The road & The car as Following & Leading metaphor

music as the landscape

the leaders construct the road and fix the signs

the followers drive their car on the prepared road

 

Following & Leading period

From the very beginning, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of following to be a passive role but it has been a challenge to find a way to describe the active parts included. It has also been impossible to find one picture integrating the whole life of a dancer. The feeling during the first years was totally different compared to the experience of a tanda 20 years later.

What kind of a metaphor could then describe the first years when the leading and following roles have the strongest presence in the couple. In the beginning, we are learning how to move our bodies to Argentine tango and how we relate to music so the dance becomes enjoyable even during your first years!

In classical music, the idea of a musical landscape is common so the idea of tangos creating their own sound landscape was a logical development. Even if some of the song texts are about soccer, heart, blood, and difficulties the music still creates different parallel paths the leaders can choose their favorite among. This is the leaders advantage or often a responsibility during the first years.

The Road Constructor

It is also easy to think a leader as a road constructor when he is choosing the musical path for his feet and body, building the road, which he is offering to the follower too. His skill to navigate and adapt to the other couples will create a safe road on the pista for the couple. Is your road rough or has it a smooth surface? How can your follower recognize the signs for speed limits? Other signs? Are there spaces for scenery stops?

The Car Driver

The follower is not a car as suggested so many times but the driver. It is the follower's decision how to drive that car! It is her decision to keep the vehicle on the offered road and to follow the speed limits and other road signs from the leader during the journey. What is your style of driving? Is it slow or fast? Is the driving occupying all your capacity or are you able to enjoy the path, the musical landscape around you?

The lead/follow period is about learning how to create the tango movements and sequences with your body and how to communicate all that to the partner. It is much more about learning and not so much about improvising yet.

Yes, this is just a metaphor and it doesn't meet all the leading and following aspects but it shows a possibility for a dynamic experience in both roles.


This is the metaphor for the first period on a dancers path! You can here below find the different possibilities there are for us!
https://leadingladyl.blogspot.com/2019/05/three-stages-of-tango-followlead.html

The bloody heel

Ten days ago one of my followers was involved in an incident where her leg was peeled by another follower's heel. There was definitely some blood and still after ten days she is not able to carry out her life long daily routine. She can dance but not swim according to medical advise!

What happened? 

It took place during one of our weekly milongas. According to those involved and a few around the couple behind my friends was dancing vigorously. The back boleo of this younger follower was not performed with a relaxed leg only but it was powered by her back muscles in the way the some dancers do. So instead of a bruise my partner got her calf peeled off! Afterwards the leaders tried to help to take care for the injuries but the follower wasn't there.

After an accident you are usually quite shaken and more careful with your steps. Not this couple.

There seems to be two different responsibility systems around the pista of today. The older system loads all the responsibility for the couples actions on the leader. What ever path the follower heel takes it is the leader's responsibility.

The other system is more based on individual responsibility. The leader is supposed to adapt his dance to the crowd but here the follower should also take a look around and consider if there is space for high boleos. If she finds the pista too crowded she would resist a high boleo lead and transform it to a low one! She is an independent dancer!

My partners leg 10 days after the incident!

I wonder what are you willing to give up to be able to share the same pista with different styles, ages and skill levels?

Who is responsible for heels on your home pista?  Leaders only?

Your opinion on what should an organizer do to prevent these incidents?

The importance of following and leading

Is the leading more important than following has been the subject for several postings lately.

 
This is my view: I consider the leading and following to be the core functions in our dance. The leader and the follower are equally important at all levels and more similar in effort when both partners have developed their adaptation skills and later on the intuitive dance. However at the beginning the leaders workload is larger.

I agree with the writers about the step learning. I also think that both groups learn their own steps with equal easiness. Some individuals learn more easily then others but within the groups of leaders and followers it may be about the same.

Another area to learn is how to produce the lead/leading signals and follow/receive the signals. Think about a basic ocho as an example. Both groups need to learn the signals for different parts of it and during the hours on the pista leaders and followers do develop all the variations needed for different partners.

And here is the end of the list for follower responsibilities as i see it. On other hand the follower has the advantage to reach the level of true enjoyment or intuitive dancing much earlier than a leader. (a leader can experience the followers special level of relaxation and dream about joining her there some day. . . )

The list of the leader responsibilities is longer. At a later development level the conscious mental efforts and physical demands become similar for the persons forming the couple. During the journey from start to that level the leader is responsible and expected to cover for the shortcomings by learning more than a follower.

To begin with I need to know the follower steps - if not, how could I create the signals for an appropriate lead. It doubles my step learning efforts and even today it is mentally exhausting to remember her/my steps simultaneously when I am learning a new sequence.

Then we have the navigation which is much more than walking forward to an empty space on the pista. It is a complicated skill and last mastered. But when mastered the couple can intuitively adapt their steps to the space available while smoothly advancing on the dance line together with others. We can also, as couples, react to the music with different steps but simultaneously with others so the fully developed pista is pulsating to music. You can see this happen on some videos from Buenos Aires milongas.

The most demanding of the extras is the responsibility for content. The steps must be interesting enough and the connection to music needs to be satisfying. Different followers want different content. The leader must know what to suggest.

In the table below the rows present the areas of responsibilities for both groups.
The columns show how much mental/conscious effort is needed for dancing. It stretches from totally conscious steps --> totally intuitive dancing. A variation of the Four stages of competence process!

For me the different stages/periods are these: During the Lead/Follow period the dancing is mostly a conscious process, demanding all my mental capacity. When partnering we both know the steps by heart and can easily adapt to each others; at the best moments intuitively. To reach to the absolute dance the couples on pista must have the skill to intuitively adapt to the other couples as well as to each others within the couple.

Finally and once more - I consider the leading and following to be the core functions in our dance. They are equally important at all levels and more similar in effort when both partners have developed their skills and later on the intuitive dance.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence

A Synchronized Pista

When I was watching this video I suddenly noticed how synchronized all the couples are dancing! They are advancing to different directions on the lines; two nearest ones to the right and the two more far find their way to the left and the individual movements are different.

But the impulses are created simultaneously!

When I extended the window over the whole screen and had my eyes unfocused I could follow the pattern in this jumble of movements.

I think this kind of observations will help me to grow towards the deeply shared dance with the whole group of people!

When you have your screen wide open and your eyes unfocused - can you find my experience then?



      

This video is filmed in Kehl Encuentro, Germany this September.

Feeling of musical timing

The process of becoming a fluent speaker in your native language is quite similar to the process I have had to get the steps to flow to tango music; by communicating with the people around me. After reaching a certain level in your language you start to feel if the words are not in right order or if the verbs form is not correct, you don't know why, you just feel that it is not correct. In a similar way I also developed a feeling indicating that I am not stepping to music in a correct way, that I am not walking in music. Or the opposite!

There are many native speakers of a language who cannot answer the question: how many verbs you used in your speech? They have heard the words, the verbs, but they cannot tell the answer without training. For similar reason I cannot answer for the question if I am dancing the rhythm, or melody or something else.

When you are clearly aware of that feeling you can start to use it as an instrument for improving your musical precision.

Women, Cooperate!

[This is my final essey on the BerkeleyX : Principles of Written English]

On an ordinary night for Argentine tango the number of followers is clearly exceeding the number of leaders. To cope with this fact, women tend to look for solutions only at a personal level, competing with each other with result that the dances are unevenly distributed. If the followers were instead cooperating to manage the tango events the dances would be distributed in a more equitable manner.


Argentine tango tradition offers a large set of rules and praxises to organize a dance evening and to facilitate the process of finding a partner for the next dance set (Las Chinitas, 2009). The most important praxis in this context is cabeceo, an invitation, where followers and leaders are negotiating about the next tanda, dance set, by eye contacts and head nods. This gives both parties an equal possibility to accept or decline an invitation. Today the more competitive followers do not use cabeceo, but approach the leaders, and by chatting for some moments get an invitation or ask for the next set of dances. One of the rules urges the participants to clear the dance area between the tandas (Las Chinitas, 2009). This is not respected on the less traditional dance evenings, where many women are actively asking for the next dance without leaving the dance floor. Consequently, the followers already on the floor get a new tanda more easily and the dances are accumulated to these active individuals. The effect of these two techniques are strengthened by following online advices and preparations at home.


Some websites as Argentine Tango (Whipple, n.d.) or follower forums and discussions are filled with instructions about chatting, clothing and strategic seating for a successful dance evening. Within tango the most popular color is black, but if you choose a red dress you will be more visible on that evening (Anonymous, 2013). You will also strengthen your position by seating wisely. If you choose a table, which people are passing by or gathering around you can easily catch an eye or start a chat. as a preparation for an invitation to next dance (Anonymous, 2013). These strategies are helping a follower to get a more favorable position and more dances than a strategically less skillful dancer would get.


The gender unbalance within tango has not always had the same pattern, but instead in the early days men, leaders, were actually outnumbering the followers (Denniston, 2007). To study the strategies these men used to manage the shortage of available dances, offers a way to find new methods to address the opposite gender unbalance of today.


The immigrant flow to Argentina, starting towards the end of the 1900 century, had an unusual structure in the sense of consisting mainly of single men. As Denniston (2007) describes, "[…] overwhelmingly single young men who were looking for work, many who thought they would get rich and then go home" (Denniston, 2007, p. 12). She continues by saying that still in 1940s and early 1950s this unbalance was noticeable, "[…] in the formal dance halls, known as milongas, there were always far more men than women" (Denniston, 2007, p. 15). Men, who wanted to learn tango, were training four to five nights per week during several years developing their skill in both following and leading. The very first entry to a milonga was decided by the elder men on the training site. Even when the first attempt was successful, these men returned to the continuous training with other men (Denniston, 2007). In this community the skill was defined as the main vehicle to milongas and the skill level of a newcomer was monitored by the elder males who suggested the day and the place for introducing a new leader to the followers. This praxis regulated the flow of newcomers to the milongas, allowing only those who trained persistently and who were approved by an experienced dancer to enter the dance floor.


This kind of social control of newcomers would not be accepted in modern tango communities, but some of the old praxises are valid even today and by discussing and cooperating a modern set of guidelines for a milonga can be developed and agreed about. In the early days the outnumbering group, men, did find a structure to manage the situation. Today it is the followers' turn to take the lead.



References

Denniston, C. (2007). The Meaning of TANGO, The Story of the Argentinian Dance, 12, 15.

Las Chinitas, (2009). Welcome to Milonga Las Chinitas Retrieved from
http://laschinitashk.blogspot.se/2009/08/welcome-to-milonga-las-chinitas.html

Whipple, C. (n.d.). Follower's Guide to Festivals/Milongas, Retrieved from
http://www.carriechelsea.com/guide.shtml

Whipple, C. (n.d.). Follower's Guide to Festivals/Milongas, Retrieved from
http://www.carriechelsea.com/gettingdances.shtml

Carlitos vs Pablo and Noelia

I have been watching a lot of Carlitos videos lately trying to understand his lead and his musicality! One day I clicked back to a video where Noelia is dancing with Pablo and I was astonished how my youtube experience had changed.

Pablo Rrodriques and Noelia

I have always appreciated Pablo and Noelia as masters of slower tangos. The loss of those calm performances was my main reason to be unhappy when they separated. The rest of it was boring; I thought so at that time.

When I came back to those old songs, I was changed and appreciated now how cleverly he chooses steps and movements. I understood also more about the musical elements he is using for his steps He makes stops, he slows down this milonga to let his feet follow the violin or some other variations in music. Their whole bodies are involved in dancing.

When watching this do it several times and at least once …without sound…! It is easier to concentrate to the movements, the interpretation of music. Anyhow for me it is very risky because I am easily absorbed to a fantastic performance if the music is on! My analysis is fading to plain enjoyment!

Carlitos Espinoza and Noelia

This partnering was a happy surprise and their rhythmical discoveries have a joyful precision. They nearly never stop but let the feet run even faster for a change following the piano or other istruments. The upper bodies are still  together and the dancing is focused on feet including some up/downward movemets for the linked torsos.

Here you have the same song to watch and compare. Please play this too … without sound… to have your full concentration on the movements. You have a fantastic possibility to enjoy the differences between these two performances danced on the same song.

Noelia

The two videos above show also the broad talent Noeila has. Pablo and Carlitos have their significantly very own ways of picking the musical phenomenons for their steps, their expressions are different, abrazos are different but she can adapt to all that and still keep her own artistic expression at high level.

Audience

As audience my opinions seems to be quite haphazard, or my understanding and opinions are strongly limited by my level of understanding, sensitivity. To have other additional experiences seems to change my preferences.

Anyhow I feel deeper joy now after working on these issues! That's great and I recommend it for you too! Work on your favorites to get closer, to get deeper!

Carlitos Steps

It is not always easy to see the leader’s part in a performance. Carlitos looks most often calm, eyes fixed on the pista and he moves just as much as needed, never spectacularly. His impact on the dance is nearly invisible but there is a type of steps which have been part of his dance for a long time. You know those repeated, interrupted backochos or alteration steps in line but most often steps as part of a giro.

We do not know who invented them, if there was a misunderstanding of a lead or a playfull experimenting which created them, we don't know the start. Anyhow they were visible already on performances with Mamie – this video is from 2008. They were created eagerly in milonga but in smaller numbers also in tango.

If you want to find them in tango you can click  this link!

The milonga performance with Pamela shows the full range of these steps. They are now technically fully developed and they match perfectly the music.

The audience around the pista appreciated the dance and the viewers have been watching this video again and again. But still there was something missing when the performance did not come completely to alive.

Then we got Noelia! She has her own strong musicality and with Carlitos her wild rhythmical side was fully released. Her charisma could lit these steps in a new way.

If you want to see a tango from same location check via this link!

It seems to take a long time to develop steps to a vibrant, vivid dance and some new combinations, connections are maybe needed on the way.

Carlitos hand

My favorite pose for leader right hand is the relaxed one with fingers easily together and the thump slightly separated. Many variations are available but I can not recall a single other leader but Carlitos Espinoza, who is spreading out the fingers to maximum in the way so characteristic for Noelia Hurtado.

I got curious and wanted to check, if these specific moments of outspread  fingers during some performances with Noelia could be found earlier with his other partners or if it is a more detailed adaptation of the abrazo; adapting and synchronizing the abrazo down to the very tip of the fingers!


I am talking about this, his right hand!

Youtube is a very unprecise tool to work with, but it offers still some better features compared to my memory! I did choose four of his partners to take a closer look of the abrazo and hand poses: Mamie Stancy, Sofia Saborido, Pamela Aracena and Noelia Hurtado. For each of them I did a search filtered for video. The second level filter was for maximum view count and for latest posting. For Pamela it was the same video and for Sofia the second video had so soft light that the hands could not be seen clearly.

You can check the hands and if you like watch the whole video you find the links in the end of this posting.


Mamie and Carlitos

Pamela and Carlitos

Sofia and Carlitos

Noelia and Carlitos

I remember some quite heated discussions about Noelias hand but never a word about Carlitos in same position. How come? My guess would have been that the rules for the leader options are more rigid but it seems not so.  Or do I just have limited information?

Mamie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DOfZRmqlPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR485E0Debs

Pamela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er1TfrnxqAM

Sofia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUQF5TfEgbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmGMau9ovZQ

Noelia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxwBfckHwkg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flaS2vr-QT0

exeptional
http://youtu.be/ggUFetrOm2Q?t=8s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAltfzpsGmQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndX_C7Bg4kw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUFetrOm2Q

Support your feet, please!

Quite a  few of my favorite, experienced followers must cut down the number of tandas because of metatarsal pain. That is painful for her and really frustrating for both of us! The information about hese two methods to support the metatarso are not new but this is a new year push to start test/use devises for easier and happier dancing. I am NOT professional and you should talk with one to check if these methods are suitable for you and if they are enough to help you stay on the pista. It IS dangerous not to listen your body – we had here in our community (early days when there was not so much information) who lost her metatarso padding with painful consequences for many years.

Stay in place, keep the metatarso tissue collected!
A friend of mine is a professional modern dancer with many hours on bare feet; training and performing. The increasing pain on the front part of the feet was horrifying, challenging her career as a dancer. A solution for her was a bandage of sport tape around the front part of the feet. She changed it once a week during the long period her feet needed to recover.

If you put a piece of tape on the floor and step on it with you whole weight you vill get right supporting effect without squeezing the feet. Wrap the ends around your foot. This may be exactly what you need but for more stable support you can make another round.

This will keep the metatarso padding collected into its proper place without squeezing the structure or your foot.

Giving your feet some extra padding!

There is kind of jelly, colorless paddings used by many here but they are mostly loose ones so after a milonga you can find some lonely, sad jelly padding on the pista or they move around in the shoe so you need to put them to the right place again. In central Europe these devises have a band around the foot keeping them in place.  According to the info you can even wash the after a long dance night!

Do it together! Start a new trend in your community!

I have talked to followers here about these possibilities and helped them to test but it has been too embarrassing to use visible devises in those beautiful shoes. But according to the ladies it helped when they tested!

If this could be something for you and your follower friends, please go together and use the visible paddings, visible sport tape!  If you are 5-10 followers doing it at same milonga it will be  easier and others will join you quite soon!

The change can go VERY fast! 

When I visited a German encuentro and found these white bands in many shoes

 it became soon kind of signature of a dedicated, experienced dancer!

2014.04.07
Some more links to find tips for pain release!

http://www.leonatraining.com/2013/11/mini-class-3-school-of-silly-walks.html

http://www.advancedfootcontrol.com/moreinfo2/

http://www.alignedandwell.com/

What are our favorites telling us?

A few months ago a friend asked me at a milonga which are my favorite tango couples. A tornado of names rushed through my head and I must admit that to come down to a handful of names was impossibly. The question was though anchored in my mind and every now and then some names were floating up to my awareness before disappearing again. I started curiously follow the process when a couple of names took positions compared to others, absolutely and relatively until I today can present the shortest list during these weeks and months.

I ask you to pay attention to the fact that this list doesn’t have numbers, but the order seems to be important for me – I do not clearly know why, but this is the only order my soul allows me to write them. In that way this list or anyhow the reasons for this order are secret, even to me.

So this is not a list about who is the best dancer in the world, but a list which tells something about my deepest thoughts and feelings for tango.  These names represent the tips of icebergs of my tango values and appreciations.

Here are the couples for time being stated by my unconscious heart:

Sebastian and Mariana

Charlitos and Noelia

Chicho and Juana

Javier and Noelia

And here you have my thoughts when I let my brain to form some ideas about this list:

Sebastian and Mariana

They have been the starting couple at all stages of this list. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have been working together so long time, having had the time to know each other and creating a stable cooperation, partnering. The most astonishing aspect in their performances is the glowing elegance as no one else’s today! I noticed that I prefer to write performance to dance – must indicate a lot.

Charlitos and Noelia

Their musicality blows my brain! They are outstanding and even a video with them can make me cry certain days!

Chicho and Juana

Chicho is the King of rhythmic tango!  He is also a kind of renaissance person being a musician and painter too.

And Juana is a sweet partner with the toughness needed to dance with Chicho. I have chosen this clip because it shows so clearly the first one! Some other clips show how she gets focused when music starts.

(Jump to 40s and whatch for some time)

Javier and Noelia

Javier is one of the few dancers who does move my heart live on the pista as well as on video. His ability to create an elegant dance is fantastic.

Noelia did grow to her new role extremely fast! On the first video from March 2013 she was still dancing kind of Nuevo movements but already in Seoul in May she had found the way and I just love them in this video from Tylösand in June.

The consequences for me then!

If one my deepest values is elegance I maybe should start to think the surface of my own dance body! Leave those pieces of training cloths and gymnastic shoes at home and start to think of how the clothing could support a more elegant look! Or how should I think about my steps, how to choose the ones giving my dance a better look?

Am I showing respect to the music? If I would give a more focused value for the music – could it give a different experience to my partner too?

How about you?

I sincerely recommend you to let your heart and soul work on this question for weeks and I think you can get some surprising ideas, when you review the results!

Who are your favorite dancers? Which couples keep you watching their dance again and again?

What are the values you find when thinking of the reasons for these choices you made?

Are there some consequences for your dance too?

****************          

A video in line with this posting

I just couldn't resist because I found this video extremely inspiring!

(If this link is not working try those below)

http://youtu.be/4znrNtLKDE4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb1YI2CKSyo

Double standards or what it could be?

I am quite puzzled about the two standards applied on musicians and dancers on a tango pista in some circles.

Many of the old orchestra members had classical, long education and professional career behind them when they entered the tango scene. My musically educated friends are coming every now and then, telling about the wonders they have found in the music: Those men were so genius! they knew the rules! they were so creative!

They were not fiddlers who learned just by playing!

Yes, those musicians are at real equal level only with the professional dancers, performers, but still - Why should the preferred state for the amateur tango dancers of today be an uneducated mind, untrained body, who learned by dancing in a milonga?

I do not know the education level for these old milongueros, but many of the newcomers in tango have a lot of education and academic degrees.  I think their background does have impact on their relationship to tango and for them it includes more formal learning and education activities. That's the way we relate to new things, we want to study them!

The world has become more complicated too! If you wanted to take a walk at 60's or 70's or earlier you just went out and took a walk. Today it is much more elaborate process. You need to think of your shoes, clothing, technique and devices. When I made a search for Nordic walk, ONE of the walking techniques, I got 48.000 hit on youtube and I think thousands of them are relevant. Why would tango activities stay outside of this trend?

So the main questions here are:

How can real, true music performance include education, training, performing, admiration of the audience and still be moving and true? But in the same time the dancer is losing the authenticity, by training or seeking the applause and appreciation from the audience or peers?

Or have the times changed so even an amateur dancer have right to train her/his body and mind and still be a true dancer?

 

What is Chicho doing?

Below you find a presentation of two measures in Milonga Sentimental.  The blue bar shows the habanera rhythm and you find the same information on the lower rows of the sheet music. To check the habanera you can listen to this early tango from Turkey. It starts with this musical pattern and you can follow the pattern with your fingers like this:

 The song is here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK3sSaB76k4

The red spots B1 and B2 are for basic stepping in milonga, but the dancers can make other choices of course :) Sometimes the action on the green line/the upper part on the sheet music is more prominent hiding the underlying habanera pattern. Can you spott some of these in Milonga Sentimental?


It looks like this with the notes. The information on the green lines are at the upper part and the blue habanera beats are placed on the lower lines.

In milonga you step on GOL - pe NUN-ca DI-sxx- TE por

(If this had been a tango your steps would have been on GOL - pe nun-ca DI-sxx-te por)

The link below is a version of Milonga Sentimental with Chicho and Eugenia. I put the start a few seconds before the text starts:
so listen to the text and look at his feet.
GOL - pe NUN-ca DI-sxx- TE por

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=--I61uRCsn4#t=83s

What are Chicho and Eugenia doing during these two measures?
Only basic stepping?
Extra steps?
If Eugenia is doing two steps here how are they placed?

If you want to check the sheet music for the whole Milonga Sentimental you will find it here!
http://www.todotango.com/spanish/las_obras/partitura.aspx?id=253

Ricardo Vidort and Muma

Ricardo Vidort
Every stage of your path in tango has its own scenery. This is for a milonguero who has danced for 60 years. At this point it is quite sure you got the essence of this dance clear for you.

The most important for me is this:*The body doesn’t think, the body feels the music as a way to move it and walk, and if we put attention to what our body is feeling, we shall see we are moving.*

Old milonguero knowledge for you via an interview with Ricardo Vidort on Jantango's blog
http://jantango.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/ricardo-vidort-again-in-his-own-words/

An video interview with Muma, who has been dancing with Ricardo Vidort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QfDZVX9wpI&list=UUKAaJeHDmrdn0J4XHrXiLwg&index=1&feature=plcp

Muma as teacher
We are different as persons and need different methods to easily learn to make moves connected to the music. It seems that Muma has a different way giving a key to some learners. Please read this story:

*In my experience, sequences held me back for years learning AT, I think because my mind didn't have the framework for them. Sequences are definitely not a necessary part of the learning experience and the first teacher able to teach me social dance, was Muma, a Molinguera who just had me walk and feel the music and then after I mastered that, she then taught me several little things like ocho cortadas (just the cortada piece which can be on the right or left), weight changes, double times, check steps, trespies, ocho steps, various turns, back steps, crosses and back crosses which can all be done in an amazing variety of ways.

I actually think that most people like me, unable to learn from sequences, end up dropping out and quiting tango and the only reason why I never gave up is because I was extremely stubborn. I actually thought that I had a learning disability until I met Muma and she straightened me out ridiculously fast. I know that some people have minds with a frameworks such that sequences work well for them and I have nothing against that. I see it as intuition vs. intellectual ways of dancing and I can respect both, but intuitive dancing feels much better to me personally. It is a real shame that there are so few teachers that can teach to intuitive minds like mine. Robert Hauk is one of the only teachers within 100's of miles of me that I can actually learn from, and kinesthetic learners like me mostly leave tango and never come back. I have talked to a lot of other people (artist types) who were unable to learn tango from sequences and I think sequences are much better teaching aids for analytical people like programmers, engineers, or mechanics, which is why there are not many artist types dancing tango.*  (link to the original posting)

A lesson with Muma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32q5E1lYVQ&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32q5E1lYVQ&feature=related

Traspie thoughts!

I am pretty convinced that traspie is used as a group name for all steps faster than double-time steps in tango. These fast steps come up every now an then in tango but regularly in milonga. Follow me!

When we are talking about ordinary tango, 4/4, there is a shared understanding for the usual steps, where they should be placed and how they relate to the music and the notes! The following variations are known even if there is a lot of frustration because of the names of them. In the illustrations below you find all the four beats, accents, for a 4/4 tango written as B1, B2, B3 and B4. The accents we use for ours steps will be marked with red color.

Half time-step

We take only one step during a whole measure.

You can take a step extremly slowly or decorate during the *waiting time*.


Simple time-step

We step on B1 and B3.

 The usual way to walk, to go in caminata.


Double time-step

You can do it like B1_B2_B3  or  B1_B3_B4 as illustrated below!

These are the fastest basic steps in tango in two variations.

These are the names for basic speeds for tango steps but there is a lot of situations when it goes faster and those steps are called traspie. There is traspies in tango, but it happens far more often in milonga. The ordinary milonga steps are double as fast as for tango. When you in tango take two steps you are putting down your feet four times in milonga.(*) So basic milonga steps are as double-time steps in tango, continuously. It means that if you do some kind of double-time steps in milonga they end up in traspie group; they are double-double-time in tango.

To review the traspie possibilities in milonga we need to understand the structure of milonga first. It has a basic rhythm with two accents, two beats marked below as B1 and B2, and the measure is 2/4. Above this basic rythm we have a fixed rhythmic pattern often called habanera and here marked by H1, H2, H3 and H4. Pay attention for the differences in duration for habanera accents. The basic rhythm and habanera are sounding together at B1/H1 and B2/H3 but H2 and H4 are sounding alone. Please check here! The red ones are for your steps!

The explanation below is valid for all milongas but it is not so easy to hear or produce them during a fast milonga. So try them while listening to a slow milonga, for example Milonga Sentimental.

Traspie variation 1
We step on both beats in this milonga measure, B1 and B2, as well as H4. This could be seen as a double-time step in milonga - but keep in mind that it is double-doble-time compared to tango steps above.

You can dance this in many different ways but to start with use rock step. B1 right foot forward, B2 left foot forward, H4 rockstep backward, B1 forward

Traspie variation 2
Here also we step on both beats, B1 and B2, as well as on c. There is no clear accent for c and if you have a trained ear you can get a feeling to step offbeat.This could also be seen as a double-time step in milonga/double-double-time step in tango as the case was for Traspie variation 1 above.

 

You can dance this in many different ways but to start with use rock step. B2-right foot forward, B1 left foot forward, c rockstep backward, B2 forward


Traspie variation 3
This traspie is fundamentally different compared to the ones above because it introduces a double-double-doubel-time step compared to tangons double-time step. We use the both basic beats B1 and B2 but this time we step even on the second habanera accent H2.

We can use the rockstep here too but the time space is so short that there is hardly time to rock but only replace the foot before us some centimeter further forward. This gives me a clear feeling of stumbling.

Here you have a link to Milonga Sentimental as a guitar version with sheet music.
http://www.todotango.com/spanish/las_obras/partitura.aspx?id=253

(*)

Milonga   
Measure I                                                                                    Measure II

    

Tango
Measure

.

To dance with a beginner

In different discussions the combination advanced/beginner dancer is promoted as an ideal. Sometimes I find it as an expression for greed in tango context, when the beginners try to get in to a Ferrari for a fast development. Other times the leaders, it is mostly leaders in this case, want to make a good impression to the readers by announcing their generosity in this way.

The dance skill is also more seen as a Beauty kind of quality instead of a Skill for example in skiing. The first one is a static one - you got your share and that's it.There are feelings of rejection and frustration, when your goals are far a way from your place today. Only few are using these negative feelings as fuel to grow their skill.

When I compared the dance situation to a conversation I clearly understood the difference between the appreciation for a person and the skill level.

An enjoyable dance is not only about chemistry between the partners but it's a lot of about skill too! There can be a totally wonderful person but if s/he can only 10 words of our shared language there wouldn't be a conversation.

If s/he knows 2000 word but is unexperienced, our conversation is still a struggle with the language, our communication tool.

But when we know our grammar, we know the words and we have the flow after many years of use of this language, then we can forget the tools and focus on our subject. Sometimes this kind of conversation is so intense, the exploring so focused on what is within us, me and the partner - we just forget everything else!

My odd musicality

I have no musical education so the basic singing and some dancing are the only active experiences of music before tango.

For some reason I started to walk to music and I soon noticed that at certain times the steps got a deep meaning for me. Then suddenly I felt again how ridiculous it was to walk around to music, alone at home. I started to chase these meaningful steps because those steps must connect to the music in right way. I became an intuitive dancer and I mostly placed my steps according to the structures other then basic count.

I had also lost my childhood musical memory so I never knew what was coming next - I felt as if being an audio head in an old tape recorder. This forced me to dance without any plans, but just concentrating on the music sounding NOW. You don't necessarily need to know what is coming next; Followers are actually doing that all the time - they seldom know what movements are coming next. Leader's relation to music is similar as the followers relation to my steps.

For these reasons I was TOTALLY unaware of beat, phrases and the parts of tango.

How was I doing then?

In the beginning of a song I let my body move on the spot and find the music, find the feeling of meaningful movements and then go. Some times I was pointed out as the only (!?) one on the small pista who was stepping on the beat all the time. I got positive feedback on my phrasing and my dancing was great fun for followers too.

But to participate on a musicality workshop was a living hell to me!

Walk on beat .......? Walk only on 1 ....?? I was painfully aware of being different, I was out. I tried to look how others were doing and asked my follower. The last two years of that period I was aware of that others heard something very vital in music, but what? I couldn't form a question and nobody asked me how I was doing.

About two years ago a tango friend gave me Joaquin Amenabars book Tango:Let's Dance to the Music! I started to do the practical exercises and two weeks later I heard first time the beat - I was totally exhilarated! Totally! Several years of frustration was canalised in work with that book. I have done it several times alone and several times with tango friends.

But there is one big devil!

My early tango was magical, something between my body and the music. I did not have control of it, the first time in my life my aware brain did not have anything to say when the feet were dancing. Quite interesting, nice!

I was and I still am afraid of that the musical training changes my dance to some kind of mechanical step machinery. Therefore I try to balance the technical drills with other exercises to keep the magical, emotional side strong enough

something about the Stages of tango

I started to dance tango 1998, which makes me ancient compared to many in our community. When I have looked  back over these years I have had a blurred feeling of passing through different stages since I started. But for some reason this feeling has never manifest itself in writing until two weeks ago when I in the middle of a facebook discussion put it in this way:

"I put it a little bit simple here, but at the beginning and intermediate level I needed a follower. If she didn't understand my lead and did something else => there we were standing, loading for a fresh start.

Today I need a partner - a mentally strong follower with her own musicality. If she misinterprets my lead, we just go on dancing, it doesn't have impact on our flow. If I don't *feel* her presence in our dance I feel lonely. 

This subject seems to be in the air today because a few days later I found a picture describing the 5 stages of tango. It is well done with thoughts quite correct and visually beautifully formed. It is a very good aid to stimulate your own thoughts about what you have passed by and the joys you’ll have in future. 

I'm sorry that the picture is not readable, please follow this link! (Ctrl + and it gets larger)

Credit to Steve Morrall, Tango UK (the author)
http://www.tango.uk.com

If we were able to form some kind of shared understanding of development stages for tango it would be easier to discuss. Today many of our discussions are confusing because we mix the details from different levels during one occasion. In my opinion the feeling, experience, thinking and performance of tango phenomenons are different at different levels.
I hope we will some day in future have a kind of shared understanding!