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!

Gangnam style

Are you one of the millions of Gangnam Style fans?  and maybe you even know that Gangnam is a city district in Seoul, South Korea. But you maybe didn't yet know that Gangnam has a connection to tango too, Yes it has, because Gangnam-gu is the place for Seoul Tango festival in May.

I should have gone much earlier! but May 2012 was my first visit to South Korea. It is a lovely period for traveling on this peninsula. Wether is warm but not hot or humid and during my tree weeks in the country I had only one rainy day!
But now to dance  ==>>

Gangnam Dance Hall
My first milonga was the one on Friday night - 4th of May. The venue is a dance hall even on the other nights and mostly for other dances. Many of the routines were the same in Seoul as at home!  You could se the couples and singles with shoe bags walking to same direction as you, at the wellcoming table you name and ticket were checked and your signature was requested here as well as other places in the world. The only and wonderful difference was that the delicious buffet included in the milonga price. People were sitting at round tables and eating a bite every now and then.

This night I talked with the visitors from Japan, China, Honkong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, a few from Europe, Russian and some of them were here for tenth time.

The most fascinating thing was that my capeceo was understood even if it was the first time for these followers to dance with a femail leader.

Please enjoy  a waltz together with me .....

Click here!

Click here!


SC Convention Gangnam
The Saturday milonga was at a larger venue and I had some difficulties to find there. A friendly young man in a sports car gave me a ride to the place after finding the instructions on his GPS navigator.

There was food again ! highly apprciated after wandering around in the night

Maybe a milonga this time ... ?

Click here!
 

Click here!


Here you find my earlier posting and portal about the Argentine and Asian performers!
http://leadingladyl.blogspot.se/2012/06/seoul-tango-festival-2012.html


Some more information about Gangnam - Gu
http://global.gangnam.go.kr/globalIndex.do?lang=en

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

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

.