 17,000 participants for one weekend.

We visited Pasi and his friends in July 2004 in Seinajoki, and with their
assistance we were invited to perform Argentine Tango dance and live music
in the "VIP dinner" pavilion as part of one of the many scheduled events.
Pasi translated for us, and danced AT with us, alternating with me in
leading Deb.

We watched the "Nordic Tango" competition finals the next morning. After
watching the competition for awhile, I convinced myself that:
1) Finnish tango was a true subset of Argentine Tango, structurally
speaking, and therefore
2) I should be able to successfully lead a Finnish stranger in a Finnish
tango on a crowded floor.

By "crowded floor", I mean 2,000 people moving in line of dance with a
density typical of many (not all) of our late-night BsAs milonga
experiences.

While I stand by the analysis behind conclusion #1, the hidden delusions
supporting conclusion #2 did not last long. What a disaster. Partly this
was due, on the one hand, to my inability to avoid occasionally falling into
crossed system unconsciously, or leading a cross habitually, which totally
freaked out my poor partner, and on the other hand, to my failure to
unconsciously predict the movement choices of surrounding Finnish tango
dancers. Which is to say, the Finnish tango leaders had no problem
navigating with each other, just me with them and they with me.
Fascinating, and embarassing.

We had less than 36 hours to do our two AT evening performances and see a
little bit of the festival, so our further explorations of Finnish tango
were delayed until this year. We encountered Pasi several more times over
the next year in various intensive AT seminars in BsAs. On those occasions
we brainstormed the idea of his visiting us in Colorado and working with us
in staging the second edition of our "AIResTANGO" theatrical production.
When we met again at TangoCamp Sweden this summer, he introduced us to his
new Finnish dance partner, Maria Savolainen. (No relation, as far as I know,
with our fellow Tango-L correspondent Piia Savolainen...) Mara accompanied
Pasi to Colorado, and performed Finnish Tango several times in July and
August for our local AT community in Boulder and Denver. Eventually, they
performed in the show both as ensemble Argentine tango dancers as well as
performing a solo Finnish Tango to great acclaim. Pasi also joined us in a
radio interview for the show, and spun a couple Finnish Tangos for the
Colorado listeners.

Their Finnish Tango dancing was fluid, strongly connected, without ballroom
tango headsnaps or arched-away-from-each-other posturing, but very intimate
and romantic, with a simple and graceful vocabulary of steps.

Since they are both excellent AT dancers, Pasi and Maria had been substitute
teaching for us at our regular Monday night Argentine Tango classes for a
month while we were preparing the show. After the show's run closed, they
offered an evening of classes in Finnish Tango to our local AT community,
which drew about 30 enthusiastic participants, including us.

Rhythmically, they taught a repeated 3-beat slow-slow-quick-quick stepping
rhythm at the introductory class (note: NOT repeated 4-beat
slow-slow-quick-quick-slow, as is typical ballroom tango), while emphasizing
that the choice between step or weight shift on any given slow or quick
pulse was left up to the leader's improvisational impulse. There's more
swaying in the embrace as part of the style, while the footwork vocabulary
is rudimentary by AT standards. Steps included simple walks, rock turns,
pivoting turns and changes of direction, all in parallel system. Bodies
were in contact from the chest to below the knee, and the relatively static
contact between the legs is a significant part of the overall connection
while in motion.

In this class, several things became clear about my own ill-fated foray into
Finnish social tango in Seinajoki - by default the steps are quite a bit
longer, with lots of pivoting and pausing used to navigate to the next
available spot. Pauses are as long as needed to allow space somewhere in
the pivot arc to open up, then a clean long step by both partners to the new
place. My relatively tiny close-embrace steps were probably just as
confusing to my fellow leaders as their long graceful arcs were to me.

I look forward to taking another crack at leading Finnish tango in Finland
sometime soon.

All the best,
Brian Dunn
Dance of the Heart
Boulder, Colorado USA
www.danceoftheheart.com