Renovating my Tango House

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 . . . .

Her dancing body

no will - no lead   

just dancing   

She is a naturally talented follower and a popular partner among the leaders. I always appreciated my tandas with her on every occasions we met on European pistas!

During this tanda there was something else going on, an odd feeling that I was following her. But the strange thing was that she was n o t leading. It was as if her body has started to dance. Please read it once more: as if her body has started to dance! Dancing without her active guidance!

There were movements according to tango's vocabulary and the movements were beautifully following the music but there was not the air of will which directs those movements and is the sign for a lead. Her body was dancing! And I followed her.

This experience kept me fascinated for months and I still wonder

A feeling of speed

After thinking a lot i noticed that the speed in music has two aspects as i see it. I try to explain how i am reasoning.

We keep us to the four quarter notes, 4/4 time signature

The first option is how long every and each quarter note is sounding. If we think ordinary tango with 5 parts, 16 measures each, then we get totally 80 measures which usually takes 2,5 mins to play. But we could modify the music file and play it faster, in 2 mins or slower so it takes 3 mins.

How many measures are passing per minute?

Another way to create a feeling of speed is the number or accents within a measure demanding our steps.

How many accents there is per measure?

As dancers we can decide the number of accents we want to use for our steps. Usually in tango we have two accents per measure. If we would step only on 1 and the same for next measure we create a much calmer, slower feeling. In milonga there is 4 accents and when we take them all it can go quite fast!

How many accents we step per measure?

When you are playing a dance video in slow motion you are using the first alternative. The music and dansers steps are the same but sloooooower.


                    In dance the steps are the changing element and the music a constant