4532  Stop the Figures and Concentrate on the Connection

Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 07:55:08 -0500
From: "Ron Weigel" <tango.society@gmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Stop the Figures and Concentrate on the Connection
and the Music
To: "tango-L list" <tango-l@mit.edu>
<cff24c340607270555n436e7fd7w267dc0bca1510c25@mail.gmail.com>

This relates to what Deby was saying about concentrating on the music
while dancing.

Last night in a class we were teaching on musicality, one of our
followers, who has been dancing for one year, was anxious to know (off
topic) when we were going to teach giros with sacadas. She didn't know
what it was called, but when I demonstrated a 3-step clockwise giro
with sacada emanating from a rock step (we teach close embrace) ending
in a walk to the cross, she identified it. I explained we hadn't
taught that in her sequence of courses yet because there is rarely
enough room on the floor to complete it and thus we would need several
weeks to introduce the options for entry and exit at each step and,
besides, there's a lot more useful stuff to learn that can be used on
any dance floor, e.g., interpreting the musical structure of tango,
milonga, and vals.

After class Susana told me what was behind this. Our student dances
very well for someone dancing one year, but she had encountered
someone at a festival who actually dropped her in the middle of the
floor during a song because she couldn't follow his giros. What kind
of message does that send?!!

There are thousands of dancers out there (probably tens of thousands
worldwide) who learn tango as a set of steps to be executed. The
mindset of these dancers is think a figure, then execute it. They do
their figures without having basic knowledge of partner connection and
musicality. These dance robots execute a set of memorized patterns,
without understanding the leading and following technique that create
them. Dancing set figures may be typical in ballroom dancing, but it
is far from the essence of tango as a social dance.

Embellishments. Last night we were also teaching some embellishments
women can do during pauses (context: dancing to Pugliese). We
emphasized that embellishments need to be done within the time and
space provided by the leader, and should not disrupt the man's
balance. I commented that embellishments are elements that are ADDED
as spice to a dance, to be used sparingly at appropriate moments. They
should not BECOME the dance.

Yet it seems as much as there are Figure Kings by the thousands out
there, there are also thousands of Embellishment Queens. There is
something wrong with a tango educational system that teaches WHAT you
do on your own instead of HOW you dance with your partner and HOW you
dance with the music.

Ron

Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:29:05 -0400
From: Jeff Gaynor <jjg@jqhome.net>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Stop the Figures and Concentrate on the
Connection and the Music
Cc: tango-L list <tango-l@mit.edu>

Ron Weigel wrote:
I was in the class last night -- good job Ron! A couple of comments as a
newbie.

>After class Susana told me what was behind this. Our student dances
>very well for someone dancing one year, but she had encountered
>someone at a festival who actually dropped her in the middle of the
>floor during a song because she couldn't follow his giros. What kind
>of message does that send?!!
>
>
>

Right after this I danced with her and did 3 or 4 of these on a hunch,
and she followed them just fine. The point being that the other dancer
probably did not respect her axis nor did he probably accomodate her,
viz., no matter what movement the lead initiates, he must adjust to what
happens as a result rather than mechanically following through the rest
of some sequence. I call this accomodating since I don't know what the
real term, if any, there is for it. Once her momentum was moving one
way, he has an obligation to see to it that she doesn't end up in a heap
even if he looks like a total ninny. The few times I've seen things like
this (a pattern starts and one finishes with a flourish while the other
stumbles around the room), I note a distinct difference in how it is
perceived. Experienced dancers heap scorn on the leader, novices heap
scorn on the follower.

>There are thousands of dancers out there (probably tens of thousands
>worldwide) who learn tango as a set of steps to be executed. The
>mindset of these dancers is think a figure, then execute it. They do
>their figures without having basic knowledge of partner connection and
>musicality. These dance robots execute a set of memorized patterns,
>without understanding the leading and following technique that create
>them. Dancing set figures may be typical in ballroom dancing, but it
>is far from the essence of tango as a social dance.
>
>

Ah, but there is a pedagogical problem here. Ultimately you want
followers and leaders to dance and whatever figures occur will happen of
their own accord as dictated by space, music, momentum and other
factors, right? Figures are one way to impart the movements that
characterize the dance. They are easy for teachers to show and students
can learn them reasonably within the limits of a class. Since good
teachers can use them effectively, they will remain a strong part of the
tango landscape. I might humbly tender that they are not evil, but that
teachers don't comminicate to the students that figures are properly
like training wheels on a bicycle and should be used as an aid to help
them internalize the dance. Abandoning them is a mark of maturing as a
dancer and that ought to be an explicit goal, right? Of course, I'm sure
there are teachers who really don't know that figures aren't tango as
well as those who just can't teach, but these are separate issues.

$.02

Jeff

Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 18:34:41 +0000 (GMT)
From: Lucia <curvasreales@yahoo.com.ar>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Stop the Figures and Concentrate on the
Connection and the Music
To: Ron Weigel <tango.society@gmail.com>, tango-L list
<tango-l@mit.edu>

Ron Weigel's exhortation says it well, but he is charging the windmills...

There's a golden rule of tango that says that one should make at least one complete circle of the dance floor. Adhering to this rule imposes a certain rhythm to the whole dancing floor, limits the figures and/or speeds them up. It would make for real dancing, but how many care? One learns a figure or embellishment in an hour, while good dancing requires total dedication...

Lucia

Ron Weigel <tango.society@gmail.com> escribi?: embellishments are elements that are ADDED
as spice to a dance, to be used sparingly at appropriate moments. They
should not BECOME the dance.

Yet it seems as much as there are Figure Kings by the thousands out
there, there are also thousands of Embellishment Queens. There is
something wrong with a tango educational system that teaches WHAT you
do on your own instead of HOW you dance with your partner and HOW you
dance with the music.

Ron



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