Superb Musicality
May 17th, 2009No comments »
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Music and Musicality
May 14th, 2008No comments »
I always have very good musicality even when I was a beginner, or so people told me. In the hindsight, I was just dancing to the beat. There was no difference to me between Piazolla and Di Sarli. I could dance them all. I even danced a nice tango to ballroom music with my former partner during the pre-performance rehearsal about one year ago, which prompted the teacher whom invited us nodded approvingly. What’s the difference, music is music, step to music, easy! At the time the only orchestra that I couldn’t handle was Pugliese. I went nuts while dancing the end of Pugliese pieces. I couldn’t control myself. The music controlled me, I chased the music with steps.
It was not until I danced on the crowded milonga floors in BA, that I started feeling the music. The small space forced me to pay more attention to the music because there was no space to dance every beat. Most of the time I had to stretch the movement to a few beats. And later I found out that I could sometimes dance to the weak beats as well, even pause in the middle of the music. Then another door opened up: playing with the music.
I started collecting and listening tango music right before my first trip as a preparation. Brought back a suitcase of seventy some cds from my first trip and forty some the second one. Right now, I have close to 7000 tracks in my Itune library, all of them traditional tango music. The joy is endless just listening to the same song played by different orchestras.
It was when I started reading the lyrics that I found another dimension in the music: the feeling in the lyrics and the music. As in Una Emocion by Tanturi con Campos, the proud feeling makes me straighten my back and dance with stronger energy. When I danced Trenzas by Miguel Calo con Raul Iriarte one morning, I felt this feeling of missing a lost love. The girl who I danced with, the moment she was in my embrace, she felt it. And I felt the instant surrender in her and the little shivering from her body. At the end of the song, we kept our embrace for a few more seconds.
Then I realize that when I more and more appreciate the music, my dance gets better and better. Music is the catalyst and the inspiration. A man’s style develops by the way he interprets the music, not by the way he dances. Observe. Most of the steps and movements are similar between different styles: Salon or Milonguero, Nuevo or Traditional. That’s why I like to watch Chico dancing, even though I am traditional guy myself. Human bodies move in an organic way. How a man expresses the music with his body and leads makes the difference between the mediocre and the excellent.
It was not until I understood how to interpret the music and how to dance my feeling through the music that I knew I have good musicality.
"Listen to the music, That’s it,
April 22nd, 2008No comments »
The music makes you dance. ” Pedro said to me during our milonga practica session with Tina. Pedro is a seventy year old milonguero who has been dancing tango for over fifty years. He makes the yummiest rabbit stew.
The music makes you dance. It is so simple when one gets it. Connect with my partner and then connect with the music, let the music tell me how to move my body rather than how my body moves to the music. With the right music and right partner, I am contented to have just one tanda a night.
I adore adornments
April 14th, 2008No comments »
Less isn’t more! Like the Macy’s July 4th fireworks, what you want to see after waiting for hours is the moment when hundreds of canons explode at the same time and create brilliant colors and patterns. Like going to a concert at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln center, a violin and a piano isn’t going to interpret Beethoven’s symphony like a big orchestra does. The more the merrier.
I am not saying that one should adorn every single song by different orchestras. I doubt that any one who is capable of doing adornment will embellish much in the De Caro’s music. But in the music like D’Arienzo, adornment is almost a must to fully interpret the energy in the music. Often I’ve seen such lifeless scene on the floor while D’Arienzo is played. As Javier would say: “sleepy”.
To embellish in 4 inch high heels to the music requires very good technical skill, great balance and strong foot. And sometimes I suspect it is another natural born Argentine thing, like the hips, that women are not inhibited to express themselves. In my opinion, adornment is the woman’s own right to express her musicality, celebrate her own individuality and show her personality in the dance. A woman has her own say in the dance.
At Sunderland, I watched a little girl age of six or seven dancing with her father, whom in my opinion was a lousy lead. She was toe tapping while led pausing, little kicks here and there while doing ochos and sometimes high kicks to kneel level. It put smile on my face, watching her.
I had spent a lot of time observing in the milongas and noticed that young portenas who dance well love embellishment. Case in point, the often criticized Samantha Dispari. I watched her dancing (not performing) in the milonga at Canning. She was adorned with great speed, accuracy and full of energy. I didn’t remember the music, but I remembered her hip was vibrating and foot was about drilling holes in the floor while tapping. I was feeling the music and the joy by just watching her dancing a few feet away.
More often now I feel the urge to express the music with embellishment; and I give time, allow space and expect the woman embellish. Nothing makes me smile and enjoy the dance more than a response from the woman with her adornment to the music. I admire her musicality and creativity. It is like having an intelligent conversation, and now I have found my match.
Tango is no longer a passive leading and following in 21st century. Men, give the lady the space and time to tell her story and feeling; Ladies, let me feel those pianos and violins through our connected chests with your leg and feet.
I adore those who adorn.
(And now I can get back to file my income tax.)
Disclaimer: The above opinion applies to established and advanced dancers only. For those who haven’t been able to walk straight back and forth ten feet on an even level, those who couldn’t balance herself/himself with one standing foot, without having to lean onto and effect the balance of their partners and those who couldn’t tell the violin from the piano or bandoneon nor the difference between music of Di Sarli and D’Arienzo….Disregard the above post and KEEP WALKING.
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