5559 Breaking the "paso basico."
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:25:13 -0800 (PST)
From: Mario <sopelote@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Breaking the "paso basico."
To: tango-l@mit.edu
"" my first 2 months experiance of Tango a year ago. To be honest I know noone who when starting Tango is not taught the "paso basico" in some form or another. You fall back onto what you know the best and this basic step sequence
must have been etched into my head when I first started learning.
I am just wondering if anyone else has ever experianced this and how" they broke out of the sequence.""
I am happy to say that as soon as I understood the 'basic 8' (2 weeks), I never again used it.
It was just too obviously more a handicap to a dance than a help. I think that the key word is 'dance'.
for that one needs to listen to the music and move with it while feeling it..the key word there is 'feeling'.
Someone pointed out here how that a Tango can be done without being 'danced' while the Milonga song cannot.
..and how it would be best if dancers learned the Milonga before the Tango. That way they would be learning to dance.
I hope this isn't too far off of the topic. I'm just painting around the difficult problem of dancing the tango,
instead of doing close order drills. I may be a tangobaby but I've seen too much stilted teaching/learning already
in both fields of second language learning and oil painting...that 'painting by the numbers' comment was cogent.
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:07:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Tango For Her <tangopeer@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Breaking the "paso basico."
To: tango-l@mit.edu
--- Mario <sopelote@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> "" my first 2 months experiance of Tango a year
> ago. To be honest I know noone who when starting
> Tango is not taught the "paso basico" in some form
> or another. You fall back onto what you know the
> best and this basic step sequence
>
> must have been etched into my head when I first
> started learning.
>
> I am just wondering if anyone else has ever
> experianced this and how" they broke out of the
> sequence.""
>
1. If the basic eight is really taking you eight
beats, there's the first clue. Add pauses. That will
give you time to think of how to break out of it.
2. As was stated on other posts, flat out, don't go to
the cross. That will make you break out of the basic
eight.
3. At any step, anywhere, think of 3 things that you
could do. Three is a great number, because it does
not overload your mind. You already know one thing to
do ... the thing that you were just about to do.
Think of two other things to do.
While you're at it, think of 2 more ways to do it.
Slower, faster, smaller, bigger, behind the beat, more
staccado, etc.
ALSO, if you are thinking of the basic eight, then you
*might* be thinking in terms of you. If you think in
terms of your follower, you can come up with things
that do not involve you stepping. Right in the middle
of the pattern, lead a boleo, a wiggle, a pause, a
rock step, a fake step, etc. Make it about movement
of one of her feet without moving her other foot.
That is a segway into making it about her body rather
than steps.
You said that you had broken yourself of this pattern,
so, I am not saying "you", Mario. I am just saying,
"you", anyone. Heck! "You", me!
Be a better friend, newshound, and
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:13:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Mario <sopelote@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Breaking the "paso basico."
To: tango-l@mit.edu
Thanks for the refreshing honesty, Mash...'going to a job interview'..lol
I've just spent the past month wondering why the slow Tango is soooo difficult
and has this ability to be posed and marched thru instead of danced.
The only thing that I've come up with is that I've heard in BsAs the Milongueros
only dance when their song and their orchestra is played. That they choose to
dance only to their favorite songs, the one's that move them, and they know every note.
Recently, I've been waiting for Tangos to be played with a strong, driving beat,
before I will dance. This has worked well enough that I was strongly complimented
by the follow after what may have been my best tango. The beat was strong and
I didn't mind dancing slow to it and pausing when there was a pause.
There is a lot of Tango out there with a fugitive beat that comes and goes, and
what seems like moments with nothing happening..
no wonder one needs steps,there.
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