Misconception II
Technique is not important.
Three years ago, when I took my first privates with Javier and Andrea, Javier said to me ” Technique is not important*…. your feeling in tango will one day make you great.” Three year after, in the only two privates that I had the chance to take with them this time, we worked on technique: walking, how to use the arm…
I had assisted Andrea in a couple of her privates, dancing with the ladies. And I had learned so much about woman’s technique and experienced the huge differences before and after the ladies made adjustments in their embraces, walking, and embellishment (for advanced dancer). The sensation of the right embrace, the slight delayed timing of walking, and the little technique of cross was so sensuous, musical and pleasurable.
And I am not talking about the technique of Volcada, Giro, sacada… I am referring to the basic and fundamental technique: walking and embrace. You might be surprised how many people can’t walk two steps straight, and walk long or short evenly. Very often I dance with women who either press their chest with most of their body weight against mine, or try so much to avoid putting any weight that they are escaping from the embrace. Neither way gives me a pleasant feeling. I can’t tell you how much more pleasant a fellow student felt after she made a small adjustment in embrace, after she did what Andrea had taught her. How a strong and powerful short walk without the music made me feel out of this world, after I got the technique of walking.
Technique is very important. It is the catalyst to building and maintaining feeling throughout the dance. It is the essential tool to communicate with each other on a different level. One’s tango experience won’t go very far without proper and sound technique. If you long for the elusive tango bliss, then you should be obsessed with perfecting the technique.
*Technique is not important: when one dances, one should focus on anything but technique. One works on the technique so it becomes natural. Part of the reason that many technique classes aren’t useful is that they teach the technique of leading and following. Instead of that, I was taught and learned the technique that made both feel perfect and free in the dance; that made the woman look and feel beautiful, and the man appreciate the beauty of the woman.
Who with a sane mind wouldn’t want to work on that?
Yes! Exactly! Technique is *incredibly* important, but so is muscle memory. Learning the technique and then practicing it to the point that it is in your muscle memory is what allows you to forget about it when dancing.
The caveat being “If you long for the elusive tango bliss, then you should be obsessed with perfecting the technique.” Technique is the means to the end not the end itself, which is how it is so often coldly practised. Technique is the removal of obstacles to the connection.
“Technique is the removal of obstacles to the connection.”
Nicely put.
What are the things that are addressed in order to attain the feeling of being ‘perfect’ and ‘free’? thanks
For a starter, the basic things such as embrace and walk. And something needs to be experienced, you know, the difference of before and after. Can’t really be conveyed through words. Otherwise, everyone learns dancing, yoga or martial arts from a book or DVD.