2738 Dancing Tango within the music
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 08:53:04 -0600
From: Bruno <romerob@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject: Dancing Tango within the music
Wonder if anybody in their pursuit of finding a methodology for learning
tango has given thought to tying up (linking) dance figures and steps to
represent the number compasses in tango music. The idea behind it is to make
sure that one is not caught dancing off the music compass, i.e. when dancing
to strong and steady beat tango music such as Di Sarli, Calo, tanturi, etc.
A lot has been said about other topics on this list, but other topics
pertaining to incorporating a strategy for musicality in the dance remains
elusive.
Regards,
Bruno
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 17:58:57 -0400
From: WHITE 95 R <white95r@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Dancing Tango within the music
The idea of dancing or learning to dance tango (or any other dance) without
strict adherence to the music seems preposterous to me. I do not mean to
offend or insult Bruno, but I simply cannot fathom teaching people to dance
tango in any way but with and to the music. To me the question is
superfluous. The very first thing I do is aquaint the students to the beat
of the music and the rhythm of tango. Then, I teach them to mark the rhythm
wiith their steps. Only then I proceed to teach them the rudiments of the
tango walk. Generally the first thing that we incorporate in our teaching is
the movement to the strong and soft beats of the music to accomplish the
arrepentida or any other movement that uses the slow and quick times.
Anyway, I guess I would dsay that the very first thing to consider and teach
to aspiring tango dancers is how to move to the muisc.
Musical dancing to all,
Manuel
visit our webpage
www.tango-rio.com
----Original Message Follows----
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 19:34:20 -0600
From: Bruno <romerob@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject: Dancing Tango within the music
Rather than presenting my personal methodology on the subject of dancing
Tango within the music I will use information from several sources including
those from the generous contributors to this list, as well as from my own
sources.
I will quote Maria del Carmen Silingo from one of her books series "Tango
Danza Traditional Metodo".
"A good way to dance tango is by way of building our dance with phrases. The
phrases must have a recognized form. Overall the phrase has an ascending and
descending beginning and end, and with differences of duration to obtain
variety."
The phrase must not be monotone since dancing tango belongs to the realm of
human feelings, and therefore it does not follow a horizontal line.
There are an infinite variety of phrases, but for practical purposes these
can be broken down as follows:
a) The culmination or climax point at the beginning
b) The culmination or climax point towards the end
c) The culmination or climax towards or at the middle.
The culmination does not mean the highest point in space. The culmination
can be achieved with very strong dynamics, a faster tempo, or another
element of movement. Each human movement including those in the animal
kingdom has a design in space, a burst of energy that is called dynamics and
rhythm. Movements are performed for a variety of reasons voluntary,
involuntary."
A bit on tango music:
Tango is usually composed of 3 sections less frequently of 2, and rarely of
4 sections. Most commonly the extension of a section is of 16 compasses.
Each section is composed by one or two clauses. A clause with one section is
of a suspending character, and if the section has two clauses the second
clause is of a conclusive character, which is either a reiteration or
variation of the preceding clause. Furthermore, each clause like a
grammatical sentence is composed of phrase(s), and capable of expressing a
thought, i.e. a musical thought. Each phrase is composed of a motive (cause)
and a consequent (effect), and most often the motive has an extension of 2
compasses.
To drive to the point right away I will use an example of a tango, which its
first section has a double clause containing 2 phrases, where 1 phrase has
an extension of 2 compasses. One compass has 4 times, and therefore one
phrase has 8 times.
Example: Juan D'Arienzo's El Flete (1935-1936)
Listen to the first 15 seconds of this tango. Here you will find a section
with two phrases (4 compasses = 16 times). In this section with 2 phrases,
each phrase moves in an ascending and descending pattern. The ending of each
phrase has a suspending character.
How do we use this information?
By now we may already have a repertoire of steps and figures, but we need to
group them so that we can estimate the duration in terms of compasses (1
compass = 4 times).
To summarize each tango most often has 3 sections, and each section has
about 16 compasses.
With the information we have on phrases from a dancers point of view, and
secondly from a bit of tango musical structure, we could use the following
to map our choreography of dance:
How many compasses = (?)
(?) Figure + (?)Base + (?)Pause + (?)Turn(s) + (?)Final figure = # number of
times or compasses we ought to observe or follow in our dance.
From MiguelAngel Pla on dancing Tango, "Is easier to do something as to
perform an ebbing pattern, but is harder to do nothing and remain silent".
"After a long day of practicing and trying out figures in class or a
workshop, and afterwards you find yourself on the dance floor in a Milonga
the best thing do is to do nothing".
Thanks to everybody who replied my first post.
Best regards,
Bruno
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 14:35:26 -0700
From: Phil Seyer <weddingdj@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Dancing Tango within the music
Thanks for your post, Bruno.
By "compass" I think that perhaps you mean "measure" and by "time" I
think you mean "beat." I'm not familiar with the terms "compass" and
"time" in music theory as you used them. I like what you had to say
about the structure of most tango tunes and your ideas about
choreography. Choreography does have its place, especially during
stage performances.
Phil Seyer
Author of What Makes Music Work
https://www.lovemusiclovedance.com/what_makes_music_work.htm.
On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 08:53:04 -0600, Bruno <romerob@telusplanet.net> wrote:
> Wonder if anybody in their pursuit of finding a methodology for learning
> tango has given thought to tying up (linking) dance figures and steps to
> represent the number compasses in tango music. The idea behind it is to make
> sure that one is not caught dancing off the music compass, i.e. when dancing
> to strong and steady beat tango music such as Di Sarli, Calo, tanturi, etc.
> A lot has been said about other topics on this list, but other topics
> pertaining to incorporating a strategy for musicality in the dance remains
> elusive.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bruno
>
>
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 13:10:18 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Dancing Tango within the music
Bruno wrote:
>Wonder if anybody in their pursuit of finding a methodology for learning
>tango has given thought to tying up (linking) dance figures and steps to
>represent the number compasses in tango music. The idea behind it is to
make
>sure that one is not caught dancing off the music compass, i.e. when
dancing
>to strong and steady beat tango music such as Di Sarli, Calo, tanturi,
etc.
In a subsequent posting, Bruno offers a translation of a Maria del Carmen Silingo's "Tango Danza Traditional Metodo." From the title and translated contents, I would take the book to offer
guidance in creating choreographies for tango music by looking at the
number of beats in each section of the music, something that would seem
altogether different than teaching students how to connect with the beat.
Here a couple of simple ideas for connecting with the compas (beat) of
various types of music:
For tango music with a slow, powerful rhythm like that played by Di Sarli
or Pugliese, I like to think of the the man's forward step as a surging
with the body, without lunging or bouncing; accelerating through the half
beat and then slowing to a stop on the beat, with the hips sinking
slightly as the foot lands. This movement is best accomplished by keeping
the knees soft, the hips soft and over the feet, the body over the hips,
and heavily caressing the floor with the feet while moving with a
rhuummmp, rhuummmp, rhuummmp, rhuummmp. I find that sinking into or
carressing the floor helps connect to this music that is slightly slower
and with a bit different timing than a walking beat.
For tango music with the prominent double-time (or ric-tic) rhythms like
that played by D'Arienzo, I find the the appropriate movement is better be
expressed as a combination of slow rhuummmp and quicker, ric-tic
movements, in a pattern such as rhuummmp, rhuummmp, ric tic, rhuummmp.
When expressing the ric-tic elements of the music, the hips and feet take
a lighter quality. For the slower rhuummmp movements, however, I like to
the hips sink and the feet heavily caress the floor in much the same
manner used for dancing to the slower music.
With best regards,
Steve
Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
https://www.tejastango.com/
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 15:04:26 -0600
From: romerob <romerob@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject: Re: Dancing Tango within the music
Stephen Brown wrote:
< In a subsequent posting, Bruno offers a translation of a Maria del Carmen
Silingo's "Tango Danza Traditional Metodo." From the title and translated
contents, I would take the book to offer guidance in creating choreographies
for tango music by looking at the number of beats in each section of the
music, something that would seem altogether different than teaching students
how to connect with the beat.>
Actually to prepare my post I used the following sources:
For the methodoly on dancing tango:
1) Maria del Carmen Silingo book series #2,
5) Nicanor Lima's "El tango Argentino de Salon, Metodo teorico practico"
6) Miguel Angel Zotto's interview
(https://www.balletindance.com.ar/miguel_angel_zotto.htm)
3) "La Coreografia del Tango", Ines Cuello, Antologia del Tango Rioplatense
desde sus comienzos hasta 1920.
For tango music structure
2) "La Estructura del Tango", Aspectos Musiclogicos por Irma Ruiz - Nestor
Cen~al,l
Antologia del Tango Rioplatense desde sus comienzos hasta 1920,
4) Rick MacGarrey's post #21
Hope this helps,
Bruno
