Was music or dance first?

This post is a responce to TANGO-BEATS posting The Psychology of Musicality part 3 and to his question if it was music or dance created first.

After reading this post several times my mind started to generate pictures about african work situations and I noticed that for me the evolutin of music and dance starts there, at work! ... and I found me quite near Oliver Sacks who says that music starts "at the beat".

If you need to do repetitive work for a long time you need to find ways to strengthen the works rythm and one way is to start make sounds to reinforce the work pattern. The need to organize the movements is even more urgent when a group of people needs to work together.

This is a Finnish midsummer competion and the way to organize the power of teams by voices is easy to understand. Here we are very far from the music, very far from the dance! 

But at another beach they have refined the methods! They sing and use instruments to organize the working pattern. Movements have also got some level of abstraction so I could call it for dance.

I usually learn only about things which are important for me and for same reason I think the repetitive work made people pay attention to rhythms and the effects of rhythms.

Work_rhythm could be the first connection between movement and music and as such a primitive form of dance.

Movement_beat is the abstraction of the pair of words above and that gives us all the variations of dance_music of today.

So I see the repetitive work as the base for dance and music!

Work movements => voice => song => instrument

Work movements => abstract movements

What do you think about this? 

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A follower exercise

When I was following I didn't have a clear picture of my impact to the dance, not even tried to understand it. Instead I was mostly concerned about how well I picked up the lead. Today I think followers need to grow their skill to understand the lead but they need parallell to grow to understand what their strong sides and favorite dance situations are. How would I like to do my movements during this dance/ with this leader? The timing and step comes from the lead, HOW is the follower choice but not the only way to have impact!

It has been a amazing journey for me to watch videos with leaders who has changed their partners. How new elements come in and the athmosphere is changing for the perfomances.

Here is one of may favorite leaders with three different followers.

Before running trough these, please pick up some ideas you want to check. Some suggestions - intensity between the dancers / playfullness - is there differences between Diego & Co? Technical level /choice of music/ different steps/ how fast the dance goes?

Deside what you want to follow up here!

Diego & Maria Belén

Diego & Mecha

Diego & Mariana

Have you a favorite serie of your own?  Please share!

Enrosques and pivots

When talking about enrosques I have been focusing only in how legs and feets are moving. It is quite natural because the most spectacular things are happening there. Lately my thoughts have turned to the movements of the center of the body and I think the core of enrosque is actullay to be found there! Here you find my first try about this!

In the leaders enrosque you isolate the turning movements of the uper and lower body . Enrosques are performed mostly when the follower is doing the molinete around the leader especially if you want to do several of them. Leader keeps her going by turning his shoulders steadily but his hips are rotating back and forth unconnected to the shoulders.

In pivot all the movements are turning to the same direction even if the different layers, legs-hips-upperbody, are delayed compared to each other.

What do you think?

Engines:

Pivot - one of these shoulders/ hips/ foot is driving the turn

Enrosq - shoulders are drivning the couples turn and hips/feet is driving the enrosque movements.

Turn directions:

Pivot - all layers of body are turning to same direction

Enrosq - shoulders turning to the molinetes direction but hips/ leg are turning back and forth

Twist source:

Pivot – one of shoulders/ hips/ foot is turning and rest are late creating the twist; leaders hips are facing the follower most of the time

Enrosque – hips/ foot are streching to opposite directions compared to shoulders; leaders hips are turned away from her hips, left or right, most of the time.

(turning is happening in different leyers  legs-hips-shoulders)

So far today .....

Feedback is deeply appreciated here or by mail!

No thoughts for follower feets

When I am going to sit down I occasionally fall the last bit. Do you also know the feeling?

This mistake of my automatic calculator for distances reveals how much experience is loaded and used for all these everyday movements. I just decide to go somewhere and my body is analyzing the surroundings and adapting my movements along the way. I never could do this with total awareness of every detail and when my walking is proceeding as planned even the feedback impulses are blocked out from my awareness.

One year ago the technically (my opinion) best teacher told me that it was time to forget the followers feet and start to place her. I didn't understand so much about that but during these months I have noticed some changes in my thinking.

I don't feel the individual steps anymore but there is some kind of light awareness so I know that the step has been taken. It is partly a follower skill to take this kind of silent steps but I think I have stopped to report some signals to my awareness too. Just like when walking ....

I have even a strange feeling of that followers do not have legs at all! In the same time followers tell me how easily, without hesitation their feet find the way now and how her body is floating in music during our dance.

I think this is not a single skill. I think a bunch of skills must reach a required level and then you are mature for a new way to lead.

Hats off for a skilled teacher knowing the signs!