I
have been dancing Argentine Tango for twenty years and I have been even
leading for a long time. This need for renovation became very obvious
when I had tried to change my dance to a more dynamic one.
Unsuccessfully. During that process I had also become aware of the
generation gap in the skill and style between the younger dancers and
me.
I have seen a dancer use sequences from my first dance years
and became aware of how old fashion his dance looked and I heard the
others comment on the conservated years. I heard also how new dancers
commented on styles fully recognizable for me but unknown to them. They
said it was not tango. (I could count backward when they had started to
dance . . . :))
So there was a need to update the look of my
dance by adding new steps and techniques which the younger dancers also
could recognize!
Another way to describe the situation is to
think of what a house owner is experiencing! You maybe are living in a
house or your friends have one. Usually there are continuously some
renovating project going on but then after 20 years stay you noticed
that a more profound, more large-scale actions are needed. You maybe
must rebuild the fundament or a basement renovation is needed before
some other changes can be processed!
That was the case of my Tango house!
I
wanted to change my dance and therefore a better fundament was needed
to be clear and strong enough to carry the new top floor. I had been
planning and working for a new type of dance for some time but the new
additional floor to my tango house did not get completed.
What was keeping me back?
At
the time I started to tango the techniques for a stable and solid base
were not available. I grabbed and put together material I could found
somewhere. It was not possible to make a plan or choose a style but you
got a basic figure here and later on something else with a totally
different technique. The wind was blowing through the cracks when
different techniques did not fit together. Some figures were with center
oriented techniques while others were using centrifugal principles and
you were continuously forced to move from one technique to another
during a tanda. It happens also that the dancers in the couple have different
techniques on figures they try to fit together during a tanda. In other
words, it was hard to create a harmonious dance on that base of unfit
blocks, unfit moves.
To start with I would have needed some kind of evaluation
of the situation but it was hard to get. So I planned the content and
set up the lesson structure as I needed with cooperative teachers. Lucky
me to get teachers with good skills and pedagogical insights for this
project!
I am building, I am renovating!
September was the
busiest month with 3-4 lessons a week combined with the preparation and
repetition hours at home. The later part of October was easier with 2-3
lessons instead but as busy as earlier at home and it goes on . . . .
