Find the ONE when you need it!

to recognize the ONE
why  and how
taping and stepping
speed up the song
low volume
Julio & Juana
Joaquin Amenabar

For the first ten (!) years I was dancing and even leading without *hearing*, being aware of the musical structures. In other words, I couldn't tell you when the ONE....One .... One was sounding in music, not even on a most simple song. Surpricingly my feet knew better and I was appreciated for my musicality, my ability to step on the accents and fit the phrases. This gave me enjoyable tandas with musical partners but was a hell at musicality workshops! I didn't understand, I wasn't able to do anything of the stuff a teacher asked! The lessons became easier when I learned to recognize the retuning ONE in the music structure and the workshops became bearable! The retuning ONE is a fundamental base, giving me valuable anchoring points in music and organizing the sometimes overwhelming musical chaos. It was so for me and therefore to make it easier for you I have written down some guidelines which I used to break through the sound barrier in tango!

How to recognize the ONE and series of them!

The most important guide for me has been Joaquin Amenabar's book Tango: Let's dance to the music! When I got it I had been dancing for 10 years without never recognizing a single ONE. After doing the exercises for two weeks I first time knew: THIS is ONE! and HERE is another ONE! and there!  and here again!

The exercises made me sound, tap, sing and step - to approach the music from different angles and I was put to express the sounds my ears could catch. For me this has been the most important tool for development - to do something when I hear the music, to train my body to become synchronized with the sound, to connect my ear and foot! That's what the dance is about, isn't it?

The book will be available again later in autumn! This time digital and in seven languages!

There are a lot of other things dancers can do by themselves at home. Youtube provides some helpful features for aiding the learning and I have used these possibilities! When listening to youtube songs I do it sometimes at a higher speed because that emphasizes the sound structure and the One is more audible. Another trick is to put the volume down so you hardly hear the weakest parts and this highlights the ONE structure to be easily recognized. .... and all the time I am tapping on the table, on the edge of my laptop to clue the music and body together!

On youtube you also find JuanayJulio website with several examples presented with rhythms and suggested steps. Here is an example of tango and milonga! Tap you through these examples several days in a row! Leave them for a while and return again for some additional days! On an adventurous day, you can test the steps too or test the songs with more variation on the structure.

tango: https://youtu.be/pZzLqvpeuA4Aa
milonga  https://youtu.be/rQ5m1z2ebXM


I work happily at home but If you like to work together with others, form a group and learn together or maybe the teachers are with you! There may be an occasion, time for such a course! Ask them! During a workshop teachers can help their students forward by using a short exercise or a game for learning and then even the music educated can survive the training moment without getting dead bored!  

I have also noticed that when the base is stable many additional patterns can be developed more easily. Just this now: 1-3-1-3. When you know the ONE and step on it you can place the next step in the middle on your way to the next ONE. Try the milonga above with this in mind!

My initial drive to work on music was to become a more skilled dancer! Music was part of the path. Later on, the motivation and goals became more diversified including the enjoyment for me and my partner, understanding the lessons, to hear more details as well as larger structures in music. The persistent basic training has even increased my enjoyment in listening to other music and the enjoyment seems to continue growing . . . . 

 

How to orient among all these options?

Feeling for cultivating or for composting learning?

It is crucial for your development to know what type of learner you are, before choosing your long-term learning process. I am a visual learner, who has an enormous appetite for training and tango is my main hobby. Are you also towards those patterns then you may have use of these my experiences!

Do you too recognize this?

I participated in a lot of workshops. Afterward, I talked sometimes about the content with my partner and we tried to run it occasionally. Time passed by and little by little other things occupied my time and mind. However, some figures and techniques survived and became part of my pista vocabulary but the extensive majority of them have withered at some remote corners of my mind.

It looks like this! All my forgotten figures . . .

What about frequently reactivate the knowledge history?

I was not happy about my routines and started to cultivate the workshop content instead! I use my camera to film the class summary and I try to memorize the verbal instructions and teachers' feedback on my issues. At home I watch the video material/run through the memories and decide what to keep and update into the training log**.  That log is maintaining and organizing all the material for my coming reviews at practicas and solo training sessions! Those two are my knowledge cultivation events!

To develop a decent physical fluency on sequences requires repetitions but not so much time. The bottleneck slowing down and lengthening the repetition sessions is the memory* - or anyhow my memory for me! Use any tricks you know to memorize the steps and the groups of sequences - pictures, stories, whatever you have learned during a lifetime, to support your memory!

How much time is needed?

To get an idea about the time needed for repetition we assume that you want to keep 60 of your favorite workshop figures for social dancing. If you still remember the steps from the workshops your solo training will take about 15 minutes and some longer with a partner. This is realistic when you can the steps by heart but if you need to check the video often then two hours will not be enough!

In a 5 mins micro training session you are able to run through a lot of details you want to improve and maintain. I watch also the videos regularly and the time varies. It can be 10 mins but it can be longer if not properly prepared. I run all these activities several times per week and after a rest period of 4/5 weeks, they are activated again! The key is to pick them up before you start to forget them!

When you prepare your review material do it carefully and edit your videos so only the important pieces are on the final compilation. In this way your review time will become shorter and your learning becomes focused. You get faster to your goal!

 If you choose to work with the figures, micro train your technique consistently and review the material regularly you will develop a stable technical base. When you cultivate systematically the chosen part of tango, you will feel the difference in your body and I am pretty sure it will become visible too!  

What do you think, are you interested?           

This routine will have an impact on certain parts of tango, I mentioned the technical development, but there are more to tango and you will always be surprised and challenged by new learning possibilities!  :)

*The memory is highly needed at practica but it should be shut down in a milonga!

** Via the link below you can read about a Training log I use

https://offpistaaction.blogspot.com/2021/05/get-training-done-tango-training-log.html

The weights in a tango gym?

After getting to a certain level of dancing a private teacher told me that I should pick my partners with greater care and focus on the more skillful and highly ranked followers. The problem is that this is an advice for performing artists or teachers who need to build up a unique artistic air and iconic power to attract students to their events!
When a social dancer applies this on their cabeceo strategies s/he will easily end up on the top of the skill pyramid and cannot find partners anymore -  the number of suitable partners is growing low on this road. It is maybe ok for a performing teacher but a catastrophe for social dancers who need several enjoyable partners to fill the milonga night.
So it could be worth an effort to find an alternative mental model to better maintain a broad variety of attractive dance partners.

New image suggestion

I have heard some stories about leaders who through practicing with or teaching followers at widely varying skill levels have developed a firm but versatile lead. It is stable but still sensitive to the differences in the partners' movements and can be easily adapted to them.

A leader is challenged in different ways and in my mind there are similarities between a person practicing dance and a person training in a gym. A Personal Trainer teaches you a form, a correct way to do a move and follows up how you use the weights, how your strength develops. In the same way a tango teacher will guide you to find the right way to do a move and monitors your development. The weights in tango are the different qualities - length, weight, personal ability, skill level and so on - which come with the partner, challenging your form. Do you have the strength to keep your axis in the right position, to stay relaxed even when your partner is continuously challenging you?

How to proceed

When you are learning a new skill, a move, a sequence or technique you will most easily get it right with your teacher, or someone who knows it and is able to keep the correct form through the entire process.

Through practice you will learn to maintain the correct form  in spite of an insecure partner or a challenging partner performance - your technique will get stronger through the repetitions in situations when there is pressure on your form.

Think of how the muscles grow when you are repeating an action/form in a gym machine. You can maintain the correct position and proceed through the repetitions correctly and slowly adding more weights. I am convinced that this is a valid idea for a practica too! When your skill on a move grows you will be able to challenge the form by a variety of different partners.

If you always and only dance with top skilled partners your strength is not developing so much.  It is as challenging as if you choose 1kg weights at the gym! Compare it to what happens when you repeatedly take as heavy challenge as you can hardly manage?

But keep in mind! No pulling. No pushing. No squeezing. But soft, stable firmness and a correctly flowing pattern.

Pay attention!

You need though pay attention to your own level - start with light weights and dance with easy partners when developing a new skill. When the form has stabilized search for tougher situations, challenge your form. Can you keep it stable in spite of the pressure from a less skilled partner?

If I get pain in my back the challenge was too large, I need to revert to lower weights or a less challenging partner to maintain the correct form. Or I need to change the dance hold to lessen the stressor.

Results

Your training with various partners will improve your existing skills and when you want to proceed you can do so more easily. At the start you need supporting and good partners but this image, this way of thinking opens up a broader group of potential dance partners and training partners later on. I have noticed that this has also had an impact on my enjoyment level and dance flows more smoothly with an earlier rough partner! When people accept partners with varying skill it will have a positive impact on the dance level and atmosphere at your  community too.


I have written this from a leader's point of view but it is well valid for the followers too! And when your skills grow you will pass the leader/follower period and reach the dancer/dancer situation when you create the shared dance as equal partners.

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 . . . .

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

Tools: YouTube speed control is on!

It is working most often in FACEBOOK.... (?)

Speed control is working again!

Update 2013 November

It seems to work on some videos but not for all (I use Chrome)

You maybe need to load a HTML5 player 

Right click when you are on a video and you get the choices, take the HTML5 line

(YouTube layout will look the same, as allways, after the download!)

This video seems to be working - you can test on it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqJd-l5si1Q

GREAT NEWS!!

(original posting August 2013)

YouTube has activated a speed control function for Chrome  and for Firefox!

and I maybe need to add at my area

        You get acces to the menu by clicking on the 5th icon from right - yes, the round one.

One of my computers had difficulties to return to normal speed but when I clicked another quality level it was released and I could wiew the dance in normal speed.

I notised for some months ago that YouTube was experimenting with this menu but it did not work for me and the browser I was on that moment. Great that they managed to compleet the job now!

ADDITIONAL  NEWS!!     

A friend informed me about an opt-in trial of HTML5 video on YouTube with possibility to watch the videos in a new player instead of the Flash player

http://www.youtube.com/html5   and choose to use the html5-videoplayer.

                              
2013 -08-14           
It is off again - maybe too much difficulties still . . . .



I am curious to know how this project is proceeding - YouTube maybe is releasing it for different regions separately!
Could you please put a note about how it is for you!
Would be appreciated!

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?

 

Beginner vs. World champion match

I know very few followers who have continuously, daily training as the strategy to become better dancer. Most followers take courses every now and then and consider the dances with more advanced leaders as their main strategy.

Think of a tennis court where a world champion is playing with a beginner. Yes, his skill makes it possible to return all the balls and if he is a nice person, he can drop some of them to create a friendly atmosphere. His skill makes it also possible to place the balls so they are easy for the beginner to return.

The situation is totally different for these two. The beginner is amazed that she is able to play with the world champion and she thinks she is really good, playing with all her capacity. For the champion this is not so much about skill training, playing at the edge of his ability, but about caring, to be nice.
The biggest issue here for me is the situation when she returns to the same tennis court, but this time with another beginner. The match is totally different and it is easy to explain the difference by pointing this new playmate to 10 levels lower stage ( incorrectly). This kind of false idea of your own level creates difficulties in learning and you maybe get to the partnering stage later.

Partnering stage is (for me) when both are playing/dancing at the edge of their skill without compensation from the other, mutually exploring new things.

*This posting is a responce to a specific situation for followers but some parts could be valid for leaders too.

QQS in milonga and tango

For me the Quick Quick Slow or a double step pattern in tango is different compared to the same pattern in milonga. Or more exactly - the process we create the QQS is the same but the time values for our steps are different. I am reasoning like this:

The bar below is a 4/4 kind of measure - as you can see there is B1,  B2,  B3 and B4. In tango we normally step on B1 and B3 and we get a calm and peacefull caminata. (One box is 1/16 so 4 of them are 4/16 = 1/4) 

Tango: Measure I

To create more action we can do a double step, a Quick step, by dividing our ordinary step to two. By using B1, B2 and B3 we get our double time-step and a feeling of change and urgency. The boxes above present also a time value so we get following numbers

Quick:  a-d = 4 boxes =>  4/16 or 1/4
Quick:   e-h = 4 boxes => 4/16 or 1/4
Slow :   i-p  = 8 boxes =>  8/16 or 1/2

Milongas musical structure can vary but here we focus on steps and what happends when we split a step to two. In the green bar you find the red boxes indicating the accents in music and the steps you take in basic milonga. When your foot hits the floor at B1, the other foot will do the same on B2. Here we need to move some faster or make the steps shorter than in tango!

 Milonga: Measure I                                                                Measure II

When we devide our ordinary step in milonga we will put down our feet on B1, C and B2. We could also write it like a, c and e. Our numbers looks like this

Quick: a-b = 2 boxes => 2/16 or 1/8
Quick: c-d = 2 boxes => 2/16 or 1/8
Slow : e-h = 4 boxes => 4/16 or 2/8

If you compared the QQS above for tango and milonga you find the difference in time, don't you!

QQS have a timely difference even between the tangos going in different speed as well as for milongas in different speed. But we can still keep the formula!

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

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

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

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

Teacher: 3 meter tall!

For several years I have been fantasizing about using hologram kind of frames for intensive learning of tango steps. You buy a set of hologramsteps and load your devise, adjust the size of the image to contain your body and there you go. The game is to keep your body inside the hologram frame and if your feet is sticking out, there will be a signal so you and your neighbours know about the mistake! And of course a great fanfare for a success!

As a first step to this direction we could have instruction videos and performances in 3D holograms. You can go around and watch from different angles when  your favorite couple is performing. To understand better the difficult parts you can play it slower, just in the same way as on your screen, but here in 3D hologram, 3 meter high. I am sure I would get better understanding for the details then!

 Click here to se him walk around!

Seriously guys! Here you get some technical information and please watch anyhow
the last 20 seconds with a running image.


Some fun from Japan - 3D images in the air 
(I put you directly on the fun part at the end of the video :)

Inverted boleo

During my first year of leading I was traveling for a Belgian Tango couple VINCENT MORELLE and MARYLINE LEFOR. They have an extraordinary musicality in their dance, which I appreciated and at that time they were unique on it around here. They are the only couple I have cried for during an performance! As I understood it their main tool was a strong contact and I would say their dance is more like contact improvisation than ordinary tango performance. She has totally surrendered her self to be an instrument, but still, they are one of the most balanced couples I have met.

They had about one workshop per month and I traveled in Sweden, to Kopenhagen and Brussel to participate. During that year 2004, we were working on the most of the movements I have seen other teachers introduce us later on. This inverted boleo is the latest one to come up.

Ordinary boleos are always going towards the standing leg and the turning point is on the other side of the standing leg or around it as for front boleos. Inverted boleos are instead going away from the standing leg and the turning point is in the air.

I have seen it performed only by follower's right leg.  The first one is in the begining of Vincents and Marylines performance in Brussel festival 2007. About 6 s in the video, the first thing after the walk.



The first time to see this boleo performed by another couple was Sebastian and Marianas milonga. Well done in both cases!

The first serie starts with an ordinary back boleo with left leg going to the right and then a inverted boleo with right leg going to the right too. The last two are ordinary back boleos with left leg.
(This link takes you directly to the steps http://youtu.be/IXkGanrd4HM?t=45s)


Here we have a double boleo with the right leg. Mariana starts with an ordinary back boleo and then continues to an inverted boleo. Beautifully done!
(This link takes you directly to the steps  http://youtu.be/IXkGanrd4HM?t=53s)


And here you have the entire video!

Statistics for the sequences

When we were working regularly for a long time we lost the control over all the steps we had been working on. We lost sometimes parts of the sequences as well as the youtube video address we had been using. Frustrating!

Therefore I wanted to create a tool giving us easily
- an overview for the sequences we had been working on,
- pick up certain group of sequences - e.g boleos or volgadas
- what did we work on a certain occasion
- access to right video
- channel to share all this with my team

I have created this tool in LibreOffice (earlier OpenOffice) and I recommend the participants to have a Gmail account so the sharing will go easily.

The first column shows a name or description for the sequence, so we can recall it.

Next column gives the category so you can use the filter above and search all the rows for e.g. volgadas you have been working on.

Video column gives you the youtube or dropbox address specified for this video. When you load this file to Google documents the link is activated so you can click the video address and it will show up in a new window.
 

All the steps you did work on During the meeting are marked by number 1. Remember also the possibility to create notes for every cell if more specific information is needed.

The summary column at right gives you then the number of accumulated training occasions. If you want to repeat those having a low number and needing a fresh up, press the filter triangle and choose the level. If you choose to look at the ones you worked on only two times choose two during the filter and only those rows will show up. Believe me, this is handy when you have 50 sequences to take care of! ... or need to check up what the sequences were on a course 6 months ago!

NOTICE: When you have used the filter you will find a small square reminding you to go back to the filter trinagle and choose all again, to get access to all.

Via Google documents with reading rights to others you can share the information with your training partners very easily! You can keep this also as a private document to keep track for your teaching hours / weekends so you know what issues you have done at a certain occasion.

If you will load a start file from my Dropbox you find the addresses here. After loading into Google Documents you Should be able to watch the videos in the video column.

Open Office

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39527050/OpenOffice_Satatistic.ods 
LibreOffice
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39527050/LibreOffice_Statistics.ods 


You find the used calculation software at www.libreoffice.org