Dancing to knowledge

A joyful way to learn more about relationship between music and steps is to watch the videos at La Milonga del Trenos YourTube channel. The channel owner loves old dance movies and combines that with the love to Argentine tango. He/she uses a lot of creative imagination and hours of time to find a suitable match and sometimes the result is an amazing fit, but you can learn a lot from the revealed difficulties too.

It is clear that the vals and milonga with their fixed patterns are easiest to match. I knew this fact earlier, but the videos here gave me the experience. These videos will also visualize for you how much more variation the tango structure has and how far more complicated it is to find a suitable match with an movie dance sequence and a tango.

The good tango/movie match makes me aware of the shared, general rules for tango and other  kinds of music. It is fascinating to notice how large the shared area is. On the other hand the unmatching sequences are revealing the unique parts for tango and the movie music. I think the situation on the pista has some similarities - in the laudspeakers the song is same but most of the dancers are listening to a different song. The steps are showing, what your BRAIN hears!

I wonder if this is a problem for the performers? There is one song in the laudspeakers but the audience comes with their inner versions of the song. I suppose performers must somehow be able to form the dance so it is logical, connected in some extent to all the inner versions of this same song, among the audience.

So test yourself, watch some of the videos at the channel and ask yourself:
Where do the steps and tango go together?
Where do they differ?
What is the overall feeling for this tango? Do the steps express that feeling?

When practising check if....
Are my steps speeding up more than the music does?
Do my feet express the musical accents or were they lost?
Did you noticed something else to look after in your own dance?

Please, click the channel name Canale di lamilongadeltreno  and you get there directly! 

   

What a movies they made those days! I just LOVE  to be entertained!

Here you have some of my favorites! 


Milonga
La Milonga del Treno - Azabache
La Milonga del Treno - Sacale punta

Vals
La Milonga del Treno - Lagrimas y Sonrisas
La Milonga del Treno - Desde el Alma

Tango
La Milonga del Treno - El Huracàn
La Milonga del Treno - La Colegiala
La Milonga del Treno - Carnaval de mi barrio