508 Social and Stage Tango
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 19:32:39 -0600
From: Brian Dunn <brianpdunn@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Social and Stage Tango
Steven Brown wrote:
>>>
I would not make a distinction between social and performance dancers, but
certainly we must recognize a difference between dancing in milongas and
dancing on the stage.
<<<
To me, tango is about expressing feelings in communication with a partner,
in the time provided by the music, in the space provided by the setting,
which includes the "crowd density" on the floor. This is true for both
milonga and stage.
I well remember the fear and anxiety I felt at my first crowded milonga,
with a woman in my arms who I was trying to impress at the time...
When one is learning tango floorcraft, the anxiety resulting from the desire
to protect one's partner in a crowded space is a major challenge for
beginning tango leaders. With time and devotion, this challenge is
eventually mastered - the leader now feels a confidence in these moderately
public settings, which is transmitted to one's partner, which allows her to
relax and surrender that much more completely, and you are off to a possible
tango trance.
Tango performance presents a similar challenge in a different way. On stage,
the physical crowd density is zero, but psychically it is even more intense.
Tension now arises from the anxiety of having an audience whose attention is
focused solely on you and your partner.
When one is learning tango stagecraft, the anxiety resulting from the
attempt to take these precious tango trance feelings from the milonga and
try to share them with hundreds of onlookers is a major challenge for
beginning tango performers. With time and devotion, this challenge is
eventually mastered - the leader now feels a confidence in such highly
exposed settings, which is transmitted to one's partner, which allows her to
relax and surrender that much more completely, calming her own performance
anxiety, and you are off to a possible tango trance that can be shared, not
with one person, but with a hundred or a thousand people.
>>>
One might suspect that somewhat different skills are emphasized in the two
approaches to dancing.
<<<
Yes, absolutely. To bring in a Colorado-based metaphor, you don't ski the
same way in powder as you do in the moguls (but certainly the same person
can enjoy both!). Just as I wouldn't teach moguls to someone who can't
snowplow yet, I wouldn't teach tango stagecraft to someone who didn't know
how to behave in a milonga. Let's draw distinctions between dance styles
(which, like money, are value-neutral) and behavioral choices by individual
leaders who may annoy us with their rude "spending" choices. Good manners
should be taught to North Americans before tango lessons, and by the time a
male gets bitten by tango, it may be too late for training in manners. But,
hey, don't blame the moguls!
>>>
Now, let's make the transition to teaching...Many tango dancers who have a
background on the stage teach memorized figures and often rely on the
eight-count basic to do so. Those who have the goal of conveying dance
skills for milongas typically start with walking and emphasize
improvisational/navigational skills.
<<<
In the Denver/Boulder area, fifteen people have had the chutzpah to offer
their services as professional tango teachers by announcing at least
semi-regular classes in exchange for money. Of these teachers, twelve have
worked extensively with Daniel Trenner, which no doubt accounts for the
local community emphasis on walking, lead/follow connection and
improvisation/navigation skills. These statements are based on my
observations of their teaching style in their classes, on having had them as
teachers and fellow students, and on extensive personal conversations.
Since the beginning of the year my partner and I have actively collaborated
with nine of these teachers in staging various milongas, performances,
classes, and advanced workshops with visiting professionals. Again, the idea
that someone who performs tango is by definition a poor teacher of milonga
manners is peculiar at best - eight of these teachers (including us) have
performed tango within the last two weeks.
Recent Tango-L generalizations about Colorado tango teachers, their
activities, and their teaching preferences do not accurately characterize
our local community. Most of these local teachers don't write often to
Tango-L, at least not anymore. (We get kind of busy with all these
activities that involve actual DANCING...it's tough enough just keeping a
website updated! ;) )
Warm regards,
Brian Dunn
Boulder, Colorado USA
www.danceoftheheart.com
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 11:03:49 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Social and Stage Tango
In response to my posting, Brian Dunn wrote:
>In the Denver/Boulder area, fifteen people have had the chutzpah to
>offer their services as professional tango teachers by announcing
>at least semi-regular classes in exchange for money. ... [E]ight of
>these teachers (including us) have performed tango within the last two
>weeks. ... Recent Tango-L generalizations about Colorado tango
>teachers, their activities, and their teaching preferences do not
>accurately characterize our local community.
I was actually writing about touring instructors who make their principal
living by teaching tango. I was not writing about tango in the
Denver/Boulder area, teachers in my community or the local teachers
anywhere, per se. Apply my comments to your own community as you see fit,
but at your own risk. ;-)
Brian wrote:
>Again, the idea that someone who performs tango is by definition
>a poor teacher of milonga manners is peculiar at best ...
I did not mean to say or imply that people who dance on the stage cannot
teach how to dance at a milonga. Rather, I am questioning the value of
teaching people stage tango as useful for social dancing. At a recent
tango weekend in another city, I attended a lecture in which one of the top
tango dancers in the world said without any drama that he did not teach
tango, he taught choreographies. A younger couple teaching at the at the
same weekend attempted to explain the difference between social and stage
dancing by teaching scaled-down stage figures as how to dance at milongas.
Let me try to explain my concerns about such approaches to teaching. At a
recent milonga I observed a visitor from another city who had relatively
good facility with many tango figures but had difficulty navigating the
ronda... At one point during the evening he managed to drive his partner's
heel into my left ankle as he veered from the center of the dance floor
toward the outside lane. He lacked the skills to break off the figure as
he ran out of space. I saw him colliding with other couples throughout the
evening. He had a friendly, happy grin all evening long and was obviously
in tango heaven...
I recognize that people who dance tango without the ability to respect the
ronda may be enjoying themselves and have a great connection with their
partner, the floor and the music, but they are imposing costs on other
people who are also on the dance floor at the same time. I also recognize
that people quit taking lessons at 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and 1-4
workshops but become permanent members of the tango community--showing up
at milongas with great regularity... (After all, that is the goal of
learning to dance tango.) That got me thinking about the question of what
skills I would want a person to have before they became a permanent member
of my tango community... Seen in such a light, navigational skills become
paramount, and I think teaching that puts navigational skills first looks
considerably different than teaching beginners the eight-count basic and
relatively new dancers tricky patterns.
I also wish to clarify that Tom Stermitz and I dance differently and have
somewhat different perspectives on tango, although he and I have some
similar opinions. In particular, we do not distinguish as sharply between
performance and social tango in Dallas as appears to be the case in
Denver/Boulder. Those of us who teach regularly scheduled tango classes in
Dallas will participate in Dance for the Planet next weekend by giving a
ten-minute tango performance. Susan and I will dance improvisationally and
add performance elements to our dancing for the exhibition, and the other
couples well do so as well. None of us really professional stage dancers,
nor do we aspire to be. We will also collaborate to teach a free one-hour
tango class during the festivities.
With best regards,
Steve
Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
https://www.tejastango.com/
Someone who spells his name Stephen or Steve, but never Steven.
