146  Learning tango on your own...

Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 23:31:07 -0800
From: Dan Boccia <redfox@ALASKA.NET>
Subject: Learning tango on your own...

Massimiliano (and friends) -

You may not realize how profound and utterly meaningful your observations
and statement were:
{"Most of the self teaching stuff I have seen (videos and web pages)
seems to focus on steps, steps, and then again steps. It leaves me
with a lot of unanswered questions, since I'd rather learn to move in
the way and with the attitude which seem so peculiar to tango, after
which I don't care if I know five or five thousands steps."}
First off, it is extremely difficult to convey the real feeling and essence
of tango through a video or web page. This is something that has to be felt
and experienced first hand from someone in person. It is much easier to
offer steps in videos and web pages so that's what we get most of the time.
The steps are useful, but only if one has the foundations of tango to work
from. I would not recommend that a beginning dancer try to learn tango on
their own through videos and web pages. It would be well worth your while
to attend some workshops somewhere near you if possible. If that is not
possible, videos would be my next bet because you can SEE how experienced
dancers move. Trying to learn from a web page doesn't sound like an avenue
to success to me.
I'd like to congratulate you on realizing right away that tango has less to
do with steps and more to do with the way you move. Words well spoken!! I
love to take lessons and I'm learning many new steps and elements of
figures, etc. However, when I'm at a milonga, the two most important things
to me are my partner and the music. Little else matters other than
navigating in such a way as not to bother the dancers around me. I tend to
dance very simply, choosing instead to focus on how well I'm connecting with
my partner and how well I'm connecting with the music. Once I've
established good connections with my partner and with the music, I may begin
experimenting with more challenging movements, but only occasionally -
simple steps, well led and well followed, that relate to the music, are the
essence of tango to me, and I know many people on this list will agree with
me.
Also, I can almost guarantee that your question will raise a discussion on
this list and that ultimately some of your more specific questions may be
answered so stay tuned!
Dan Boccia
Anchorage, AK

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 10:17:11 +0200
From: CLIMENTI Dominique <cli@UBP.CH>
Subject: Re: Learning tango on your own...

Hello Massimiliano,
I really agree with Dan, i like what he sayed, but i want to add one
personnal comment.
I don't know why you don't can/want to take lesson, but to my eyes one thing
is very important, the expemple. If you can while you learn from videos (I
agree to the fact that web pages is a very poor material to learn tango too,
i thing video is also a poor material but it's a bit better) go to milongas
to see other peoples dancing. Try to understand what they do, how they move,
how they use there whole body to dance and lead the partner, how they use
the balance.
Look to the good danser and try to copy what you like to see in each people
dancing and forget what you don't like, try to imagine what feeling they
have when they are dancing. But don't look only to the good dancers look to
the bad one too, you have also something to learn from them, at least you
can learn from them want you want not to do, but I'm sure there is some
thing you can keep in your dancing from them. I teach in Geneva for about 1
year, and I learn a lot from my students.
When you are in milongas, speak with the people around you ask them the
"unanswered questions" you have.
One thing more I want to say is that I recommend you, if it's possible, to
take lessons go to workshops. Pay attention, there is a lot of good teachers
around but there is a lot of bad one too, you'll have to choose.
And the last but the most important thing about tango, when you are in
milongas, make friends, have a nice time there, and enjoy the dance, the
music, the people...

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 01:46:15 -0700
From: "Larry E. Carroll" <larrydla@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Learning Tango

Since I've written a book on learning tango, you might think I would
disagree with the statement that you can not learn it from a book. In
fact, I will go further than that.

You can not learn tango from a book, a tape, OR a teacher. There is
only one way to learn - to do it. To practice. This is the way we learn
a language. Books and teachers can help us criticize ourselves, to
know what we did wrong, but it is speaking and listening -
practicing - that lets us easily and naturally communicate.

There are two kinds of practice. One is the repetition of elements of
tango technique and figures. This is what we usually mean when we say
"practice." It is very focused, very detail oriented, rather like
body building with its work on isolated pieces. This is an attempt to
converge on the perfect way to do something, based on some standards
we have adopted. We can get those standards from many places. From a
book, a teacher, watching others dance, creating them ourselves, and
so on.

The other kind I usually call "dancing" - but is also practice in the
sense that when we do anything we inevitably learn from it. But the
purpose of this kind of practice is exactly the opposite of the other.
We are simultaneously learning several skills, for one thing.

To have fun is one of those skills. You might think we need no
practice in this, but you would be wrong. In fact, a lot of people get
this totally wrong when they "dance." I am sure you have seen them,
grimly moving around the floor, frowning, serious, trying to be
perfect, making dancing a religious rite or a chore rather than a
primal, sensual experience.

Another purpose is to learn to be creative, or more creative. Tango is
improvisational. It has no standard steps, no standard rhythm - a
situation deeply disturbing to those with small souls and strait-
jacketed minds.

The chief goal when you are trying to be creative is to make mistakes.
If you do not make a few (non-fatal, non-crippling) mistakes
in a dance, you have done it wrong. You have been cowardly, not taken
risks. Making mistakes is also good because you learn to overcome
mistakes, to smoothly continue, to build skill in recovering from
mistakes, to build confidence. You can tell who is doing this wrong;
they are the ones who stop to figure out the mistake and to practice
it away, rather than embrace it.

Another thing this kind of practice does is to learn to understand the
music. Not in some theoretical way, but as a sensory experience. A lot
of people get this wrong too. I am thinking now of a half-dozen Los
Angeles dancers that many people consider really wonderful, because
they do all sorts of acrobatic figures very skillfully. But to me
these six, specific men are pathetic. They never vary their rhythm,
whether the music is fast or slow or alternately fast and slow. They
never vary their style, whether the music is sad or happy, profound or
delightfully silly, smooth or bouncy. They embrace their partner the
same way all the time, rather than vary it to fit the mood and music.

Most important of all, this kind of practice can help learn how to
dance with a partner. There is so much to learn here, from the
mechanics of embrace and lead/follow, all the way to learning how to
connect with and appreciate a unique soul.

Did you notice that I said nothing about figures? That is because they
are the most visible parts of tango - but also the easiest and least
important. If you have a lot of experience in dance, in fact, you will
not see a single figure element in tango that is not done in some
other dance. Almost literally, any figure you do while embracing your
partner is a tango figure, if you do it with grace and with the music
and with your partner.

So put on the music, take your (real or imaginary) partner in your
arms, and let the music take you away. If you can do this, you are
a tango dancer. And a better one than many who have done it much
longer than you and look so much better - to those who only see
the outside.

Larry de Los Angeles
https://home.att.net/~larrydla

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 13:16:55 -0500
From: "Frank G. Williams" <frankw@MAIL.AHC.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Learning Tango

Heyo Friends,

The difference between Larry's and Tom's thoughts on learning tango
are very instructive, I think. It highlights the complexity of our goal
in learning.

My opinion is that the best learning process for tango is highly
individual. What helps me most will probably work less well for you.
For example, I have absolutely no trouble imagining and creating my own
movement to music - I never have. But I need to learn to create the
follower's dance *before* my own and lead it in a way that can be easily
followed and then be complimented by my own dance. Clarity in the
follower's role, as it were... I suspect I'm not alone in this.
However, others may have no difficulty creating their partner's dance,
or no problem with technique or musical interpretation. But there's
always something that could be better - we're all reaching, stretching,
striving for improvement with varying degrees of urgency. ...examining
what we're *not* good at.

As model dancers there are tango students, tango craftsmen/craftswomen,
and tango artists. Hopefully we and our models are all a bit of each.
Concerning those who really inspire me, I just want to feel what it
looks like they feel when they dance what looks like their best tango.
Will that be different from what I feel now? Who knows? Maybe not!

Videos, books, musicology, poetry, even (gasp!) dancing lessons - all
have their place. But ultimately, as in all education, we must be
willing to teach ourselves.

Best to all,

Frank in Minneapolis
--

Frank G. Williams, Ph.D. University of Minnesota
frankw@mail.ahc.umn.edu Dept. of Neuroscience
(612) 625-6441 (office) 321 Church Street SE
(612) 624-4436 (lab) Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612) 281-3860 (cellular/home)