Group tango from DNI
I have always enjoyed solo performances from the best dancers. However, there is something to said about seeing a group of people performing the same movements in time, no? Well, this clip of teachers from DNI is just fun, fun, fun all the way!
By the way, the title of the song is “La Milonga Que Faltaba”.
Navigation guides for leaders
Been rather busy with work and other personal projects lately that I have neglected this blog of mine, as can be seen by the posting frequency for the past two months…
Anyway, here is something of a “space-filler”. 🙂 Well, actually, the background of this post is that when I went to a milonga about two weeks ago – held at a revamped venue with a smaller dance floor but great atmosphere – I found myself having to mentally readjust for an unfamiliar space. This was a squarish dance floor and quite compact, compared to the usual venues where you can easily find long straight “fairways”.
It just so happens that Jean-Michel had written two informative guides on navigation for leaders. Very worthwhile reading!
Musicality: when?
This is a rather long-overdue response to a question posed by Kim Soon here, where it was asked
“at which time should the concept of musicality be introduced/emphasised and worked on?”
In the following, I will attempt to answer it mainly from the leader’s perspective.
Firstly, I have to say that since I generally try to stick to the KISS principle – think Occam’s Razor – so I prefer to think of musicality as meaning simply “to be able to dance to the music”. Now, in order to do this, there are two major components, in roughly progressive order of difficulty:
- The structure: beat, rhythm (timing/duration), pauses, energy, the undertones/overtones expressed by the various instruments, etc.
- The emotional content: melody, energy, how it resonates with you as a dancer?
Note that this list goes much beyond than being able to name the orchestras and make broad generalisations about their styles, which is what is commonly taught when discussing musicality.
Play what you want to dance next
Recently had a nice chat with a Tango DJ – Carlos – from Buenos Aires, during the post-milonga supper after another energy-packed milonga. After hearing that he still DJs in the “traditional” mode by using original CDs and 2 CD decks in tandem, instead of pre-burnt tanda CDs or DJing using laptop as I do, for example, I was quite amazed, so I asked him how he selects music for the upcoming tandas?
He answered simply: “Just try to imagine what songs you want to dance to next, with a special partner in mind…”