2270 the music, the dancer, or the dance?
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 12:49:29 -0800
From: Diane Tolomeo <dtolomeo@UVIC.CA>
Subject: the music, the dancer, or the dance?
To add another voice to the discussion, I submit the final lines of W.B. Yeats' poem "Among School Children":
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:16:33 -0800
From: Larry Gmucs <gmucs@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: the music, the dancer, or the dance?
May I sugggest an entertaining movie, "Strictly
Ballroom". It was popular and should be available to
rent or buy. It's about creativity vs. doing "the
right steps". The conflict is between Ballroom and
Flamenco, but it applies to this discussion. It's fun
to watch, too.
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 01:20:14 +0900
From: astrid <astrid@RUBY.PLALA.OR.JP>
Subject: Re: the music, the dancer, or the dance?
> May I sugggest an entertaining movie, "Strictly
> Ballroom". It was popular and should be available to
> rent or buy. It's about creativity vs. doing "the
> right steps". The conflict is between Ballroom and
> Flamenco, but it applies to this discussion. It's fun
> to watch, too.
The conflict is between Ballroom and "real" Paso Doble, there was no
Flamenco in that movie, for Chrissake.
If you want to see a guy in a white satin suit (or was it sky blue?), with a
permanent huge toothy Colgate smile like a character in a cartoon book while
performing on the dance floor, and yellow hair glued together and slicked
back Elvis style, dancing "strictly"ballroom, this is your movie. Kind of
gives you an idea what aspiring lounge lizards can look like to some
people...
Off topic
Astrid
>
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 10:27:23 -0800
From: Larry Gmucs <gmucs@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: the music, the dancer, or the dance?
I was mentioning a fluffy, cartoonish movie as
entertainment. Antonio Vargas was in the film as the
girl's father. According to
https://www.zurtech.com/webdesign/client_serv/vargas/energy.html,
"Antonio Vargas is recognized as one of the world's
leading Flamenco dancers and choreographers.
Ingenious, innovative and a perfectionist, he performs
and teaches internationally, with works for theater,
cinema and television."
Still off-topic, I think Paso Doble is to Flamenco as
Ballroom Tango is to Argentine Tango.....
I will post no more on this subject.
--- astrid <astrid@ruby.plala.or.jp> wrote:
>
>
> > May I sugggest an entertaining movie, "Strictly
> > Ballroom". It was popular and should be available
> to
> > rent or buy. It's about creativity vs. doing "the
> > right steps". The conflict is between Ballroom
> and
> > Flamenco, but it applies to this discussion. It's
> fun
> > to watch, too.
>
> The conflict is between Ballroom and "real" Paso
> Doble, there was no
> Flamenco in that movie, for Chrissake.
> If you want to see a guy in a white satin suit (or
> was it sky blue?), with a
> permanent huge toothy Colgate smile like a character
> in a cartoon book while
> performing on the dance floor, and yellow hair glued
> together and slicked
> back Elvis style, dancing "strictly"ballroom, this
> is your movie. Kind of
> gives you an idea what aspiring lounge lizards can
> look like to some
> people...
>
> Off topic
> Astrid
> >
>
>
>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 10:18:31 +0100
From: Ecsedy Áron <aron.ecsedy@OM.HU>
Subject: Re: the music, the dancer, or the dance?
Just one more time...
As a seasoned (international) latin/ballroom competitor and teacher (by qualification, I don't really teach ballroom) I must protest:
There is no such thing as Paso Doble. It is a cheesy, 20th century French invention. It is supposed to use the "Spanish temperament" and =
the bull fight as main building blocks to create a dance to march music (to be exact, the whole dance is created to the song: "Espana cani").
Paso Doble is one of the strictest dances in ballroom (since its inclusion in competitions in the 1950s I believe), as each dance has =
exactly the same number of beats (120) all the time (and because of strict tempo this always results in a 2 minute play time). The =
peculiarity is that there are other things in the music that have effect on the dance, like it is made up of 3 blocks (A B A, so the last part is =
exactly the first part), even the finishing orchesral hit at the end of each block is "regulated", in part B, the third beat is always 10 counts =
long (instead of 8) etc. (please don't argue about musicality: we always count 8s in Paso)
If you happen to make any suggestions that flamenco and the dance we call "paso doble" are similar to a flamenco dancer (s)he's surely gonna =
tear your head off. It is true, however, that some top dancers included flamenco elements in their paso doble programme (namely the first one =
experimenting with it was a dutch dancer, ex world champion Louis van Amstel in 1993-4 - from the family of the beer-making Amstels), which =
became a trend for some years.
Cheers,
Aron
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of Any Aspect of the Argentine Tango
> [mailto:TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU] On Behalf Of astrid
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 5:20 PM
> To: TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [TANGO-L] the music, the dancer, or the dance?
>
>
> > May I sugggest an entertaining movie, "Strictly
> > Ballroom". It was popular and should be available to
> > rent or buy. It's about creativity vs. doing "the
> > right steps". The conflict is between Ballroom and
> > Flamenco, but it applies to this discussion. It's fun
> > to watch, too.
>
> The conflict is between Ballroom and "real" Paso Doble,
> there was no Flamenco in that movie, for Chrissake. If you
> want to see a guy in a white satin suit (or was it sky
> blue?), with a permanent huge toothy Colgate smile like a
> character in a cartoon book while performing on the dance
> floor, and yellow hair glued together and slicked back Elvis
> style, dancing "strictly"ballroom, this is your movie. Kind
> of gives you an idea what aspiring lounge lizards can look
> like to some people...
>
> Off topic
> Astrid
> >
>
