Dancing to the music
Very early on in my Tango experience, the foreign instructors who came to Singapore had always emphasized “dance to the music”. However, it was not until after a few years of dancing that I was beginning to appreciate “dancing to the music” entails much more than moving/stepping with the beat (on or sometimes in-between). In fact “dancing to the music” connects naturally to the size and speed of your movements – in other words, the intensity of your actions.
Tonight, during our regular practica, I found out that it is even more difficult to express the music through one’s torso. When you remove the steps – in fact, keep them small and simple – how to express the melody, rhythm and feelings in the lyrics? That is the challenge for me to reach another level.
Music for the not-so-musical
A few days ago, an interesting question was discussed on the Tango DJ list:
Suppose you are a Tango DJ with a repertoire consisting of mostly the Golden Classics of the ’40s and earlier, how should you handle requests for some more lively and sophisticated-sounding – meaning: modern and dramatic but having a generally less pronounced beat – stuff?
There was also a little sub-text that these requests were frequently made by a portion of the dance community that seems to have problems with rhythm.
Dancing the Vals
Just noticed that Royce has commented on some thoughts I had about the music in Tango Vals.
I think I am doing some of the things mentioned in her explanations intuitively (and somewhat disorganizingly…) at present. However, my current understanding – including my understanding in music or lack of, period – is not sufficient for me to articulate it so clearly. In fact, in general, I tend to dance on the <1> and <1><2> beats of the Vals for most of Valses, but occasionally <1><2><3> on the faster Valses – crazy, isn’t it!? 🙂 At the moment at least, I hardly ever dance on <1><3> because it seems the “heavy”, i.e. the <1>, step will always feel rushed, no?? Having said that, may be worth trying out at the practica.
Music taking the lead?
A recent visiting teacher Chan Park raised an interesting point while fielding questions on his opinions of the development of Tango music.
According to Park, danceable Tango music stopped evolving by the mid-80’s, as evidenced by the fact that most of the modern and major milongas worldwide plays predominantly music from the 40’s, the so-called Golden Age music. Why?